Quebec is calling on the Canadian government to implement a national quota system to ensure refugee claimants are distributed equally across the country.
In a July 22 letter to federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Frechette recommended the Canadian government allocate quotas for asylum seekers to each province based on its demographics, its capacity to accommodate new immigrants, and its “historic efforts” to welcome them.
Minister Frechette met on Thursday with a committee established through the Forum of Ministers Responsible for Immigration to discuss options for redistribution.
The news was first reported by the Journal de Québec.
At the Federal Council meeting in Halifax in July, the provinces called for a “fair share” of asylum seekers and urged the Canadian government to take into account provincial and territorial resources to assist asylum seekers.
Quebec Premier François Legault has called the influx of refugee applicants into the province “a scourge of theNational emergencyQuebec no longer has the means to take in more non-permanent residents, he said.
The day Ottawa pledged $750 million In an effort to help newcomers in Quebec, Legault said “100 per cent of the housing problem” in the province was due to the rise in non-permanent residents.
As of June 19, Quebec reported that there were 597,140 non-permanent residents residing in the province. Of these, 189,962 were asylum seekers, which represents just over half of the total number of asylum seekers in Canada (363,312), according to the Quebec Ministry of Immigration.
But Ottawa disputes those figures.
Restricting work permits by state
Frechette is calling on the federal government to limit work permits by state to ensure asylum seekers can get to designated locations.
The restrictions will apply until Immigration and Refugee Canada has made a decision on the refugee application.
The letter also calls on the Canadian government to relocate refugee claimants to provinces and territories based on factors such as a claimant’s language ability and whether they have relatives living in a particular province.
“This system will welcome asylum seekers with dignity and enable them to contribute to economic growth across Canada,” the letter states.
The minister argues that creating a national network would ease the pressures experienced by Quebec and Ontario, which receive large numbers of asylum seekers, and prevent non-permanent residents from “systematically heading to the Montreal and Toronto metropolitan areas.”
If asylum seekers are resettled in areas other than those designated by the federal government, they will have to pay the full cost of accommodation upon arrival, the letter said.
To encourage provinces to follow suit, Quebec has proposed that Ottawa create a new federal transfer system tied to an information-sharing system that could help offset some of the costs of services for asylum seekers.
The letter also highlights Quebec’s repeated requests to the Canadian government to tighten visa requirements.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, 17,490 refugee claims were filed in the province. Nearly half of those (8,070) were from applicants who entered Canada on tourist visas.
Quebec says the majority of people seeking asylum in the province are from India and Bangladesh.
