QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Immigration to Quebec
October 8, 2024
Minister, for several months now, Quebec as a whole has been denouncing your immigration policies, because of the pressure on the health care system, the housing crisis and the need to protect the French language. You began by denying that there is a problem and basically insinuating that Quebecers are racist. Then you disputed the figures. Finally, you owned up to your failures when you said, and I quote, “Quite frankly, we took a little too long to slow down immigration.”
However, you’re still refusing to take swift and effective action to address the problem. Why is it that this Liberal government’s first reaction to every request from Quebec is always to say no and deny that there is a problem?
Respectfully, senator, I’ve never called Quebecers racist. As a proud Quebecer myself, I’ve never done that and I never will. Clearly there needs to be a conversation, a discussion with Quebecers. We all want the same thing. So does the Senate. We agree that we need to protect French as the common language. In fact, that’s why we invested over $6 billion in Quebec to protect the French language as part of the Canada-Quebec Accord, the pride of Quebec’s immigration system. We can be very proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past 30 years with immigration to Quebec.
There are challenges. Just last year, the provinces were pleading with us not to cut programs. Now they are demanding we cut them. Immigration is a shared responsibility. Quebec, like Ontario and other provinces, is privileged to bring in temporary workers and students. The system needs to be better managed by both levels of government together.
You haven’t answered my question. I’ll try to ask you a simpler one. You mentioned respect. You called three premiers who also do not support your immigration policies “knuckleheads.” Your colleague Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, was here three weeks ago. He couldn’t defend you on this. Are you continuing with your policy of insults? Are you going to apologize and show some respect, as you just said?
It’s not Minister LeBlanc’s job to defend me. I can defend myself, senator. Obviously, when a task force is set up on the heels of the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax, and those premiers let false information leak, that is irresponsible of them. I have every right to be ticked off. The reality is that they invented this false debate. We’ve said very clearly that we’ll never force people to move. They knew that, and now they’re standing up and saying, for electoral purposes in the interests of the Conservative Party, that we’re going to move people. That’s not true, and I think it shows disrespect towards Canadians, first and foremost.
