Amid a severe labour shortage, Quebec's chambers of commerce are calling for a "de-politicization" of the immigration issue and a clear definition of the province's capacity to receive immigrants.
The federation representing all the chambers of commerce, called the FCCQ, joined with other business leaders calling for more immigrants -- 80,000 a year, or even 90,000, which is 30,000 to 40,000 more than the official 50,000 threshold set by Francois Legault's CAQ government.
FCCQ president Charles Milliard is calling for an end to the numbers war, and the controversy over how many immigrants Quebec should receive to address the province's shortage of workers.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Milliard said he would like to see a definition of Quebec's capacity to receive immigrants for each region, with clear parameters on the availability of public services, such as child-care spaces, family doctors, recreational facilities, public transportation, and so on.
After this data collection and consultation exercise, Milliard said it would be possible to objectively calculate Quebec's child-care capacity.
The FCCQ is also critical of the fact that the Legault government postponed, until after the fall election, the public consultations that were supposed to take place this summer on the multi-year planning of immigration thresholds.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 13, 2022.
