CIMM - Quebec Immigration - June 2, 2021

Key messages

• Canada and Quebec have a long history of collaboration to advance shared and respective immigration priorities. Both governments recognize that immigration is key to meeting labour market needs in critical sectors like agriculture and healthcare during the pandemic, and will be important for economic recovery and future growth.
• The Department has been prioritizing the processing of applications from candidates who are in Canada, including those under the Quebec Skilled Workers category.    

Responsive – Processing time and acknowledgement of receipt for Quebec Skilled Workers

• To meet annual immigration level targets, including those of Quebec, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) adjusts its processing operations based on the inventory of applications it received, new intake of applications as well as evolving priorities and pressures.
• In recent years and for many categories destined to Quebec, the existing inventory of applications has exceeded the number of permanent residents who can be admitted in a single year under Quebec’s levels plan. This has resulted in longer processing delays and inventory increases.
• This large inventory and the longer processing have in turn resulted in many Quebec Skilled Workers experiencing delays in receiving an acknowledgement of receipt (AOR).
• The pandemic initially had significant impacts on processing paper applications across all permanent residence business lines. Since then, IRCC has adapted its operations to digitize a large portion of the paper applications to allow for processing in a remote working environment.
• In light of ongoing travel restrictions, IRCC prioritized the processing of Quebec applicants who are already in Canada.
• IRCC has also created “prospective” applications for all Quebec worker files and has sent clients a modified AOR, which acts as a client service measure. The intent is to bridge the gap between when the client submits their application and when IRCC can advise clients that their application has been reviewed for completeness. The modified AOR informs applicants that IRCC has successfully received their application.

Supporting facts and figures

Quebec Skilled Workers

Here is the rate of in-Canada and overseas processing since 2018:

(Data source: COGNOS (MBR) extracted as of May 9, 2021)

Here is the state of IRCC’s inventory for Quebec Skilled Workers (as of April 28, 2021):

(Data source: COGNOS (MBR) extracted as of May 9, 2021)

Processing times for Quebec Skilled Workers for the 12-month rolling period of February 2020 to January 2021 were:

(Data source: COGNOS (MBR) extracted as of May 9, 2021)

Admissions for Quebec Skilled Workers since 2018, including a comparison between January-April 2020 and January-April 2021, have been:

(Actuals row data source: COGNOS (MBR) extracted as of May 9, 2021)

• As requested by Quebec, in response to the pandemic, the Department is prioritizing economic immigrants who are in Canada, including those skilled workers selected by Quebec.
• The Department is up-to-date in scanning and entering paper applications into its electronic case management system (i.e. as of May 4, 2021, there was no inventory in the mailroom). Once entered into the system, applicants will receive a submission of confirmation (i.e. modified AOR) and will be put into queue for review.
• Every year, IRCC plans and adjusts processing operations so that the number of permanent residents to be admitted aligns as closely as possible with Quebec’s Immigration Plan overall and for each immigration category.
• In many instances where existing inventories and new intake of permanent resident applicants destined to Quebec are not aligned with the levels space allowed under Quebec’s Immigration Plan, IRCC is not able to process all clients in the inventory. This impacts the ability to maintain or improve processing times.
• This was the case in 2019 for most lines of business, including Quebec Skilled Workers, where IRCC had a significant inventory of cases with added intake and limited levels space to accommodate these clients. Inventories and processing times increased as a result, for which the Department is still seeing the effects.

Quebec’s 2021 levels plan

• On October 29, 2020, Quebec tabled its 2021 immigration levels plan, with increased admissions up to 47,500 in 2021 (from a range of 43,000 – 44,500 admissions in 2020). Increases are in the economic category only, with no growth in the family class and refugee category.
• The pandemic had a significant impact on the delivery of Quebec’s immigration plan for 2020, similar to the federal plan. Quebec’s 2020 shortfall has been carried over to 2021 and 2022 admissions. As such, Quebec has planned an additional 7,000 admissions in carry-over from 2020, which brings there overall range to 51,500 – 54,500.
• Quebec 2021 immigration levels plan admission ranges in the main immigration categories are as follows:
  • Economic: 27,500 – 29,300 (+4,600 in carry-over from 2020, for a maximum range of 33,900))
  • Family Class: 9,700 – 10,200 (+1,550 in carry-over from 2020, for a maximum range of 11 750)
  • Refugees: 6,900 – 7,500 (+850 in carry-over from 2020, for a maximum range of 8,350)
• By 2022, 65% of Quebec’s overall immigration levels are projected to be economic immigration.

