(TLN) Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette says he welcomed a Quebec Superior Court injunction last week which is temporarily forcing the Coalition Avenir Québec government to process 18,000 pending immigration case files, although the CAQ previously didn’t want to.

“Premier François Legault must now commit to abide by his decision and immediately work on processing the cases, abandoned on the day Bill 9 on immigration reform was deposited,” Ouellette said in a statement.

A major response

According to a spokesperson for Ouellette’s office, he received several hundred pieces of correspondence and communications from concerned citizens from his riding and from elsewhere in Quebec, all of which were concerned with Quebec’s immigration reform led by CAQ Minister of Immigration Simon Jolin-Barrette.

“I find, the treatment of these 18,000 cases very cavalier and most disrespectful, without worrying about the human tragedies it generates and without taking the time to analyze them,” added Ouellette. “This injunction will allow citizens to complete their files and hope to finally be officially received among us in Quebec.”

Ombudsman concerned

Ouellette’s comments came on the heels of the province’s ombudsman calling on Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette to apologize to thousands of immigration applicants whose files the Coalition Avenir Québec government is trying to throw out. Marie Rinfret said during Bill 9 hearings at the National Assembly that she was extremely concerned by the provisions of the proposed legislation.

Since the bill (An Act to increase Québec’s socio-economic prosperity and adequately meet labor market needs through successful immigrant integration) was tabled in early February, Rinfret said she had received more than 60 complaints from applicants who are worried and unsure as to what will happen to them.

Injunction halts process

Last week, a Quebec superior court judge granted a request by immigration lawyers to force the province to continue to process applications filed for a period of 10 days. The two parties are scheduled to be back in court this week to determine if a lengthier injunction can be obtained.

A copy of Bill 9 posted on the National Assembly website describes its goal as being “to increase Québec’s socio-economic prosperity and adequately meet labor market needs through successful immigrant integration.”

In addition, according to the description, the bill “provides that the Minister may collect from immigrants the information necessary to know their situation, especially as regards their level of knowledge of French and their integration into the labor market, to put services in place for them and to assess their needs and satisfaction with respect to those services.”

Bill 9 text

The bill also amends the Québec Immigration Act “to clarify its objects, notably by stating that it aims to promote the integration of immigrants, more particularly through their learning French and learning about democratic values and the Québec values expressed by the Charter of human rights and freedoms.

Bill 9 “also empowers the Minister to cancel an invitation to file an application for selection made in error to a foreign national. The bill broadens the Minister’s discretion to require that an undertaking be entered into on a foreign national’s behalf if the Minister considers that such an undertaking is necessary to the success of the foreign national’s stay or settlement in Québec.”

(TLN) Laval mayor Marc Demers’ office has issued a statement saying that the mayor and the municipal administration are actively at work assigning crews to take all measures necessary to remove ice from all the City of Laval’s streets and sidewalks.

Up to Feb. 28, the de-icing operations had necessitated the use of all the city’s reserves of salt and abrasives which had been stocked for a normal winter season, according to the city.

Salt stocks depleted

The depletion of the stocks made it necessary to purchase additional salt and abrasives recently. The city says public works crews will be using as much salt and abrasives as necessary to ensure the safety of Laval residents for the remainder of this winter.

The City of Laval has already gone through its entire season’s worth of supply — 44,400 metric tonnes (MT) of salt. While Laval still has a relatively small emergency supply in stock, it won’t be enough to last the winter. An extra shipment of 4,500 MT is currently on its way from Morocco and expected to arrive on March 4.

“The City of Laval paid 34 per cent more for salt this year because of a strike at a salt mine in Ontario last summer,” said Laval city spokesperson Louis-Philippe Dorais. “This reduced the supply on the North American market, forcing us to find international suppliers.”

The low salt supply, combined with this season’s abnormally icy conditions, is wreaking havoc on roads and sidewalks and breaking municipal budgets.

Given the announcement of an expected thaw, city crews are hard at work this week on residential streets in all areas of Laval. In cases where they find it impossible to use machinery as is the normal practice, abrasives are being spread manually by the blue collar workers. A snow removal operation took place last weekend, followed by additional de-icing early this past week.

A hard winter

The city says it sincerely regrets the inconveniences Laval residents have had to endure during this exceptionally difficult winter, while pointing out that many other municipalities across Quebec were also affected.

According to the city, a group of municipalities from across the province is contemplating the situation and discussing corrective measures as wintertime weather grows more unpredictable with global warming and climate change.

Martin C. Barry

With predictions being made that immigration will rank high among the issues in the upcoming federal election, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Ahmed Hussen says he is prepared to defend the Liberal government’s policies, while setting the record straight with regard to “misinformation” he says has been spread by the Conservatives.

A hot topic

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned recently that Canadians should be wary of fear-mongering about immigration, suggesting the issue will be a hot-button topic before the federal election in the fall.

The Conservative Party, currently in second place in Canadian voters’ intentions, has adopted a moderate stance on the issues – criticizing aspects of Liberal policies for the most part, with some more extreme points of disapproval in some cases.

However, recent poll numbers also suggest that there is at least some support out there for more radical views being expressed by Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party, such as reducing immigration numbers and emphasizing Canadian values.

Tory allegations

In an otherwise routine interview recently in Montreal with Newsfirst Multimedia, Minister Hussen lit up with emotion as he reacted to allegations made by the Tories regarding Liberal Immigration Ministry policies. “The Conservatives have not been forthright about certain things,” he said.

Recalling the United Nations’ Global Compact for Migration, a non-binding international agreement enacted by the UN in December last year, Hussen defended Canada’s decision to endorse the treaty, while denouncing the Conservatives’ response to the Liberals’ course of action.

