Quebec's grocery list for federal party leaders casts focus on health transfers, immigration

Montreal -

Quebec has outlined its wishlist to the federal parties Thursday, and centred it around two issues: health transfers and immigration.

In a news conference, Premier François Legault said he sent a letter to the federal party leaders detailing 11 demands ahead of the federal election in September. His news conference, though, focused on those two issues.

HEALTH TRANSFERS

Legault is calling on the next federal government to increase health transfers from the current 22 per cent to 35 per cent, indexed to 6 per cent per year to meet the province’s needs.

The premier said it’s important the health transfers come with no conditions.

“I insist on the no conditions. The health network is complex,” said Legault. “What we’re trying to do, Christian Dubé and me, is to reduce bureaucracy and decentralize.”

Legault said he doesn’t agree with federal proposals to dictate, for example, that funding be allotted to long-term care facilities as opposed to for care at home.

“Are the biggest needs in homes or in long-term care? Why can’t we put the money into homes?” he said. “The Quebec government is better placed to make those decisions, not civil servants in Ottawa.”

Legault said more arguments and more centralization are “exactly what we don’t need” and that it’s not for the federal government “to dictate what we need.”

IMMIGRATION

The second key issue, according to Legault, is transferring control of the family reunification program from the federal government to Quebec.

The goal: to protect the French language by ensuring more immigrants who come to the province follow language requirements.

Legault said 24 per cent of the province’s immigrants come to Quebec under the family reunification program. Because it is federally controlled, there is no requirement they speak French. He wants that to change.

“We need to make sure that there’s an integration with people coming to Quebec. It’s a question of survival,” he said. “Quebec is a French island in an anglophone sea in North America.”

Legault said that while it’s fine for the rest of Canada to take a more multicultural approach, there’s a “big difference” when it comes to Quebec immigrants.

He also said immigrants should be prepared to share Quebec’s “communal values,” including the province’s secularism law, known as Bill 21, which prohibits the wearing of religious symbols by certain government employees in the performance of their duties.

MORE AUTONOMY

Legault also made demands relating to infrastructure and housing, asking the future federal government to commit to supporting his priorities and programs rather than seeking to exercise its jurisdiction and intervene directly.

He asked for restraint in environmental matters, saying the federal climate plan unveiled in 2020 has interfered quite a bit in Quebec. Legault said he would like to see these federal funds dedicated to the fight against climate change, and aimed at sectors under his jurisdiction, paid to Quebec through a transfer to support his green economy plan, the Plan québécois pour une économie verte 2030.

Legault asked Quebecers to listen carefully to party leaders' answers, especially on his demands for health care and immigration.

Legault’s demands boiled down to a central theme: “We want more autonomy, not less autonomy,” he said.

- With files from The Canadian Press