Quebec Premier Francois Legault and Immigration Minister Christine Frechette announced the government will be taking the first step to reduce the number of temporary immigrants. Because of an influx of immigration to Quebec, Legault said the government will impose a moratorium on new applications and renewals of temporary foreign workers on the Island of Montreal. “The moratorium will exclude jobs paying $57,000 or more and jobs in education, healthcare, food processing and construction,” said Legault in a Tuesday Facebook post. .He pointed out Quebec has always been and will always be welcoming to newcomers. However, he said it has “exceeded our capacity to integrate.”The number of temporary immigrants in Quebec has doubled from 300,000 to 600,000 in the last two years. Legault accused the Canadian government of being responsible for the uptick in temporary immigrants. “We had asked to cut those responsible in half,” he said. “We must reduce the number of immigrants to protect our public services, to remove pressure on housing, and to protect the French, especially in Montreal.”Alberta Immigration and Multiculturalism press secretary Garrett Koehler said Alberta “has always welcomed newcomers who share our values of hard work, freedom, societal contribution, respect for the rule of law, and deep respect for diverse cultures and faiths.”“However, the [Justin] Trudeau Government’s unrestrained open border policies have led to two critical issues: they are exacerbating shortages in housing, healthcare, education, and social services infrastructure as well as creating severe challenges for all provinces and driving up the cost of everything,” said Koehler. “The process to work temporarily in Alberta is different than the process in Quebec.”Koehler said the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is driven by the demands and needs of employers and must demonstrate they cannot fill vacancies domestically to receive permission to hire temporary foreign workers. The Alberta government has been working with the Canadian government to have discussions about immigration.Legault threatened Trudeau with a referendum if he does not get a grip on immigration in April. READ MORE: Legault decries Trudeau’s immigration policies, threatens Quebec referendumHe said Quebec should have more say on the flood of immigrants coming to it in a short period of time, as it strains social services. However, Trudeau announced after a meeting with him in March that no more power would be given to Quebec. Also, he said Quebec has more power than any other provincial government on immigration to protect the French language.
