Employers' group worries the immigration debate will hurt jobs

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The latest immigration dispute between Quebec and Ottawa is based on politics rather than labor market realities, says the head of a major employers' group.

“In some ways it's very unfortunate,” said Carl Blackburn, president and CEO of the Conseil du patronat du Quebec.

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His comments came as Quebec Premier Francois Legault threatened to hold an immigration referendum unless the federal government acted quickly to stem the rise in temporary immigrants, including foreign workers, international students and refugee claimants.

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“Most Quebecers believe that 560,000 temporary immigrants are too many,” Legault said last week. “It's hurting our health care system. We have a shortage of teachers and housing.”

Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Frechette said the province's demands include strengthening French-language requirements in immigration programs run by the federal government and reducing the number of asylum seekers and temporary workers.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rejected the province's proposal to take full control of immigration — currently a shared responsibility — Legault said in March his federal counterpart was open to some of the province's demands and agreed with him on the need to reduce temporary immigration.

However, Blackburn disagrees that there are too many temporary workers “producing goods and services in our businesses”. According to him, their numbers reflect the labor market and the needs of an aging society.

He said he supports the Legault government's call to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the province, as Quebec has received a disproportionate share in recent years. But he condemned the federal government's “improvised” decision earlier this year to suddenly reinstate visas for some Mexican nationals, a measure Quebec adopted as a way to reduce asylum claims.

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He said this was having a “direct impact” on businesses by limiting their ability to attract workers. Any further measures to reduce the number of temporary workers will further harm Quebec's economy, as well as consumers who will no longer have access to goods and services, he said.

“Our governments seem to be willingly allowing companies to lose contracts for partisan political reasons, not based on economic growth,” Blackburn said.

Politicians unfairly blame immigrants for housing, kindergarten and teacher shortages, when the real problem is the government's lack of investment in these areas, he said.

The long-running dispute between Quebec and Ottawa has escalated in recent months. Earlier this year, Legoult wrote to Trudeau about the influx of asylum seekers to Quebec, which hosted more than 65,000 of the 144,000 refugees who arrived in Canada last year.

Quebec demanded that Ottawa repay the province $1 billion — the amount Quebec has spent on caring for asylum seekers over the past three years.

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Federal Immigration Minister Mark Miller said last week that no country would give up full control of immigration. But he said he negotiated well with his provincial counterpart and agreed on many issues, including visa restrictions for Mexicans and protections for the French.

While Legault blames the federal government for the “explosion” of newcomers, the research institute's director and co-author of a recent study on temporary immigrants says Ottawa and Quebec have taken steps to ease their arrival in recent years.

Emna Braham of the Quebec Institute said the increase in temporary immigrants is due to a combination of factors, including a tight labor market, international recruitment by post-secondary institutions and programs by Ottawa and Quebec that allow companies to attract more workers.

He said the numbers are now higher than any other level of government because temporary immigration is managed through a series of disparate programs.

“We had a set of measures that we could justify individually, but we had no idea what the impact of that set of measures would be on the flow of immigrants that Quebec and Canada would receive,” Braham said in a phone interview.

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And Quebec says one way to reduce the number of temporary workers is to invest in technology.

“As we know, Quebec is lagging behind in business robotics and automation. By investing in technology, businesses can increase productivity while relying less on temporary workers,” Frechette said in a statement on Monday.

Both Braham and Blackburn point out that the large number of temporary workers in Quebec is a result of the province's decision to limit the number of new permanent residents it accepts to about 50,000 each year, creating a bottleneck for people waiting for permanent status.

“If the Quebec government had set its limits to meet the needs of the labor market, we wouldn't be facing a significant increase in temporary workers,” Blackburn said.

Braham said now is the time for the provinces and the federal government to develop a coordinated approach to immigration and establish a system that ensures long-term and short-term needs are met.

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