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'Our only option is to move': Quebec halves its capacity for family
reunification over next 2 years
(HTM) Source
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Cynthia Bélanger has been waiting two years to start building her life
with her husband, who's originally from Cuba, in Quebec. But as time
drags on, she's had to face the possibility that sponsoring her spouse
through the family reunification program might be simpler in another
part of the country.
"The only option I'm left with is to move," said Bélanger, who has her
sights set on New Brunswick.
"It's clear there's nothing left for me here," she said.
The Legault government has imposed a threshold on the number of family
reunification applications it can process, it announced on June 26 in
the _Gazette Officielle du_ _Québec_.
Over the next two years, until June 2026, the government will process
a maximum of 13,000 applications on a first come, first served basis,
representing a decrease of 50 per cent compared to the previous
period.
Between 2021 and 2023, the government processed 26,416 applications
for family reunification.
Bélanger and her husband are part of the inventory of nearly 40,000
pending files. Applicants trying to bring over a spouse from abroad to
Quebec face an average processing time of 34 months, compared to 10
months in the rest of Canada.
Sylvain Paquette has been waiting to be reunited with his Cuban
partner in Quebec since 2019. He's also considering leaving the
province despite not wanting to leave his job.
"I have a workplace I love, with colleagues I adore, but it's
incompatible with my private life," he said.
"Family reunification involves Quebecers like me, who were born and
raised in Quebec, who pay taxes in Quebec, and who had the
'misfortune' of marrying a person who did not come into the world in
Canada."
According to him, Quebec is on the wrong track by holding missions
abroad to recruit workers, when candidates for family reunification
could contribute to society.
## Threshold necessary, says Legault
François Legault ruled out the possibility of increasing admissions in
the family reunification category for immigration, during a press
conference last Friday. He said the number of temporary and permanent
immigrants has to be limited to ensure the government has the capacity
to deliver services to all of them.
"If we want to be able to offer housing services and protect the
French language, we can't welcome more [immigrants] including for
family reunification," he said.
Legault has capped the total number of new immigrants accepted into
Quebec each year to 50,000.
Premier François Legault ruled out the possibility of increasing
Quebec's family reunification capacity, during a press conference on
June 28. (Stéphanie Rousseau/Radio-Canada )
The cabinet of Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette said
that instead of processing new applications, it would focus on files
that have been sitting in its inventory for months — or even years.
The ministry will stop accepting applications once the threshold of
13,000 is reached, except in specific cases where someone wishes to
sponsor a child under 18, for example.
Immigration lawyer Maxime Lapointe, who sued Fréchette in February
over long wait times for family reunification, said the government is
exposing itself to more lawsuits.
"I think the courts will have to intervene to control the government
that is doing whatever it wants," he said.
He added that the immigration thresholds created by the _Coalition
avenir Québec_ (CAQ) since its election in 2018 have created backlogs
in other categories which won't go away with the new rules.
"What's unfortunate is that [the government] didn't present this to
experts, or citizens during public consultations in September 2023,"
he said.
He said he's received several panicked calls from people asking
whether the new regulations will affect them and that moving forward
he'll have to detail the ins and outs of making an application in
Quebec versus the rest of Canada.
Lapointe dropped his lawsuit against Fréchette in April after the
plaintiff's case, who was the subject of the motion, was settled.
Since then, the Quebec association of immigration lawyers, the
_Association québécoise des avocats et avocates en droit de
l'immigration_ , has sent a formal notice to Federal Immigration
Minister Marc Miller asking that family reunification applicants be
given the same processing time as applicants in the rest of Canada.
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