Ottawa pledges $750M for Quebec immigration costs, sets no clear reduction targets
CBC
Ottawa has rejected Quebec's demand for $1 billion in compensation for receiving what Premier François Legault says is over half a million temporary immigrants.
The Legault government has been asking since February that Ottawa reimburse it for spending on social services to support migrants from 2021 to 2023.
The federal government is instead offering the province $750 million to support newcomers.
During a news conference after meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Monday in Quebec City, Legault said he was "disappointed" that the federal government did not commit to quantifiable objectives to reduce temporary immigration levels.
He says Quebec is aiming to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the province by 50 per cent within a year.
"I think it's about time that we put targets with figures," Legault said. "The problem is urgent so we cannot say we'll continue working for months and months about the principles."
"We'll take the money, but we'll continue to ask for more," he added.
Quebec has also asked to reduce wait times for issuing work permits to refugee claimants, with the aim of keeping them off social assistance.
Quebec Labour Ministry data shows the province received 80,151 requests for social assistance between March 22 and Nov. 21, 2023, compared to 72,221 for the same period in 2022. That jump in the number of households receiving social assistance is the largest in 25 years.
The monthly average of asylum seekers more than doubled from 2022 to 2023, going from 19,455 adults to just over 40,000, according to the ministry.
However, Legault welcomed that Ottawa is open to imposing French language requirements on certain types of temporary immigrants.
To address Quebec's concerns, the federal government is also considering transferring temporary immigrants to other provinces, tightening the issuance of visas, speeding up process times for refugees and deporting more quickly asylum seekers whose requests were refused.
"At least the federal government recognizes that there is a problem. It even recognizes that it must act in the short term in a meaningful way, but it refuses to put figures," Legault said.
Quebec is arguing that its public services are being weighed down by 560,000 temporary immigrants in the province — a number the federal government disputes.
Members of CUPE Local 456, which represents city workers in Melville, Sask., have voted in favour of job action due to wage disputes and high employee turnover.
Some schools in Queens and Prince counties are starting one hour later Wednesday due to road conditions following yesterday's storm.
Edmonton's city auditor has made eight recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the city's paratransit service, saying clients who rely on the service will benefit from the changes.
Electric bus manufacturers hit hard by pandemic-era supply chain chaos could soon find themselves pummelled by a trade war.
A workshop will be held Wednesday evening to help give Windsor residents the necessary tools on how to interact with people experiencing homelessness.
Buy Canadian — that's the message being pushed across the country. But on the other end of the movement, some small business owners in Calgary who feel the pressure to pivot to Canadian products say that isn't as easy as it sounds.
Inside a community centre in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, poster board collages display photos of a young woman with a big smile on her face. She's shown with her arms wrapped around family members, being silly in selfies with friends, standing proud in a high school graduation gown.
As an outreach worker helping people with life-limiting illnesses in Thunder Bay, Ont., Julie Diner says she doesn't spend much time in the office.
A swift response by flight attendants, crews and emergency workers was among the key reasons why no one died in Monday's plane crash at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, an expert and officials say.
Health care, homelessness and the threat of U.S. tariffs were among the top issues addressed by Cambridge candidates as part of a panel discussion on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition on Tuesday.
U.S. president Donald Trump's tariff threats and digs at Canadian sovereignty are forcing Canadian politicians of all stripes to adapt, and in Quebec, the opposition Parti Québécois is facing a particularly tough challenge.
Rough weather on Tuesday forced salvage specialists to abandon their inspection of a cargo ship that ran aground in a rocky cove along Newfoundland's west coast over the weekend.
Premier Tim Houston's government is using its supermajority in the legislature to give itself the power to fire the auditor general without cause and make reports from the office private.