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 dialogue on how we can work together on a path forward.
If pressed:
• The Government of Canada agreed to provide $750 million to the Government of Quebec, which compensates Quebec in recognition of interim 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 support to integrate into the province. We will continue our close collaboration with the province.
• The Government will also implement concrete measures to reduce the number of asylum seekers in Quebec in the short term and committed to facilitating the integration of asylum seekers into the job market.
• The government will speed up work permit issuance and integrate the federal Job Bank with Emploi Québec’s platform to better match asylum seekers with employers in Quebec but 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 that is available in 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.
• We have started to increase the processing of family class applications destined to Quebec to slow down the growth of inventories and to reduce processing times for family reunification in that province.
• Given the backlog that has accumulated over past years, this will take time, but we are dedicated to bringing families together in Quebec more quickly. We will continue to work with the Government of Quebec to better align demands 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.
• 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.

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• 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.

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% of all admissions to Canada it could admit per the Accord principles, 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 could be higher.
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 which impact IRCC’s published processing times.

• As of March 31, 2024, processing times for permanent residence were nine (9) months for Quebec Skilled Workers, as opposed to five (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 Certificat de selection du Québec (CSQ). [ REDACTED ].
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 International Mobility Program. Both Departments are currently assessing the feasibility of this request through a working group with Quebec.

Asylum Claimants

• 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.

• In 2022, Quebec received 64% of all claimants in Canada and 46% in 2023. However, 2022 is an outlier year because of Roxham Road, which drove up Quebec’s share compared to other provinces. These figures also do not account for secondary migration, where claimants leave Quebec for other provinces.

• In 2023, a total of 65,505 asylum claimants had Quebec as the province in which their claim was received. As of March 31, 2024, 17,305 asylum claimants . This represents an 11% decrease compared to the same period last year.

Asylum claimants in Quebec (2022 – March 2024)
Year Location
Montreal-Trudeau International airport Between Ports of Entry in Quebec Total (all modes)
2022 11,595 38,725 58,800
2023 25,620 14,415 65,505
2024 (Jan – March 31) 7,575 390 17,305
Total 44,795 53,530 141,610

• Quebec has maintained its stance that asylum claimants should be relocated evenly across the country and that Quebec should obtain reimbursement of all costs related to housing and social services provided to asylum seekers, which the province estimates at $1,047.2M for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023. 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 the meeting of the Forum of Ministers Responsible for Immigration on May 10, 2024, that Quebec’s Minister attended, Ministers recognized the disproportionate pressures facing Ontario and Quebec and agreed to establish a working group of ministers and officials to better manage the flow of asylum claimants across the country and the necessary resources to support them.

Responsive – Levels
• As established in the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec indicates 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 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 – Processing times
• By the end of March 2024, the processing time for Quebec Skilled Workers applications was 9 months, under the Department’s service standard of 11 months.

Responsive – Temporary Workers
• We are open to looking at how we might add a French language requirement for more temporary workers. Officials are currently assessing Quebec’s request.
• 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 providing temporary accommodations and support services. IRCC also transferred claimants willing to go to another jurisdiction outside the province.
• 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 has invested approximately $960 million in federal funding through the Interim Housing Assistance Program (IHAP), to support provinces and municipalities on a cost-sharing basis, for eligible expenses incurred 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, $750 million was announced to recognize the significant contribution Quebec has made to supporting asylum claimants.
• We recognize Quebec's efforts to welcome asylum seekers. We take Quebec’s financial requests seriously; senior officials are in ongoing discussions.
Responsive - On Roxham Road and the Safe Third Country Agreement modernization:

• The number of irregular arrivals has significantly declined since we expanded the application of the Safe Third Country Agreement in 2023. However, asylum claims at airports and inland offices have risen since last spring.

• In response to significant volumes of asylum claimants, IRCC imposed, in February 2024, 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.