Temporary immigrants are entirely responsible for the housing crisis plaguing Quebec, says François Legault. Faced with this “emergency situation”, he asks Justin Trudeau to reduce their number by half, otherwise Quebecers will be deprived of services.
“The federal government must understand that it is urgent to reduce the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec, if we want Quebecers to be able to find housing, for our children to have access to qualified teachers, for our sick to be treated and for that the French decline be reversed,” launched the Prime Minister of Quebec on Monday, after a summit meeting with his federal counterpart.
François Legault estimates that “100%” of the lack of housing comes directly from the increase in the number of new arrivals with temporary status, including asylum seekers. The Prime Minister calculates that they are also responsible for a third of the labor shortage problems in health, but also in the school network.
“Half of the lack of qualified teachers in Quebec comes from the presence of temporary immigrants,” insisted the Prime Minister after his tête-à-tête with Justin Trudeau at the Château Frontenac, in Quebec.
This is why he is asking the Canadian Prime Minister to halve their number without delay. Currently, Quebec estimates that there are more than 560,000 on Quebec territory.
If the federal government has shown itself open to better distributing migrants awaiting refugee status across Canada, Ottawa has not quantified the reduction. Which greatly annoys the Quebec Prime Minister.
But François Legault also has no objectives of reducing the share of temporary immigrants that he controls, namely foreign students and seasonal workers.
François Legault was still delighted that Justin Trudeau agreed to pay $750 million to Quebec to compensate for the costs of welcoming asylum seekers. But he was asking for $1 billion instead. “We will take $750 million, but we will continue to ask for $1 billion,” he promised.
It’s not okay to blame immigrants
According to the Canadian Prime Minister, we cannot always “blame” immigrants for the challenges faced by the provinces in terms of health or housing.
“Quebecers and Canadians know very well that it is not always the best thing to target and say ‘It’s all the fault of immigrants.’ “It’s something that some people rely on in their argument, but it’s always more complex than that,” he said in a press scrum held a few minutes after that of his Quebec counterpart.
Justin Trudeau added that Quebec, like Canada, will have to continue to welcome people from elsewhere to “grow our communities and grow our economy. We just need to ensure that our openness to the world aligns better with our capacity to welcome.”
“People don’t talk to me about sovereignty”
According to him, François Legault’s criticism of federal interference in Quebec’s jurisdictions is not unrelated to the rise of Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in the polls. “I understand that Mr. Legault is responding to political demands.”
Justin Trudeau, for his part, is not overly concerned about the domination of the Parti Québécois in voting intentions. When he walks around Quebec, people don’t talk to him about sovereignty. “People talk to me about the economy and the future of their children.”
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