“Canada agreed to it because it’s a non-binding treaty – it’s a framework,” said Hussen. “It allows countries to work together on immigration issues to deal with the challenges of irregular migration, but also to harness the good things about regular migration.

Defends Liberals

“One of the things in that agreement says that it allows countries to come together to work more closely to facilitate and make it easier to recognize each other’s credentials. That’s a good thing, right? You know what the Conservatives did? They came out and they lied about the agreement.”

Hussen maintains that Conservative leader Andrew Scheer held a press conference in Ottawa “where he said that the UN Global Compact on Migration will result in Canada giving up sovereignty and control of our own immigration system to the UN.”

According to a Canadian Press report of that media event held last December in the nation’s capital, Scheer did, in fact, come out strongly opposing the UN Global Compact, saying at the time, “Canadians and Canadians alone should make decisions on who comes into our country and under what circumstances.”

‘Misinformation,’ says Hussen

Hussen responded in our interview, “Even though the agreement clearly says this agreement is non-binding, this agreement does not take away control over a country’s immigration system, even though it’s clearly stated they went out and spread misinformation.

“So the Conservatives have repeatedly misinformed Canadians about the Global Compact – about all these different issues,” said Hussen. “That’s the challenge we’re having. It’s one thing to debate policy.

“But if someone is completely making up facts about the Global Compact – which I believe is in Canada’s interest – how do you deal with that? It’s somebody basically spreading fear, about something that doesn’t exist, to the Canadian population. We believe that’s not the responsible thing to do and it’s not what leadership is about.”

CAQ’s Bill 9

In Quebec, the CAQ government led by Premier François Legault is preparing to table Bill 9, a sweeping piece of legislation that will include a clause allowing provincial immigration authorities to throw out 18,000 immigration applications that are backlogged. The federal government has a stake in the matter, in that ultimately only Ottawa holds the power to declare immigrants permanent residents (rather than Quebec).

“Bill 9 needs more study,” said Hussen, adding that he couldn’t comment in detail as his department is actively working on the file.

However, he acknowledged that dealing with the matter will involve revisiting some key agreements and pieces of legislation, such as the Canada–Québec Accord relating to Immigration and Temporary Admission of Aliens as well as the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Has good rapport

While insisting that current day-to-day relations on immigration between Quebec and Ottawa are “really good, I have no complaints about that, and we’re very thankful to Quebec – they’re a very close partner – we don’t have any friction,” Hussen continued, “Bill 9 is a concern. But we need to study exactly how it’s going to apply to the various categories of immigrants and how it’s going to unfold.

“That’s still not clear – even in Quebec. Those conversations are ongoing. So we will need to do our analysis in Ottawa obviously by talking to the government of Quebec, as well, and then determining where we stand.”

But Hussen admitted this much: “Our position on conditional permanent residency is that we don’t like conditional permanent residency. We removed conditional permanent residency that the Harper government imposed on women.”

(Newsfirst) An association of mayors from Laval and the Lower Laurentians reacted positively last week to news the CAQ Transport Minister Chantal Rouleau has decided to open a project office to oversee the creation of measures to deal with growing traffic problems on highways and autoroutes leading from Montreal to Laval and the North Shore.

A strategic move

“This project office is of strategic importance for more than a million citizens who must get around on the territory,” Laval mayor Marc Demers said in response to the announcement. “It will allow us now to deal in a very real way with problems of congestion.”

In their announcement, the mayors said the welcome eagerly an investment by the government of Quebec and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to finance other measures that will come into effect beginning in 2020.

Gov’t paying the costs

“We are pleased that the government has taken into its charge the costs related to the various mitigation measures,” said Terrebonne mayor Marc-André Plante. “It was important for us to spare our citizens additional expenses which would have been added to inconveniences they already will be facing during the work on the REM.”

All the same, a lot of work remains to be done, added Deux-Montagnes mayor Denis Martin, who is also the prefect for the Deux-Montagnes MRC. “The consequences of the work are already being felt,” he said.

Impact on travel times

“It thus remains all-important that the government continues to work in narrow collaboration with the municipalities in order to arrive at a strategy that is quick and efficient in its measures,” added Mayor Martin. “These should not slow down in a significant way travel times for users of public transit.”

Beginning in January 2020, commuter trains on the Deux-Montagnes line will be going no further than the Bois-Franc station in Montreal. Then in 2021, the entire length of the Deux-Montagnes line will be out of service. As for the Mascouche line, trains will go no further than the Ahuntsic station beginning in January next year.

(TLN) The Société de Transport de Laval has announced that beginning on Sat. March 23, schedules for certain buses will change to take into account new scheduling on the Deux-Montagnes commuter rail line which comes into effect on March 25.

“This adjustment in the service will allow the STL to ensure a greater fluidity, better transfers and fewer inconveniences for the clientele,” says Laval city councillor for Saint-François Eric Morasse, who is president of the board of the STL.

Bus schedule changes

The following bus lines will see their schedules modified during the week only: 26, 33, 55, 56, 65, 70, 76, 144, 151, 402, 404, 902, 903 and 942. The lines most affected by the changes will be the 26, 55, 76, 144, 151, 402, 404, 902 and 903.

Their departure times will vary by a few minutes from the usual schedule. As well, more trips have been added to lines 26, 33, 76, 144, 151, 902 and 942 to assure better coordination with commuter trains and Metro stations in Laval.

Comprehensive information on STL bus schedules can be obtained at www.stl.laval.qc.ca. Information on the commuter train schedules is also available at https://exo.quebec/fr.