Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I am a bit disturbed by everything I am hearing in the House today. The NDP had an opportunity to help people who really needed it by continuing to support us on Bill C‑319 to increase pensions. Instead, the New Democrats have continued to support this spendthrift government with measures that do not really help people. Our leader even said that, at some point, someone would get tir…
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Madam Speaker, what an extremely interesting exchange we are having. Since I am critic for the status of women, I have heard about this issue, this injustice. The question asked by the Conservative member who spoke previously is interesting. It reopens the debate on how unpaid labour can be better recognized. Caregivers who have to care for someone else when they retire is indeed one example of un…
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Madam Speaker, it is true that many women have contacted me with regard to this clause as it relates to veterans. What I also understand from my colleague's speech is the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder and its lifelong repercussions. I discussed this with the ombudsman for the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces. PTSD can indeed have dire consequences. These peopl…
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Madam Speaker, in his speech, my colleague spoke about the fact that seniors on a pension are on a fixed income that has not kept up with the rise in inflation over the years. We should review how pensions are indexed. That might be a solution. The Bloc Québécois also introduced the bill because this is not right. There is something unfair in the fact that a 68-year-old senior does not receive the…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I are fortunate enough to work together on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. I would like to point her toward solutions to this issue. Last week, the House debated a report from the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. It discussed Canada's feminist policy. A Liberal member asked me what we were proposing. I mentioned a few…
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Madam Speaker, the Standing Committee on the Status of Women has just completed a study on the rise in femicides. Sadly, women are being murdered because they cannot escape the cycle of violence. We studied the issue of inadequate housing for indigenous women and girls which, unfortunately, means that they make up a disproportionate number of homicide and human trafficking cases. We just marked th…
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Madam Speaker, we learned today that there will be an economic statement on December 16. I would like to ask my colleague if he is aware that a letter was sent to the Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister about the Yänonhchia' project. It is a really wonderful project, and all this group is asking for is a $150‑million investment to facilitate access to affordable capital and expand the mo…
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Madam Speaker, when it comes to housing for indigenous communities, the important thing, the thing they are really looking for, is to for the power to finally be given back to them. They already have projects in place. I recently met people at my office who have projects in their community that are working. It is important to not impose anything on them, but to truly engage in dialogue and collabo…
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Madam Speaker, this is an interesting debate. Housing in indigenous communities is a real problem. Several of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women's reports on housing mention it, particularly how housing issues disproportionately affect indigenous women and girls and prevent them from escaping the cycle of violence. That said, I would like to talk to my colleague about a very simple solu…
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Mr. Speaker, today is December 6, 2024, and 35 years have passed. This evening, 15 beams of light will illuminate the skies of Montreal a little. We have not forgotten. We have not forgotten them, sisters who were taken from us. We have not forgotten Geneviève Bergeron, 21, mechanical engineering student. We have not forgotten Maryse Laganière, 25, financial services employee. We have not forgotte…
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Madam Speaker, I remember taking part in some of the meetings on this study at the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. What struck me was how religion was brought into the equation and how it skewed the debate on women's right to control their own bodies. Is this not another argument for saying that it is absolutely essential to remember the importance of secularis…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat confused today, because we all remember when, for electoral reasons, the NDP tore up their agreement, saying they no longer had confidence in the government. However, they continue to support it. As for the Conservatives, they have long been saying that they no longer have confidence in the government. The Bloc Québécois was clear and set two conditions pertaining to sen…
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Mr. Speaker, I cannot get over all the studies we have to do in the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, studies that remind us that there are real risks of losing ground. In fact, it is already happening. Masculinism is clawing back the rights women acquired thanks to those feminists who paved the way for today's women through decades of struggle. Now we see that, because of misogyny and th…
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Madam Speaker, I am rising this morning in place of my extraordinary colleague, the member for Montarville. I would like to take a moment to recognize our fantastic critic for foreign affairs, who also serves as vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. I am speaking here today because my colleague was kind enough to share his speaking time with me, as …
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Mr. Speaker, the 12 days of action to end violence against women campaign is in full swing. People have had an opportunity to speak out. As for the debate, we would have had other opportunities to discuss our views on this important issue. My colleague just said that the work of the House has been shut down for months, but we finally have an agreement and we managed to end the impasse and restore …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I attended certain committee meetings dealing with this study. I will ask my colleague the same question I asked my NDP colleague a bit earlier. We really saw that certain witnesses had religious motivations. Their faith was the reason they had come to talk about the issue of women's reproductive rights. Why did members of my colleague's party, the Liberal Party, op…
