Asylum seekers: Ottawa offers $750 million over five years to Quebec

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed Monday to his Quebec counterpart François Legault a sum of $750 million over five years intended for Quebec to support asylum seekers. The Quebec government is demanding a billion dollars.

Ottawa is also offering Quebec to implement a mechanism for distributing asylum seekers across the country by September.

In addition, the federal government is proposing a reduction in the processing time for asylum applications, i.e. processing 20% ​​of cases in less than nine months. Currently, the wait can be 18 to 20 months.

In addition, the Government of Canada wishes to adopt measures (visa style) to avoid the flow of asylum seekers coming from certain countries.

He also undertakes to reduce, by October, the time limit for issuing work permits to 30 days, whereas the procedure currently takes more than 100 days.

Mr. Trudeau also plans to impose a French language requirement for temporary foreign workers from the International Mobility Program (IMP), who renew their work permit after three years in the country.

Legault asks for quantified objectives

At a press briefing after the meeting, François Legault welcomed the progress in negotiations with the federal government, but he maintained that it remained lots of work to do.

What the government is offering us is a series of measures. But he doesn’t give us any figures, any targets for the moment. They tell us that they will work on this by Septemberlamented the Quebec Prime Minister.

Mr. Legault repeated his request to reduce urgently the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec. In particular, he urged Canada to reduce the number of asylum seekers by 50% within a year.

%, but as quickly as possible. It might be a little longer than a year”,”text”:”For [travailleurs étrangers du] PMI, we know that in some cases, they have contracts of more than a year, so it is difficult to put a figure. We are aiming for 50%, but as quickly as possible. It might be a little longer than a year”}}”>For the [travailleurs étrangers du] PMI, we know that in some cases, they have contracts of more than a year, so it is difficult to put a figure. We are aiming for 50%, but as quickly as possible. It might be a little longer than a yearhe clarified.

François Legault also said thrilled that the federal government agrees to set French language requirements for workers in the PMI. But we will continue to work to claim all powers in matters of immigrationhe added.

Trudeau awaits Legault’s plan

After François Legault’s press briefing, Justin Trudeau spoke of a productive meeting with its Quebec counterpart. M$ that we are going to grant to Quebec”,”text”:”It is a very good thing that we have reached an agreement on the $750M that we are going to grant to Quebec”}}”>It’s a very good thing that we reached an agreement on the $750 million that we will grant to Quebec, did he declare. He quickly pointed out that asylum seekers make up 25% of temporary immigrants.

Legault”,”text”:”Quebec has direct or indirect control over more than half of temporary immigrants in Quebec. To have targets, to know how we are going to reduce, if that is what Quebec wants in terms of immigration, they must present a plan to reduce or to adjust their figures and meet needs. This is what I asked Mr.Legault”}}”>Quebec has direct or indirect control over more than half of temporary immigrants to Quebec. To have targets, to know how we are going to reduce, if that is what Quebec wants in terms of immigration, they must present a plan to reduce or to adjust their figures and meet needs. This is what I asked Mr. Legaultdid he declare.

Asked about the absence of targets and deadlines, the Liberal leader first recognized that it is necessary to reduce the number of temporary workers across the country. There has been an excessive increase in several categories which puts pressure on our entire countryhe replied.

Before we can set targets, we need to see Quebec’s plan to address their concerns. […] We need Quebec to adjust its own targets.

Is reducing the number of asylum seekers by 50% realistic and desirable? Before responding, the Prime Minister recalled the importance of respecting the country’s reception capacity, the existence of a labor shortage and at the same time the need create jobs and economic growth.

I can’t tell you what the magic threshold is to find this good number, but I know that in-depth conversations, working together, in collaboration between the federal and the province, will be essentialhe replied.

A summit meeting

The two politicians continued their discussions on immigration started on March 15 in Quebec on Monday.

Before officially beginning their discussions, the two leaders briefly spoke to the press before their meeting without answering journalists’ questions. Justin Trudeau first said that it is a huge pleasure to be back in Quebec.

