The Quebec government announced a moratorium on two of its major immigration programs, citing a need for the province to “better regulate” the arrival of newcomers.
Premier François Legault placed a temporary freeze on two key programs which offer a Quebec Selection Certificate on Wednesday which allows immigrants to eventually apply for permanent residency in Canada.
Quebec Immigration Minister Jean-Francois Roberge said the province will no longer accept new applications for the Regular Skilled Workers Program.
It also put a freeze on the Quebec Experience Program for recent graduates, effective Thursday.
Both programs will remain suspended until June 30, 2025.
“A scenario for reducing permanent immigration will also be seriously studied by the government,” wrote Roberge in a post to X. “Our objective is clear: we want to equip ourselves with the necessary means to better regulate immigration in Quebec.”
The Legault government said the new measures will also affect “the volume of admissions” for next year.
“We’re taking action for 2025 but we are also making sure we have all the room for the maneuver for planning,” Roberge told reporters at the National Assembly on Thursday.
News of the two programs being frozen comes on the heels of the Quebec government granting itself additional powers after introducing legislation earlier this month to reduce the number of international students.
The bill was part of a larger effort to decrease the number of non-permanent residents entering the province, which saw a major jump to 600,000 from 300,000 in the last two years.
Quebec also reduced the number of temporary foreign workers for low-wage jobs in Montreal, enacting a six-month suspension last month.
“We’re putting a lot of pressure since almost a year on Justin Trudeau to reduce the 420,000 temporary immigrants controlled by the federal government,” said Legault during a September press conference.
The province has been at odds with the Trudeau government over immigration several times this year, demanding more authority over who can settle in Quebec.
Legault called on Ottawa to forcibly relocate asylum seekers to other parts of the country and told Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cut its two federal immigration programs by 50% “as soon as possible.”
“I would say that at least the last six, eight, ten months, we have been asking that, and so far they haven’t taken any major action. So it’s about time they make a move because even Quebecers suffer regarding housing, regarding services,” said Legault last month.
“It puts a lot of pressure on French, especially on the island of Montreal.”
The Liberals announced it would scale back immigration levels to 365,000 people a year by 2027 last week in response to a growing sentiment that the Trudeau government has let in far more people than Canada can handle.
However, Roberge thinks more still needs to be done.
“We think they should go further but they did move on that matter,” said Roberge, referring to Ottawa’s recent announcement.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller responded to Roberge on Thursday, saying that while it’s Quebec’s right to manage its two provincial immigration streams, the Legault government has yet to provide the federal government with a full plan for immigration.
“I welcome the pedagogical exercise they say they will do next year, but it’s still incomplete,” said Miller.
“We’ve been saying for months to Mr. Legault to give us a plan to reduce temporary residents that he’s been clamouring for and we haven’t seen his share of it.”