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Mr. Speaker, as I was saying in my speech, it is important to be able to know where the money is going and how it is actually helping women on the ground. Answers are needed to the questions raised by the Auditor General, who is calling on the government to be more accountable when it comes to feminist policy. I would like to add something that I forgot to mention in my speech. According to co-ope…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc is well known for its pro-choice positions and support of feminist policies. We have done our committee work on this report. I have said it and I will say it again. Thanks to my colleague from Montarville, we have done our job. Our positions are known. What is happening now involves a procedural matter. This is not the first time I mention this, and we are also seeing this in…
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Mr. Speaker, it is with great humility, sensitivity and heartfelt thoughts for all those who have lost a loved one to breast cancer that I rise today to speak to this report of the Standing Committee on Health. What is unusual is that the report is not even finished, even though the committee began drafting it last spring. I am deeply humbled to speak this evening because I have some big shoes to …
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Mr. Speaker, this is a very sensitive subject. We are talking about resources and the federal withdrawal from health. There are concerns that we will not have the necessary resources. Is that because, over the years, successive federal governments have been decreasing their investments in health since the 1990s? The federal government did not agree to the 35% contribution that Quebec and the provi…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Auditor General's report proves that the Liberals do not know what they are talking about when they say that seniors are so rich, they do not deserve support. The Auditor General showed that Ottawa is not collecting any data about whether its programs, such as old age security, are really meeting seniors' needs, and so it does not have that information now, nor will it in the futu…
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Mr. Speaker, again, according to the Auditor General, the federal government has no data it can use to determine whether its programs, like old age security, are meeting seniors' needs. It seems to know for certain that $3 billion for increasing seniors' pensions is too much. At the same time, this same government is telling us that $6 billion in election goodies is just fine. No party agrees with…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue for his speech and for his perspective on this issue as a Quebecker. In his speech, my colleague clearly explained the problem with people appropriating government programs to get funds when those funds could have been given to people who really need them. I am looking over the report of the Standing Committee on the Status of Women on…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the Corporation de développement communautaire, or CDC, de la Haute‑Yamaska. Recently, 160 people gathered to celebrate the event. We must acknowledge the invaluable contributions that are made every day by the member organizations of the CDC de la Haute-Yamaska. Certificates of recognition were presented to the various member organizations as a than…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I serve together on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, and we have had the opportunity to work together for some time now. I will try to be brief. What bothers me today is that all these false indigenous identity claims are being used to obtain funds that could be going toward reconciliation efforts and nation-to-nation dialogue. As my colleague knows, stu…
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Mr. Speaker, the government introduced its GST holiday bill and set aside the $250 cheques that it had promised to everyone except seniors and those who are struggling the most. It should take this opportunity to take a step back and seriously rethink its priorities. This government is prepared to spend $6 billion to buy votes, but it refuses to improve the old age security pension for seniors 65 …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I want to give a nod to my colleague. In his speech, he was comparing MPs to artists, but the examples that he gave were all American artists. If he wants, I can make him a list of francophone artists from Quebec of whom we can be very proud. Obviously, we could talk about Rémy Girard and Patrice Godin. I could name a lot of others like that. I would invite him to take a look at the…
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Mr. Speaker, that says a lot about Liberal values. As they see it, giving money to a couple earning $300,000 a year and giving nothing to seniors is fair and equitable. The Liberals see the Conservatives scoring political points without having any sense of social justice or solidarity with people who are struggling, so they decided they would copy that strategy, since it seems to be paying off. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, it has become standard practice for this government to ignore seniors. The government believes it has done enough for seniors, so it is hanging them out to dry. Some seniors will not even benefit from the GST holiday for Christmas, because all their income already goes towards their basic needs. The government can do something. If it can give $250 to everyone just to show how generous…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I can see that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives have a grasp of Quebec's reality. No one back home talks to me about the carbon tax. People talk to me about meaningful measures, like increasing old age security by 10% for seniors aged 65 to 74. Given the current economic uncertainty and the likely return of inflation, it is more important than ever to restore the purchasin…
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Madam Speaker, I do not think that my colleague heard the rather unanimous comments from Quebec. I gave the point of view of community organizations, citizens and economic organizations. Everyone really is unanimous. Over the weekend, elected officials at the municipal and other levels of government told me that this measure is completely ridiculous. It excludes basic necessities and includes prod…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this evening we are debating a bill. As we, Bloc Québécois colleagues, talk to each other about our meetings with constituents in our ridings, we have come to realize that many people are angry about this. Even experts on the economy have said that it is a bad idea. In these inflationary times, the Bloc Québécois pointed out that it has long been calling for action to help the most …
