Montreal urges CAQ to grant exemptions following end of PEQ immigration program
CBC
The end of a popular immigration program in Quebec has caused anger and fear among countless newcomers.
Now, the City of Montreal is taking a stance — through a joint declaration by Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada and interim Projet Montréal leader Ericka Alneus.
They are calling for the Quebec government to grant exemptions and allow immigrants who are already established in the province to apply to the now-discontinued Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ).
The program served as a fast-track to permanent residency for newcomers.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government scrapped the program last November. So far, it has refused to grant exemptions and allow people who were already living in the province when it was discontinued to apply through it.
The joint declaration by Martinez Ferrada and Alneus will be formally presented at city council next Monday.
It calls for the Quebec government to "put in place, without delay, an acquired rights clause for people already established in Quebec with temporary immigration permits at the time the PEQ was abolished."
It also calls for the province to ensure "predictable, human and coherent" pathways to permanent residency for people who are already "integrated and established" in Montreal.
The declaration also states that this request will be sent formally to the province's Immigration Ministry and the National Assembly.
In a Thursday afternoon interview on CBC's Breakaway, Martinez Ferrada said losing the PEQ progam, without any exemptions allowed "would be a catastrophe for our city."
"We would be losing a lot of people, labour forces and people that in many, many cases actually speak French," she said.
In recent months, a long list of newcomers whose future in the province is now in flux have spoken out through several news outlets about the province's unwillingness to grant exemptions.
They've described the feeling of being betrayed by the Quebec government.
Once the PEQ program ended, a new program called the Skilled Worker Selection Program became the sole route for immigrants wishing to settle in the province for economic reasons.
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