No more warnings, Ottawa is moving to action regarding the issue of family reunification in the province of Quebec, even if that means provoking the Coalition Avenir Québec government led by François Legault.

Several leaks have emerged that the federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller has allowed, starting today, his ministry’s employees to exceed the immigration ceiling set by the predominantly French-speaking province, which the federal minister considers to be causing a "humanitarian tragedy," in his own words.

Minister Miller explains in one interview that several months have passed since he spoke to the Minister of Immigration, Francization, and Integration in the Quebec government, Christine Fréchette, begging her to increase immigration levels for the family reunification category.

The federal minister adds: "We are talking about people who are either husbands or wives, or parents or grandparents, who are waiting in vain to come and join their families in Quebec. There is a humanitarian aspect to this decision!"

Faced with Quebec’s refusal to speed up family reunification, Marc Miller considers that he has a “moral duty to find a solution.” This was clarified by the federal minister in a letter he sent yesterday, Sunday, to his Quebec counterpart, of which the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation obtained a copy.

The federal Immigration Minister chose a tougher approach and acted against the will of the province.

Minister Miller adds in his letter to Minister Fréchette: “I have decided to ask my ministry to process permanent residence applications for the family reunification category for those who have already obtained a ‘Quebec Selection Certificate’ (CSQ) issued by your ministry; these applications number 20,500 as of January 31, 2024.”

Therefore, these people will receive permanent residence as a priority after their long wait while the process of reuniting their families in Quebec begins.

Miller threatened that if Quebec continued to grant the “Acceptance Certificate” in the family reunification category, which reinforces the problem of pending files, Ottawa “commits to processing these files and granting permanent residence to applicants on regular schedules, even if that means exceeding the levels of immigrants set by Legault’s government.

A direct insult to the area of jurisdiction of the province of Quebec”
For his part, the office of the Minister of Immigration in the Quebec government described Minister Miller’s directives as “a direct insult to the jurisdiction of the province of Quebec.” Minister Fréchette’s office continued in a statement sent to Radio Canada saying: “Quebec alone sets its permanent immigration targets.”

While the Quebec government acknowledges the “significant” delays in processing family reunification applications, it considers that its immigration approach is “balanced.”

The Quebec Immigration Ministry office adds that the current immigration thresholds were the subject of consultations in the National Assembly last September, “and it is not within Ottawa’s jurisdiction to impose them on us.”

The spokesperson for Minister Fréchette added that the government is sensitive to the situation of families waiting for reunification and that the first meeting with the group calling itself “Reunified Quebec” (Québec Réunifié) was held at the end of last year “to explore development ways that respect the powers of the Quebec government.”