Federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was "troubled" by Prime Minister François Legault's statements on immigration, which he said "hurt Quebec".

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"I was disturbed by what I heard recently when a link was made between children, parents, spouses of reunited families and a threat to Quebec," said the federal MP for Quebec and Minister of Health, on the sidelines of an announcement on the Festival d'été de Québec.

“It's a language that I don't like, that I find disturbing and that hurts. It hurts us as Quebecers, because we are not like that in Quebec.

In his crusade for the repatriation of immigration powers, Premier Legault criticized the federal family reunification program. This makes it possible to reunite immigrants with their spouse, their child or a relative who has come to join them from abroad. This program reaches some 14,000 people a year. Of this number, half do not speak French.

Louisiana

François Legault wants to get control over this program in order to select immigrants based on their language. He claimed this week that Quebec risks becoming a Louisiana, where French is virtually extinct, if much of the immigration is chosen by Ottawa.

Minister Duclos protests against this analysis. He points out that immigrants from this program represent “a very small proportion of the population of Quebec. One speaks of less than one-half of a tenth of a percent. Giving the impression of blaming these people who want to come with us to contribute to the wealth and prosperity of our province is, I think, damaging”.

The Minister invites everyone to "pull themselves together" and give a positive message from immigration.