Quebec’s next administration facing immigration challenges

QUÉBEC — While the impacts of immigration reforms have been a hot political issue in Quebec in recent years, voters are still waiting for the political parties to unveil how they plan to address the issue in their election campaign platforms.

Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette is expected to trigger a general election campaign later this week, but none of the five major parties have shared how they plan to address the immigration issue and its impacts on social services, housing and the economy.

Experts say political candidates will have to balance pleasing business leaders and others who want increased immigration as well as those who disagree as the parties campaign in the weeks leading up to the expected election on Oct. 5.

Fréchette’s governing Coalition Avenir Québec party already has a track record on the issue after its two terms and eight years in government.

Her predecessor, former premier François Legault, had consistently argued that there were too many temporary immigrants in Quebec and pressured Ottawa to reduce their numbers.

Frantz André, who heads of a Montreal-based migrant advocacy group, noted how Legault campaigned on growing anti-immigrant sentiment following the 2016 election of American President Donald Trump, before winning a majority government in the 2018 Quebec election.

“François Legault, based on this perception of an ‘invasion,’ decided to make immigration his flagship issue. He was elected largely thanks to this strategy,” said André. “That has been the narrative since at least 2018, and even more so since their last election in 2022.”

But André believes immigrants have become a scapegoat as Quebec struggles with a housing crisis, a crumbling health-care system and cuts in education.

Immigration policy has also strained relations between Quebec and Ottawa.

The Quebec and federal governments debated over a program to fast-track residency as well as over a rural road in the southern part of the province used by thousands of asylum seekers to enter Canada from the United States until it was closed in 2023.

On an economic level, the leaders of Quebec’s political parties will be caught “between a rock and a hard place,” according to Pierre Fortin, professor emeritus of economics at Université du Québec à Montréal.

“These five party leaders must decide during the election: do they support the business community, or do they support the vast majority of the population — more than 70 per cent — who say we need to moderate our immigration intake,” Fortin says.

He says Quebec needs immigrants for its workforce.

“We do have a very high demographic deficit,” he said. “The people who are retiring need to be replaced. And so we don’t have enough workers to remain economically competitive.”

Marie-Jeanne Blain, a senior researcher at Concordia University’s Institute for Research on Migration and Society, hopes that Quebec will re-examine its relationship with immigration.

“The big challenge right now is to return to a long-term vision, to ensure predictability, to reassure people, and to restore Quebec’s image as a welcoming society,” she said. “We need to view immigration as a resource because these are people who contribute to Quebec society.”

Blain noted how the government’s decision to terminate the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) last November sparked a wave of protests across Quebec. It was reopened for two years by the new minister of immigration, François Bonnardel, after Fréchette took over from Legault in April.

“There have been negative effects not only on the labour market for employers and schools, but also for migrants themselves and the citizens who interact with them. Quebec’s image is also beginning to suffer,” Blain argues.

André agrees, adding that opposition parties have cooled on the issue as well, with few willing to support increasing immigration. He says migrants coming in from the U.S. are extremely vulnerable as they are often detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being turned away at the border.

Although the various party policies remain unclear, immigration lawyer Maxime Lapointe believes the next government will have to rebuild bridges with the federal government.

“There have been many conflicts with the federal government on several issues, particularly immigration,” he said

Lapointe believes it’s time for Quebec to sit down with Ottawa to renegotiate the Canada-Quebec agreement, which grants Quebec exclusive powers regarding the selection of its immigrants.

While Lapointe says some elected officials worry Quebec could lose powers by reopening the agreement signed in 1991, the province has wanted more control over work permits, international students, and to have jurisdiction over asylum seekers and family reunification.

— With files from Thomas Laberge in Quebec City and Erika Morris in Montreal

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2026.

The Canadian Press