Question Period Note: QUEBEC IMMIGRATION

Canada-Québec Accord and immigration-related issues

• The Government of Canada values its partnership with the Government of Quebec. We continue to work together to manage immigration effectively and preserve Quebec’s demographic weight in Canada and its distinct identity in accordance with the Canada-Quebec Accord.

• Given both governments’ shared responsibilities throughout the immigration process, collaboration is key to a well-managed immigration system.

• We acknowledge the pressures within the province of Quebec and we are continuing the important dialogue on how best we can work together on a path forward.

If pressed on asylum levels in Quebec:

• The Government of Canada agreed to provide $750 million to the Government of Quebec in recognition of the temporary housing and asylum-related challenges caused by the irregular border crossing at Roxham Road between 2021 and 2023.

• We agree that newcomers need adequate services and supports to integrate into the province. We will continue our close collaboration with the Government of Quebec.

• The Government of Canada will also continue to implement concrete measures to reduce the number of asylum claimants in Quebec in the short term and remains committed to facilitating the integration of asylum claimants into the job market.

• This is why the Government continues to work to establish agreements with collaborative jurisdictions to pilot the voluntary relocation of asylum claimants from Quebec.

• The federal government will also accelerate work permit issuance and integrate the federal Job Bank with Emploi Québec’s platform to better match asylum claimants with employers in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada.

Responsive - Funding under the Accord

• For fiscal year 2023-2024, Quebec received a total of $775.1 million as part of its annual grant under the Canada-Quebec Accord, which includes an indexation payment of $48.3 million.

• The funding reflects the commitment to maintaining a fair and equitable partnership between the federal government and the Province of Quebec.

• As of fiscal year 2023-2024, Quebec has been allocated a total of $5.2 billion since 2015 under the Accord.

Responsive - Processing times for the family class

• Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, Canada has selection authority over family class applicants. Quebec has the authority to assess the financial criteria for family class sponsorship agreements.

• IRCC receives more family class applications for Quebec than the space available under Quebec’s immigration levels plan, which creates a backlog. This results in longer processing times for family class clients destined to Quebec compared to those destined to the rest of Canada.

• As announced in March 2024, IRCC has started to increase the processing of family class applications destined for Quebec to slow down the growth of inventories and processing times relating to family reunification However, given the accumulated backlog, this will take time.

• We will continue to collaborate with the Government of Quebec to better align the inventory and their allotted levels space to help reunite these families faster.

Responsive - Francophone immigration to Quebec

• IRCC will continue to work with the Quebec government to maintain the vitality of the French language in the province.

• Quebec has asked that a French language requirement be added to the International Mobility Program. We are implementing this through regulatory amendments in line with Quebec’s timing.

• Canada also has a responsibility to support Francophone communities outside of Quebec. That’s why we’ve announced a new policy on Francophone Immigration. The policy supports the federal government's obligation under the Official Languages Act to use immigration to support the socio-economic and demographic development of Francophone minority communities.

Canada-Quebec Accord: roles and responsibilities

• The Canada-Quebec Accord came into force in 1991. The objectives of the Accord are to preserve Quebec’s demographic weight within Canada and support the integration of immigrants in the province, while respecting its distinct identity.

• Quebec selects economic immigrants and resettled refugees destined to that province and the federal government selects permanent residents in the family class and protected persons. Both governments jointly administer the International Student Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

• The federal government remains responsible for determining the admissibility (i.e., health, security and criminality) of all immigrants to Quebec and for issuing permanent resident visas.

• While the federal government is responsible for establishing annually the total number of immigrants for the country as a whole, it takes Quebec’s advice into consideration on the number of immigrants that it wishes to receive.

Canada-Quebec Accord: Federal grant to Quebec

• The Quebec government is responsible for the administration, design and delivery of settlement and integration services for permanent residents including pre-arrival, information and orientation, French language training, refugee resettlement services, labour market orientation, foreign credential recognition and support services.

• Quebec is the only province that receives an annual grant (compensation) from the federal government. In all other provinces and territories, the Department provides annual settlement funding directly to settlement service providers in their respective jurisdictions through a third-party delivery system.

• The funding formula in the Accord is the percentage increase in total net federal expenditures and the percentage increase in the number of non-Francophone immigrants who arrive in Quebec compared to the previous year.

• Pursuant to the terms of the Canada-Quebec Accord, the grant cannot diminish from one year to the next. It can only increase or remain constant. The amount provided in any given year becomes the baseline for the calculation the following year.

