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While Quebec’s business lobby presses the province to increase immigration levels to deal with labour shortages, the commissioner of official languages urges a go-slow approach to ensure French is protected.
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QUEBEC — The province’s new commissioner of the French language is urging a go-slow approach to increasing the number of economic immigrants to Quebec, pegging any rise in their numbers to their ability to use French at work and in public.
Instead of starting to increase the numbers in 2025, which is one of the scenarios being examined by the Quebec government, Benoît Dubreuil suggests Quebec wait until 2026 and then start to inch its way up to the level of 60,000 immigrants a year. The current number is 50,000.
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And Dubreuil, Quebec’s official language policy watchdog, is urging Quebec to adopt a new standard in the use of French by immigrants at work and in public to use in its strategic planning.
For him, 85 per cent of new arrivals should be able to use French at work and in public. That would be the base to be attained before increasing the number of new arrivals. The level now is about 65 per cent.
Failing to reach the number would mean “delaying any actions,” Dubreuil said in a presentation Thursday to the National Assembly committee examining Quebec’s 2024-2027 immigration strategy.
“What I am proposing is a prudent approach, which is based on results,” Dubreuil told reporters after his appearance. “I think we need to avoid, as we have done in the past, saying we will have an increase in the levels and then waiting for the next census to see where we are at with the numbers.
“We wait five years only to discover the numbers are not exactly where we want them to be and the unfavourable tendency (the decline in French) remains. What I propose is to break this cycle and give ourselves right now the means to see if it works and adjust as we go along.”
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To that end, Dubreuil proposed sampling, on a yearly basis, the level of French of a test group of immigrants in the economic category that Quebec controls. They are defined as skilled workers, investors and entrepreneurs.
“What the minister (Christine Fréchette) is proposing is to potentially start the increase in 2025,” Dubreuil said. “For me it could be 2026, but that assumes we attain the goal.”
Dubreuil, who was named to the post by the National Assembly in February, also commented on the current hot immigration issue: the status of 370,000 temporary immigrants in Quebec. In his first commissioner’s report released in June, he warned the explosion in their numbers is having “serious repercussions” on the status of French.
In his brief to the committee, Dubreuil sticks to his guns, urging Quebec to reduce the number of temporary permits issued a year.
“English is very present among the temporaries, even more than for permanent residents,” said Dubreuil, adding the latest census data show 35 per cent of immigrants in the temporary category work mainly in English.
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“It’s clear if it continues to grow it will have an effect (on French),” he said. “In the past, the temporary category was simple: it was people who spoke Spanish and worked on farms. Now we give temporary permits for people who work in industry, people in restaurants, students, everywhere.”
He remained cautious, however, on the thorny question of whether Quebec should extend the rules of the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) to the English CEGEP system, meaning eliminating freedom of choice to attend.
He said he is still examining the issue and has no position, but he made one comment.
“Studies show the language chosen for higher education has an effect on the language people will use after in their public lives,” he said. “I am trying to understand how that applies among immigrants, people who are not, people who studied in French, people who studied in English.”
Dubreuil’s proposal is the latest in a series of presentations made to the committee that is examining two possible immigration scenarios. In the first, Quebec would aim to admit 50,000 a year for each of the next four years. Under the other option, Quebec would gradually increase the number of immigrants each year until it attains 60,000 in 2027.
It’s unclear how his proposal will go over with Quebec’s business lobby, which argues a massive increase in immigration is needed now to make up for labour shortages.
They are expected to start testifying to the committee Thursday.
pauthier@postmedia.com
twitter.com/philipauthier
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