After considering it, Legault rules out paying migrants to leave Quebec

Premier Francois Legault at Question Period on Oct. 8, 2024. LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Jacques Boissinot

After considering it, Premier François Legault is now ruling out paying asylum seekers to leave Quebec.

Last week, in Paris, the premier declared that 80,000 migrants should be forced to move, even though the federal government warned him that this contravened the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Bombarded by criticism, Legault insisted that these forced transfers could be carried out "humanely."

The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) was quick to describe Legault's mission to Paris as a "trip of shame."

The Legault government has weighed up other options to push tens of thousands of asylum seekers to leave Quebec for another province, La Presse revealed on Wednesday.

Among the avenues being explored: paying transport and an allowance to claimants in exchange for their departure, and reducing the services offered by the state, such as the social assistance cheque.

While visiting the Salon Rouge on Wednesday morning, Legault did not deny that these options were considered, but ruled them out.

"It's not something we're considering," he said without elaborating.

"It's not in our plans at the moment," Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge added at a press scrum. "What we are doing at the moment is working with Ottawa to reduce the number of asylum seekers and distribute them."

"We're evaluating all kinds of options at the moment, but they're not on the table," he added.

Cutting social assistance cheques "is out of the question," said Chantal Rouleau, Minister for Social Solidarity and Community Action.

"There is no question of cutting social assistance for asylum seekers," she said. "What we need is for the federal government to really assume its responsibilities, and for there to be better distribution across Canada."

Diversionary tactics, according to QS

Legault needs to stop "talking out of both sides of his mouth" and "thinking out loud," said Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, parliamentary leader of Quebec Solidaire (QS), on Wednesday.

He criticized the premier for having little knowledge of the immigration issue, even after six years in power.

"We have to stop improvizing and cobbling together solutions,' he said in a press scrum. "François Legault is creating a diversion. It's smoke and mirrors, and it's embarrassing because immigration is an important issue that should be dealt with rigorously."

According to PQ MNA Pascal Paradis, "there is certainly a whole range of solutions to be considered."

"What is particularly astonishing is that this reflection seems to be taking place without planning, without vision, by launching trial balloons. Where are the legal opinions? Where are the plans? Where is the planning?" he asked at the press briefing.

From Ottawa, Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said that he was working well with his Quebec counterpart. He did, however, allow himself a jab at Legault.

"I don't know what the point is of going to Paris to be sulking and then rant and rave about asylum seekers. I think we owe it to ourselves, when we're abroad, to behave like statesmen. I don't think he did that," said Miller.

"For me, it was awkward, as a Quebecer, to see him behave this way," he added.

According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, there are currently 96,021 asylum seekers in Quebec, not the 160,000 claimed by the Legault government.

- With information from Émilie Bergeron in Ottawa 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 9, 2024.