Quebec Premier François Legault coldly received the federal government's plan to gradually increase the number of immigrants to Canada to 500,000 annually by 2025.

Legault considers that the economy and labor shortage should not take precedence over protecting the French language in Quebec.

"I understand that there are economic goals and that employers are open to that," Legault said in a conversation with journalists yesterday, "but we have a special challenge in Quebec to preserve and promote French and ensure that the percentage of speakers does not decline."

The leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government added that there was essentially a "problem" with the target of 400,000 immigrants annually set by the federal government two years ago, "so at 500,000, the (problem) is bigger."

Federal Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser revealed the immigrant numbers for the coming years the day before yesterday, explaining that his government wants to fill the labor shortage by significantly increasing the number of immigrants.

The ruling CAQ party in Quebec set the number of immigrants the province intends to receive at 50,000 annually.

During the last election campaign in September, Legault, then outgoing premier, said it would be "somewhat suicidal" for Quebec to receive more than 50,000 immigrants annually, taking into account the necessity of addressing the decline of the French language in the province.

Faced with the possibility of Quebec's demographic weight declining within Canada, Legault said there are "guarantees" to prevent this: "Quebec's percentage share (in the Canadian Parliament) is currently slightly higher than the percentage of the population (of Quebec's population within Canada)."

"Quebec is a distinct society, it is a nation, and in this sense, we have important powers, we must retain them and we must add more," Legault said.

Christine Fréchette, Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration in Legault's new government, went in the same direction, noting that Quebec has the authority to determine the annual number of permanent residents it accepts.

"And this will not change, regardless of the number of immigrants arriving in other parts of Canada," Fréchette said.

In the National Assembly (the legislative assembly), the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), which forms the official opposition, reiterated its desire for Quebec to receive about 70,000 immigrants annually.

However, the party’s spokesperson on employment, labor, and the French language, Madwa-Nika Cadet, said that "it is up to Quebec to determine the number of immigrants it accepts according to labor market needs."