Quebec should welcome at least 70,000 immigrants a year to meet the glaring labor shortage, according to Liberal leader Dominique Anglade.
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She takes as proof of this the immigration target set by the government of François Legault for 2022, set exceptionally at 70,500 to make up for a delay due to the pandemic.
“If we are able to have a reception capacity of 70,000, I think that we base ourselves on that and we go around (needs) with all of our regions, said Tuesday the head. of the Liberal Party of Quebec. The base is what we welcomed this year, in 2022”.
According to Dominique Anglade, all corners of the province, struggling with a serious lack of personnel, should have a say in the thresholds for immigration. “We want to decide everything in Quebec and we see that this way of doing things does not work,” she insisted, in a press briefing at the National Assembly.
As soon as it came to power in 2018, the CAQ lowered the immigration target to 40,000, as it had promised to do during the election campaign. But since then, the thresholds have been revised upwards.
For 2022, the Legault government has maintained its immigration target oscillating between 49,500 and 52,500, but a significant catch-up is added. The 18,000 people who have not been able to obtain their permanent residence as planned in the past two years due to federal administrative delays and border closures caused by the COVID-19 epidemic will also be admitted.
During the study of budget appropriations last week, François Legault and Dominique Anglade have also struggled on this subject. The Prime Minister recalled that the 2022 target is exceptional.
“(Dominique Anglade says he) lacks housing, (but) there, she tells us there is enough housing to accommodate 70,000 immigrants a year!, he mocked. What the Leader of the Official Opposition wants is to have as many immigrants as possible, even immigrants who will earn $15 an hour.”
– With the collaboration of Marc-André Gagnon
Reference-www.journaldequebec.com