Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois supports Bill C-12, an act respecting certain measures relating to the security of Canada's borders and the integrity of the Canadian immigration system and respecting other related security measures, at third reading. As the critic for immigration, refugees and citizenship, I will explain why we support this legislation, particularly in terms of what it does for ou…
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Mr. Speaker, as I understand it, that is what was discussed in committee, and it was determined that Bill C‑12 includes a deadline of one year, after which asylum claims cannot be made. It stands to reason that someone who fears persecution if they return to their country would be capable of submitting a claim within a year of arriving here.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his well-reasoned question. With respect to the distribution of asylum seekers, I call on this government to show leadership and ensure that a distribution plan is put in place. That has not been done. It made a timid attempt to do so in the summer of 2024, if memory serves. In the end, roughly 200 asylum seekers were willing to resettle in Newfoundland and La…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague, whom I hold in high regard, for her remarks. She took the time to clearly explain the Kanyinda decision, a recent Supreme Court ruling. There has been debate in Quebec following this ruling as to whether Quebec will invoke the notwithstanding clause to opt out of it. This is a debate that will take place in Quebec, and it will be up to Quebeckers to…
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Mr. Speaker, I understand my colleague's opposition to Bill C‑12. However, we think it is a balanced approach that is not without risks, but that addresses our legitimate concerns about the integrity of the process. In particular, the government wants to add a rule that would require asylum seekers to be on Canadian soil to have their case heard. What does my colleague have against that specific p…
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Mr. Speaker, extensive work was done in committee with the Bloc Québécois immigration critic at the time, the member for Lac-Saint-Jean. We think we were able to get our most important amendments adopted. That is why we are supporting Bill C-12 today.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague spoke at length about constitutional limits and about the fact that, in today's Canada, some sections of the Constitution would prevent the full integration of the Conservative ideology. Members of the Bloc Québécois are separatists. We would like Quebec to become a country so that we can set our own standards. In our opinion, the Constitution of Canada sets limits that p…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague very much for her speech and for walking us through the legislative process. I have a question for her. Can she inform the House about the balance that we struck between the imperative need to protect our facilities from cyber-attacks and the need to avoid compromising people's privacy, particularly when Internet service providers are allowed to do certain thing…
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Mr. Speaker, I think it is very important to look into what happened in order to try to restore some trust among the public. There have definitely been issues with adaptation. There has been a significant increase in asylum seekers and temporary residents. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada asked the colleges and universities to send in semi-annual reports, which it then set aside and di…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that Bill C-12 will provide some tools, and that is great. Now all we need is some leadership. On Monday, the minister came to talk to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. We pointed out to her that there were serious problems with the integrity of the process regarding international students. I did not get the sense that we were talking to someone who is det…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been the immigration critic for a few weeks, and my relationship with the minister is not yet close enough for her to tell me about her choices regarding her agenda, unfortunately. However, I do think that her presence could have enlightened the House, but perhaps not.
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Mr. Speaker, we support Bill C-12, with the amendments that have been made.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague’s opinion on the two interpretive provisions that were added to the bill in order to address certain concerns. Here is what is clearly stated in one of those provisions:...nothing in subsection 319(2) or (2.2) of the Criminal Code shall be construed as prohibiting a person from communicating a statement on a matter of public interest, including an ed…
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Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, the only people who have anything to fear from Bill C‑9 are those who want to incite hatred—so they are already doing wrong—by hiding behind their religion, using passages from the Bible, the Torah or the Quran, for example. All the bill does is remove the religious exemption. Someone who is accused of inciting hatred would not be able to hide behind a text and …
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Mr. Speaker, the question I have for my colleague is this. Do we want to live in a country where people can incite hatred and use religious text as an excuse to get off scot-free?
