Photo: Jacques Boissinot The Canadian Press “What we want is for half of the asylum seekers who are currently in Quebec to be transferred to other provinces,” François Legault explained on Wednesday.
On an official visit to Paris, where he will meet with new Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Thursday, François Legault specified that the program for distributing migrants to other Canadian provinces that he so desperately wants should be “mandatory.”
The day before, he had invited the federal government to draw inspiration from the “waiting zones” that exist in France and that allow asylum seekers to be held for a maximum period of 20 days. On Wednesday, he specified that this program should not only be mandatory, but also apply to asylum seekers already in the country, and not just to new arrivals.
“Currently, everything that is proposed by the federal government is on a voluntary basis for asylum seekers, and on a voluntary basis for the provinces. What we want is for half of the asylum seekers who are currently in Quebec to be transferred to other provinces.”
Last July, according to documents obtained by Le Devoir, the federal government had proposed to the Quebec government the creation of a temporary accommodation network for asylum seekers. The “relocation” model presented to all provinces included financial incentives, including the possibility of limiting work permits to a geographic area, in order to convince up to 47,000 applicants to be distributed elsewhere in the country.
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A proposal that is far from satisfying François Legault. “It doesn’t make sense that we received 45% of asylum seekers when Quebec represents 22% of the population. […] What I want are results. So yes, let it be mandatory!”
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000A program like this could therefore involve the relocation to other provinces of thousands of asylum seekers currently in Quebec.
“Not reasonable,” says Ottawa
In Ottawa, Immigration Minister Marc Miller was quick to react. “What Mr. Legault is saying is ‘get rid of these people’.” Know that these are people who may have roots in Quebec, perhaps a place to live. Is he asking us to go and get them from their homes and send them to Ontario? ? We have to be very specific, because it risks being interpreted as being inhumane. “
Mr. Miller reiterated that everything that had been discussed so far only concerned voluntary programs. “What he is saying is: ‘we get rid of these people,’” he repeated, before concluding that “it is unfortunate,” but that “it is in line with his thinking in many respects.”
On the practical side, Minister Miller wonders whether all this is feasible, since “there are already thousands of people who have protected status in Quebec under international conventions and Canadian law […]. Mr. Legault is reacting in a way that is not reasonable.”
When asked if the federal government could force the provinces to accept asylum seekers from Quebec, he simply said that “discussions must continue.” Regarding the comparison with France, he believes that the countries “each have their own problems.”
According to François Legault, “it is up to the federal government to look at what is being done elsewhere. […] What I want to be very clear about is that we find a way to distribute asylum seekers more fairly.”
“France and Quebec must remain nations”
The Quebec premier intends to raise all of these issues on Thursday at Matignon. On Tuesday, during his general policy speech in which he made reducing the number of asylum seekers a priority, Michel Barnier said he wanted to extend the detention period for illegal immigrants.
Unlike François Legault, however, he was talking about migrants who entered French territory illegally or who received an “obligation to leave the territory,” and not asylum seekers who were received in good and due form.
On Wednesday, the Quebec premier met mainly with business people, including the CEO of Alstom, Henri Poupart-Lafarge, and the CEO of Ubisoft, Yves Guillemot. With the latter, who employs 4,700 people in Quebec, he discussed the possibility of creating new start-ups in the field of artificial intelligence. Video game techniques are very similar to those used in artificial intelligence, a field where “Montreal is already very advanced,” believes Mr. Guillemot.
At the end of the day, François Legault chaired a reception at the Pullman Hotel in the Montparnasse district. In front of more than a hundred business people, he said he felt at home in Paris. Regarding the waves of migration that both France and Quebec are experiencing, he made a point of specifying that “both the French nation and the Quebec nation, we are and have always been welcoming.” “But France and Quebec must remain nations, and there is a language to protect,” he maintained.