Canada and Quebec have a long history of collaborating to advance shared and respective immigration priorities.
IRCC’s bilateral relationship with Quebec is defined by the 1991 Canada-Quebec Accord, and guided by the principle that immigration should support the preservation of Quebec’s demographic weight in Canada and its distinct identity.
The Accord is designed to ensure collaboration between both governments throughout the immigration process, in all immigration categories.
Supplementary Messages
Canada-Quebec Accord: Federal grant to Quebec
The Quebec government is responsible for the administration, design and delivery of settlement and integration services for permanent residents including pre-arrival, information and orientation, French language training, refugee resettlement services, labour market orientation, foreign credential recognition and support services.
Quebec is the only province that receives an annual grant (compensation) from the federal government. In all other provinces and territories, the Department provides annual settlement funding directly to settlement service providers in their respective jurisdictions through a third-party delivery system.
The funding formula is based on the percentage increase in total net federal expenditures and the percentage increase in the number of non-Francophone immigrants who arrive in Quebec compared to the previous year.
Pursuant to the terms of the Canada-Quebec Accord, the grant cannot diminish from one year to the next. It can only increase or remain constant. The amount provided in any given year becomes the baseline for the calculation the following year.
Responsive – Federal grant
The amount of the grant payable to Quebec under the Accord is reflected in the Main Estimates every year. The annual increase in the grant is reflected in the Supplementary Estimates (C).
The current value of the grant at the beginning of 2021-2022 was $650.27M. An increase of $46.76M appears in Supplementary Estimates (C) for 2021-22 for a total new baseline value of $697.03M.
For this year, extraordinary COVID-19 expenditures have been removed from the escalator factor used to calculate the grant adjustment. The annual growth for the 2021-2022 payment is 7.2% – representing 6.5% from federal spending and 0.7% from non-Francophone immigrants.
Supporting Facts And Figures
Grant Under The Canada-Quebec Accord
Value of Canada-Quebec Accord Grant for last 5 years and upcoming year:
The majority of asylum claimants between designated ports of entry, both prior to COVID-19 border closures and since the border measures related to COVID-19 were lifted for asylum claimants on November 21, have been intercepted in Quebec.
The Government of Canada has put in place operational contingency plans to manage volumes at the border and officials are working with Quebec to respond to the new flow of asylum seekers.
Quebec has done substantial work in terms of managing the flow of irregular migrants and in providing temporary housing, social services and education to asylum seekers.
The federal government remains committed to working collaboratively with the Government of Quebec to ensure asylum claimants have access to adequate interim housing and other essential services when they first arrive in Canada.
Responsive – Refugee Resettlement And Afghan Commitments
Quebec is an active supporter of Canada’s humanitarian tradition through the resettlement of persons in need of protection. In 2021, despite the impact of COVID-19 on travel restrictions, more than 1600 resettled refugees – Government assisted and privately sponsored – settled in Quebec.
As of April 6th 2022, there are 295 Afghan nationals that have settled in Quebec since the introduction of special measures for Afghanistan in July 2021. Among these applicants, 120 were resettled as Government Assisted Refugees and 175 as Privately Sponsored Refugees.
Responsive – Temporary public policy to grant permanent residence to certain refugee claimants selected by Quebec working in the health care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic (Guardian Angels)
The Guardian Angels initiative - a joint initiative between our two governments - provides a temporary pathway to permanent residence for refugee claimants and failed refugees claimants who worked in the health-care sector providing direct patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was implemented between December 14, 2020, and August 31, 2021.
In 2021, IRCC admitted close to 1,400 persons, who reside in Quebec, under this initiative. IRCC continues to process the remaining applicants in this inventory, and expects to complete this by the end of 2022.
Responsive – Family Reunification
I am aware that Quebec has indicated an interest in selecting members of the family class who intend to immigrate to Quebec.
Any proposed changes will require further analysis in the context of existing agreements with Quebec.
We would also need to consider whether it would be logical to create different rules for family sponsorship, based on the province of residence of the Canadian sponsor, considering that it would be easy for sponsors to change their province of residence to circumvent the rules.
Background
Canada-Quebec Accord: Roles and Responsibilities
The objectives of the Accord are to preserve Quebec’s demographic importance within Canada and support the integration of immigrants to that province, while respecting its distinct identity.
To this end, Quebec can receive a percentage of all immigrants coming to Canada equal to the percentage of its demographic weight in Canada (currently 22%), and can exceed that figure by 5% of the Canadian total for demographic reasons. Quebec has yet to reach this proportion and, for 2022, its levels plan set a target for 12% of all planned arrivals into Canada.
While the Government of Canada is responsible for establishing the total number of immigrants for the country as a whole on an annual basis, it takes into consideration Quebec’s advice on the number of immigrants that it wishes to receive in all classes.
The federal government administers permanent and temporary resident programs. Quebec selects economic immigrants and resettled refugees destined to that province, consents to the admission of temporary residents (i.e., international students and temporary foreign workers who require a labour market impact assessment) and administers family class undertakings (i.e., the sponsor’s financial capacity) for applicants destined to Quebec.
The federal government and Quebec jointly provide a labour market impact assessment (LMIA) to employers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (led by Employment and Social Development Canada for the Government of Canada). Quebec is also responsible for the issuance of the Certificat d’acceptation du Quebec, required for temporary foreign workers who require LMIA as well as for the applicants in the International Student Program except for those intending to study in the context of a federal assistance program for developing countries.
The Government of Canada remains responsible for determining the admissibility (for health, security, and criminality) of all newcomers to Quebec and for issuing their visas and permits and granting of the permanent residence or temporary status to admissible foreign nationals.
Settlement and Integration Services
While Quebec is not accountable to the Government of Canada for how it spends the grant, the Accord requires that Quebec must provide settlement and integration services that are comparable to the rest of the country.
In order to assess whether these services are comparable, Canada and Québec regularly study reception and integration services provided by Canada and Quebec to ensure that similar types of services are available to all permanent residents who settle in Canada and in Quebec.
To fulfill this mandate, since 2014 IRCC and its Quebec counterpart, the Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration (MIFI), have jointly carried out five comparative studies, which consistently concluded that there was an overall high level of alignment of settlement and integration services between Canada and Quebec.
The last comparative study covers the period from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, including key changes in settlement services delivery that occurred during the pandemic year, and a set of new indicators to improve comparability of results across jurisdictions. The report is expected to be tabled at an Assistant Deputy Minister Committee (called the “Comité mixte”) in 2022.
The grant to Quebec is calculated based on a formula in the Accord, provided as Canada withdrew from settlement services in the province.
In all other provinces and territories outside Quebec, annual settlement funding allocations are determined using the National Settlement Funding Formula, which was established in consultation with the provinces and territories. The Formula is based on the proportion of immigrants landing in each province and territory, giving additional weighting for refugees to account for their unique settlement need, along with a capacity-building amount for each jurisdiction.