While Immigration Minister Jean Boulet says he is “disappointed” that Ottawa refuses to close Roxham Road, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged Thursday that Quebec has “additional weight and responsibilities”, but that the federal is ready to put its shoulder to the wheel by absorbing part of the excess costs of the system.
Recall that on Wednesday, François Legault directly challenged Justin Trudeau asking him to close Roxham Road (reopened last November), where at the current rate, a record quantity of more than 35,000 irregular passages is apprehended this year.
“[…] If we closed Roxham Road, people would go elsewhere. We have a huge border that we are not going to start arming or putting fences on,” said Mr. Trudeau at a press briefing.
By allowing irregular migrants to cross the border at Lacolle, “we can at least check them, we can at least do security checks, we can at least make sure that they are not lost and illegal inside of Canada,” continued the Prime Minister.
This is for him a “position based on compassion”.
“I understand that this concerns a lot of people and it leads to some controversy for certain political parties, but the reality is that we are a country where we follow rules, where people who arrive here who make statements of claimants asylum seekers should have the right to have their file analysed.”
Discussions with the United States to reform the Safe Third Country Agreement, signed in 2004, have stalled for several years now.
Mr. Trudeau assured that they were going well and that Canada is aiming for a “modernization” of the agreement.
“We know that it is not entirely ideal to have people returning to Canada irregularly. Ideally, we could ensure that people who come to Canada do so through our official border crossings, which have the capacity to manage these files in the right way,” said Justin Trudeau.
Roxham Road has become a real “strainer”, had denounced Mr. Boulet a little earlier, repeating that the reception and accommodation capacity of Quebec is exceeded.
Mr. Boulet, who maintains his request to close Roxham Road, considered the response offered yesterday by Prime Minister Trudeau to be unsatisfactory.
“Disappointed? Yes, and when we refer to the rigor of the immigration system in Canada, I regret: this is not what we see on the ground, ”reacted the minister.
“The processing times, both for work permits and for asylum seekers at the Immigration and Refugee Board [up to 14 months], in my opinion, these are delays that are not acceptable” , reiterated Mr. Boulet.
Asked about the subject on Wednesday, Justin Trudeau said that Canada has “a rigorous system that will continue to do its job”.
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