Concerns around Quebec’s new immigration program
The Quebec government has announced a new immigration pathway, after cancelling the Programme de l’expérience québécois (PEQ), a popular pathway to attain permanent residency in the province last November.
The new program, known by the acronym PSTQ, aims to select 29,000 workers for permanent residency this year, with a stated goal of prioritizing applicants outside of Montreal and Laval according to CBC News. The new program has narrower criteria that also prioritize certain sectors, like health care and education, as well as those who have studied in Quebec. Under the old PEQ program, between 2021 and 2023, the government issued between 3,900 and 16,000 selection certificates.
“Our goal is to select a better profile for permanent residency. Our goal is not to expel people who are working in Quebec,” said Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge.
Critics of the change, including Montreal mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, have criticized the government for refusing to provide exceptions for those already in the province when the PEQ was established.
“We have immigrants here that are established, that speak French and contribute to our economy,” said Quebec City Mayor Bruno Marchand. “You create uncertainty for these people, uncertainty on a human level and uncertainty for our businesses.”
Drainville, Fréchette face off in CAQ leadership race
Former CAQ ministers Bernard Drainville and Christine Fréchette are shaping up to be the two front-runners to replace François Legault at the top of the party that the latter founded, following his resignation last month. Drainville hosted his official campaign launch on Sunday, saying that families were his top priority, according to Radio-Canada.
“[Families] pay enough taxes and the cost of living is high enough; we need to help them [ . . . ]. The family needs to become a societal project again in Quebec, and to do that, we’re going to have to help them,” he said.
Drainville also asserted that he is a candidate of “change” not “the establishment”, referring to his opponent Fréchette, who has garnered more support from other CAQ ministers, including Mathieu Lacombe, Christopher Skeete and Ian Lafrenière.
The next leader of the CAQ, who will serve as premier until the next election, will be selected on Apr. 12.
Rizqy gives her account of controversial firing
In court filings, former Quebec Liberal Party parliamentary leader Marwah Rizqy detailed her side of a legal dispute with her former chief of staff Geneviève Hinse, who she fired in November for allegedly using National Assembly funds for partisan purposes. The legal filings were reported by Radio-Canada and have not been proven in court, as they are part of Hinse’s $500,000 lawsuit against Rizqy.
Rizqy accuses Hinse, a close ally of former Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez, of hiring staff with National Assembly funds to work on the Liberal’s election platform and of lying to her on several occasions. Hinse has denied Rizqy’s version of events.
Hinse’s abrupt firing, and Rodriguez’s subsequent firing of Rizqy, citing a “breach of trust”, set off a firestorm in the party and contributed to Rodriguez stepping down a month later on Dec. 17.
