After considering it, Legault rules out paying migrants to leave Quebec

Premier Francois Legault at Question Period on Oct. 8, 2024. LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Jacques Boissinot

After considering it, Premier François Legault is now ruling out paying asylum seekers to leave Quebec.

Last week, in Paris, the premier declared that 80,000 migrants had to be forced to move, even though the federal government had warned him that this contravened the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

His Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government weighed up other options, La Presse revealed on Wednesday. Among the avenues explored: paying compensation to applicants in exchange for their departure and reducing the services offered by the state, such as the social assistance cheque.

While at the Salon rouge on Wednesday morning, Legault did not deny that these options had been considered. However, he ruled them out.

"It's not something we're considering," he said without elaborating.

"It's not in our plans at the moment," Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge added at a press scrum. Slashing social assistance is "out of the question," said Chantal Rouleau, the Minister responsible for Social Solidarity and Community Action.

On a mission to Paris, Legault had said that forced transfers could be done "humanely," before being harshly criticized by the opposition parties in the National Assembly, who said they found the premier's remarks shameful.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 9, 2024.