Parliamentary Speeches
772 speeches by Alexandre Boulerice — Page 11 of 16
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, before asking my colleague a question, I would like to remind him of two things. First, he does not have a monopoly on speaking for the Quebec nation. Fortunately, that honour is shared by many of my colleagues in the House. Second, I hope that he also shares the vision of the French philosopher Camus, who reminded us that democracy is not the law of the majority, but the protection o…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague from Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke. First, in the wake of yesterday's tragedy in a Laval day care, I would like to take a moment to express my thoughts for the children who were victims of a senseless and horrific act, as well as for their parents and families. My thoughts are also with the employees of the day care. I think we need to refl…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I would like her to talk a little bit more about the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, who was attacking the official opposition, saying that it has no plan, that its plan is non-existent. I would like my colleague to talk about the fact that, despite the price on pollution, the Liberal government is failing to reduce its greenhouse gas…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I would like to circle back to a point that I find particularly relevant, and that is the Liberals' fear or reluctance to go after big oil's profits. There is a double standard towards ordinary Canadians. We have pointed out that the oil companies have doubled their profits, that the government continues to hand them subsidies and that it does no…
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Mr. Speaker, our health care system is in crisis as result of cuts by the Conservatives and Liberals. Although the Prime Minister promised to strengthen our public system, he is confusing innovation and privatization. He is more than a little off the mark. Profit has no place in any discussion about people's health. We need to invest in our universal public health care system now more than ever. M…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals funnelled over $100 million into McKinsey's coffers, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Millions have gone to KPMG, Deloitte and their ilk. Not only is this a waste of taxpayer dollars, but it takes away from our public service. It is a form of privatization. In the meantime, the Liberals are being stingy at the bargaining table. Our public service employees deserve…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Jean for her very thoughtful, reasonable and well-informed speech. In Montreal, there are shootings and gunfire. Violence has increased, parents and families are worried about their children and there is a proliferation of guns. I would like my colleague's opinion. Is there not a security problem that stems from the lack of gun control?
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Mr. Speaker, to begin, I would like to point out that it is February 1, and I would like to wish everyone in this country a happy Black History Month. Sometimes my math skills are called into question, but, if my calculations are right, tomorrow will be February 2. Now, February 2 is Groundhog Day. I feel like I am reliving Groundhog Day a day ahead of time. I will probably repeat the speech I gav…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his persistence on this one issue, which keeps coming up. I would note that, in 2021, he told the Standing Committee on Finance that 2,332 of the Canada Revenue Agency's 5,300 employees in Quebec would remain employed. That means 3,000 people would lose their jobs. The NDP cares deeply about what happens to workers, especially unionized workers. My colleague m…
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Mr. Speaker, six years ago, a radicalized young man committed an act of hatred in an act of violence seldom seen in our history. He entered the Quebec City mosque and opened fire on everyone inside with a semi-automatic weapon and then a handgun. Six men lost their lives and 19 others were injured, leaving behind broken families and grieving loved ones. We said, “never again”, but are we really an…
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Madam Speaker, many people believe that the first NDP MP in Quebec was the former NDP leader, Thomas Mulcair. While Tom won an impressive victory in the 2007 byelection in Outremont and was subsequently re-elected three times, he was not the first. Phil Edmonston was the first. Phil won the 1990 byelection in Chambly with 67% of the votes. His background leading up to that was an unusual one. Born…
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Mr. Speaker, while sick children are suffering and our children's hospitals are overflowing, the Prime Minister is trying to blend into the background. Worried parents are filling the waiting rooms with their little ones, but this Prime Minister is nowhere to be found. People are looking for him, but no one can find him. This is not the time to play “Where's Waldo”. At Sainte-Justine Hospital in M…
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That would be nice—
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Mr. Speaker, on December 6, 1989, a man entered a classroom at École Polytechnique with a semi-automatic rifle. He separated the men from the women and killed 14 female students. These 14 bright young women were cowardly murdered because they were women. It is a horrible, misogynistic, sexist and hate-filled crime. Hate continues to kill, even today. We see evidence of this violence and toxic masc…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House to remind everyone that, in this minority government, the NDP is acting responsibly and forcing the Liberal government to do things that matter to people, such as introducing dental care and increasing the GST credit. Bill C‑32 is not perfect, but it contains concrete measures that will help students, first-time homebuyers and our small and medium-s…
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Madam Speaker, it is unfortunate to hear such language in the House, but the member for La Prairie used unparliamentary and insulting language as a personal attack against me. I would very much like the member for La Prairie to apologize to the House.
