OTTAWA — The federal government’s goal of welcoming 500,000 new immigrants to Canada each year is stimulating reflections on sovereignty, believes Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet.

“This debate about appropriation of all means, ironically, has just been opened by Canada, or by some intellectuals in a tower in Toronto saying, ‘No, no, you’ll see, we’ll do that there too.’ , we’re going to break the Quebecers once and for all, it’ll be settled.” Quebecers may say to themselves, “Okay, it’ll be over soon,” Mr. Blanchet said Thursday.

According to him, the Ottawa target will have no more or less effect on “the weakening and possibly wiping out of the population of the French nation of Quebec.” This “feeds a reflection” by Quebecers on independence and “the process is accelerating.”

On Wednesday, the elected members of the National Assembly unanimously declared that this goal was “incompatible with the protection of the French language in Quebec”. The motion also “reaffirms that it is up to Quebec alone to make its own decisions” on immigration and French.

The Bloc Québécois is dedicating its day of opposition Thursday to debating a motion that denounces the Centennial Initiative’s goals on immigration — to increase Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100 — with which Ottawa’s goals “are consistent.”

“Canada’s tripling of the population has real implications for the future of the French language, the political clout of Quebec, home of the First People, access to housing, healthcare and education infrastructure,” the bloc argues.

In a written statement, the Office of Federal Immigration Secretary Sean Fraser stressed that the views of the Initiative of the Century were not government policy, that the government disagreed with the findings and that it had no intention of increasing Canada’s population to 100 million by 2100.

“Our immigration destinations are a result of demographic shortages and significant labor shortages across Canada. Today, 100% of labor force growth is due to immigration. We must act responsibly to meet this urgent need.”

Given the federal target, Quebec should take in 112,000 immigrants annually to maintain its weight in the Canadian federation. If he doesn’t keep up the pace, he’s doomed to “shrink like a skin of grief,” Blanchet summarized.

In an interview at the end of the year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued that Quebec had “full capacity” to receive that many immigrants and that it already had “all the tools” to ensure that “almost all of those people would be French”. Speaking of”.

During Quebec’s recent election campaign, Prime Minister François Legault pledged to limit permanent immigration to 50,000 new arrivals per year, which is his current limit.

Asked Wednesday about Quebec’s importance within Canada and the potential implications for its political representation in the House of Commons, Mr. Trudeau replied: “Everyone has the right to make the choices they want within their Quebec immigration threshold.”

He had also replied to Mr Blanchet that the bloc was only looking for “disputes” between Quebec and Ottawa. “You have already lost two referendums, let it continue,” he said.