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives, the Liberals and the New Democrats do not understand the reality of Quebec. With regard to the dental plan, what I am hearing is that seniors did not know where to go, that people were confused, that dentists have changed their minds and that the money was given to a private company. The government could have done many things with that $6.3 billion, such as increa…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to go back to a particular aspect of my colleague's speech that caught my attention. If I understood correctly, he talked about problems at the border. If I am not mistaken, he cited the Eastern Townships region as an example. I represent a riding in the Eastern Townships. Here is another example of mismanagement. I have to say that the Liberal government is as much at …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask a question, after hearing the speech and comments by my colleague from Terrebonne, who did a great job explaining the infamous concept of double-dipping. She also explained that the problem of hiring outside consultants stems from the fact that, under the Conservatives, the number of public servants was reduced to such an extent that it created a problem. The Lib…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Terrebonne for her speech, but, at the same time, every time I hear this, I shudder. I am a bit shocked, actually. A few months ago, I replaced my colleague from Beauport—Limoilou on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. The meeting was on hiring external consultants. This was around the time when we were seeing news reports about the…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, according to FADOQ, the federal government is turning its back on retired people. FADOQ had already denounced the Liberals' refusal to provide equitable OAS to all seniors. Now that organization is furious that they are handing out $250 cheques to almost anyone earning a taxable income of up to $150,000 a year, except pensioners. There is not a penny for seniors, not even those who re…
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Mr. Speaker, today, the House of Commons started sitting at 11 a.m., as it does every Monday. Every Monday at 11 a.m., the Speaker of the House leaves his office and walks in a solemn parade to open the House so we can start the week's work. It is currently 3:30 p.m. The House has been open for four and a half hours now. That is not very long, but it was enough time for the Conservatives to paraly…
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Madam Speaker, as I listen to my colleague, I cannot decide which expression is more apt: “they are not walking the talk” or “it feels like Groundhog Day”. I want to pick up on my colleague from Victoria's comment about cuts to border services. I worked as an assistant during the Conservative era a few years ago, and I remember fighting for the member I represented, who had border crossings in his…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is a bit off topic this morning. He addressed other topics related to public safety. However, I would like to circle back to this morning's topic, which we have discussed at length, and that is the increase in crime, in particular against women. This morning, a lot of my questions relate to that, because the Standing Committee on the Status of Women is currently studyin…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her speech. The Standing Committee on the Status of Women is currently studying this increase, this femicide epidemic. Yesterday, former senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu came to testify, and I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about Bill S-205. My colleague spoke about violence against women, but we do not understand why, in Bill S-…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague spoke about stolen vehicles. I met with people to discuss this issue, and they raised the following question. How could we better use technology in the ports to more easily determine what is in the containers? How can we make sure that there are more technologies in the ports to make it easier to discover stolen vehicles? This possible step towards a solution was sugges…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, in which he talked about something that is indeed worrisome. We are once again taking a step backwards at a time when we are talking about the fact that a lot of guns and drugs are getting across the border and when we should be strengthening border measures. My colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia spoke at length about this in her spee…
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Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that my colleague's comments are a bit biased. I am surprised to hear her say that, because only a short while ago, members of her own party were recognizing the work—
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. One of the things he talked about was the cost of living. It seems to concern him a great deal. At the same time, we have concrete proposals here on the table, in the House of Commons, but nothing can move forward because of the current situation in the House. This will certainly have an impact. In Quebec, there is no doubt about it. Farmers are te…
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Mr. Speaker, the way I see things right now, they are not walking the talk. Let me explain. My colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia gave a speech earlier explaining all the work that has been done by the Standing Committee on Public Safety on the issue of better gun control and on Bill C-21. One problem with the buyback program is the definition issue. My colleague clearly explained th…
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Madam Speaker, the discussion we are having this afternoon is very interesting. At the Standing Committee on the Status of Women, we carried out a study on women's economic empowerment. We are trying to find ways to help indigenous women take better control of their lives. However, we are seeing that there are many barriers related to this and other issues because of the Indian Act, which hinders …
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Madam Speaker, I want to bring us back to the matter at hand today. In my first question, I pointed out that the Standing Committee on the Status of Women often realizes that indigenous women and girls face certain difficulties. The issue of infrastructure and housing has come up repeatedly in our studies. My colleague, the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue, and I had the opportunity to meet with r…
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Madam Speaker, we have been talking a lot about how infrastructure affects indigenous people and about the lack of infrastructure. We have talked about housing. We could talk about water and the economic impact on communities. Not only is the government not providing the right infrastructure, but there are also negative effects from resource extraction, for example. I am thinking of a study carrie…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to be a bit biased here. There is a strong entrepreneurial spirit in the riding of Shefford. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, or CFIB, often reminds me that a great many small and medium-size businesses and merchants in the riding of Shefford are members of the CFIB. I gave an interview on the subject last weekend. A certain journalist found the press releas…
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