Legault's letter on immigration deemed 'very constructive' by Trudeau's cabinet

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives for a cabinet retreat in Montreal, Sunday, January 21, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes)

A letter sent recently by Quebec Premier François Legault to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, imploring him to curb the influx of asylum seekers to the province, has been welcomed by Liberal government ministers.

"I found Mr. Legault's letter very constructive and also very useful. Now it's up to us to find solutions together," said Pablo Rodriguez, Trudeau's Quebec Lieutenant, on Sunday as he arrived at a cabinet retreat being held in Montreal until Tuesday.

In his message, Legault asserted that the number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec was "excessive" and that the situation had become "unsustainable" to the extent that the province was on the verge of reaching its "breaking point."

He called for an "equitable" distribution of asylum seekers across Canada and said he expects Ottawa to reimburse the $470 million incurred for receiving asylum seekers in 2021 and 2022.

He also wants the federal government to do the same for succeeding years.

On Friday, data published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) confirmed that Quebec received 65,570 asylum applications in 2023, or 45.5 per cent, while the province's demographic weight is 22.1 per cent.

Asked what concrete measures will be taken, Federal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc said he would "continue these discussions" with Quebec and "take the necessary steps" to, among other things, "secure our borders."

"Quebec has done an enormous amount to welcome immigrants and asylum seekers," he said. "We understand that this brings with it a financial issue. That's why, for the past five or six years, we've been a partner for Quebec in terms of costs as well."

Speaking to Radio-Canada earlier in the day, LeBlanc said that Ottawa intends to do "the appropriate accounting" of the financial demands.

In the calculations, Rodriguez hinted during a media scrum that he would deduct "about $70 million" that Ottawa has transferred for housing.

"We're still discussing the rest," he said.

According to Rodriguez, the government must also address the pressures of international students and temporary workers.

For his part, Trudeau did not stop to answer journalists' questions on the subject, contenting himself with saying, "it's a pleasure to see you in my home" as he prepared to dine with his team.

On social media, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet echoed the sentiment on Sunday that Canada's immigration policy is "unsustainable."

"To imagine that these hundreds of thousands of people will find jobs corresponding to the needs of the economy without additional qualifications, that the health or education or childcare systems, the housing market and security resources will naturally follow is simply incorrect. Not to mention the francization," he wrote.

The federal government has decided to increase the number of permanent residents Canada will welcome in 2025 to 500,000, nearly double the 2015 threshold.

And while an increasingly clear link is being drawn by many elected officials between immigration and the housing crisis, ministers Marc Miller and Sean Fraser have indicated in recent days that Ottawa is working to stabilize the number of people entering the country each year.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 22, 2024.