Quebec seeking Ottawa's help in paying for costs of asylum seekers
Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Frechette is keeping up the pressure on Ottawa to help with the costs of asylum seekers in the province.
"That is crucial, really, because we do not have the luxury of saying yes or no," said Frechette.
Quebec asked for $1 billion to meet education, housing and health-care needs, which a working group between the two levels of government will look into, but Frechette is accusing the federal government of passing the buck.
"When I look at the position the federal [government] is taking, it's as if there was a possibility for them to pay or not to pay, depending on their mood - that's not the way it goes," she said. "They do have to assume the consequences of their policies, and their policies generate a lot of expenses for Quebec."
Premier Francois Legault also wants to speed up processing from a year and a half to six months.
"I cannot imagine why it takes 18 months to know if it's a real aslyum seeker or not," he said on Friday.
Immigration is a shared jurisdiction, but there is a lot of tension over how to handle it.
In a letter to Frechette earlier this month, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Ottawa would bypass Quebec's immigration cap to speed up family reunification.
"I've given instructions to process the requests for permanent residency and family reunification, which totals around 20,500 cases," he said.
"Imagine you're married, you have kids, and your spouse is being kept from you, for a number of years for absolutely no reason other than quotas that are imposed by the government in Quebec," said immigration lawyer Patrice Brunet.
Brunet believes these kinds of cases should not be subject to quotas.
Legault said Quebec will now have to look at other options on how to get more powers, and Parti Quebecois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon suggested a referendum on immigration.
Legault and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are set to meet again by June 30.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Eating disorders among youth skyrocketed during pandemic and so did associated costs, report finds
The number of young people experiencing eating disorders surged during the height of the pandemic as the social and economic costs skyrocketed too, a new pan-Canadian report has found.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.