Earlier today, Quebec's immigration minister, Yolande James, announced that the province will be implementing special humanitarian immigration measures in response to the January 12 earthquake in Haiti. These measures come in addition to the measures already implemented by the federal government.

As part of an agreement with the federal government, the province of Quebec is responsible for selecting its own immigrants, including those they select on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

In this case, Quebec has chosen to allow its residents to sponsor adult children or siblings and their dependents from Haiti only. People who wish to sponsor these relatives can also have any Quebec resident co-sign the sponsorship application, whether they are related to the sponsor or not.

The above special immigration measures will be in place from February 17th to December 31st 2010 and will welcome a maximum of 3,000 Haitians.

Spouses, parents, grandparents and dependent children affected by the earthquake could already be sponsored on a priority basis under special immigration measures that were introduced by the federal government.