Immigration: The Other Debate of 2023

Expectations on the government in 2023 are huge.

There are the Drainville plan for education, the Dubey plan for health, the Guilbault plan for transportation, the Girard plan for public finances, the Charette plan for the environment, and so on.

All of them are highly anticipated, highly urgent and highly important. The risk of the most ink being spilled is without a doubt the Frechette plan for immigration.

In an interview with our colleague Alain Laforest, the new immigration minister told us that public consultations will be held this year as part of a multi-year immigration plan.

An important exercise

It is nothing less than an expression of the government’s resolve in the coming years to welcome newcomers. How many do we want to receive? What profile does it have? To fulfill what need? These are the questions that the government needs to answer. And frankly, the question is highly political. If the government heeds the call from the Economic Commission and increases the volume of immigration, it will be accused of going back on a major election campaign promise and putting before it the comments made during the same campaign. Especially on the suicidal role of welcoming more than 50,000 immigrants a year.

Conversely, if he decides to ease the restrictions, he will be criticized for hastening the reduction of Quebec’s political weight in Canada. For reasons of political communication, the government has ruled out maintaining today’s restrictions.

A communicator

François Legault is still lucky enough to count Christine Fréchette on his team as immigration minister. She is a clear and consistent woman who does not try to score political points on the backs of immigrants. It was also refreshing to hear him recall that it was about tens of thousands of people’s lives and that his team should remember that.