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Mr. Speaker, in Quebec, pediatric emergency rooms continue to be overwhelmed. Occupancy is 150% in some hospitals. In pediatric care units, every overflow bed is full. The Centre mère-enfant in Quebec City was forced to postpone an extraordinary number of surgeries. Among the hospitalized children are the very young, under two, who are having respiratory problems. The situation is getting worse by…
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Mr. Speaker, for weeks now, doctors have been sounding the alarm about the catastrophic situation in Quebec's emergency rooms. People have even died while waiting. Just yesterday, Dr. Guylaine Larose, a pediatrician at Sainte-Justine Hospital, said she had never seen so many children in respiratory distress. Doctors and nurses are exhausted, and parents are worried. We are in the middle of a crisi…
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Mr. Speaker, the pace of climate change will make part of the planet unhabitable and intensify natural disasters here at home. The most vulnerable will suffer. What was the Minister of Environment and Climate Change's mandate at COP27? There was none. It was to maintain the status quo, salvage whatever we can and keep the oil companies happy. One environmental expert said that what happened in Egy…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this important bill today. As a left-leaning progressive politician and union man, it is really important for me to be here in the House to support the initiative of the member who introduced this private member's bill. This initiative is completely in line with the values of the NDP, which has been the political party of workers sinc…
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Mr. Speaker, it never ends. Big grocery chains, such as Metro and Loblaw, are raking in the profits on the backs of families. They are still using a crisis as a pretext for making obscene amounts of money. Loblaw's profits alone are up 29%. Meanwhile, people are skipping meals to save money, and food banks cannot keep up with demand. The Liberals are refusing to make big grocery chains change thei…
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Mr. Speaker, COP27 has wrapped up and the entire world can see that, when it comes to climate change, the Liberals say one thing and do another. Other than Japan, Canada is the G20 country that gives the most money to oil companies. According to the climate change performance index, Canada ranks 58 out 63. Congratulations, that is impressive. Worse yet, the Minister of Environment and Climate Chan…
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Madam Speaker, the NDP knows that governments need to be there to help people, especially in tough times. Families across this country are struggling. Everything costs more because of the greed of the wealthiest. In health care, emergency rooms are overflowing. People are waiting endless hours for care. The Liberals admit that we are heading into a recession, but they have not fixed the EI system.…
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Madam Speaker, since we are talking about the rights of citizens, I would like to ask a question that is timely and urgent. Does my colleague agree that a government should use the notwithstanding clause to take away workers' right to strike?
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Mr. Speaker, economists say that increased demand will result in increased supply. However, the opposite is true for public transit. We need to increase the supply for there to be a demand. In short, we need effective and attractive public transit for people to get on board. Public transit is essential for improving urban mobility and reducing our carbon footprint, but it is also vital for interci…
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Mr. Speaker, according to a recent report, the government is letting $30 billion a year slip through its fingers because of tax evasion. Thirty billion dollars is a huge amount of money. While searching through the Paradise papers, the program Enquête found an example—
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Mr. Speaker, according to a recent report, the government is letting $30 billion a year slip through its fingers because of tax evasion. Thirty billion dollars is a huge amount of money. While searching through the Paradise papers, the program Enquête found a shameful example of these practices. For years, the Irving empire has systematically been using shell companies in Bermuda to avoid paying w…
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Mr. Speaker, on the weekend, the Minister of the Environment begged the oil companies that are making record profits to invest in renewable energy. Instead of begging, the government should stop throwing billions of dollars in public money at the oil industry. According to a report, except for Japan, Canada leads the G20 in financing oil companies. The Liberals promised to end these subsidies by 2…
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Mr. Speaker, while CEOs of grocery store chains fill their pockets, ordinary people are being forced to choose between paying rent or buying groceries. One in five people are skipping one meal a day to lower their grocery bill, and demand for food banks is through the roof. That is what it has come to. The Liberals have allowed corporate greed to force families to make impossible choices. People a…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-302, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers). Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise in the House to introduce this bill that is so important to NDP supporters. The NDP has always been the party for workers. There has been a flaw in the Canada Labour Code for years. It does not ban the use of replacement workers during a labour dispute. That…
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Madam Speaker, as the saying goes, it is better to laugh than cry. We are getting a glimpse of the Bloc Québécois's despair at not being able to achieve anything concrete for Quebeckers. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, 71,000 children in Quebec will benefit from the dental care program. Some 480,000 Quebeckers will benefit from the rent allowance. Is the Bloc Québécois member really…
