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Hundreds of people gathered for protests in seven cities across the province Saturday, including in Montreal and Quebec City, speaking out against the Quebec government’s decision to scrap a popular immigration program and calling it inhumane.
The province abolished the Programme de l’expérience québécoise (PEQ) in November, leaving thousands of temporary workers across the province in limbo and forcing some to return to their countries of origin.
Protester Mariia Kolosova moved to Quebec from Ukraine in 2023, with the hope of remaining in the province through the PEQ.
She studied French rigorously for years and selected a job in the tourism industry, in order to increase her chances and fit into the program’s eligibility criteria.
Kolosova was trying to gather enough experience to apply when the program was suddenly suspended and then cancelled.
“The reason I came to Quebec, one of the reasons, was [because] my chances were quite high,” said Kolosova at Montreal’s rally. “Ukrainians, many of us, we don’t have a place to [go] back to. It’s not that easy to change your life from [scratch] again.”
The PEQ was a common pathway to permanent residency in the province, allowing people who had a certain level of French and who fit certain criteria to apply for selection certificates from the Quebec government.
Mariia Kolosova, left, moved to Montreal in hopes of settling there permanently through the PEQ program. She was one of the hundreds who protested the abolition of the program in Montreal Saturday. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)
Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge recently replaced it with a skilled workers program known as the PSTQ, which selects newcomers through a more complex, points-based system that prioritizes those who live in regions outside Montreal and who work in certain sectors like health care and education.
Florent Pigeyre, an advisor for French citizens living abroad, said he’s helping newcomers in Montreal co-ordinate a lawsuit against the Quebec government.
“I see a lot of [immigrants] contact me because the families are breaking apart, because they have to separate and go back to their country of origin,” he said.
“It was not the plan. It’s not what had been sold to them from the Quebec government.”
Many, Pigeyre said, came to Quebec because of recruitment efforts abroad. They were told of the possibilities the PEQ would offer them, he said, which encouraged them to leave their lives behind.
But that promise has been broken and the criteria have drastically changed with the PSTQ, he said.
WATCH | Why protesters say Quebec’s new worker selection program isn’t enough:
Protests across Quebec push back against abolition of immigration program
Quebecers in several cities gathered Saturday to protest the end of an immigration program known as the PEQ. While the province has replaced it with a new skilled worker selection program, many are left in limbo and others warn the move will hurt Quebec’s economy.
Aram Musco, who moved to Montreal from France for his studies, had also hoped to settle in the province. But his future is uncertain.
“The main thing is it’s quite hard to anticipate the next steps,” he said. “With the PSTQ, what’s quite difficult to manage and understand is that the criteria can evolve.”
Musco argued the level of French required under the PEQ was already high and that immigrants in that category do not threaten the French language.
Newcomers also play an integral role in the province’s economy, he added.
Maxime Gress, an immigrant himself and a member of the advocacy group behind the protest, Le Québec c’est nous aussi, said the government should be providing exemptions to all workers already settled in the province — rather than prioritizing those in certain sectors.
“We left everything behind,” he said.
Several dozen people rally over the abolition of the PEQ in Gatineau on Saturday. Rallies were held in seven cities across the province. (Charlotte Tremblay/Radio-Canada)’We need to ensure stability’
Quebec Liberal and Québec solidaire MNAs also took part in the protests across the province, along with municipal officials and unions.
They have all been asking for the Quebec government to, at the very least, grant an exemption for those who are already settled in the province to allow them to apply through the PEQ — a demand also echoed by business groups in recent weeks.
“We need to ensure stability for the people who come here… and that we ensure as well stability for all public services,” Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Sol Zanetti said at the Quebec City protest.
In Gatineau, Liberal MNA André Fortin said he hoped the rallies made it clear to immigrants that they’re still wanted in the province.
“The CAQ government has started to blame immigration for all of Quebec’s problems, whether it’s housing, whether it’s health care or education,” Fortin said. “And that’s simply not the case.”
The Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) also spoke out against the end of the program in an open letter on Saturday, calling it “nonsense.”
For its part, the Quebec government has insisted the PSTQ will allow for some 29,000 economic immigrants to settle in the province. Roberge continues to refuse to grant any exemptions for the PEQ.
The applications of those who applied through the PEQ before the program was abolished however, will still be processed, the government has said.