Confrontation in sight with Ottawa: Legault is determined to repatriate immigration

A new confrontation is emerging between Ottawa and Quebec over the issue of immigration control. Premier François Legault wants to repatriate to Quebec all powers over immigration, a jurisdiction traditionally shared between the two levels of government.

He makes it a question of survival for the Quebec nation, not hesitating to brandish the specter of Louisiana and the gradual disappearance of the French language in Quebec if the status quo is maintained.

He intends to demand a strong mandate from the population during the October 3 election to establish a real balance of power with Ottawa when the time comes to negotiate the eventual patriation of all powers over immigration to Quebec, except those related to refugees.

On Sunday, Mr. Legault chose to close the convention of his party, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), with a speech with a strong nationalist content delivered to more than a thousand activists gathered in Drummondville at the end of the week around the theme of pride.

Total control of immigration by the National Assembly is linked to the very existence of the Quebec people, he argued, recalling that the federal government has decision-making power for approximately half of newcomers, including those arriving through the family reunification process. It is estimated that half of them do not speak French, a threat to Quebec, according to him.

The request for patriation of powers in this area is not a new request from Quebec, which has always come up against an end of inadmissibility in the past.

However, Mr. Legault makes it a priority and says he is sure to succeed where others have failed before him. Quebecers should therefore expect that we will discuss a lot of immigration during the next election campaign.

I am confident that we will get them, these powers in immigration, he said at a press conference. He remained evasive about what to do next in the event of a new categorical refusal from the federal government. However, he rejected the idea of a referendum on this subject. Quebec welcomes about 50,000 immigrants a year.

Save French

It is important that Quebecers understand that it is a question of survival for French Quebec, said Mr. Legault, who risks deploying his talents as a pedagogue in the coming months to convince the population to adhere to his views. On the question.

Indeed, if nothing changes, it may become a matter of time before we become a Louisiana, he insisted.

Regarding the general elections on October 3, the leader of the CAQsaid that the population should be wary of ideologies, both left and right, alluding, without naming them, to Quebec solitaire (QS) and the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ).

In his speech, the Prime Minister gave a very flattering assessment of his government’s achievements and concluded that after four years of the CAQ government, Quebec is more prosperous and prouder than ever.

We have changed Quebec, according to him.

Economically, he said voters should rely on experienced people to deal with the unstable climate looming on the horizon in the next term. He committed to helping people fight inflation and promised to make a concrete announcement to that effect, in hard cash, during the next election campaign.

However, he said nothing about the most serious and pressing economic problem of the day: the labor shortage.

He also did not list the many problems of access to health care with the constantly growing waiting lists, both in the emergency room and to obtain surgery or to register on the list of family doctor patients.

But he said he had the trump card in his game to solve the various problems of the network in a second term in the person of Christian Dubé, his Minister of Health, who recently announced his intention to be a new candidate. Mr. Dubé then received a standing ovation from the CAQ activists.

Meanwhile, four months before the election deadline, the process of recruiting candidates for the CAQin the next elections is going smoothly. There are already nearly a hundred constituencies that know the name of their CAQ candidate, of which currently half are women. There are still 29 candidates out of 125 to be nominated.