Quebec will require immigrants seeking permanent residency in the Canadian province to pass a “values” test to ensure they understand its new secularism law, the provincial government said on Wednesday.
The test is being implemented by Quebec Premier Francois Legault’s Coalition d’avenir Quebec (CAQ) government.
CAQ, a nationalist center-right party, won a majority government in last year’s provincial election, soundly defeating the province’s two establishment parties.
Photo: Reuters
CAQ ran on a platform including cutting immigration to the predominantly French-speaking province. Quebec is allowed some leeway by the federal government to set its own immigration levels, to protect its distinct identity within the country.
Legault’s government has come under fire internationally for implementing a ban on public employees in positions of authority wearing religious symbols, such as a hijab or kippah, to work.
It is that law the test is intended to make sure that potential immigrants understand, Legault told reporters.
“I think it’s important in Quebec because we are a nation, we are a distinct society, we have our values, we have our charter,” he said.
The ban is being challenged in court by civil rights groups, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during the recent federal election campaign he would consider a federal challenge to it.
Legault described the test as similar to one that exists at the federal level, where individuals applying for Canadian citizenship must pass a test on Canada’s history and laws, among other topics.
An individual must score at least 75 percent to pass the test that covers “democratic values and the Quebec values expressed by [Quebec’s] Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms,” the government’s official publication said.
The test would only apply to economic immigrants and their families, not refugees.
Legault’s government also raised the immigration target next year to between 43,000 and 44,500, from 40,000 this year.
Quebec is Canada’s largest province by area and the second biggest by population, behind Ontario.
The Federation des chambres de commerce du Quebec (FCCQ), the major business lobby in the province, in August said the province would need about 60,000 immigrants annually to meet a labor shortage.
The lobby said it was disappointed in the immigration measures announced.
“We were clear and loquacious about the needs of businesses in the face of labor shortages,” FCCQ president Stephane Forget said in a news release in French on Wednesday, adding that one of the solutions to the shortage was an increase in immigration levels.
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