A new confrontation is emerging between Ottawa and Quebec over immigration control.
Prime Minister François Legault insists that all immigration powers, traditionally shared between the two levels of government, be repatriated to Quebec.
He says it is a matter of survival for the nation of Quebec, without hesitation in raising the specter of Louisiana and the gradual disappearance of the French language in Quebec if the status quo is maintained.
On Sunday, he said he intended to demand a “strong mandate” from the people during the Oct. 3 vote to strike a “balance of power” with Ottawa in negotiating a possible repatriation of all. immigration powers in Quebec, except for refugees.
Legault decided to close its CAQ (Coalition Avenir Quebec) party convention on Sunday with a speech full of strong nationalist content delivered by more than a thousand activists gathered in Drummondville over the weekend on the topic of the Quebec pride.
Total control of immigration by the National Assembly is tied to the “very existence” of the people of Quebec, he argued, recalling that the federal government has decision-making power for about half of newcomers, including newcomers. through the family. reunification channel. It is estimated that half of them do not speak French, a threat to Quebec, he said.
The demand for repatriation of skills in this area is not a new request from Quebec, which has always hit a wall in the past.
However, Legault has made it a priority and says he is confident he will succeed where others have failed before him. Quebeckers can expect to hear a lot about immigration in the upcoming election campaign, with pressure on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and opposition party leaders in the House of Commons to get involved.
“I’m sure we’ll get these immigration powers,” he told a later news conference, though he was shy about what would happen if he received another resounding refusal from the federal government.
He rejected the idea of a referendum on the issue.
Quebec receives about 50,000 immigrants a year.
“It’s important for Quebecers to understand that it’s a matter of survival for French Quebec,” said Legault, who may have to use his pedagogical skills in the coming months to convince people to support his views on the subject.
If nothing changes, he said, “it may be a matter of time before we become Louisiana.”
With regard to the October 3 general election, the leader of the CAQ said that the population should distrust the “ideologies” of both the left and the right, alluding, unnamed, to Quebec. Solidaire (QS) and the Conservative Party of Quebec. (PCQ).
In his speech, the Prime Minister gave a very favorable account of the successes of his government, and concluded that after four years of governing the CAQ, Quebec was more prosperous and proud than ever.
“We’ve changed Quebec,” he said, and apparently for the better.
On the economic front, he said voters should rely on experienced people to deal with the “unstable” climate looming on the horizon in the next term.
He pledged to help people fight inflation and pledged to make a specific announcement in this regard, in cash, during the next election campaign.
But he did not breathe a word about the most serious economic problem of the day and the most urgent, the shortage of labor.
He also did not list the many problems with access to health care, with growing waiting lists, both for emergencies, surgery and the list of patients of a family doctor.
But he has assured that he has the “letter of victory” to solve the network’s problems in a second term, in the person of Christian Dubé, his Minister of Health, who recently announced his intention to run again. . Dubé received a standing ovation from the members of the CAQ.
Meanwhile, with four months to go before the election, the process of recruiting CAQ candidates for the next election is going well. There are already about a hundred constituencies that know the name of their CAQ candidate, half of whom are currently women. There are still 29 candidates out of 125 to identify.
– This report from The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 29, 2022.