Legault government puts brakes on permanent immigration

Quebec Minister Responsible for French language Jean-Francois Roberge during Question Period at the legislature in Quebec City, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press)

After raising the thresholds for permanent immigration, François Legault's government says it now wants to limit the number of immigrants to Quebec by 2025.

It says it is going to freeze two programs that can be used to obtain permanent residence: the Regular Skilled Worker Programme and the Quebec Experience Programme (PEQ) for graduates.

The opposition says it sees this as a “180-degree turn,” indicating a loss of control and improvisation on the part of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ).

The government's decision, confirmed on Thursday, comes just days after the Parti Québécois (PQ) presented a detailed 90-page plan to reduce immigration, but Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge denies reacting to his opponents' proposals.

“It's in the ‘top three’ of ridiculous things I've heard in my life,” he replied in a news scrum on Thursday morning. “We've been working on this for weeks, we've had discussions in council.”

“I'm sorry, but when you have rigorous planning, you publish figures, you set targets and in the meantime, you don't need to do a 180 degree turn,” said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. “You're not in the situation where you go from nothing to everything, 48 hours after the plan of an opposition party that has looked into it, that's not normal.”

Parti Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon holds a graphic as he speaks at a news conference to unveil their plan on immigration, Monday, October 28, 2024 at the legislature in Quebec City. (Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press)

Roberge also indicated that his government would take temporary immigration into account in addition to permanent immigration in its next multi-year plan.

This summer, Quebec announced a six-month suspension of the temporary foreign worker program for low-wage jobs in Montreal.

A few weeks ago, the minister tabled a bill to reduce the number of foreign students but did not set a target.

The Parti Québécois said on Monday that it wanted to impose a moratorium on permanent economic immigration from outside Quebec.

Last week, Ottawa announced a 20 per cent cut in permanent immigration.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 31, 2024.