Quebec’s French-language czar, Jean-François Roberge, is taking up the francophone province’s immigration portfolio, replacing Christine Fréchette who becomes the minister of the economy, innovation and energy.
During the past two years, Roberge has held the portfolios of minister of the French language, francophones throughout Canada, relations between the province and the federal government, democratic institutions, access to information and protection of personal information, and secularism.
He retains all of those responsibilities even as he takes up the helm at the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI), Quebec’s department of immigration.
His appointment to the immigration portfolio comes in the wake of the premier vowing to make all economic immigration to Quebec francophone within a few years.
A former teacher and author who wrote a book for young adults, Roberge was also the province’s education minister from 2018 through to 2022.
Roberge Pledges To Tackle ‘Problem’ Of Too-High Temporary Immigration To Quebec
The new immigration minister says the province is facing major challenges on the immigration front and he is hoping that his combined portfolios will allow him to more effectively develop solutions to the issues.
“This combination of functions will increase the effectiveness of the government’s actions, which is essential in the particular context where the number of temporary immigrants is exploding and where the challenges of welcoming and integrating, as well as protecting French, are more present than ever,” said Roberge.
During his time as education minister, Roberge abolished French and English language school boards and replaced them with school service centres, a move touted as saving the Quebec government $10 million and improving the quality of education in the province’s schools. He also introduced a new curriculum to shift the emphasis away from religion and towards culture and citizenship.
Roberge is a former elementary school teacher and commentator on educational issues as well as a novelist who wrote a book for young adults.
“As premier, I am proud to be able to count on a competent and committed team for Quebec. I thank Ms. Fréchette and Mr. Roberge for having enthusiastically accepted these new responsibilities,” said Premier François Legault.
“Our government is determined to enrich Quebecers through the energy transition and to reduce temporary immigration to protect the French language and preserve our public services.”
In August, announced it would be pausing the processing of all new Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) applications for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program’s (TFWP) low-wage stream in the greater Montreal economic region for six months.
The processing of these applications was suspended starting Sept. 3 for all job offers from greater Montreal where the offer is for wages below $27.47 per hour, Quebec’s median hourly wage.
“Our government is focused on preserving the integrity of the TFWP, making sure that employers resort to it only when there are no qualified workers already in Canada available to fill open job positions,” said Randy Boissonnault, the federal minister of employment, workforce development and official languages.
“(This) announcement is part of our ongoing efforts to adjust to the changing labour market while working with provinces and territories to ensure that the rules are followed to protect both Canadian workers and temporary foreign workers, as well as to support the Canadian economy.”
Temporary Immigration to Quebec Doubled in Two Years
According to Legault, the province has welcomed too many temporary foreign workers to allow it to properly integrate them into Quebecois society.
“Over the past two years, the number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000,” wrote Legault on Facebook.
“The federal government is largely responsible for this explosion in the number of temporary immigrants. It has been asked to reduce by half the number of those under its responsibility. We must reduce the number of immigrants to protect our public services, to take pressure off housing and to protect the French language, particularly in Montreal.”
The pause on the processing of LMIA applications will not include jobs paying $57,000 or more or jobs in education, the healthcare sector, food processing or construction.
“We must reduce the number of non-permanent residents, which has more than doubled since 2021,” tweeted Fréchette.
“Strategic sectors are exempt. We must protect our public services, our economy and the French language.”
An LMIA is a document that an employer in Canada may need to get before hiring a foreign worker. A positive LMIA will show that there is a need for a foreign worker to fill the job. It will also show that no Canadian worker or permanent resident is available to do the job.
Quebec’s struggle with its high number of temporary foreign workers started in the last quarter of last year when the province hit a new record for temporary residents as they hit 528,034, data from Statistics Canada revealed.
A year earlier, there were only 360,936 temporary residents in that province which under the leadership of its premier had repeatedly stated it would hold the line on immigration.
In November last year, Legault again stated his government’s immigration target in 2024 would be about 50,000 newcomers, about the same as this year, in a stated attempt to prevent the erosion of the French language and Quebecois culture.
“We chose … to keep the thresholds, so the total number of permanent immigrants accepted per year at 50,000,” Legault reportedly said in November.
“We had evaluated the possibility of increasing it to 60,000, but it’s important for us, to stop, to reverse the decline of French.”
The dramatic rise in the number of temporary residents to the province, though, has underscored the need of employers in Quebec to find solutions to the labour shortages they face and the desire of universities and colleges there to tap into the lucrative international student market.
Often, those temporary workers and international students then 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.
