On an official visit to Paris, where he will meet the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday, François Legault clarified that the program for distributing migrants to other Canadian provinces that he really wants should be “obligatory”.
The day before, he had invited the federal government to take inspiration from the “waiting zones” which exist in France and which make it possible to detain an asylum seeker for a maximum period of 20 days. On Wednesday, he clarified that this program should not only be mandatory, but should also apply to asylum seekers already in the country and not just new arrivals.
“Currently, everything that is proposed by the federal government is on a voluntary basis for asylum seekers, and on a voluntary basis for the provinces. What we want is for half of the asylum seekers currently in Quebec to be transferred to other provinces. »
Last July, according to documents obtained by Dutythe federal government had indeed proposed to the Quebec government the creation of a temporary accommodation network for asylum seekers. The “relocation” model presented to all provinces included financial incentives, including the possibility of limiting work permits to a geographic area, in order to convince up to 47,000 applicants to relocate elsewhere in the country.
A proposal which is far from satisfying François Legault. “It is not logical that we received 45% of asylum seekers when Quebec represents 22% of the population. […] What I want are results. So yes, it is obligatory! »
Such a program could therefore involve the movement to other provinces of thousands of asylum seekers currently in Quebec.
“Not reasonable,” says Ottawa
In Ottawa, the Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, was quick to react. “What Mr. Legault is saying is ‘get rid of these people.’ Know that these are people who perhaps have roots in Quebec, perhaps housing. Is he asking us to pick them up from them and send them to Ontario? You have to be very precise, because it risks being interpreted as being inhumane. »
Mr. Miller reiterated that everything discussed so far only concerns voluntary programs. “What he’s saying is we’re getting rid of these people,” he repeated, before concluding that “it’s unfortunate,” but that “it’s online.” with his thoughts in several respects.
On the practical side, Minister Miller wonders if all this is feasible, since “there are already thousands of people who have a protected status in Quebec under international conventions and Canadian law […]. Mr. Legault reacts in a way that is not reasonable.”
Asked whether the federal government could force the provinces to accept asylum seekers from Quebec, he simply said that “discussions must continue.” Concerning the comparison with France, he judges that the countries “each have their own problems”.
According to François Legault, “it is up to the federal government to look at what is being done elsewhere. […] What I want to be very clear about is that we find a way to distribute asylum seekers more equitably.”
“France and Quebec must remain nations”
The Quebec Prime Minister intends to raise all these questions on Thursday at Matignon. Tuesday, during his general policy speech in which he made reducing the number of asylum seekers a priority, Michel Barnier said he would like to extend the detention period for foreigners in an irregular situation.
Unlike François Legault, however, he was talking about migrants who entered French territory illegally or who received an “obligation to leave the territory”, and not about asylum seekers received in due form.
On Wednesday, the Quebec Prime Minister met mainly with business people, including the general director of Alstom, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, and the CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot. With the latter, which employs 4,700 people in Quebec, he discussed the possibility of creating new young companies in the field of artificial intelligence. Video game techniques are very close to those used in artificial intelligence, an area where “Montréal is already far ahead,” believes Mr. Guillemot.
At the end of the day, François Legault chaired a reception at the Pullman hotel, in the Montparnasse district. In front of more than a hundred business people, he said he felt at home in Paris. Concerning the migratory waves that both France and Quebec are experiencing, he made it clear that “both the French nation and the Quebec nation, we are and we have always been welcoming.” “But France and Quebec must remain nations, and there is a language to protect,” he insisted.
