The Montreal Gazette reports, “Despite a mild rap on the knuckles from Ottawa, Quebec is steaming ahead with its plan to reduce its immigration numbers by about 20 per cent in 2019.<\/p>\n
Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled the plan in the National Assembly on Tuesday. It says Quebec will reduce the total number of new arrivals by more than 10,000 a year \u2014 from 53,300 in 2018 to between 38,000 and 42,000 in 2019.<\/p>\n
The idea, Jolin-Barrette said, is to welcome in fewer but do a better job helping them integrate, find jobs and learn French.<\/p>\n
Quebec describes the reduction as temporary, but there is no indication when or if the number will be allowed to grow despite the province\u2019s chronic labour shortages and pleas from employers everywhere for more workers.<\/p>\n
No hearings or public consultations into the policy are planned.<\/p>\n
The plan arrives even though Quebec and Ottawa have yet to reach an agreement on how it will work. Quebec controls only part of the total number of new arrivals \u2014 that is, economic immigrants who seek\u00a0 employment or want to invest here.<\/p>\n
Ottawa has full control over the family reunification program and refugees.<\/p>\n
We are disappointed, however, that the government, faced with a shortage of labour, has decided to reduce the number of immigrants.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But instead of setting the scene for a federal-provincial confrontation, the federal intergovernmental affairs minister Dominic LeBlanc went to pains to say he wants to avoid a confrontation with Quebec\u2019s new Coalition Avenir Qu\u00e9bec government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not surprised,\u201d LeBlanc told reporters in Ottawa. \u201cWe are disappointed, however, that the government, faced with a shortage of labour, has decided to reduce the number of immigrants.\u201d<\/p>\n
LeBlanc stressed the \u201cconstructive relationship,\u201d that exists between Ottawa and Quebec since the signing of the 1991 Canada-Quebec accord on immigration, which gives Quebec the power to select new arrivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know me well,\u201d LeBlanc said. \u201cI am not someone who wants to get into a fight, I am always in a good mood.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a similar gentle rap on the knuckles from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who said Tuesday he thinks Quebec is headed in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n
I am not sure it is the best time to reduce the number of people who come.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWhat I hear across Quebec is that entrepreneurs and businesses are concerned about a lack of labour<\/a>,\u201d Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa. \u201cI am not sure it is the best time to reduce the number of people who come.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the comments were no deterrent to Quebec\u2019s majority government. In fact, Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault appeared ready to call Ottawa\u2019s bluff on the issue by reminding the federal Liberals they, too, have to face Quebec\u2019s voters in 2019 and polls show solid support for the CAQ\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Mr. Trudeau sees, like everyone else, that the CAQ government has a clear mandate,\u201d Legault told reporters on his way out of daily question period.<\/p>\n
Earlier, under questioning from Liberal interim leader Pierre Arcand, Legault said the Liberals should mind their tongue given their dismal record on integrating immigrants over the last 15 years.<\/p>\n
One immigrant in five left Quebec because they didn\u2019t find a decent job.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cOne immigrant in five left Quebec because they didn\u2019t find a decent job,\u201d Legault responded. \u201cSo it\u2019s a bit short-sighted to think we will solve Quebec\u2019s labour shortages only with immigration<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n
That earned Jolin-Barrette a fresh blast from Liberal immigration critic Dominique Anglade, who accused the CAQ of picking a number out of thin air.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing that seems clear on the CAQ\u2019s side is that they have picked an arbitrary number based on an ideology,\u201d Anglade said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Proud of the plan\u2019<\/h3>\n
\u201cI am proud of the plan,\u201d Jolin-Barrette responded. \u201cIt is not respectful to tell people still in the country of origin: \u2018Come work here in your domain,\u2019 when we don\u2019t necessarily have jobs in their area of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the government\u2019s document, Quebec wants to cut the number of economic immigrants from 31,200 in 2018 to between 21,700 and 24,300 in 2019.<\/p>\n
The total number under the family unification plan, which Ottawa controls, would drop from 11,700 to between 8,900 and 9,400.<\/p>\n
The refugee category \u2014 also Ottawa\u2019s jurisdiction \u2014 falls from 9,400 to between 6,800 and 7.500.<\/p>\n
At a news conference, Jolin-Barrette dismissed the idea that Quebec\u2019s decision to table its plan before it has an agreement with Ottawa is a pressure tactic. He said the \u201cmechanics\u201d of the system are such that Quebec has to present its plan first to the legislature.<\/p>\n
Batted off questions<\/h3>\n
And he batted off questions about the values and French language tests the CAQ said it would impose on immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be developed eventually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And despite the warnings from Ottawa, Jolin-Barrette insisted both Quebec and Ottawa are pursuing \u201cthe same objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was other criticism of the plan, particularly from the business community.<\/p>\n
Michel Leblanc, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, said while his organization has been pleading for better integration methods for years, cutting the number of immigrants is a bad idea.<\/p>\n
He said instead of cutting to 40,000, Quebec should increase the number to 60,000.<\/p>\n
Conseil du patronat \u2018regrets\u2019 decision<\/h3>\n
The province\u2019s largest labour group, the Conseil du patronat, said in a statement that it \u201cregrets\u201d Quebec\u2019s decision to reduce the number of immigrants.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if immigration constitutes only one part of the solution to meet Quebec\u2019s critical labour needs \u2014 about 22 per cent of the demand for the next 10 years \u2014 it remains an essential pool of labour for the province\u2019s prosperity,\u201d Conseil president Yves-Thomas Dorval<\/a> said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReducing the number only makes things worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
St\u00e9phane Forget, president of the F\u00e9d\u00e9ration des chambres de commerce du Qu\u00e9bec, said if Quebec wants to cut the number of immigrants, it has to compensate businesses by radically speeding up the notoriously slow selection process.<\/p>\n
Any reduction in number must be temporary, he said.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Montreal Gazette reports, “Despite a mild rap on the knuckles from Ottawa, Quebec is steaming ahead with its plan to reduce its immigration numbers by about 20 per cent in 2019. Immigration, Diversity and Inclusion Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette tabled the plan in the National Assembly on Tuesday. It says Quebec will reduce the total number of new arrivals by… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2674,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}