Trudeau agrees to $750 million to help Quebec deal with asylum seekers

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The Canadian government has agreed to a $750-million investment package over five years to help Quebec deal with a disproportionate number of asylum claimants in the province.

But Quebec Premier François Legault said he was disappointed he could not get more from his meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Quebec City on Monday.

Quebec was seeking a say in the selection of temporary foreign workers and wanted knowledge of French to count in the process, in addition to $1 billion in compensation to cover the costs of accommodating asylum seekers.

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“We obtained certain advances but there is still a lot of work to do,” Legault said after their meeting.

Legault said Ottawa has offered to reduce the number of temporary foreign immigrants, but without giving an exact number.

“Yes I’m disappointed because I think it’s about time that we put targets, with figures,” Legault said.

“The problem is urgent. We cannot say we will continue working for months and months about the principles. It’s about time we put some targets.”

Trudeau said before setting reduction targets he wants to see “Quebec’s plan” to handle half of temporary immigrants.

“We need for Quebec to adjust its own targets,” he said.

In addition to the payment, Ottawa is committing to treat claims by asylum seekers more quickly and to work with other provinces to distribute would-be refugees across the country, documents show.

Ottawa is also pledging to “improve the integrity” of the country’s visa system and to ensure more temporary foreign workers know how to speak French.

When the two politicians met last March 15, Trudeau flatly refused Legault’s demand that Quebec be given full jurisdiction over immigration. Since that refusal, the issue of jurisdiction appears to have become less of an issue for Quebec.

However, Legault has repeatedly stated that the presence of 560,000 temporary workers in Quebec is placing stress on public services. The premier argued Quebec no longer has the capacity to handle so many new arrivals and wants Ottawa to cut that number in half. He said it needs 200,000 more housing units, 11,000 more nurses and 3,700 more teachers for 52,000 more school-age children.

While Legault has stopped threatening to hold a provincial referendum on the issue of more powers in immigration, he continues to cite poll results suggesting the idea more power in immigration is supported by 65 per cent of Quebecers.

“The problem isn’t the support of Quebecers, it is to create an emergency and convince the federal (government) to act now,” he told a radio interviewer last week.