Parliamentary Speeches
799 speeches by Alexandre Boulerice — Page 4 of 16
Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question from my NDP colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith. I would point out that most economists agree that eliminating the poverty associated with having a disability would reduce overall poverty in Canada by 40%. That is significant. I repeat, 40% of poverty would be eliminated if we had a serious measure. The member is asking a great question. When the Conservat…
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is raging across the country. Rents have doubled under the Liberals. People cannot find housing they can afford. The Conservatives want us to believe they hold the solution, but they are part of the problem. When the Conservative leader was the minister responsible for housing, he built six housing units. He let big developers snap up 800,000 homes so they could get…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition I would like to present has to do with women and parental leave under the Employment Insurance Act. Under this act, women, who are already at a disadvantage in the labour market due to injustices and inequity, are still the ones to assume more family responsibilities. It is women who take nearly all the weeks of parental leave following the birth of a child. Howe…
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Madam Speaker, we will budget whatever amount is needed to lift people out of poverty. It is as simple as that. That is vital. In any case, that money will come back to the community and stimulate spending in our local economy. It will be good for everyone. It will be good for these people, as well as for local businesses. Earlier today, the member for Winnipeg North said that his party would like…
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Madam Speaker, things are going very well in Montreal. I thank the member for his concern, but he does not have to worry about me, because I have a lot of support. I would like to ask the Conservatives a question. During the dark years under Stephen Harper, cuts were made to public services and direct services to the public. Are the Conservatives prepared to commit today to maintaining the gains t…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to again list the local organizations that do truly incredible work in the community and that I have the pleasure and honour of representing here. The list includes the Association d'aide et de loisirs pour personnes à autonomie réduite, or ALPAR; the Regroupement des organismes spécialisés pour l'emploi des personnes handicapées; the Association multiethnique pour l'in…
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Mr. Speaker, folks often say that there are four stages in politics. The saying goes: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Judging from my colleague's speech, we are in the third stage. However, I vividly remember the dark days of Harper's Conservative government. They attacked seniors by forcing them to retire two years later. They attacked veterans …
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Mr. Speaker, I am not going to get into a debate over jurisdictions or centralization. I have a lot to say about that and I know that my colleague likes that topic. I like when she defends the Constitution, it is really interesting. I would like her to talk about the disappointment in the disability community. There was a promise to lift these people out of poverty and the government came up with …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that speech, which was both sensible and sensitive. I clearly remember the dark days of the Harper government. The Conservatives cut services to the public, to the poorest and most vulnerable. They cut everything from services for veterans and the unemployed to public services. The NDP made dental care for people with disabilities a reality, and they have be…
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Mr. Speaker, homelessness kills. That is not a metaphor, it is a sad reality. People are dying in the street. That is why the federal housing advocate urged this Liberal government to take meaningful measures to deal with the encampment crisis. Not a single thing has happened since. The minister has done nothing. People continue to spend the night in their car or on the street. It is a real crisis…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my Green Party colleague for his question, which is very compassionate. As social democrats, we in the NDP share his concern. If we want to help a person with a disability, we have to do it for their entire lifetime. My colleague is perfectly right in saying that a person's disability does not end at 65 and that just because old age security exists does not mean that w…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take part in today's important discussion, since it has to do with our country's seniors. However, while I have the floor of the House for a few minutes, I would like to point out that the NDP, like many tens of thousands of families in Quebec and Canada, is extremely concerned about the situation in Lebanon. My colleague from Edmonton Strathcona asked for and was gr…
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Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question. I too am very interested in knowing where the Liberal government is at the moment. It is a minority government. I get the impression that the Minister of Finance is dealing with a hot potato and does not know what to do with it. I would say to my Bloc Québécois colleague that it is a bit risky to bet on a royal recommendation to get help for seniors. I a…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. It is true that the Bloc Québécois sometimes find themselves in a peculiar situation, because they do not want federal programs to succeed, which would undermine the case that they generally make. They think that it is a bad thing to have dental care delivered by the federal government. I have attended about 30 public meetings on dental care in t…
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Mr. Speaker, I have already expressed my skepticism about the method being used, but I am not going to answer my colleague's question and give her such an easy out. I will, however, take this opportunity to question the Conservatives' vote on the motion. I find it odd that the Conservatives have decided to vote in favour of the motion for purely partisan reasons and to annoy the government conside…
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Madam Speaker, I have a whole lot of smart things to say. I wonder what the minister would say if there were no dental care. The Liberals voted against dental care in the last election. We forced them to implement it. Now, 200,000 Quebeckers are reaping the benefits thanks to the work of the NDP. I would like to hear the minister say one thing. I would like him to say “thank you”.