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Mr. Speaker, I think we share a lot of the same concerns about Bill C-13. My question is about investor-state dispute settlement and the tension between our legitimate need to ensure national sovereignty, in other words, that everyone who does business here is working within the same laws, and this kind of parallel mechanism that international trade agreements often tend to put in place. What are …
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Mr. Speaker, as the Bloc Québécois immigration critic, I want to tell the House our position on the bill introduced by my Conservative colleague from Calgary Nose Hill. We will vote in favour of Bill C-220 so it can be studied in committee. This is to allow for continued democratic discussion on the important issue of sentencing in criminal cases where the accused does not have citizenship status.…
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Mr. Speaker, last week, I met with workers at a factory, a sorting facility, in my riding. The first issue they raised was housing. I was asked how we could ensure that housing gets built faster in my riding. It is a very broad question, but I would like to pose it to my colleague. How will Build Canada Homes speed up housing construction?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her co-operation during our work together on housing projects in my riding, in the Gaspé and on the Magdalen Islands. I would like to ask her a question, because I think she has a good grasp of regional realities. At the moment, construction costs are often 30% higher in the regions, but the funds provided by governments to build affordable housing mak…
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Mr. Speaker, we, too, are concerned about Build Canada Homes. One of our concerns is that it is a large bureaucratic entity that is too far removed from the action and does not provide adequate justification for its decisions. That is what is happening already. In my riding, proponents of a housing project received a letter saying that their proposal was rejected because the program is so competit…
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Madam Speaker, first I want to mention that I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the member for Beauharnois—Salaberry—Soulanges—Huntingdon. Her riding may get a new name soon that will probably be easier to pronounce. As the Bloc Québécois critic for immigration, citizenship and refugees, I would like to lay out our party's position on the official opposition's motion on health care for as…
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Madam Speaker, my point is that legitimate grievances can exist in a society. A person waiting for a hip replacement in Quebec has a right to be angry about delays. What we need to do is find a solution to that problem, not look for someone to blame. That is what I am worried about. I believe we certainly have the means to take proper care of asylum seekers. However, the federal government also ne…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's question is an excellent one, and there are two parts to the answer. As we have seen, the increase in costs is due to the increase in refugee claims. That is not the federal government's fault. However, the Liberal government needs to answer for failing to add resources to process refugee claims given the growing demand from asylum seekers. That is the federal governm…
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has already been calling on the federal government for quite some time now to reimburse Quebec for its costs, given the influx of migrants at Roxham Road. I think we agree on that point, since we are both calling on the federal government to reimburse the costs. I completely agree with my colleague that we need to apply pressure and that the federal government nee…
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Mr. Speaker, in the Conservative Party's motion, they propose to adopt policies that would see the immediate deportation of foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes in Canada. However, section 36 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act already provides for the deportation of individuals convicted of serious crimes punishable by a term of imprisonment of at least 10 years, as well as tho…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is concerned that Build Canada Homes will create a new point of federal-provincial friction and make things more complicated. I agree with my colleague on that. I would like to hear my colleague's opinion. What does he think of our proposal, which is simply for the federal government to redistribute the billions of dollars to the provinces so that the provinces can …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I think that we share his concerns about the centralist nature of the bill. Let us not forget that the Liberal government's last good idea on housing was the Canada housing infrastructure fund, which was announced in April 2024. It took almost two years before an agreement was finally reached with Quebec for the money to come through. I would like …
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Mr. Speaker, we in the Bloc Québécois share my colleague's concerns about the centralizing and bureaucratic nature of Build Canada Homes. Of course we want housing to be built and we want the federal government to invest. I will give an example. There is a program from the Quebec government in my riding, but the situation is somewhat similar. The cost of modular homes was calculated, and the same …
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government's loss of control during the Roxham Road crisis is worse than we feared. According to the C.D. Howe Institute, when the federal government was overwhelmed by too many refugee claims, it scaled back its assessments. Between 2019 and 2023, 25,000 people were accepted as refugees without being interviewed. These are 25,000 refugees who were accepted, many of them i…
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Mr. Speaker, when the federal government was swamped with asylum claims at Roxham Road, its solution was to accept refugees indiscriminately in order to speed up the process. Ottawa drew up a list of countries whose applicants were automatically accepted without any questions asked. Those countries included Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and many others that are currently problematic. As a result, at t…
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Mr. Speaker, my party is in favour of electric vehicle subsidies. However, we are disappointed that the federal government has scrapped the idea of an electric vehicle availability standard that would have required all vehicles sold in Canada as of 2035 to be electric. Such a regulatory tool would have been key to achieving transportation electrification. Can my colleague explain why they scrapped…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by taking a moment to recognize scouting week, which runs from February 16 to 22 this year. The scouting movement is an educational path for young people that is based on volunteerism and is open to all, as conceived by its founder, Baden-Powell. Scouting is the largest youth movement in the world, and the francophone scouting movement brings together more than 1…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois believes that EVs are the future. There are currently no EV assembly plants in Quebec. However, subsidies for purchasing EVs are effective because they fast-track the electrification of transportation and make EVs more affordable. What does the Conservative Party have against more affordable EVs?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and his joyful words. I have a question for him. Why are the Conservatives getting all worked up about EV subsidies, saying that this encourages foreign auto manufacturers, but they are perfectly fine with giving about $10 billion in subsidies every year to the oil industry, 60% of which is owned by Americans?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and his explanations. The Bloc Québécois supports this bill and believes that it gives parliamentarians a tool to put pressure on the executive branch in the event that it fails to meet its obligations. I understand what my colleague is saying. We should be able to expect the government to do its job and we, as MPs, could apply pressure. However, le…
