Quebec Premier Francois Legault is set to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday in Quebec City to discuss immigration. In particular, the Quebec leader is asking Ottawa for better distribution of asylum seekers across Canada.
This is Trudeau and Legault’s first meeting on immigration since their March 15 discussion, when Trudeau had denied Legault’s request for the handing over of full immigration powers to Quebec’s provincial authority.
According to the Premier, the growing influx of asylum seekers is putting “very significant pressure” on services in the French-Canadian province.
He wrote to Trudeau in an official letter sent Wednesday afternoon.
The letter was obtained by The Canadian Press, and read that Quebec is “very close to the breaking point due to the excessive number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec month after month. The situation has become unsustainable.”
As per the Premier, Quebec’s asylum seeker acceptances in 2022 were more than the rest of Canada combined.
While the 2023 closure of Roxham Road – the unofficial crossing point between the US and Canada to the south of Montreal – slowed that flow, “the arrivals have continued to increase at airports. The number of people arriving on a visitor visa and applying for asylum is also increasing significantly.”
Om the first month of 2023, 60,000 new asylum seekers were registered in Quebec, which put “very significant pressure” on services, the premier’s letter continued.
Quebec provides financial assistance to asylum seekers waiting on their work permits, continued the letter, with Quebec providing $33 million in aid for 43,200 asylum seekers last October.
This is putting pressure on services that the province is having difficulty keeping up with.
He also drew attention to the growing number of asylum claims from Mexico.
“The possibility of entering Canada from Mexico without a visa certainly explains part of the influx of asylum seekers,” he said.
“The airports, particularly in Toronto and Montreal, are becoming sieves and it is time to act,” he added.
Legault wants Ottawa to make stricter visa policies, and is also seeking the “equitable” distribution of asylum seekers across the country through possible busing measures.
Furthermore, he wants the federal government to reimburse Quebec the $470 million it spent on taking in asylum seekers in 2021 and 2022, and to do the same for the coming years.
“Quebec is no longer in a position to welcome a disproportionate share of the asylum seekers entering Canada,” he wrote in conclusion. “This is an urgent matter of the utmost importance.”
According to Legault, this is one of many immigration-related issues facing Quebec. For example, “about one third” of the French-Canadian province’s 560,000 temporary immigrants are not francophone and are in Montreal.
“It’s not those people who are the problem, but when we look at temporary immigration, we are at 560,000. That’s not the fault of the immigrants, that’s the fault of the federal government and places huge pressure on our mental health services, homelessness (services), social assistance, education — everything.”
“The federal (government) has got to stop this explosion in the number of temporary immigrants,” he said. “It isn’t a question of our not being welcoming. It’s not a question of our blaming (immigrants). It’s just that the number has got to the level where we’re no longer able keep up … At the moment there is no housing, no capacity in health and education to serve all of those people.”
