Parliamentary Speeches
473 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 1 of 10
Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we have been sounding the alarm for months. In a document provided to La Presse, the union said that Cúram is causing problems similar to the ones people experienced during the Phoenix fiasco, but on a broader scale. That is not all. According to the union report, a procedure clearly indicates that agents must not tell clients that payment delays or errors are related to Cúram. Did th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, some pensioners have not received their OAS payments for nine months because of the Cúram software, and the government is ignoring them. However, today we learned that the pensioners are not the only ones being ignored. The government is also ignoring the opinions of its own officials. In an internal survey, more than half of them gave that software a score of one out of 10. Some 89% …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there are pensioners who applied for their old age security benefits nine months ago and have yet to receive a penny. That is because the government refuses to deal with the glitches in its new Cúram software. It has been aware of the problems since June, and yet as recently as Thursday, the government House leader told us that mistakes would be fixed “if there are any”. There are ind…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the infamous Cúram software, which is depriving retirees of their OAS benefits, is costing a lot more than its market value. The cost overrun has reached almost $5 billion. To give members some idea, that is roughly 10 times the cost of the SAAQclic scandal, for poorly performing software. At that price, when problems prevent seniors from receiving their pension benefits and enjoying …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we can confirm that, in addition to the cost, there are indeed mistakes. Once again, Ottawa is driving people crazy. On the one hand, there are people aged 65 and over who deferred their pensions and have been deprived of cheques for nine months once they finally asked for them. On the other hand, there are people who are receiving too many cheques, returning them and still being sent…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, for days now, we have been warning the government that problems with the new Cúram software are preventing retirees from receiving their old age security benefits. At first, the Liberals told us that we were fearmongering. However, yesterday, they admitted that the problem does exist, but that it is affecting only 30 people or so. Well, according to journalist Marie-Ève Fournier, ther…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers and French Canadians learned a lot last Thursday. According to the Prime Minister, the battle of the Plains of Abraham was not an English conquest, but the beginning of a great partnership. In his mind, the ancestors of Quebeckers and English Canadians rose from the battlefield that morning and decided that they had to stop fighting, celebrate their differences and build Ca…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I have a little historical reminder: There is a reason why these questions are being asked in a Parliament in Ottawa. It is because English speakers chose to burn down the Parliament in Montreal rather than compensate French Canadians who had their farms burned down during the revolts of 1837 and 1838. That is quite the partnership. The Liberal Quebec Lieutenant defended the Prime Min…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, judging by what the Prime Minister said, the purpose of the ban on French language instruction in the Maritimes, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Ontario was not to erase us but to bring us together. When Quebeckers were removed from power and business, it was for their own good. When the founder of Canada said that Louis Riel should be hanged even if every dog in Quebec barked in …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals do not have a prime minister, they have a CEO. He does not listen to social priorities like health care or seniors. He does not listen to the ministers who are resigning just to be heard. He does not listen to voters, given his Conservative budget. He does not listen to Quebeckers who voted for him because they were afraid of Donald Trump, given that all he has to say abo…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this year we will be presenting a shareholders' report instead of our usual session review, because Canada has essentially become a business. Under this Prime Minister, the Liberals are not even pretending anymore. The fight against climate change is over. The environment is a roadblock to trade. Bill C-5, Bill C-15 and Bill S-4 throw compliance with the law out the window because it …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is considering appointing Mark Wiseman as ambassador to Washington. Mark Wiseman is one of the co-founders of the Century Initiative, a policy that aims to increase Canada's population to 100 million people and is at the root of Quebec exceeding its intake capacity. He said that 100 million Canadians by 2100 should become federal policy “even if it makes Quebec howl…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that still speaks to his policy. Wise men say only fools rush in. The Prime Minister already made an appointment last week that turned all of Quebec against him. We are just trying to give him a chance not to make the same mistake twice. When Mark Wiseman talks about imposing immigration policies on Quebec, even if it makes them howl, he is showing his contempt not only for Quebec, bu…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to someone with a remarkable professional career. She has been a colleague for six years, but she is now also a friend: Diane Godin, has been a pillar of my office and has played a key role in political life since 1994. Over the years, she has served five members with remarkable professionalism: Louise Beaudoin, Yves Lessard, Bertrand Saint‑Arnaud, Dave Tur…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, earlier this week, you clearly established your right to cut short questions before they were even finished if, in your opinion, they were not related to government business. In two days, not once, not twice, but three times, the government's response not only had nothing to do with the question but had even less to do with the business of Parliament. This goes beyond the issue of adj…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it