The Parti Québécois will form Quebec's next government, but it will be a minority. On the night of October 5, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon's party won 59 seats, CBC reports; the Quebec Liberal Party won 40, the Conservative Party of Quebec 19, Québec solidaire 9, and the Coalition Avenir Québec none. A majority required 64 of the 127 seats.
The results are still preliminary. Election-night figures are not yet official: the votes are added up again in each riding before the results become official, Élections Québec explains.
A promise is not a rule. This is the most important point in this article. A campaign commitment changes nothing until the new government turns it into a law, a regulation or an official decision, and publishes it. Until then, current rules keep applying: the immigration plan in force, the PEQ, the PSTQ and permits already issued. And because the government will be a minority, it will need the support of at least one other party to pass its bills.
What the PQ promises on permanent residence. In its 2026 election platform (in French only), the party proposes setting the threshold at 35,000 new permanent residents a year. It also plans a moratorium on permanent economic immigration from abroad: all economic immigrants admitted to permanent residence would then come from temporary residents already in Quebec, until the number of temporary residents has been cut in half. Two profiles would be favoured: French-speaking foreign graduates who have worked for two years in a sector facing shortages or with high added value, and workers hired directly in a shortage sector who, on arrival, have a French level between 5 and 9 on the Quebec scale. The party also promises to review the PEQ and to give workers from the Temporary Foreign Worker Program a grandfather clause to access it. Finally, it would require spouses in family reunification files to know French.
What it promises on temporary permits. Also according to its platform, the PQ wants to halve temporary immigration over four years, to between 200,000 and 250,000 people present in Quebec, while protecting agriculture, manufacturing, some regional sectors and direct services such as health care. It proposes tougher French requirements to renew a work permit, for any new permit and to obtain permanent residence. It wants to replace employer-specific work permits with regional and sector-based permits, and to make the hiring of temporary foreign workers (outside agriculture) conditional on an automation or optimization plan. Several of these measures depend partly on the federal government: the platform itself speaks of "demanding that the federal government" scrap the International Mobility Program.
What it promises on studies and French. The platform plans to review university funding tied to international students and the student quota set for each institution. On language, it proposes extending Bill 101 to CEGEP, as well as to the children of temporary immigrants settled in Quebec for more than twelve months and to students in vocational training and adult education. It also plans an integration pathway that includes an obligation to integrate in French.
And on housing. The PQ promises to build 20,000 social and non-market housing units and aims for social and non-market housing to make up 20% of the rental stock by 2050.
What the platform does not say. The document does not mention the PSTQ by name, nor any start date for these measures. We are therefore making no assumption about what will happen to the PSTQ, or about when the other changes might take effect.
What about voting? Only Canadian citizens could vote in this election; our article on who can vote in provincial elections explains why.
Good to know for newcomers. Do not make any decision based on a campaign promise: the rules in force today are the ones that count, as long as no official change has been announced. Real changes will come through official announcements from the Quebec government, which we will cover here as soon as they are published. In the meantime, if your plans involve French, the free classes described in our guide to French-language integration (francisation) remain a good investment, whoever is in power.
