WORLD WORLDWIDE CANADA - news journal UPDATE - (en) Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - The housing crisis is the government (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 In free fall in the polls, the Legault government is targeting an easy

target, immigrants and asylum seekers. Easy, because they are a
vulnerable population and especially without a voice, who ultimately
will not be able to punish the CAQ at the ballot box. By designating
them as scapegoats, the government can thus deny its role and
responsibility for its own inactions, negligence and errors in matters
of housing, homelessness, in the health and education sectors.
To this end, Premier François Legault stated last June: "100% of the
housing problem comes from the increase in the number of temporary
immigrants".

He also stated that: "For two years, across Quebec, mainly because of
the federal government, because the majority are accepted by the federal
government, there has been an increase of 300,000 temporary immigrants.
This means an additional need for more than 100,000 homes. It's
physically impossible... "(La Presse, June 28)

During his trip to France, he even hoped that the federal government
would take inspiration from the worst European practices by requesting
the establishment of detention camps on Canadian soil: "What we asked
Ottawa to do was to take inspiration from France, among other things,
because there, we currently have 160,000 asylum seekers.[...]And more
than a third, 40%, of asylum seekers do not speak French and settle in
Montreal, while there is already a decline in French in Montreal. Is
there a possibility of moving them to other areas?" Le devoir

You have to be "cheap" in osti to blame immigrants for a housing crisis,
which, let's remember, existed well before the recent increase in
temporary immigration. This crisis has accelerated since 2022. It is a
multifactorial phenomenon that, according to the Front d'action
populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU), results mainly from:
insufficient supervision of the rental market; the deficit in the
construction of social housing over the last 30 years; lax regulations
concerning short-term accommodation, such as with Airbnb; the
financialization of housing and the absence of programs dedicated to
student housing. In short, the market and its so-called invisible hand.

To listen to them, immigration would be responsible for all evils.

For a long time, Prime Minister Legault has pointed to immigration as
"the great culprit of all evils". In the last election, he had to
apologize after making amalgams between immigration, violence and
extremism and suggesting that immigration could threaten social peace in
Quebec.

Its Minister of Education, and former PQ minister Bernard Drainville,
stated for his part that the delays in the implementation of 4-year-old
kindergarten classes were caused by the arrival of temporary immigrants.

The government also stated that a third of the shortage of health
personnel and half of the lack of qualified teachers in Quebec result
from "the presence of temporary immigrants."

Anne Plourde, a researcher at IRIS, highlighted the irony of the
situation: "the government blames the increase in temporary immigration
for the labour shortage in public services. But this increase, the
researcher reminds us, is partly the result of pressure exerted since
2021 by the Legault government itself on the federal government to
facilitate temporary immigration. It is also the result of its own
recruitment efforts abroad, steps that are aimed precisely at
countering... the labour shortage, particularly in public services."

Designating "false culprits" and titillating the identity and
nationalist fiber obviously allows us to rise in the polls (see the PQ),
but above all to hide the widening of inequalities and to exonerate the
real culprits: the State and this minority of wealthy people who exploit
the majority of people. We have not reached the end of this nationalist,
identity-based and populist bidding war between the PQ and the CAQ.
After the PQ proposed (warning, sarcasm) "to counter the devitalization
of regions and villages" with robots, the CAQ government has announced a
freeze on new applications in the Quebec Experience Program (PEQ) until
next spring. The next few years are likely to be very difficult. We have
not finished hearing the speeches about our so-called "reception
capacity". To the great displeasure of those fleeing bombs, violence,
hunger and environmental disasters. People pushed onto migratory routes
remain the main victims of international division, access to work,
wealth, resources, but also exposure to ecological nuisances.

It is more imperative than ever to link and converge environmental
struggles with those against capitalism, racism and colonialism.

by Collectif Emma Goldman

https://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2024/11/la-crise-du-logement-cest-le.html
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