pains me to see the Liberals compromising their values like this. The oil deal with Alberta will position Canada as one of the world's worst environmental offenders for decades to come. It confirms that the Liberals have sold out all of their principles to the same oil companies that are the majority shareholders of the Conservative Party. Ultimately, it is not surprising that memb…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the oil deal between the Liberals and Alberta is climate betrayal. Canada is walking away from the global fight for the environment. The Liberal member for Laurier—Sainte-Marie confirmed this yesterday on Tout le monde en parle. He said, “If we are being honest with Canadians, we can no longer meet our 2030 targets. With the recent announcements, it's not possible”. Will the Liberals …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have announced that they are scrapping their plan to plant two billion trees. This proves once again that they have completely missed the point. Everyone laughed at them over this program, not because it was a bad program that needed to be scrapped, but because the Liberals were simply incapable of planting the trees. Everyone laughed at them because, year after year, the…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister is looking at the wrong paper. The Liberals are cutting their program to plant two billion trees. That is what I asked about. They also reduced carbon pricing, and they are also using Bill C‑5 to bypass their own environmental assessments. All the environmental measures introduced under Justin Trudeau, as feeble and inadequate as they were, are being abandoned one by one.…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, democracy has spoken in more than 1,000 municipalities across Quebec. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I would like to congratulate all the mayors and councillors who won last night. I want to wish those who were running for re-election as well as the first-time winners every success in fulfilling their mandate. They can count on the Bloc's friendly co-operation. I would also like to …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we are just 24 hours from the budget being tabled and the government is still threatening an election. Quite frankly, the public is not impressed because it voted for a minority government. A minority government is supposed to work with the other parties to get its budget passed. The government can take its pick of potential supporters. There are three to choose from, so it is ridicul…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government is talking, but it is not negotiating. The government is listening, but it is not hearing. Canadians do not want an election. What they did want, however, was a minority government. Had they wanted the Liberals to behave like a monarchy, they would have given them full control. For three elections in a row now, voters have been telling them to work with the opposition a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the minister is welcome to join the yes camp when he finally realizes that that is where he belongs. Until then, he is not the one who gets to decide what is important to Quebeckers. Quebeckers themselves will decide what is important to them, including their future as a nation. The Quebec nation deserves to make all of its choices on its own, like any other nation on this planet. If …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, 30 years ago, Quebeckers came within a hair's breadth of forming their own country. Now, the yes camp is back in action. I have a message for all the Quebeckers who were part of that movement. It is time to roll up your sleeves and start again. To all the Quebeckers who, like me, were too young or not even born yet, to those who have changed their minds or who were living abroad, my m…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, what I am hearing is “let us keep talking”. The Liberals do not want to negotiate for support for their budget. They admit it openly. They do not want to invest in health care. They do not want to correct the injustice that exists regarding seniors' old age pensions. They do not want to transfer funding for housing and infrastructure with no strings attached. They do not want to pay b…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, this is a minority government. If the government wants its budget to pass, it will have to negotiate with someone. At this morning's scrum, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons confirmed that he is talking with the opposition parties, just not negotiating. He said it himself. He does not even call that negotiating. He says that the opposition's requests regarding princ…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to the question of privilege raised last Friday by the member for Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes concerning the posting of new forms on the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner's website. If what the member alleges is true, then that is a clear violation of the rules established by the House, which could lead to a finding of contempt of Parliamen…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government pointed fingers at the opposition again this past weekend, complaining that it will not have enough support to pass its budget. As a friendly reminder, the people elected a minority government. That means that voters wanted the government to work with the opposition parties and reach agreements. The government can come to an agreement with the Conservatives, with us or …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have forgotten what it even means to work together for the common good. They are telling us to vote for their budget even though they have completely ignored Quebec's needs. Now they are shocked to be told that they need to get to work. One week remains before November 4. The Liberals are well aware of our demands concerning health care, seniors, housing, access to home o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in the lead-up to the budget, the government has accused the opposition parties of playing political games. I need them to explain to me how we are playing political games by demanding that the government provide funding for health care, support seniors with the cost of living and address the housing, home ownership and infrastructure crisis. Our demands are based on the needs of Queb…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I will tell my colleague what political games and a reluctance to collaborate look