Immigration Issue Heats Up in Final Days of Quebec Election Campaign

People enter a polling station in L'Assomption, Que., on Sept. 25, 2022, as advanced polling begins ahead of the provincial election on Oct. 3. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

In the countdown to the Quebec election on Oct. 3, Premier François Legault has been pressing harder on the hot-button issues of immigration and cultural preservation, saying this week that accepting more immigrants would be “suicidal” for the French language.

“As long as we haven’t stopped the decline of French, I think that for the Quebecois nation that wants to protect French it would be a bit suicidal to increase [the immigration threshold]”, Legault said during a talk before the Montreal Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 28.

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Jean Boulet made waves after he said during a local election debate that “80 percent” of immigrants don’t work.

“Eighty percent of immigrants go to Montreal, don’t work, don’t speak French, or don’t adhere to the values of Quebec’s society,” Boulet said.

Legault told reporters on Sept. 28 that what Boulet said was false and that he had made a “serious mistake” that “disqualifies” him as immigration minister, although he will remain as a party candidate. The same day, Boulet apologized on social media for his comments.

The question of how to protect French while at the same time welcome immigrants was posed to party leaders during the second and final election debate on Sept. 22.

Legault, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), said the “first job of the premier of Quebec is to ensure the future of French” and that doing so requires fewer non-Francophone immigrants.

Coalition Avenir du Quebec Leader Francois Legault speaks to the media while campaigning In Longueuil, Que.,Sept. 19, 2022. The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz

Liberal Leader Dominque Anglade told Legault he should stop “pointing fingers, stop dividing, stop saying that immigration is a problem or a threat.” Anglade, a former CAQ candidate and party president, left the party in 2015 due to its stances on identity and immigration.

The two also clashed on Sept. 7. At a campaign event, Legault discussed the “challenges of integration” and confirmed his intentions to limit immigration to 50,000 people annually. “Quebecers are peaceful,” he said. “They don’t like bickering, they don’t like extremists, they don’t like violence. We have to ensure that we keep it the way it is right now.”

Anglade condemned Legault’s comments, which he later apologized for. “I deplore it and I find that it’s dangerous. Our responsibility is to bring Quebecers together,” Anglade said.

French Perceived as ‘Fragile’

Yannick Dufresne, a political scientist at Laval University, says the clash between the benefits and risks of immigration is at the forefront in Quebec because French is perceived as “fragile” on a continent dominated by English.

“All the parties accept that, and maybe we’re the first ones because of our status as a language minority to realize that and to be forced into this awkward type of discussion. It’s very charged emotionally and ideologically,” Dufresne told The Epoch Times.

Quebec Liberal Party Leader Dominique Anglade speaks during a question and answer session at a youth conference while on a election campaign stop in Montreal, Sept. 17, 2022. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes

“If we don’t accept more immigrants, then we will lose our proportion in the country. But if we accept them, and we don’t integrate them well to the French, then what are we doing? It’s a challenge for [party leaders], and to choose an answer is a very, very difficult choice.”

The Parti Québécois is the only party calling for reduced immigration, suggesting 35,000 annually.

Some business groups in Quebec want more immigration. Conseil du patronat du Québec, the province’s largest employers’ group, wants 80,000 newcomers annually to help fill a worker shortage expected to reach 1.4 million jobs by 2030. The Quebec Manufacturers and Exporters (MEQ) association says labour shortages cost the province’s manufacturing sector $18 billion over the last two years.

Quebec will take in close to 70,000 immigrants in the current calendar year to make up for reduced numbers during the pandemic, but will reduce the annual threshold to 50,000 for the next four years. The Conservative Party of Quebec doesn’t see immigration as a long-term solution to the labour shortage and would reduce immigration targets. The Liberals want 70,000, and Quebec solidaire (QS) 80,000.

Federal Context

Federally, the Liberal government wants to bring in 450,000 immigrants annually, which means that for Quebec to maintain birthrates but keep its current share of the Canadian population, it would have to increase immigration past 115,000. However, English Canada is nervous about having that many immigrants as well.

In June 2019, a Leger poll found that 63 percent of Canadians thought the federal government should “prioritize limiting” immigration to accommodate the country’s capacity to integrate them into Canadian communities, while 37 percent thought Canada should “prioritize increasing” immigration to “meet the demands of our growing economy.”

Quebec Conservative Leader Eric Duhaime waves to supporters at his campaign launch rally, on Aug. 28, 2022 in Quebec City.  Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

The People’s Party is the lone voice advocating a reduction to between 100,000 and 150,000 immigrants annually, primarily focusing on economic ones with the right skills, but it has no seats in Parliament.

When asked why mainstream Quebec parties could have debates on immigration that English Canada could not, University of Winnipeg political science professor Malcolm Bird said Quebec politicians better represent a spectrum of valid considerations.

“Immigration is a sensitive issue, but it’s also very important,” he said.

“Anytime you’re bringing people into our country, you’re altering the labour market, and depending on where you are in the labour market, immigration can be a good thing, it can be an OK thing, and for many people can be a bad thing. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with saying that. For much of the left’s existence, they were critical of immigration because it brought more labourers into the labour market.”

Immigration has fewer downsides in a labour shortage, but its upside to solving later shortages also has limits. Conservative leader Eric Duhaime spoke of this at a press conference on Sept. 5.

“The immigrant who arrives here needs services, and he’s going to consume more services, he’s going to need hospitals, he’s going to need school for his children, he’s going to need housing, he’s going to go to restaurants. It will generate a need for workers,” he said.

Bird says an open market could handle the influx better, but housing regulations have hindered supply from reaching higher demand. The result is higher prices.

“If we’re going to think about the current housing crisis here, you need to think about immigration, foreign students, housing supply, all of these things in the same context. Whether it’s bringing new people in or building more supply, those are both important factors that need to be considered and thought about, and a part of the dialogue.”

Policy Stances

The issue of religious accommodation also plays into policy stances. In 2019, Legault’s CAQ government passed Bill 21, which prohibits some public-sector workers in positions of authority, such as police and teachers, from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. The Quebec Conservative and PQ leaders support this bill, while the Liberals and QS are opposed.

(L-R) Conservative Leader Eric Duhaime, Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade, Quebec Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Parti-Quebecois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, CAQ Leader Francois Legault and moderator Pierre Brunei, stand on the set prior to the leaders debate in Montreal, on Sept. 15, 2022. Martin Chevalier/The Canadian Press

The Conservative Party of Quebec said a Conservative government “will select permanent immigrants on the basis of their civilizational compatibility” that adheres to “Western values” and the “ability to integrate into Quebec culture.”

Duhaime has said employability, values, and language proficiency in French are more important considerations than numbers.

“A person who comes here and does not work, it is not a success either for him or for the host society,” he said, adding that “I think we need to make sure that there are no people who think that there are religious texts that are above our laws in Quebec.”