Question Period Note: QUEBEC IMMIGRATION

Canada-Québec Accord and immigration-related issues

• The governments of Canada and Quebec have a long history of collaborating to advance shared and respective immigration priorities.
• IRCC’s bilateral relationship with Quebec is defined by the 1991 Canada-Quebec Accord, and is guided by the principle that immigration should support the preservation of Quebec’s demographic weight in Canada and its distinct identity.
• The Accord is designed to ensure collaboration between both governments throughout the immigration process, in all immigration categories.
Responsive – spousal processing gaps
Under the Canada-Québec Accord, Quebec [REDACTED]. The ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI) is responsible for determining whether to approve a sponsorship undertaking for sponsors living in Quebec.
Given that IRCC receives more family class applications destined for Quebec than the MIFI allows us to process, a backlog develops as IRCC cannot process all the family class cases we have in the backlog year after year. This creates a disparity in waiting times for family class clients destined for Quebec compared to the rest of Canada.
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.
• Our official languages are part of our identity; our past, our present and our future.
Canada also has a responsibility to support Francophone immigration outside of Quebec. Our official language minority communities, English-speaking in Quebec and French-speaking in the rest of Canada, are entitled to strong institutions, supported by and for them, that ensure their vitality and sustainability. The federal government will stand by them.

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.

• The Accord requires agreement of both parties to amend.

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.

• The base amount for the Canada-Quebec funding included in the 2023-2024 Main Estimates is $726.7M, which is also the total amount of the grant from the previous year 2022-2023.

• 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 Comité mixte 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.

• 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 Immigration Levels Plan

• On November 1, 2023, Quebec tabled its Levels plan for 2024 and 2025, maintaining its levels at 50,000 regular admissions per year, plus ongoing admissions of people selected under the "Quebec Graduates" stream of the Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ).

• Quebec’s immigration levels plan for 2024 and 2025 is below the maximum level range of 27%, at slightly more than 14%. However, with the ongoing and uncapped admissions of permanent residence applicants (Quebec graduates) through the PEQ, the total admissions for each year would be higherand unknown.
• On December 8, 2022, Quebec tabled its 2023 immigration levels plan. For 2023, the maximum in the overall admission range in Quebec’s levels plan was 52,500.

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 partners. Specifically for Quebec cases, MIFI-set targets influence greatly IRCC’s published processing times. For example, 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 targets This results in clients waiting in queue as IRCC must not go over Quebec’s targets for that class.

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 stated that he wanted to prioritize francophone immigration, eventually reaching 100% francophone economic immigration to Quebec by 2026.
• As a first step in wanting to strengthen permanent immigration of Francophones in the province, in December 2022, Quebec announced that it is suspending the intake of non-Francophone applicants in its entrepreneur and self-employed programs.
• On that date, Quebec also announced a suite of planned regulatory changes, to be implemented by November 16, 2023, that will reinforce the importance of the French language in the province and meet the challenges of labor shortages.
• The Quebec initiative called “Francisation Quebec” is intended to facilitate access to government services to learn French for a range of new clients.

Asylum Claimants

• Asylum claims made at the Montreal-Trudeau International airport increased significantly in 2022, with over 11,600 asylum claims from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 (compared to approximately 1,600 claims for the same period in 2021). From January 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023, approximately 13,600 asylum claims were made at this airport, representing an ongoing high number of arrivals.
• In 2022, over 38,900 individuals claimed asylum between ports of entry in Quebec. From January 1, 2023 to August 31, 2023, over 14,000 asylum claims were made between the ports in Quebec (compared to approximately 23,100 claims for the same period in 2022).
• Since the implementation of the STCA Additional Protocol on March 25, 2023, the number of claims made between ports of entry has significantly reduced. From March 25, 2023 to August 31, 2023, approximately 805 asylum claims were made between the ports in Quebec.
• Canada will welcome 15,000 migrants on a humanitarian basis from the Western Hemisphere over the course of the year, with a path to economic opportunities to address forced displacement, as an alternative to irregular migration. The conditions (eligibility criteria) applicable to principal applicants and their accompanying family members is the intention to reside in a province or territory other than the province of Quebec.
• While Premier Legault has responded positively to the implementation of the Additional Protocol, Quebec has maintained its stance that Ottawa redirect all asylum seekers entering Quebec between the ports, whether they speak French or not, to other provinces; and that Quebec obtain reimbursement of all costs related to the reception and integration of asylum seekers for the years 2021 and 2022.