Our ministers and our cabinets have worked very hard to put forward proposals to address certain concerns. There is still a lot of work to do. But we’ve made good progressdid he declare.

For his part, François Legault also spoke of a pleasure to meet Mr. Trudeau. He quickly pointed out that there is a explosion in the number of temporary immigrants which causes very significant problemsparticularly in terms of housing, education, health and for the future of French in Quebec.

There is an urgency to see a concrete reduction in the coming months.

He wants Ottawa to decrease significantly and quickly the number of asylum seekers and distribute them better throughout the rest of the country.

According to our information, the Quebec government perceives the exercise as a follow-up meeting. A definitive solution was not expected to emerge from Monday’s meeting and other such meetings will follow in the coming months.

The success or failure of the exercise will be measured by how Ottawa has evolved on its assessment of the file and the urgency of acting to reduce the pressure on public services, according to Quebec, which sees Trudeau”,”text”:”a test for Mr. Trudeau”}}”>a test for Mr. Trudeau.

Federal sources tell Radio-Canada that the climate is good between the teams of ministers responsible for immigration, Marc Miller [fédéral] and Christine Fréchette [provincial], specifying that positive discussions took place during the weekend. Things have evolved, we are told, while a rapprochement did not seem possible last week.

However, we still do not know if an agreement is possible regarding one or more requests from Quebec. Federal sources say Ottawa will come to the discussion table with concrete elements to propose.

Funds for the reception of asylum seekers

In addition to financial compensation for welcoming asylum seekers, Quebec also wants to have a say in the selection of temporary foreign workers and for knowledge of French to be taken into account.

The Legault government is demanding a billion dollars from Ottawa to cover the bill associated with welcoming asylum seekers – accommodation, health care, last resort assistance – for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Quebec does not, however, expect to receive the entire amount of this amount, according to our information. We do not want to specify what would be an acceptable agreement, but we recall that historically Ottawa financed around 70% of expenses. On the Ottawa side, our sources say that Quebec is not able to justify the sum of one billion dollars.

Quebec is also asking for a reduction in the time it takes to issue a work permit for asylum seekers in order to allow them to free themselves from social assistance more quickly.

During their last meeting, François Legault clearly said that he wanted to have full powers over immigration, but Justin Trudeau refused. This request no longer seems to be a priority for the CAQ government.

Furthermore, the CAQ government is seeking to obtain a firm commitment from Ottawa to reduce the number of asylum seekers who will be accepted in Quebec, in particular by ensuring a more equitable distribution in the country and by presenting a timetable for its implementation. .

According to Mr. Legault, Quebec has exceeded its reception capacity and it is up to the federal government to better manage the number of temporary immigrants.

The Quebec Prime Minister continues to insist that his province has 560,000 temporary immigrants and that this puts pressure on public services. However, representatives of the two levels of government do not agree on these figures.

Protection of French

In terms of temporary immigration [étudiants, travailleurs temporaires, immigration humanitaire, réunification familiale]the Legault government requires guarantees to protect French for certain categories of newcomers.

Finally, the question of visas will be on the agenda. After the reimposition of visas for Mexican travelers, Quebec is observing an increase in asylum requests from India and Bangladesh.

Referendum?

After threatening to hold a referendum on immigration, François Legault no longer seems fond of this idea.

According to him, 65% of Quebecers are in favor of the province having more powers over immigration.

The problem is not having the support of Quebecers, it is making it an emergency and convincing the federal government to act nowhe declared in an interview with 98.5 last Tuesday.

Friday, on the last day of the parliamentary session in the National Assembly, the Prime Minister of Quebec announced the creation of a committee to increase the autonomy of Quebec in the Canadian federation. The Legault government will entrust half a dozen experts with the mandate to target new powers that Quebec could appropriate while respecting the Constitution.

With information from La Presse Canadienne, Louis Blouin, Jérôme Labbé and Sébastien Bovet