Quebec immigration minister admits he made a mistake on controversial reforms

Quebec Immigration Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette has apologized toQuebecers for his handling of his reformofthe province's immigration program for foreign students.

The Nov. 1 changesto the Quebec Experience Program, known as by its French acronym, PEQ, put in jeopardy the future ofthousands of students and temporary workers who expected to be on afast track to become permanent residents.They were slammedby opposition parties, business groups and university administrators.

Jolin-Barrette abandoned his reformFriday, three days afterforeign students studying in Quebec, some of them in tears,went to the National Assembly toimplore the government to let them stay.

He did not specifically apologize to the studentswho said they felt "abandoned"after risking losing their path to permanent residency.

Still going 'in the right direction'

Speaking Tuesdayafternoon at the National Assembly, Jolin-Barrette acknowledged that last week was "not a good week."

"I take full responsibility forthe mistakes I made on the reforms on immigration," he said, although he said he still thinks hisgovernment isgoing "in the right direction" on immigration.

Some opposition MNAS have called for Jolin-Barrette to quit as immigration minister. Jolin-Barrette saidhe has no intention of doing that, but that he'll do better next time.

Premier Franois Legault said the "intention" of the reform was good,but it "wasn't done perfectly."

Legaultalso apologized Tuesday, "especially for the students" affected.

The premier said that "when we make large and important changes, sometimes you can make errors if you want to go too fast."

But change is necessary, he said, to take into account the labour shortage in certain areas when implementing immigration policy.

He said what happened last week was his fault,and he needs to make suredifferentministers work togethermore closely.