Canada’s Immigration Minister Marc Miller says Ottawa will bypass Quebec’s self-imposed border on PR applicants to speed up family reunification.
It comes after months of failed Immigration Canada talks with Quebec to raise it family reunification capacitywhich Miller describes as “artificially low”.
“We’re talking about people who are men, women, parents, grandparents, who are waiting unsuccessfully to be reunited with their families in Quebec,” Miller said in an interview with Radio-Canada.
“For me … it’s a matter of social justice,” he said, calling the high number of applicants a humanitarian crisis. Miller considers it a “moral duty to find a solution” to Quebec’s “refusal” to strengthen family reunification.
Currently, Quebec has an annual limit of 10,000 applicants for family reunification, which falls well below the number of people seeking to apply.
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According to Miller, he has spent months “begging” Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Frechette to lift the cap, but is tired of waiting.
He has instructed the federal immigration ministry to begin processing all PR applications for family reunifications that have received the proper documents from the province of Quebec, Miller’s letter to Frechette on Sunday (which was obtained by Radio- Canada).
As of January 31, 2024, this equates to 20,500 applications.
If the backlog worsens, IRCC will continue to issue PRs to applicants within the usual timeframes. This would be reduced even if it exceeded the levels set by the Legault government.
Yahoo News reports that Miller’s decision could cause further tension with the CAQ government in Quebec, which is facing a Supreme Court lawsuit over family reunification delays.
Spousal sponsorship applicants in Quebec face a processing time of 34 months to bring their spouses to Canada, while those in the rest of Canada have a processing time of just 12 months.
For parents or grandparents, the wait is 50 months, while the rest of Canada has a waiting time of 24 months.
Quebec has a lot to gain from the increased cap, Miller said.
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“I still think it’s a humanitarian benefit but also a political benefit for Quebec for these people to be reunited with their families and thrive in Quebec,” he said.
“We have many people threatening to leave Quebec so that their husbands, wives, parents and grandparents can join them elsewhere.
“Only Quebec sets its own permanent immigration targets. The federal government’s approach does not respect the will of the nation of Quebec. It is unacceptable,” Maude Méthot-Faniel, who is Fréchette’s press secretary, said in a statement to Radio-Canada.
Méthot-Faniel said the Quebec government acknowledges its delays in family reunification are significant, but thinks its approach to immigration is “balanced.”
The federal government’s move drew criticism from other sources as well. Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, for example, who is the immigration critic for the Bloc Québécois, considers the Ottawa mandate a violation of Quebec’s jurisdiction.