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Mr. Speaker, people are going hungry in our country right now. That is shameful in a country as rich as ours. Today's annual report from Food Banks Canada shows that food bank use is at an all-time high. In a single month, there were 1.5 million visits. People are going without, but the Liberals refuse to stand up to the CEOs of the major grocery chains and make them pay what they owe us. When wil…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Pierrefonds—Dollard for his motion, his speech and his commitment to the Uighur issue, which is also very important to New Democrats. We certainly support this move. We need to stand up for human rights and speak out against the genocide that the Uighurs are being subjected to, their treatment and forced labour. If Parliament is speaking with one voice, or …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. As a left-leaning man or woman or as a socialist, you fight against inequality and privilege. No system gives more privileges to a family than the monarchical system. It is an absurd, archaic and undemocratic system. We agree on that. However, when we participate in debates in the House, we must use time wisely and set priorities. Still, the Bloc…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech and her passion. With regard to the monarchy, I will simply quote the very famous Indiana Jones who said, “That belongs in a museum”. The Bloc Québécois has talked a lot about the money that could be saved, and it is true that $67 million is a lot of money. We could build a lot of social housing and help community groups with that money. Every lit…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Hochelaga for her speech. As a proud democrat and a proud socialist, I do not mind talking about the monarchy, because I can settle the matter rather quickly and move on to another subject. In talking about other topics, she focused a bit on the fact that our health care system is being strangled, emergency rooms are overflowing and people are really strugg…
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Madam Speaker, I have been listening to the speeches from my Bloc Québécois colleagues since the day began, and I am surprised that no one has made a single particularly compelling argument, in my opinion. As parliamentarians, we have to take an oath. It can be quite unpleasant, I agree. However, people who were born in Quebec and in Canada do not have to take that oath. There is a lot of talk abo…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I really appreciated what she said about how pesticides affect people's lives and health. In the summer of 2021, the Liberal government decided to increase traces of pesticides, including glyphosate, in pulses and berries. There was outrage, and the Liberals were forced to backtrack. At the time, they promised to be more transparent. Today, we lear…
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Mr. Speaker, this is a heartbreaking message from Sébastin Marin, a doctor at the hospital in Ormstown. He wrote: “I ended my night with a patient who died right in front of me from a ruptured thoracic aortic aneurysm. That same patient had waited 16 hours yesterday at another hospital without being seen...There was nothing I could do. He died within minutes of arriving.” The patient spent 16 hour…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, on the Island of Montreal, there is an extraordinary place known as TechnoparcOiseaux or Champ des monarques. A site rich in biodiversity, it is home to 193,000 species of birds and an essential feeding ground for the monarch butterfly, which has been declared an endangered species. This site is also at risk because the Montreal airports authority, Aéroports de Montréal, wants to use …
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Mr. Speaker, obviously there is no plan at all. We learned that the Liberals spent $28 million to lease land near Roxham Road and they did so secretly. Instead of suspending the safe third country agreement to streamline the process for refugees, the Liberals chose to funnel millions of dollars of public money to a Liberal donor without a call for tenders. For a Liberal, a crony is always a crony.…
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Mr. Speaker, to the best of my knowledge, oil is not a renewable resource. While many people are struggling to pay for groceries, we have learned that Loblaws plans to freeze prices on its “No Name” products. It is a nice gesture, but it comes after months of inflation, months of seeing our families struggle. The Liberals have allowed the CEOs of these large corporations to get rich off the backs …
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Madam Speaker, let me take this opportunity to triple, triple, triple congratulate my NDP colleague for his work. It is incredible. This is exactly what a member of Parliament should do. My extraordinary NDP colleague has three wins here. First, there is this opposition motion that will actually affect people's lives and make a difference with practical solutions by looking at the situation concer…
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Madam Speaker, I agree that this is an important debate, especially since the NDP brought it to the House. We would not have brought it forward if we did not think it was important for people, for our society. We took that initiative. It is true, we are sending a message with this debate. We are telling them that we are watching and that we are keeping an eye on them. Then there needs to be action…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. The Conservative Party sees premiums as a tax. An EI premium is insurance in the event of a loss of employment. A pension plan premium is an investment for the future. We will need this money when we are older. There is a world of difference between the two concepts. It is important to tell the truth. We are taking ac…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague on why it is so important to fight tax havens, but here is where we part ways. The Bloc Québécois will never be in power, but we might be. It is entirely possible—more possible, anyway. It is true that both Liberals and Conservatives have for years failed to take action on tax havens. It is a perennial problem. Barbados alone is sheltering $80 billion Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, with rising prices, people are being squeezed, and they are having trouble making ends meet at the end of the month. Big bosses are profiting off human suffering to line their own pockets, and that sickens me. The CEO of Sobeys makes $8 million, the CEO of Metro makes $5 million, and the CEO of Loblaws also makes $5 million. These profits are up 17% to 27%. While people are being forc…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I will give him the opportunity to clarify a little the remarks made by the Conservative Party in recent weeks. They seem to be confusing a tax with a contribution. When people contribute to EI, they are putting money aside for the day when they will need it because they have lost their jobs. When people contribute to the Canada pension plan, the…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. There is good news in this bill: the GST credit, the housing benefit and dental care for children this year and for seniors next year. The good thing is that this all came about because the government listened to the NDP's good ideas. The work of the NDP caucus is what got us to this point. Why stop now when we could go even further and tax the e…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, but I just want to point out that dental care for children, the higher GST tax credit and the housing benefit top-up all came about because the NDP forced the Liberals to introduce them. This is a minority government, and we used our position of strength to get results for people. The rising cost of living is hurting people, so why stop there? Oil …
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