Premier Christine Fréchette says she will bring back the fast-track immigration program known as the PEQ but Québec Solidaire is calling for it to be done before the end of the spring session. Québec solidaire had urged the CAQ to stop stalling and finally bring back the program. “Every single day, there are Quebecers being impacted. There are workers, there are students, [whose] permits expire. It’s been the same for the last year since the PEQ closure,” said Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, Québec Solidaire’s House Leader. The program provided international students and temporary foreign workers a pathway to permanent residency, but it was scrapped last November under former immigration minister Jean-François Roberge. What replaced it was the Skilled worker selection program, known as the Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ) in French, which prioritizes French and favours applicants who already got their degree in Quebec. But there was significant pushback, with calls that the CAQ government implement a grandfather clause. During her campaign run for the party leadership, Premier Fréchette promised to bring back the PEQ for two years, but no date was set. The opposition party tabled a motion at the National Assembly calling on the province to bring back the program no later than June 12, which was adopted. “We’ve been waiting for a date for weeks now, for months now. And now we know that it’s going to happen within the next weeks,” said Cliche-Rivard. For Yves Martineau, an immigration lawyer and co-president of the Quebec Immigration Lawyers’ Association, there is some confusion. He said the CAQ made two promises with two different objectives, such as reinstating the PEQ as well as keeping immigration numbers capped. “Because let’s remember that Christine Fréchette promised that she will reopen the PEQ, but she also promised that she will maintain the objectives of 29,000 economic immigrants per year [but] the mathematics don’t add up,” Martineau said. “It is mathematically impossible to maintain the number under the current program, the PSTQ, and add up the PEQ and still meet this 29,000 threshold. So there has to be some ways to cut people off.” While not everyone agreed with the motion, including members of the Parti Québécois, groups like the Quebec student union say they are extremely happy that the PEQ will be coming back.
