QUEBEC — The Coalition Avenir Québec government has restored the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ) immigration path, reversing a decision that for months suspended immigrants in a state of limbo.
Axed in November under then-Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge, the PEQ had offered status to French-speaking immigrants with Quebec work or study experience.
Municipalities, employers, unions — as well as immigrants themselves — had said the decision to terminate the program would force people out of their communities and leave a dent in local workforces.
“We heard the concerns raised by workers and graduates who chose to build their lives here” and were affected by the closure of the PEQ, Immigration Minister François Bonnardel told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
“Life trajectories were disrupted,” he said, announcing that the government planned to keep the revamped program in place for two years.
Christine Fréchette, who is now Quebec premier, had initially supported Roberge’s decision to replace the PEQ with a program based on more stringent criteria. But she reversed course mid-leadership campaign, promising a grandfather clause for those locked out of the program.
“We are already contacting our immigration lawyer,” Colombian immigrant Diego Morales Cañizares told The Gazette shortly after the announcement, jubilant at the news that he and his wife would now have the chance to access the PEQ.
Morales and his wife, Maria Paula, had been ready to apply to the PEQ last summer when Roberge froze the program ahead of its eventual cancellation. Now living in Montreal, the couple had been considering moving to Ottawa, where they would have applied to a federal program available for immigrants outside of Quebec.
Morales, who works in a Montreal restaurant alongside Paula, said the pair had been devastated at the prospect of leaving the life they’d built in the city. “I think we passed through all the stages of grief,” he said.
The pair now plans to apply to the PEQ when it reopens in July.
“This is what we were waiting for,” Morales said, but “we’ll only be completely relaxed once we get our permanent residence.”
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The government’s announcement “corrects the suddent change to the rules of the game, which were very difficult for everyone these last months,” Guillaume Tremblay, president of the Union des municipalités du Québec, said Wednesday.
Tremblay and the municipalities he represents had spent months pleading with the government to allow a path to status for immigrants denied access to the suspended program.
“It’s hard to understand why we had to go through all this,” Québec solidaire House Leader Guillaume Cliche-Rivard said, calling the government’s record on the PEQ a “disaster.”
Wednesday’s news is good, he said, “but it’s hard for me to congratulate the CAQ for reversing an extremely bad decision.”
As of July 2, the government plans to reopen the program for workers who were eligible when it closed in November. No cap will be placed on the number of applications allowed, Bonnardel said, adding that the immigration ministry expects between 8,000 and 12,000 people to apply.
The initial phase of applications is set to run until Oct. 31, Bonnardel said, which would be after the Oct. 5 election.
Following that, Bonnardel said the government would reopen the PEQ for anyone who meets its criteria, limiting numbers according to immigration targets.
But should the CAQ lose the election, decisions on the PEQ won’t fall to a Fréchette government.
The CAQ would aim to keep the PEQ open for a total of two years, Bonnardel said, though it would stay open longer if more time is needed to process applications.
Roberge’s immigration reform — the Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés (PSTQ) — will stay in place, Bonnardel said, completely replacing the PEQ once the government closes it for good.
That program “remains at the heart of our strategy,” the minister said, asserting that the PSTQ “responds to the needs of Quebec and its regions.”