After years of urging Ottawa to reduce the number of non-permanent residents in the province, Quebec is now saying the federal government has gone too far.

On Thursday, Immigration Minister Jean-François Roberge said Ottawa’s latest measures to curb temporary immigration, particularly cuts to the temporary foreign worker program, have pushed many Quebec businesses into “deplorable” situations.

“Ottawa is creating an emergency,” Roberge told the media in Quebec City. “I don’t understand what they’re thinking.”

His comments mark a sharp shift in tone for Premier François Legault’s government, which has long argued that an influx of non-permanent residents was putting pressure on housing, healthcare and the French language.

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But in recent months, Quebec business owners and industry groups have sounded the alarm about new federal limits on the temporary foreign worker program, warning they could have catastrophic consequences. Roberge echoed their concerns on Thursday, saying there’s a “crisis” in Quebec’s regions.

Roberge stressed that Quebec’s concerns have always been directed at asylum seekers and other categories under federal control — not at temporary foreign workers who fill labour shortages. “We don’t want businesses to close,” he said.

This comes as Roberge unveiled his immigration plan for the province on Thursday, which included lowering its immigration targets for the next four years to 45,000 new permanent residents annually. This marks a decrease from the 61,000 permanent immigrants who are expected in Quebec this year.

Roberge said he had previously considered cutting permanent immigration levels to as low as 25,000 people per year. But with Ottawa refusing to ease restrictions on temporary foreign workers, he said Quebec now has little choice but to offer permanent status to some of those workers rather than see them forced to leave.

Last year, the federal government reinstated a rule capping low-wage temporary foreign workers at 10 per cent of a company’s workforce, reversing a 2022 expansion meant to ease labour shortages. Roberge said Quebec has asked for a grandfather clause to let workers already in the province remain, but the request was denied.

At recent committee hearings, industry representatives warned that the cap is hitting businesses hard, especially those dependent on foreign labour.

“Quebec simply does not have enough workers to support its growth, public services and economic ambitions.”

This week’s federal budget reported that new temporary foreign worker arrivals have dropped by roughly 50 per cent so far this year.

–with files from The Canadian Press