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Madam Speaker, I am very suspicious of the Conservative Party's current position on the pension increase for seniors, given the Conservatives' record of the past few years, whether on raising the age of retirement or on the cuts to health transfers to the provinces. Suddenly, the Conservatives are friends to seniors. I find that a bit suspicious, especially when their main argument is that inflati…
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Madam Speaker, we are hearing big words like “hypocrisy” and “cynicism”, but I think the most cynical thing the Liberals could do would be to vote for Bill C-319 and then not give it a royal recommendation. That way, they could say that they were in favour of the bill, but that they had to prevent it from passing because it would be too expensive. That is political cynicism. Let us talk about the …
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Mr. Speaker, Pascale is a single mom from Hull who wrote in an open letter, “I'm afraid I will never be able to buy a home. I'm afraid my eldest child will never know the joy of a space that she can truly call her own. I can't get a different apartment because rents have skyrocketed since I moved in...real estate prices in my neighbourhood are up over 150%”. The Liberals and the Conservatives are …
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to speak right after the leader of the NDP, who gave an excellent speech. He outlined the framework for this discussion and explained where we stand right now as a society, what people need and the risks associated with either the Liberals' inaction or the Conservatives' cuts. Over the past two years, we have seen what can be achieved when NDP members…
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Mr. Speaker, what the NDP actually did was help people who needed it the most through the Canada housing benefit and the dental care program. If the Conservatives ever get into power, what will they do with dental care? They will end seniors' access to dentists after 3.5 million people have already registered for the program and 645,000 people have benefited from it. I have called people who went …
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Mr. Speaker, one thing we know for sure is that the Leader of the Opposition did not ask for access to privileged information about foreign interference. That is very serious, because he says he wants to be prime minister, but he is not doing the work to find out what really happened. That says a lot about the leader of the Conservative Party, who is not who he claims to be. We know that he is no …
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Mr. Speaker, it is a bit much to say that we did not make any gains for Quebec. Try saying that to the Videotron or Port of Québec employees who were locked out because there was no anti-scab legislation. We defended the cause and won more rights for workers. Paying dentists' bills is not interfering in Quebec's health care system. We are not telling Quebec how to run its hospitals. So far, 205,03…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to hear my colleague admit that grocery prices have risen significantly and that families and individuals are struggling because of it. I hope that she will support the NDP's proposals. Right now, we are the only ones who are saying that we need to stabilize and control prices by capping the price of certain essential foods for families. I am surprised that I did not he…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I want to address the issue of temporary foreign workers. I have some concerns about their rights and working conditions; sometimes, not always. I am trying to understand. For the past few years, the Bloc Québécois and the Government of Quebec have been calling for less temporary immigration in Quebec. In fact, the member for Lac-Saint-Jean asked…
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Madam Speaker, I am going to ask a question somewhat similar to the one I asked the Bloc Québécois member earlier, concerning the recommendation to pay attention to the management of the temporary foreign worker program. Some people want to see temporary immigration to this country lowered. Others say that an exception may be in order, considering the very important role that temporary workers pla…
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleague that it was under a Liberal government in 1994 that the federal government withdrew, disengaged from social and affordable housing. Co-op housing and social housing help people so much. Someone told me that having access to social housing gave them back their freedom. The Conservatives often say that government intervention undermines freedom. Not having to…
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Mr. Speaker, that is another solution the NDP is proposing. With regard to an acquisition fund, I mentioned Vienna, which has truly set an example internationally. Montreal increased its fund recently, too. I think we need to do our part and use public land for truly affordable public housing. However, we also need to work together to be able to buy private land in order to break free from this ma…
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Madam Speaker, I have here an important petition signed by thousands of people who are telling us that the state of Palestine, governed by the Palestinian National Authority, currently does not have membership in the United Nations. Since the State of Israel currently has illegal settlements in the West Bank, there are concerns regarding potential illegal occupation of Gaza. As of 2024, the state …
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly hope those remarks were not made by Conservative members. That would be extremely unfortunate. The point of order is a very good one. The question I started to ask concerned housing co-ops—
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Mr. Speaker, I am sorry to see the Conservatives using the same old name-calling and personal attacks. It is reprehensible. Let us come back to the issue of co-op housing. The national housing strategy that was launched in 2017 made no mention of co-op housing. The Liberal government woke up at the last minute last spring and mentioned co-op housing in the budget. I would like my colleague to comm…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rather surprised that the member is concerned about what people in Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie are going to do, but I look forward to hearing what the Conservative candidate in my riding has to say about that in the next election. I would remind the House that, after the Liberals made cuts to the construction of social and affordable housing, Stephen Harper's Conservative governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I also appreciate the brevity of her answer just now. I do have a question for her, though, because the Liberals suddenly have a new-found passion for co-op housing. They displayed a glimmer of interest in more housing co-ops six months ago in April 2024, but, since 2017—
