The Legault government and the Parti Québécois clashed again Sunday through the media over the question of immigration restrictions. The PQ leader confirmed that an “unprecedented social crisis” threatens Quebec due to an unprecedented number of foreigners settling in the province.
In a lengthy message published on his Facebook page on Sunday, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon said he wanted to denounce the “hypocrisy” of some “media and business elites” who avoid “naming these investigations”.
“The housing crisis, the French crisis, the crisis in essential services”, the reception of an unprecedented number of permanent and temporary migrants raises fears of a three-pronged disaster, he said.
He first suggested a new threshold of 64,600 permanent migrants for next year, announced by Immigration Minister Christine Frechette this week. Prime Minister Francois Legault said during the campaign that “Louisianization” awaited more than 50,000 permanent immigrants in Quebec, a “clear violation of an election promise presented in broad strokes.”
Then, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon worried about the unprecedented number of temporary immigrants established in Quebec – there are now about 466,000 in the territory of Quebec – whose “concrete effect is the strangulation of the domestic economy”.
However, if the increase of the thresholds is possible to solve the labor shortage, according to some, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon says that there is no data in this sense and this theory is “rejected by many economists.
Thus, he says, “by bringing in a new worker, we also bring in a consumer who has the same needs as the rest of the population.”
The Legault government responded to this
The Parti Québécois argued for the reduction of restrictions for permanent immigrants and for the sovereignty of Quebec, “to have its own policies in favor of its linguistic and cultural reality”.
“There is no correlation between the number of people we want to welcome and our level of openness,” concludes Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon.
In a publication on the social network
Photo by Édouard Plante-Fréchette, La Presse Archives
Immigration Minister, Christine Frechette
Without addressing the question of the number of permanent immigrants Quebec is preparing to welcome, she said, “We will ensure that those who arrive contribute fully to our society, while mastering our common language.”
On the subject of asylum seekers, Christine Frechette reiterated her party’s position, namely better distribution of them in other provinces and for Ottawa to repay the sums allocated to their reception. Quebec also wants the federal government to issue work permits to refugees more quickly and review visa management.
