Ottawa says it will bypass Quebec's immigration cap to speed up family reunification

After several months of asking the Quebec govern‐ ment in vain to increase its family reunification capac‐ ity, Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller says it's time for his govern‐ ment to pull rank.

Miller says his ministry will begin issuing permanent residence permits to those looking to unite with their loved ones in Quebec, re‐ gardless of the province's self-imposed cap on appli‐ cants, which he describes as "artificially low."

"We're talking about peo‐ ple who are husbands, wives, parents, grandparents, who are waiting unsuccessfully to be reunited with their fami‐ lies in Quebec," said Miller in an interview with RadioCanada, calling the backlog a humanitarian crisis.

"For me … it's a question of social justice."

Quebec's family reunifica‐ tion envelope is capped at around 10,000 applicants per year - a threshold that falls far short of the demand.

Miller said he's been "beg‐ ging" Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette for months to lift the cap and allow more people to enter the province, but now, he's tired of waiting.

In a letter sent to Fréchette on Sunday and ob‐ tained by Radio-Canada, Miller said he had "a moral duty to find a solution" to Quebec's "refusal to reunite families more quickly."

He has instructed his min‐ istry to begin processing all applications for permanent residence from family reunifi‐ cation applicants who have received the proper docu‐ ments from Quebec, his let‐ ter reads.

Miller said that amounts to approximately 20,500 ap‐ plications, as of Jan. 31, 2024.

If the backlog continues to worsen, Miller said his min‐ istry will continue to grant permanent residence to ap‐ plicants within the usual timeframes, "even if it means exceeding the levels set by the [François] Legault gov‐ ernment."

Wait for family reunifi‐ cation longest in Quebec

Ottawa's move could cre‐ ate further tensions with the Coalition Avenir Québec gov‐ ernment, which is already the subject of a Superior Court lawsuit over the delays for family reunification.

Maxime Lapointe, the lawyer who is suing Fréchette, told Radio-Canada that he plans to drop his law‐ suit if Ottawa actually moves forward with its plan.

As it stands, spousal spon‐ sorship applicants in Quebec face a processing time of about 34 months to bring over their loved ones from abroad, compared to 12 months for other Canadians.

For a parent or grand‐ parent of foreign origin, the wait is about 50 months, when other Canadians only need to wait an average of 24 months.

This difference is due in part to Quebec's annual cap on applicants.

Without saying what the ideal number of admissions would be, Miller says Quebec has everything to gain by raising the limit.

"I still think it's a humani‐ tarian gain, but also a politi‐ cal gain for Quebec to have these people join their fami‐ lies and thrive in Quebec," he said.

"We have a lot of people threatening to leave Quebec so that their husbands, wives, parents and grandpar‐ ents can join them else‐ where."

'A direct affront to Que‐ bec's areas of jurisdiction'

Reacting to the news Monday morning, Fréchette's office said Miller's directive "is a direct affront to Que‐ bec's areas of jurisdiction.'

"Quebec alone deter‐ mines its permanent immi‐ gration targets. The federal government's approach does not respect the will of the Quebec nation. It is unac‐ ceptable," said Maude Méthot-Faniel, Fréchette's press secretary, in a state‐ ment to Radio-Canada.

Méthot-Faniel said the government recognizes its delays for family reunifica‐ tion are significant, but it considers its approach to im‐ migration "balanced" and says it's "not up to Ottawa" to impose thresholds on the province.

She added the govern‐ ment is sensitive to the situa‐ tion faced by these families and said it's working on pos‐ sible solutions.

An initial meeting with the Québec Réunifié collective, which fights for the reunifica‐ tion of Quebec families, was held in December to explore possible arrangements that "respect the prerogatives of the Quebec government."

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, immigration critic for the Bloc Québécois, also called the federal government's move an encroachment into Quebec's jurisdiction.

"Rather than getting in‐ volved in matters that don't concern it, Ottawa should be looking after its own jurisdic‐ tion, starting by transferring to Quebec the sums involved in receiving asylum seekers," Brunelle-Duceppe said, refer‐ ring to the $1 billion Quebec has asked Ottawa to reim‐ burse.

Québec Solidaire's immi‐

gration critic, Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, said both levels of government are "playing politics" while real families suffer.

He's asking Quebec to re‐ consider the threshold for family reunification applican‐ ts but adds it's not up to Ot‐ tawa to impose it.