• While Quebec is not accountable to the federal government for how it spends the funding it receives under the Accord, Quebec must provide settlement and integration services that are comparable to the rest of the country.

• Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, an ADM level committee is mandated to “study, at least once a year, reception and integration services provided by Canada and Quebec.” The latest comparative study for the fiscal years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 has shown a great deal of alignment of integration services between Canada and Quebec and no fundamental discrepancies between the two integration systems.

Quebec Immigration Levels Plan

• On October 31, 2024, Quebec tabled its Levels plan for 2025, maintaining its levels at 50,000 regular admissions per year, plus ongoing admissions of people selected under the “Quebec Graduates” stream of the PEQ (estimated at 15,000 admissions).

• Quebec’s immigration levels plan for both 2024 and 2025 is below the maximum level range of 27% of all admissions to Canada it could admit per the Accord principles. However, with the ongoing and uncapped admissions of permanent residence applicants (Quebec graduates) through the PEQ, the total admissions for both years is likely exceed 50,000.

Processing times

• Processing times for applications for permanent residence can be affected by a number of factors, including available levels space as well as processing capacity within IRCC and its security partners.

• Specifically for Quebec cases, the ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) sets targets and issues Certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ), both which may impact IRCC’s published processing times.

• As of September 30, 2024, processing times for permanent residence were 7 months for Quebec Skilled Workers, as opposed to 5 months for Federal Skilled Workers.

• Family class applicants from Quebec are experiencing longer processing times as there are more applications in inventory than what can be processed within MIFI’s target as set in its annual levels plan. This results in clients waiting in queue as IRCC processes Quebec’s applications within the set targets for that category. Minister Miller wrote to Minister Fréchette in January 2024 to inform her that IRCC would process all Family Class permanent resident applications with a CSQ.

• In June 2024, Ministre Fréchette announced that Quebec will limit the number of applications it processes upstream. According to an order published in the Official Gazette, a maximum of 13,000 sponsorship applications received on a first-come, first-served basis will be processed during the 24-month period from 2024 to 2026.

Francophone immigration to Quebec

• Following the tabling of the 2023-2025 federal immigration levels plan on November 1, 2022, Quebec expressed concerns and reservations about the considerable increase in levels provided in the plan which could impact the vitality of French and the preservation of Quebec’s demographic weight.
• Since his re-election in the fall of 2022, Premier Legault has stated that he wanted to prioritize francophone immigration, eventually reaching 100% francophone economic immigration to Quebec by 2026.
• The Quebec initiative called “Francisation Québec” is intended to facilitate access to government services to learn French for newcomers.
• Quebec has also asked that French language requirements be added to temporary foreign workers in ESDC-led Temporary Foreign Worker Program as well as IRCC’s IMP.
• In order to implement a French language requirement under in-scope IMP stream, IRCC will make the necessary regulatory amendments in line with Quebec’s timeline, as confirmed in ministerial letter dated October 25, 2024.
• The department has consulted with English language minority communities in Quebec.
• On August 20, 2024, Quebec announced a 6-months moratorium on lower-wage TFW applications in the Montreal area, effective September 3, 2024.

Asylum Claimants

• Since the implementation of the STCA Additional Protocol on March 25, 2023, the number of claimants arriving between ports of entry and at Lacolle Port of Entry has significantly decreased.

• In 2023, Quebec received 46% of all claimants, or 65,250. Of those, 26% are estimated to have left Quebec for other parts of Canada. To date in 2024, Quebec has received 34% of all claimants, or 45,630. Of those, 18% are estimated to have left Quebec for other parts of Canada.

• Taking into account interprovincial movement (determined through last known address), Quebec’s share of claimants was 36% in 2023 and 31% to date in 2024 when considering secondary migration to and from Quebec.

Asylum claimants in Quebec (2022 to September 30, 2024)
Year Location
Montreal-Trudeau International Airport Between Ports of Entry in Quebec
2022 11,590 38,705
2023 25,615 14,390
2024 (January to September) 19,565 785
Total 56,765 53,880

• Quebec continues to maintain the 1,150 bed capacity that it has had in place since 2019, while other jurisdictions are increasing their shelter space.

• At a June 10, 2024 meeting with Premier Legault, PM Trudeau confirmed that the Government of Canada will provide $750 million for the provision of services to asylum claimants, including temporary housing.

