2023-11-02 04:00:00
Between being stubborn and losing face, the Trudeau government has chosen to stay the course on its ambitious permanent immigration targets.
The Liberals did not want to face the odiousness of another embarrassing about-face, after that of the carbon tax.
They therefore remain faithful to their trademark.
Stay faithful
For the liberals, denying these targets would have been like denying a part of themselves.
Justin Trudeau came to power eight years ago on the promise of a multicultural Canada open to the world. It was a way of distinguishing oneself from the conservatives and others who bickered over the wearing of the niqab.
But the Canada of 2015 is not that of 2023. The pressure to reduce immigration targets now comes from Canadians themselves.
The housing crisis has begun to erode the Canadian consensus around ever more open immigration.
The number of Canadians (44%) and Quebecers (37%) who find that we welcome too many immigrants has exploded over the past year.
Some public services are running out of steam. How can we welcome, care for, educate and Frenchify all these people with dignity?
Meanwhile, with the targets announced in Ottawa and Quebec, the province will continue to lose its political weight in the federation and Immigration Canada will remain mired in its bureaucracy.
Secure
Ottawa is staying the course, but finally admits that an immigration target is not equivalent to having a plan for integration into society.
It stabilizes its targets for 2026 at 500,000, tightens temporary immigration over which we have lost control and wishes to better align new arrivals with our labor needs.
In short, the Trudeau government admits without saying it that it went too far, too quickly. And for the future, too bad for Quebec.
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