A political party in Quebec is calling on the provincial government to put a freeze on all temporary immigration over which it has control in a bid to lower rents and other housing costs.
Parti Québécois (PQ) leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon claims the high levels of temporary immigration to the province are making housing unaffordable for Quebeckers.
“If we have 44 per cent more people on the street who do not have a roof over their heads, then if we are no longer able to afford housing and that impoverishes the vast majority of households, we will have to do something,” Plamondon reportedly said.
“We can’t just sit idly by, and, unfortunately, that’s what the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is doing.”
In the provincial legislature of Quebec, its Assemblée nationale, Premier François Legault’s CAQ currently has 89 seats, the Quebec Liberal Party 19 seats, Québec Solidaire 12 seats, and the PQ only four. There is also one seat held by an independent.
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) data reveals that Quebec welcomed 52,810 new permanent residents last year but also issued 77,890 new study permits to international students, 74,080 work permits through the International Mobility Program (IMP) and another 58,790 work visas through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP).
Although it has not formed either the government or the official opposition in the past two elections, the PQ is rising in the polls and has announced it will finance the construction of at least 45,000 housing units over the next five years if it takes power in the 2026 election.
The PQ’s proposal to limit temporary immigration to the province comes as the CAQ is under fire for its management of the housing affordability crisis in Quebec.
While Plamondon’s party cannot itself limit temporary immigration to the province, the proposal could resonate with the premier who has previously blamed the housing situation on Ottawa’s open door policy on temporary immigration to Canada.
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Legault has repeatedly stated he will hold the line on immigration and made it clear his government is deeply-committed to ensuring the survival of the French language.
The premier has gone so far as to put forth proposals to limit all economic immigration to the province to French-speaking immigrants by 2026.
“As premier of Quebec, my first responsibility is to defend our language and our identity,” said Legault. “During the past few years, the French language has been in decline in Quebec. Since 2018, our government has acted to protect our language, more so than any previous government since the adoption of Bill 101 under the Levesque government.
“But, if we want to turn the tide, we must do more. By 2026, our goal is to have almost entirely francophone economic immigration. We have the duty, as Québécois, to speak French, to daily pass on our culture and to be proud of it.”
Canada Eyeing Temporary Immigration Levels Plan For September
Temporary workers who come to the province on work permits and international students in Quebec who are there on study permits often later seek to immigrate to Canada through either the federal Express Entry system’s Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) program, Federal Skilled Trades (FST) program and Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) of the provinces.
The PQ’s gambit of placing the blame for the housing crisis on temporary immigration also comes as federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller is readying the IRCC to announce a levels plan for temporary immigration.
Miller has already placed a cap on study permit applications, limiting these to 606,250 this year, in a move which is expected to reduce the number of new study permits issued this year by 40 per cent.
“The intent of these Instructions is to ensure the number of study permit applications accepted into processing by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration … within the scope of the instructions does not exceed 606,250 study permit applications for one year beginning on the date of signature,” the Canada Gazette reported on Feb. 3.
Economists, though, warn that a drop in immigration to Canada will make the average age of Canadian residents older and will have a ripple effect on Ottawa’s coffers.
“Immigration has long been seen as one way to help blunt the economic impact from the wave of people leaving the labour force as the relatively large baby boom generation continues to hit retirement age,” has noted RBC senior economist Nathan Janzen.
“Those retirements lower tax revenues for governments while demand for services like healthcare and social security accelerates, creating a large funding gap.”
In his report, How Lowering The Number Of Non-Permanent Residents Will Impact Canada’s Economy, the economist points out that Canada’s long-term demographic challenges aren’t going to go away.
“Labour shortages have been easing as high interest rates slow hiring demand, but they’ll be back again after the short-run economic cycle as the share of the population hitting retirement age continues to rise,” he cautions.
And Janzen also doubts that immigrants are really the cause of the housing crisis.
“Slower population growth might slow house price and rent growth in future years but isn’t likely to solve Canada’s affordability problem,” he notes.
“The shortage of housing in Canada … is decades in the making and predates the recent surge in population growth. As we take away some of the housing or rental demand in the near-term, we’re also taking away potential labour supply in construction and building activities that will help build more houses.”