• Further to the commitment made by FPT Ministers Responsible for Immigration (FMRI) in May 2024 and the PM’s agreement to work with other PTs, the FPT Working Group on Asylum was established in June 2024. This working group provided a forum for Ministers and their officials to work on better managing the flow of asylum claimants in Canada, to develop a FPT voluntary distribution model for asylum claimants and to improve the connections of claimants to the labour market and the necessary resources to support them.

The FPT Asylum Working Group was suspended following the Ministers’ meeting on September 23, 2024[REDACTED]. While PTs expressed support for working towards a model for voluntary relocation, [REDACTED].[REDACTED] the voluntary relocation of asylum claimants from Quebec. Progress will be reported at FMRI meetings.

Responsive - Levels

• As established in the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec sets the immigration levels that the province plans to achieve, which the Government of Canada takes into account for the overall Immigration Levels plan.

• The Canada-Quebec Accord allows Quebec to set its maximum levels range to the equivalent of its demographic weight, currently at 22%, plus 5%, for a total of 27% of total permanent resident admissions to the country.

• As per Quebec’s 2025 Levels plan, published on October 31, 2024, Quebec’s immigration levels will be at approximately 50,000 (range of 48.5K to 51.5K) regular permanent resident admissions per year, plus ongoing (uncapped) admissions of people selected under the “Quebec Graduates” stream of the Programme de l’expérience Québécoise (PEQ), estimated at 15,000 admissions.

• From October 31, 2024, no new applications will be received for the « Diplômés du Québec » within the PEQ.

• A new program, le « Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ) » will replace the current «Programme régulier des travailleurs qualifiés (PRTQ) » effective November 29, 2024. MIFI will temporarily suspend invitations to apply for selection in the PRTQ and PSTQ.

• Both intake control measures will be in place until June 30, 2025, at which time Quebec will have completed public consultations for its next multi-year Levels planning. Starting next year, Quebec’s plan for 2026-2027 will include Temporary Residents levels targets, just like Canada’s Immigration Levels Plan.

Responsive - Processing times

• By the end of September 2024, the processing time for Quebec Skilled Workers applications was 7 months, under the Department’s service standard of 11 months. Applications in the Spouses, Partners, and Children category destined to Quebec being processed overseas have a current processing time of 26 months.

• Family class applicants from Quebec are experiencing longer processing times as there are more applications in inventory than what can be processed within MIFI’s target as set in its annual levels plan.

Responsive - Temporary Workers

• IRCC continues to prioritize the processing of work permits for critical occupations in the agricultural/agri-food and health care sectors for foreign workers destined to all provinces.

• On August 20, 2024, Quebec announced a 6-month moratorium on lower-wage TFW applications in the Montreal area, effective September 3, 2024.

Responsive - Asylum Claimants

• Quebec has been and remains a key partner in managing the flow of irregular migrants since 2017.

• Through the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP), the federal government provided $960 million in funding to provincial and municipal governments, on a cost-sharing basis, to address extraordinary interim housing pressures resulting from increased volumes of asylum claimants since 2017.

• Budget 2024 committed an additional $1.1 billion over three years to extend IHAP, starting in 2024-25, to ensure that federal funding builds on investments from partners. IHAP funding in 2026-27 will be conditional on provincial and municipal investments in permanent transitional housing solutions for asylum claimants.

• On June 10, 2024, at a meeting with Premier Legault, $750 million was announced to recognize the significant contribution Quebec has made to supporting asylum claimants.

Responsive - On Roxham Road and the Safe Third Country Agreement:

• The number of irregular arrivals has significantly declined since we expanded the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement in 2023. However, high numbers of asylum claims at airports and inland offices have persisted over the past several months.

• In February 2024, in response to significant volumes of asylum claimants, IRCC imposed a partial visa requirement to Mexican citizens, which resulted in a substantial reduction in asylum claims from Mexican foreign nationals arriving at Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau airport.

• In addition, IRCC provides temporary hotel accommodation for this population when Quebec’s capacity to shelter them has been reached.

Responsive - If pressed on changes to irregular migration volumes related to US election:

• The world is facing unprecedented flows of migrants and refugees. Canada is not excluded from these trends. The Government of Canada continues to work with our international partners, including the United States, to emphasize the importance of well managed migration and the use of regular immigration pathways, while continuing to meet its commitment to individuals in need of protection.

• Our law enforcement officials are prepared to address any changes in irregular migration volumes. We will continue to work closely with our US counterparts to investigate attempted border crossings, as well as monitor volumes of irregular migration in both directions.