Bloc Montreal announces candidates, immigration policy

• By Joel Ceausu The Suburban, Aug 11, 2022

Bloc Montreal presented its immigration policy and introduced four new candidates in the Montreal area on Wednesday.
"Our party is expanding and our momentum is growing as we expand to the eastern ridings of our metropolis," said Bloc leader Balarama Holness, who noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has had “devastating effects not only on our health but also on many other aspects of our lives, including the exacerbation of an already worrisome labor shortage. Montreal and Quebec need immigrants to sustain economic growth and to ensure that many vital industries and services such as nursing homes, health care, hospitality, agriculture, construction and knowledge-based industries are thriving and have the best workers."
Holness said that immigration should be depoliticized by focusing on “the needs of our economy, our ability to successfully integrate newcomers, supporting the admission of genuine refugees seeking asylum, and facilitating family reunification."
He also insisted that Ottawa address the backlog of over two million people waiting for their citizenship. "All Canadians are waiting for the Minister of Justice to intervene to solve this issue by modernizing our outdated immigration processes that are slowed by excessive bureaucracy."
In the meantime, BMtl supports a cap of approximately 80,000 - 90,000 immigrants advocated by several business groups and the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (FCCQ) to meet the immediate needs of our economy.
New candidates announced are Rizwan Rajput in Saint-Laurent, Andreà Di Stefano in Maurice Richard, Marc Réjouis in Viau and Stefano Nichele in Jeanne-Mance-Viger
The key points of Bloc Montreal immigration policy are:

1. Conduct annual, objective and politically independent assessment of the number and type of immigrants needed in each region of Quebec and of capacity to integrate in each region.
2. Modernize and streamline the immigration and refugee processing system.
3. Support family reunification on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, not on French language ability.
4. To attract and retain the best talent, economic immigrants should be selected primarily based on the needs of the economy rather than language considerations.
5. Facilitate and expedite the recognition of credentials of foreign-trained immigrants.
6. Add several high-demand occupations to the streamlined Temporary Foreign Worker Program process.