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Mr. Speaker, there is something that bothers me in the debate on housing and that I have heard too often; that is, for the Bloc Québécois, it is always the federal government's fault and, for the Liberals, it is always the Quebec government's fault. We lost three years in the federal-provincial agreement, and Canadians with inadequate housing or no housing at all are paying for it. I do not want t…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the admirable and extraordinary member for New Westminster—Burnaby. I think he will have some very interesting things to share with us about the reality in his region and in his province. I will start this intervention by thanking the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities for this…
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Mr. Speaker, Conservative governments across the country are privatizing our health care. They want to make people pay to see a doctor. It is no different in Quebec. However, this Prime Minister is too weak to stand up to the Conservatives. People are paying the price. What will it take for him to get a backbone and defend the principles of public, universal health care?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Yukon for his speech. Obviously, the NDP agrees that this historic mistake needs to be corrected. In a democracy, there is nothing more precious than citizenship, which allows us to take part in the work of government. It is extremely serious that people could lose their citizenship because of a legislative error. However, we are a bit concerned that, in the …
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. This historical error caused people to lose their citizenship, their rights and access to services. They became second-class citizens. Children became stateless and were stuck in limbo, although limbo apparently no longer exists because the church officially abolished it. I would like to talk about the Conservatives' position. They talk about citi…
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Madam Speaker, I found that the question from my Bloc Québécois colleague made a lot of sense, unlike the Conservatives' comments. However, I would like to ask my colleague the following question. If the Citizenship Act is unconstitutional, if the act allows people to lose their citizenship by accident or administrative error, if children are born stateless, why do the Conservatives want to drag t…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to start this short speech by taking a look at some important events that took place yesterday and by congratulating my new colleague, Leila Dance, who won in Winnipeg and held on to a seat for the NDP. She showed that we are capable of beating the Conservatives. I would congratulate Mr. Sauvé as well, who won in LaSalle-Émard-Verdun. I would also like to talk about ano…
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With regard to real estate sector investments made by the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB), since fiscal year 2015-16: (a) what is the total value of assets held in (i) residential, (ii) retirement, real estate; (b) in what ways does the PSPIB prioritize worker, community and societal health and well-being when considering its investments in residential and retirement real estate; an…
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With regard to federal housing investments for Montréal, since January 1, 2014: (a) how much federal funding was provided to the electoral district of (i) Outremont, (ii) Laurier—Sainte-Marie, (iii) Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, (iv) LaSalle—Émard—Verdun, (v) Hochelaga—Rosemont-Est, (vi) Papineau, to support the construction of cooperative housing, and how many units were developed in each electoral …
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With regard to funding programs managed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), broken down by fiscal year since 2015-16: (a) what are the details of each funding program, broken down by the (i) name of the program, service, fund, or initiative, (ii) amount of funding allocated; (b) which of the funding programs in (a) are expected to have their funding reduced by CMHC as part of th…
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With regard to federal funding and loans to Canada’s grocery sector, since January 1, 2006: how much federal funding has been provided to Loblaw Companies Limited and its subsidiaries, (i) No Frills, (ii) Real Canadian Superstore, (iii) Shoppers Drug Mart, (iv) Pharmaprix, (v) Provigo, (vi) Atlantic Superstore, (vii) Independent, (viii) T&T, broken down by company, year and type of funding?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his remarks. I know how interested and passionate he is about democratic and electoral issues. We both sat on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform back when the Liberals were still claiming they wanted a different voting system, one that would be fairer, more democratic and more egalitarian. They have since changed their tune. We have all reached the same…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith for her work and congratulate her on her speech. What we are seeing today with this bill is the NDP once again forcing the Liberals to make our voting system more accessible. As my colleague mentioned, that is the least of it for the New Democrats, who have far more ambitious goals. She spoke of her Motion No. 86, which, unfort…
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With regard to audits conducted by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), broken down by province or territory and fiscal year since 2015-16: (a) what is the total number of audits that determined a tax-payer had failed to withhold tax on rent paid to a non-resident landlord; (b) of the audits in (a), what is the total number of audits where (i) an adjustment resulting in more tax owing, (ii) an adjustm…
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Mr. Speaker, all the experts agree. Everyone agrees. The proposed third highway link is not a good idea. It is too expensive. It will pollute. All that to save five minutes' driving time. We know that does not matter to the Bloc and the Conservatives, because they support it. For the NDP, however, it is a hard no. The viable, environmentally friendly and efficient solution is a tramway. Can the Li…
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Mr. Speaker, the housing crisis is wreaking havoc everywhere. Elderly people are sleeping in their cars. People are unable to pay the exorbitant amounts being charged for rent. A recent report tells us why. Affordable housing is disappearing at an alarming rate across the country. Simply put, there is little to none left. The Liberals, like the Conservatives, turned their backs on social and affor…
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Mr. Speaker, Jean-René Patry is 80 years old. He has worked his entire life and is still working, although he is starting to feel tired. Even though he works, he is forced to live in his van. With his pension and earnings from odd-jobs, an apartment in Montreal is now beyond his means. All of that is the result of the Liberals and the Conservatives leaving housing in the hands of speculators. Mr. …
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