The director of a large timber processing company, Chantiers Chibougamau, advocates lowering the level of French required of valuable foreign temporary workers who wish to become permanent residents to avoid their exodus to Ontario.
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Currently, Quebec requires at least level 7 (intermediate) in French to score on the permanent residency selection grid. This means, for example, using the subjunctive correctly and being able to formulate sentences with relative clauses (e.g.: avec qui etc.).
With such mastery of spoken and written French, “many Quebecers would fail,” pleads the general manager of Chantiers Chibougamau, Frédéric Verreault.
“This Level 7 comes from a time when immigration was fairly homogeneous, mostly with professionals looking to move to Quebec. Professionals for whom it was very important to be able to speak and write French,” explains Mr. Verreault, who is also a member of the Office québécois de la langue française.
We can think of an office worker, an accountant or an engineer, he illustrates.
25% foreign workers
His company, located 700 kilometers north of Montreal, has been relying on Filipino workers for several years to overcome the labor shortage. So much so that by next summer they will represent 25% of workers, ie almost 120 workers.
Chantiers Chibougamau makes significant efforts to frank them by paying them full-time rates even before they arrive in Quebec. In all, the company pays nearly $20,000 for every Filipino it hires.
He relies on this group of islands in Southeast Asia, explains Frédéric Verreault, primarily because the workers there are well trained in automated production work.
But he fears that in a few years these high-priced temp workers will no longer be permanent residents. For workers in Chantiers Chibougamau, the question typically arises two years after acquiring basic French.
Exodus of the workers
He poses the question: should we require a lawyer to have the same written knowledge of French as the many manufacturing workers who come to fill our manufacturing vacancies?
“The direct implication of this is that in our communities, in our businesses, we could integrate workers in French who, if they don’t have Level 7, could be tempted by equivalent jobs in Ontario to legalize their status and to obtain their permanent residence,” says the General Manager of Chantiers Chibougamau.
Some workers, he reveals, have already done so. “We want to keep them with us, we have put considerable financial sums, but also our heart and soul into the preparation to welcome these people,” he emphasizes.
Frédéric Verreault insists he recognizes the importance of mastering the French language. But for Chibougamau, those workers could represent nearly 120 new families whose children are being franked at school. “We have to have the tact to tackle this question,” he demands.
IN BIG NUMBERS
In 2021 foreign temporary workers are represented 10% of immigrants on Quebec soil, ie near 24,000 people.
SOURCE: QUEBEC DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION
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