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Madam Speaker, as I talk about housing, I would like to also broach the subject of young people, justice and hope. First, let us talk about our young people. They are buckling under the weight of a triple crisis: unaffordable housing, crushing debt and unemployment, which is two times higher than other generations. In fact, 59% of people under 35 report having serious housing problems. That figure…
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Mr. Speaker, it would be difficult for me to speculate on what is motivating my colleagues' position on our motion. I think the general idea is that this is a great project and we want everything to be great. Nevertheless, we have to be very careful in life. It is like when someone wants to build something and is too hasty. I believe that we are the voice of reason in all of this, and perhaps this…
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Mr. Speaker, my question for my colleague is this. What is his reaction to the public concern underlying our motion? People are afraid that their property will be stolen out from under them and that their rights will be violated. How does my colleague respond to the fact that we are being attacked, here in the House, for raising public concerns? We are being accused of spreading disinformation and…
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Mr. Speaker, what is progress? In my opinion, that means moving forward as a society toward the common good. Was Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's Mirabel Airport project a step in the right direction at the end of the 1960s? No, because the plan for an airport of the future fell through, but also and especially because it was rushed. With the massive expropriations carried out by the federa…
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Mr. Speaker, if anything, I wish that my colleague were right and that this were all made up, because I would be less concerned for the people over there. Some mayors are now saying that they are not being consulted. That is a fact. What does Bill C-15 do? It exempts the project from a number of protections that were enshrined in law. These are legitimate concerns, and it worries me when my collea…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from eastern Quebec and I often talk about trains. We are currently discussing high-speed rail, this major project, but there is also the problem of Via Rail's passenger train service, which I think both of us are concerned about, but that is a separate issue. On the issue of cost, obviously that is a point that deserves to be raised and studied. If we go too fast, withou…
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Mr. Speaker, the people of Gaspé have been without Via Rail passenger rail service for over 12 years, a service that is essential for our community. Passenger rail service supports the regional economy, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps people get around. We are talking about 12 years of neglect by a Crown corporation that is largely funded with taxpayers' money and whose mandate includes…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that, like me, my colleague is concerned about the impact inflation is having on people. I would like to share that, shortly before Christmas, I was walking around Chandler, in my riding. I stopped at an arena to chat with people. One of the volunteers, who might have been over 65, came up to me, took me by the arm and asked me what we are doing here, because he cannot make en…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his interesting remarks on the country's debts. It is well known and accepted by everyone: more debts equals less freedom. Now, my question is as follows. When the government has to address certain issues, is it better for the state to go into debt or for households to do so? What we are seeing is that household debt has increased fairly significantly …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague for his resilience considering the challenges he has overcome, which have no doubt made him stronger. While we are talking about the rising cost of living, he is focusing a lot on the carbon tax. I have a question for him. Does he not recognize that global warming, the accelerating deterioration of the climate, the increased flooding, the increased droug…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague. I am willing to work with her on this important matter. There is a food bank near me in Gaspésie that has had to turn away people. Let us imagine these people, who must overcome their shame and who show up to get food, but who are unfortunately turned away because so many people showed up that the food bank worker had to screen applications. I spoke with …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to commend my colleague's excellent speech. He basically expressed and illustrated a great irony. The recent trade war with the Americans has led to a bit of a surge in Canadian nationalism. At the same time, the current government is making a lot of concessions. The Liberals say they want to defend Canadian sovereignty, but they are aligning themselves with American policies o…
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Mr. Speaker, my concerns lie with the poorest members of our society as well as social equity. My colleague addressed those issues. I would like to hear his perspective on a problem that is very important to us, one that we have been calling for a solution to for a very long time. I am talking about a comprehensive and major reform of EI to ensure that the seasonal sectors of our economy can funct…
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Mr. Speaker, this is not the first concession the Prime Minister has made out of fear of Donald Trump. He abandoned the digital services tax, which would have forced American web giants to pay their fair share. Then he abandoned the anti-evasion measure known as the global minimum tax in order to spare the people who are financing the President's new ballroom. Today, he is abandoning our forestry …
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Mr. Speaker, today, the Prime Minister is meeting with Donald Trump in connection with the FIFA World Cup. He should not be talking about sports. He should be talking about the economy. He was elected on a promise to protect us from the American President. So far, not only is no one claiming victory, but yesterday we learned that the Prime Minister is giving up on our forestry industry's main dema…
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