Québec voters go to the polls on Monday, 5 October 2026. Élections Québec’s writ-period release (27 August) confirmed the date for roughly 6.4 million electors on a new 127-riding map. With advance polls 27–28 September and office voting already under way, the final Radio-Canada leaders’ debate on 23 September put immigration numbers versus housing, French, and public-service capacity back at centre stage — a standing Teabag desk question, not a horse-race column.

Permanent-admission targets from 35,000 to 70,000 are campaign pledges with primary party paper behind the extremes — not federal IRCC Levels Plan figures, and not a verdict on individual newcomers.
Citizen impact: Provincial permanent-admission thresholds shape who Québec selects inside shared federal-provincial lanes; temporary-resident stock (students, workers, asylum) still collides with housing queues, school modulars, and French-language capacity that households feel first. Pair federal IRCC’s 2026–28 temporary-arrival cuts toward NPR under 5% by end-2027 with Québec’s own threshold fight — different ledgers, same citizen constraint.

What the debate and party paper put on the record

CBC’s 24 September debate takeaways summarise the five-party frame aired on Radio-Canada:

  • Coalition Avenir Québec: about 45,000 permanent admissions per year (framed as down from ~60,000 the prior year).
  • Conservative Party of Québec: same 45,000 permanent target in debate coverage.
  • Parti Québécois: 35,000 permanent admissions per year.
  • Québec solidaire: 70,000 permanent admissions.
  • Québec Liberal Party: previously a 45,000–70,000 range tied to regional capacity and labour needs; leader Charles Milliard told reporters after the debate he would not lock a hard number that night.

PQ primary (29 August 2026 release): fix permanent immigration at 35,000 new permanent residents per year; cut temporary immigration roughly in half (target reduction on the order of 200,000–250,000 people, with sector carve-outs stated for agriculture, manufacturing, some regional needs, and direct population services including health); impose a moratorium on permanent immigration from abroad until the temporary-stock objective is met, with economic permanent admissions drawn from temporaries already on the territory; add a Québec citizenship-integration ceremony commitment. The release stages the argument at a secondary school using modular classrooms — capacity framing, not a StatCan table.

What this piece refuses

Do not invent turnout, seat projections, or a federal Levels Plan rewrite. Do not treat debate-night paraphrases as Gazette instruments. Do not blame individual immigrants for housing shortfalls — the verified dispute is over thresholds and temporary stock versus services. Business lobbies continue to press for higher admissions for labour; PQ and CAQ frames emphasise French and housing. Report both.

Contested: Labour-shortage vs capacity-to-integrate. Referendum politics (PQ/QS) sat beside immigration in the same debate — this article keeps the immigration-capacity ledger primary.

Result — 6 October 2026

Élections Québec’s preliminary results, with all 20,704 polling stations reported by 2:23 a.m. ET on 6 October, give the Parti Québécois 59 of 127 seats, five short of a majority. The Liberals have 40, the Conservatives 19, Québec solidaire 9, and the CAQ none. Turnout was 66.89%. The pledge range in this piece now has a governing party at its low end: the PQ’s 35,000 permanent admissions a year. That is still a promise until a PQ government tables a plan. Full results file: PQ wins a minority.

Polling day — 5 October 2026

Polling stations were open 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on 5 October. Élections Québec’s preliminary results are now posted (all 20,704 stations reported by 2:23 a.m. ET on 6 October): see the results article and the Result section above. No party’s permanent-admission pledge becomes a provincial threshold until a government tables one. Watch the post-election immigration planning instruments, not election-night speeches.

Status as of 2 October 2026 (pre-poll ledger)

Élections Québec office voting at returning-officer offices ended Thursday, 1 October. Advance polls were 27–28 September. Polling day was Monday, 5 October 2026. No new provincial permanent-admission threshold instrument issued in the pre-poll window — party pledges still span roughly 35,000 (PQ) to 70,000 (Québec solidaire).

Bottom line

Verified: polling day 5 October 2026 (Élections Québec); office voting closed 1 October; final debate 23 September with permanent targets spanning 35k–70k; PQ.org primary for 35k plus temporary-cut/moratorium design. Polls were 9:30 a.m.–8 p.m. on 5 October. Result (preliminary, 6 Oct): PQ minority, 59 of 127 seats — full file in the results article. Watch post-election threshold instruments — not campaign slogans alone.