Asylum seekers

• Quebec has been a key partner in managing the flow of regular and irregular migrants, and providing temporary housing, social services and education to asylum seekers.
• Between 2017 and 2019, more than 85,000 asylum seekers made a claim in Quebec (50,000 between ports of entry, and 35,000 at official land and air ports of entry). In 2020, approximately 9,700 asylum seekers arrived in Quebec.
• In 2019, the federal government provided $250 million in compensation to Quebec for costs incurred by the province in 2017 and 2018 to provide services to asylum claimants. In late March 2021, the federal government provided $94 million in compensation for interim housing costs incurred by the province in 2019 and $30 million for 2020.

Study permit processing of Indian students destined to Quebec

• In November 2020, three international student recruiters were indicted and charged with fraud forgery and breach of trust by Quebec’s Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC). They are alleged to have falsified documents to attract international students, particularly from India.
• Following the indictment and charges, in December 2020, Quebec paused the processing of “Certificats d’acceptation du Québec” (CAQ) applications from international students destined to ten designated learning institutions (DLIs).
• In January 2021, further to a Court ruling, the province resumed accepting and processing of CAQs for study permits associated with these colleges. Investigations from the Quebec authorities into recruitment practices are ongoing.
• IRCC is monitoring the situation and responding to client inquires as appropriate.
• IRCC officers will perform additional verifications to reach final decisions on study permit applications in these cases.

Background

Canada-Quebec Accord: Roles and Responsibilities

• The Canada-Quebec Accord came into force in April 1991. The objectives of the Accord are to preserve Quebec’s demographic weight within Canada and support the integration of immigrants, 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 23%). Quebec has never taken advantage of this potential and, for 2021, its levels plan would have it receive 12% of all planned arrivals into Canada.
• Quebec selects economic immigrants and resettled refugees destined to that province and the federal government administers other permanent resident programs (family class, protected persons). Both governments jointly administer the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (led by Employment and Social Development Canada for the Government of Canada) and International Student Program.
• 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.
• 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 grant to Quebec

• The Quebec government is responsible for the administration, design and delivery of settlement and integration services 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 to support the delivery of settlement and resettlement services to newcomers in the province. Unlike annual funding allocations in other provinces and territories, the federal grant that is transferred to Quebec each year under the Canada-Quebec Accord is not directly linked to the provincial permanent resident intake.
• Instead, the amount of Quebec’s grant is calculated based on two factors:
  • net federal expenditures (total federal expenditures less debt service), compared to the previous fiscal year; and
  • the number of non-francophone immigrants admitted to Quebec compared to the previous calendar year.
• Pursuant to the 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.
• For 2020-2021, the grant provided to Quebec was in the amount of $650 million.
• While Quebec is not accountable to the Government of Canada for how it spends the grant, Quebec must provide settlement and integration services that are comparable to the rest of the country.
• Quebec and IRCC collaborate on a biannual comparative study of settlement and integration services in Quebec and the federally funded services in the rest of the Canada. Studies have consistently concluded that there was an overall high level of alignment of services between Canada and Quebec.
• In addition to the federal grant, Quebec invests funding to support provincial settlement and integration priorities. In 2019, Quebec invested $730 million over five years to expand its settlement services.
• As part of its 2021 Budget, Quebec announced an additional investment of $246 million over 2021 to 2023 to better support immigrants integrating into the labour market, particularly in regions (e.g. skills recognition, French learning and attraction and retention of foreign students). 
• Recent media coverage has highlighted the fact that Quebec is receiving a significantly higher amount of funding to settle immigrants than that provided to service provider organizations in other provinces and territories. In 2021-2022, the Government of Canada plans to invest approximately $119 million in British Columbia and more than $407 million in Ontario for settlement services, compared to $650 million to Quebec which covers resettlement, settlement and administration costs.

Acknowledgement of receipt

• Due to COVID-19 and limited access to physical work locations in Canada due to local heath restrictions, delays in sending AOR to clients occurred. To mitigate this impact, the Department has started to send modified AOR for certain lines of business with longer delays.
• A modified acknowledgement of receipt indicates that the Department has received the application, without having done a completeness check. At this point, the application can therefore still being returned later on for being incomplete but client knows that we have received the documentation sent.
• An AOR is sent to clients when completeness checks have been finalized and an application is officially received by IRCC, based on the legal requirements as set out in R10.