• From June 2022 to the implementation of the STCA Additional Protocol on March 25th, 2023, IRCC transferred asylum claimants entering Canada between the ports in Quebec to Ontario, and to other provinces including Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador. In addition, given the recent, significant increase of asylum seekers arriving and making claims at Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport, IRCC has agreed to provide temporary hotel accommodation for these asylum claimants when PRAIDA has hit its maximum capacity of 1150 people. When full capacity is reached at IRCC managed hotels in Quebec, IRCC transfers asylum claimants to Ontario on a voluntary basis.

• Officials from both IRCC and the province of Quebec meet biweekly to discuss contingency planning and asylum claim updates.

• On January 23, 2023, Quebec sent a letter to IRCC requesting $470.3M for its 2021 and 2022 costs, including social services, related to asylum claimants. Of that amount, In March 2023, IRCC paid Quebec $66.9M under IHAP, the total amount requested for interim housing expenses for 2021 and 2022.

Family reunification

• Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, Canada has sole responsibility for the selection and admission of family class immigrants. Quebec, however, has the authority to determine and assess the financial criteria for family class sponsorship agreements.

• The authority to define who is eligible to immigrate to Canada in the family class has been kept at the national level to ensure that parameters remain the same across the country.

• In Fall 2022, Premier Legault said publicly that he may wish to explore prioritizing the processing of francophone sponsored applicants under the Family Reunification program. A preliminary analysis shows this would require legislative amendments and represent Charter and other legal risks. IRCC has not received any official request from Quebec in regards to changes to the Family Reunification Program.
Panel Physician Capacity and Access
• Dispensations are considered when there is no Panel Physician who speaks the client’s official language of choice within 250 km or four hours from the client's residence. Dispensations are also considered for exceptional circumstances or when a client cannot reasonably travel.
• IRCC has introduced a temporary public policy that exempts certain clients in Canada from completing a subsequent IME if their previous IME was assessed as low risk to public health.

Responsive – Levels
• As established in the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec sets its own immigration levels plan, 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 admissions to the country.
• On November 1, 2023, Quebec announced that it would maintain its immigration levels at 50,000 regular admissions per year, plus ongoing admissions of people selected under the "Quebec Graduates" stream of the Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ) for the years 2024 and 2025.

Responsive – Francophone immigration admissions targets

• The government recognizes that immigration plays a key role in supporting the vitality of Francophone minority communities across the country.

• The Immigration Levels Plan 2024-2026, presented on November 1, 2023, included the next admissions targets for Francophone immigrants outside Quebec. The targets are ambitious, realistic and achievable. There are established at 6% in 2024, 7% in 2025 and 8% in 2026, which is more than double the admissions between 2022 and 2026. These targets aim to strengthen the vitality of Francophone communities in Canada outside Quebec, support their labour needs and support population growth and economic prosperity in these communities.

Responsive – Processing times
• By the end of August, the processing times for Quebec Skilled Workers applications were 15 months, compared to the Department’s service standard of 11 months.

Responsive – Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW)
• IRCC introduced the International Mobility Plus (IMP+) on May 24, 2022. Under this program, up to 7,350 foreign nationals may apply for an open work permit per year in Quebec. This allows them to settle in the province before processing of their application for permanent residence is finalized.
• 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.
Responsive – Asylum Claimants
• Quebec has been, and remains a partner in managing the flow of irregular migrants since 2017.
• The Government of Canada put in place measures to manage the high volume of asylum claimants who were arriving at the border by directly providing temporary accommodations and support services to asylum claimants who did not have accommodation in place, including transferring claimants requiring temporary accommodation and willing to go to another jurisdiction outside the province.
• Since the implementation of the STCA Additional Protocol on March 25th, 2023, the number of claims made between ports of entry and at Lacolle Port of Entry has significantly decreased.
• Through the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP), the federal government provided 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.
• The Government of Canada extended the IHAP program until March 31, 2024 with a budget of $212M towards costs incurred by other governments in calendar year 2023.
• To date, the Federal Government has paid $440.9M to Quebec under IHAP for costs incurred between 2017 and 2022.
Responsive - On Roxham Road and the Safe Third Country Agreement modernization:
• The STCA was expanded to apply not only at designated ports of entry, but across the entire land border, including internal waterways, on March 25, 2023.
• Those seeking to claim asylum must do so at the first safe country of arrival. Canada and the United States remain committed to collaborating in support of safe, orderly and regular migration in the Americas.
Responsive – Panel Physician Capacity and Access
• As of August 28, 2023, all 18 Panel Physician clinics in Quebec were booking Immigration Medical Exam (IME) appointments within our 10 day service standard. To facilitate IME access for those outside of an urban area, IRCC can temporarily authorize a non-designated physician to perform an immigration medical examination for a client in Canada.