2024 – Housing crisis | Marc Miller denounces Legault’s “unjust amalgamations” towards immigrants

(Ottawa) Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller criticized Prime Minister François Legault for making “unfair and unreasonable amalgamations” while he continues to take “100%” credit for the immigration crisis to temporary immigrants. accommodation.

“I am not denying the volume, but an exaggeration. (…) I think it is enough to sweeten the backs of immigrants,” he declared on Tuesday upon his arrival at the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

Mr. Miller said he believed that Prime Minister Legault “invents his figures, he invents causality,” then he dropped – jokingly, he insisted – that “100% of people who confuse correlation and causality end up by dying”, which was the proportion mentioned. by Mr. Legault.

In an interview broadcast Monday by Radio-Canada, the Prime Minister affirmed that Quebec welcomes 270,000 more temporary immigrants than two years ago and that without them “there would no longer be a housing crisis.”

He said he wouldn’t rule out holding a referendum to repatriate immigration powers if Ottawa refuses to reduce the number of temporary immigrants by 50%, which he says is nothing less than an “emergency”. national”.

Minister Miller responds that while it is “clear” that the number of immigrants has an impact on housing affordability and prices, it is far from the only factor.

“Interest rates are not only linked, far from it, to immigrants. We do not congratulate them for the drop in interest rates,” he gave as an example.

Since the meeting between Prime Minister Legault and his federal counterpart Justin Trudeau last week, Ottawa has repeated that Quebec largely controls temporary immigration.

Mr. Trudeau, for example, argued that Quebec controls the admission of “half” of arrivals on a non-permanent basis, and that the province must present its plan before Ottawa can set specific reduction targets.

Mr. Legault, at the end of the meeting, did not close the door to a reduction in the number of immigrants in programs under provincial control, but seemed to express certain reservations. According to him, these are not the categories of most concern and the ball is essentially in the federal court.

“We like to have students, young people who are qualified and who subsequently stay in Quebec,” he notably mentioned.

Ottawa then committed to paying 750 million to Quebec to compensate for the reception of asylum seekers on its territory.

The federal government also promised to process the files of asylum seekers more quickly and to encourage their “voluntary movement” to other Canadian provinces.