The premier said it is not logical for Quebec to receive 45 per cent of the asylum seekers coming to Canada when its population is just 22 per cent of the national total.
PARIS — Premier François Legault said Wednesday that Ottawa should make the re-location of asylum seekers within Canada obligatory and not voluntary as the federal government has suggested. And Legault added the policy should be applied to those already in Canada.
“What I want is for there to be results. So, yes, it must be obligatory, but the federal government must manage it,” Legault told reporters at the office of province’s delegation to Paris.
Legault said he is calling for the transfer of “half the asylum seekers currently in Quebec” to other provinces and that Ottawa should follow France’s example in dealing with the issue.
The premier said it is not logical for Quebec to receive 45 per cent of the asylum seekers coming to Canada when its population is just 22 per cent of the national total.
However the federal government believes the process can be carried out on a voluntary basis. If the distribution were equitable and the federal program operating at full capacity, Quebec would receive 47,000 fewer asylum seekers, which would bring the province’s total more in line with the weight of its population in Canada.
Federal immigration minister Marc Miller told reporters on Wednesday that Legault’s reaction was “senseless, not reasonable” adding that the premier’s comments could be described as “inhuman.”
“What Mr. Legault is saying is: ‘get rid of these people’,” said Miller. “Is he asking us to pick them up from their homes and send them to Ontario?
Miller said Legault’s comments “are in line with his thinking” and “and this isn’t necessarily an immigration issue, either.”
“When we approached (Quebec) to be part of out Haitian family reunification program, they told us no, they said: ‘Do it on Ontario, do it in the rest of Canada, we don’t want to know,” said Miller, noting that “these were people who speak French.”
Meanwhile, Miller’s office said it is false to think Ottawa will force provinces to take in more asylum seekers.
On the one hand the federal government offers a carrot in the form of financial incentives for provinces that wish to help in dealing wth asylum seekers, but on the other it also brandishes a stick by threatening to reduce the number of economic immigrants to provinces that refuse to cooperate and want a bigger say in selecting immigrants.
“If a province wants to work with us on our priorities, it could obtain more spots for immigrants that would profit their economy — unlike those provinces that do not wish to work with us,” Aissa Diop, head of communications for minister Miller.