Quebec imposes moratorium on low-paid temporary foreign workers in Montreal

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Saying the rapid rise in the number of non-permanent residents is causing Quebec’s housing crisis, straining public services and hastening the decline of the French language, Premier François Legault announced new regulations Tuesday that will reduce the number of temporary foreign workers on the island of Montreal.

Quebec will also attempt to introduce new legislation in the fall that would limit the number of international students allowed to study in the province.

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As of Sept. 3, the government will refuse any requests made under the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) program for the next six months for jobs in Montreal with salaries under the Quebec median of $57,000, or $27.47 an hour. The moratorium could be extended to three or five years, Legault said. The measures are expected to decrease the number of temporary foreign workers in Montreal by 3,500, from the current 12,000. The federal government said Tuesday it approved Quebec’s proposal.

Exceptions will be made for sectors where worker shortages are acute, including health, education, construction, agriculture and food transformation services.

Surging immigration numbers have become a hot-button issue in Quebec, with Legault calling on Ottawa to cut the number of asylum seekers arriving in the province because not enough of them speak French and Quebec lacks the resources to accommodate them.

In a news conference held in Montreal, Legault said the number of non-permanent residents coming to Quebec — mainly asylum seekers, temporary foreign workers and foreign students — doubled between 2021 and 2024, going from roughly 300,000 to 600,000.

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Legault has been calling on the federal government to cut the numbers admitted in half. With no response, he said Quebec was forced to do what it can within its jurisdiction on immigration, which is mostly controlled by Ottawa.

“We have seen a real explosion,” Legault said. “It puts an enormous pressure on public services like health and education, and on lodging. Those people account for more than 100,000 homes. …

“If tomorrow morning those 300,000 were not here, we would not have a housing crisis. I know that will shock people when I say that, but it’s a fact.”

At the same time, Legault said the influx “puts in question the future of French, particularly in Montreal. “So I, as the representative of this province that has a francophone majority, I have the responsibility to reduce the number of immigrants, particularly in Montreal, to protect French.”

Of the 600,000 non-permanent residents, Quebec has partial jurisdiction over 180,000 of them, Legault said — roughly 120,000 international students and 60,000 foreign temporary workers, most of them working in agricultural enterprises outside of Montreal.

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Montreal was chosen to take the brunt because 80 per cent of Quebec’s asylum seekers settle there, putting a strain on resources, Legault said, and because the unemployment rate is higher among younger people (12 per cent for those age 15-24 as compared to 7.5 per cent in the rest of Quebec).

The freeze on temporary foreign worker permits will also apply to workers who are attempting to renew permits that have expired. Asked what they are expected to do, Christine Fréchette, Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration, said employers could increase their salary above $27.47 an hour so they could qualify to stay, or the workers could move out of Montreal to another region of Quebec, or return to their home countries.

“Given the rise in the unemployment rate … Montreal businesses must make an effort to hire the people who are already here instead of recruiting foreign workers for low-salaried jobs,” Fréchette said.

Business groups in Montreal were quick to criticize the decision.

“Today’s announcement will put pressure on many businesses struggling with labour shortages,” the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said in a statement.

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Michel Leblanc, President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, characterized the decision as a “troubling precedent.”

“The announcement of a freeze determined on a geographic basis doesn’t take into account the integrated reality of the job market in the metropolitan region,” he said.

Political reaction was negative. Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon ripped into Legault saying this “minimalist” announcement is further proof his strategy in obtaining concessions from Ottawa on immigration has been a “lamentable failure.”

He said Legault’s efforts to curb the number of temporary immigrants are too little, too late. “It’s a small step but we are no longer in the stage of little steps,” St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters.

Legault’s announcement is an “admission of failure,” added Québec solidaire immigration critic Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who noted the CAQ only last year was saying more temporary immigrants was a good thing. He said the government consulted nobody on the impact of the new measure, which he said will affect Montreal businesses and low-income earners.

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The government will try to pass a bill this fall that will give it the power to decide who can be admitted to an educational institution, in what regions, and in what areas of study to reduce the number of international students.

The number of international students residing in Quebec has almost doubled in the last six years, in part due to private colleges who charge tens of thousands in tuition to foreign students hoping to attain permanent residency that are “abusing the system,” Legault said.

English universities in Montreal are home to the largest number of international students in the province. Legault said he was not referring to them when he spoke of institutions that were abusing the system.

Asked whether McGill and Concordia universities would be heavily impacted by the new legislation, given their relatively high number of foreign students, Legault said he could not say at this point because the details of the bill still need to be hashed out in the National Assembly this fall.

Philip Authier of The Gazette contributed to this report.

rbruemmer@postmedia.com

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