Welcome, minister, and thank you for your public service. I’d also like to congratulate you on your humility in acknowledging that the government could have perhaps done better, and for listening to the economists when they suggested that the government take integration capacity into account in the future.

My question is about asylum seekers and Quebec’s suggestion that the EU’s new pact on migration and asylum, designed to help European countries under pressure, be used as a model. Other member states must participate in the relocation of asylum seekers or contribute financially. Would such an approach be worth considering in Canada?

In a federation like Canada, where the responsibility for immigration is shared, we might expect every province to act in good faith and responsibly. In theory, this should work better than in the European Union, especially with the borders that we have and because of our Constitution, which manages our relations with the provinces.

However, the fact of the matter is that recently, some provinces have not been doing their part when it comes to asylum seekers, so the federal government needed to step in. It’s not a question of treating people like cattle or proceeding with forced displacement. Nor is it a question of adopting solutions that aren’t tailored to Canada and drawing on the experience of countries that have different challenges than Canada, countries such as France, Germany or another country.

There’s always room for improvement in the hotel system that was set up, which is very expensive. Many people in Quebec were displaced in the wake of Roxham Road. The integration process never works better than if a province works within its own jurisdiction to ensure that asylum seekers are treated humanely with the resources that the provinces can provide.

To depoliticize the issue of immigration, it’s expected that our immigrants will contribute in the long term to the creation of wealth, we all agree on that, but in the short term, all of this creates challenges. What would you think about creating an expert panel made up of demographers, sociologists and economists to advise you on setting targets?

Absolutely, I’m not against that at all. I’ve gotten a lot of valuable information, ideas and contributions from people outside the government. I wouldn’t be opposed to that. I’d like to have some success with the distribution program that we put in place first before going ahead with something like this. However, at first glance, it seems like a good idea to me. We do that sort of thing informally right now. I would be fine with making the process more official with the participation of the provinces, if they will commit to participating in good faith. I would agree to that, but it would require the good faith of the provinces.