like. It is when the Prime Minister meets with party leaders to discuss their budget expectations, when a speech has already been written for that very evening in which he completely ignores their requests. There is not a word about seniors or health care, nor any commitment to transfer money unconditio…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, from October 20 to 26, Quebec is celebrating Early Childhood Educator Appreciation Week. I am sure that everyone in the House knows someone who deserves to be honoured today. I know that my colleague, the member for Mirabel, is thinking about his mother-in-law, who is an educator. Personally, I want to give a shout-out to Ms. Awa, whom I entrusted with my own little guy this morning. …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Université du Québec à Montréal quickly cancelled a lecture the preacher was scheduled to give on its premises, and this should be applauded. However, fans of hate speech, misogyny, homophobia and the like will still be able to attend seven of his lectures across Canada, including in Quebec, in Brossard. This kind of speech has no place in Canada or Quebec. However, the federal go…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, a preacher named Uthman Ibn Farooq is on a speaking tour in Canada despite his history of hate speech. For example, he thinks it is okay to capture women and use them as sex slaves. That kind of speech got him banned from the U.K. and even from Canada. However, he will have no trouble making the same kinds of remarks during his video conferences because they are protected under the Cr…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's meeting with Donald Trump was supposed to be about tariffs, but the goal was to eliminate them, not add more. To date, the Prime Minister has not had any wins in Washington, but he has suffered two defeats in the past seven days: new tariffs on our softwood lumber and, since yesterday, tariffs on trucks, which threaten Paccar in Sainte‑Thérèse. That is zero wins a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I can hardly imagine that we are any further ahead today on tariffs. The Prime Minister's press conference with Donald Trump focused less on the economy and more on the president's whims, such as sending the National Guard to Chicago. Meanwhile, here at home, tariffs are going up, not down. Workers in industries like lumber and truck manufacturing are worried about their future. Today…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we commend the Prime Minister on his visit to Washington. We asked for it. It was time. More importantly, however, it is time he kept his election promise to make some gains for Quebec's economy. So far, it has been nothing but one concession after another. He capitulated on the digital services tax. He dropped the global minimum tax on the American tech giants. Talks are even being h…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister announced that he was going to focus on discussions about steel. Steel is important, but Quebec's aluminum and forestry sectors are important too. Not only is the Prime Minister not addressing these issues in his discussions, but the federal aid announced in August for the forestry industry is still not available. While he is in Washington, the Prime Minister needs …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, a week ago, the Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement announced the end of postal services as we know them, including the end of home delivery and the closure of post offices. Not surprisingly, postal workers declared a general strike. The minister's announcement literally signals the end of their industry. Now, passports are being held at post offices, c…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are so out of touch and so irresponsible that they did not even anticipate the crisis they themselves created. For 10 years, they did nothing to modernize Canada Post: no real consultation and no real public debate on the future of this essential service, just silence and inaction. Ten years later, the Liberals wake up, set fire to the place, paralyze the postal service a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the regions are also being abandoned in the federal government's reforms to Canada Post. Today Ottawa announced that it is lifting the moratorium on closing rural post offices. This decision will set us back 30 years. People in remote areas rely on Canada Post, particularly to deliver medication. Canada Post absolutely cannot reduce services in rural areas when these are often the onl…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, mail is an essential service, but the Canada Post reform the federal government just announced seems to forget that fact entirely, and in doing so, it has forgotten thousands of Quebeckers. Some seniors need to get their mail delivered to their home, especially those outside the major cities. People with disabilities are also worried about this. Can the government guarantee all Quebec…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary just demonstrated that the Attorney General's position goes well beyond the specific question of secularism. What he really wants is to deprive the provinces of their autonomy, which they won in a hard-fought battle during constitutional negotiations around section 33. On the issue of excessive, pre-emptive or disproportionate use of the provision, this i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, and I am happy he asked it in excellent French. The government never misses an opportunity to deflect. However, our role is to hold it accountable for all of its actions, and we can do so on several fronts. That is what we are trying to do today. We can talk about how the provinces need to be able to make their own decisions, and we can simulta…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this important motion, and I want to thank my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord for moving it today so that we can debate it. I also thank him for his very enlightening speech. Like him, I will take the liberty of rereading the motion for the benefit of everyone here and the many people who I know are tuning in at home. That the House: (a) call on the governmen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, at the risk of repeating myself, we are not saying that the government should not disagree on the notwithstanding clause. It absolutely has the right to do that. However, if it wants to get rid of it, it should hold constitutional talks instead of using the courts to sidestep what could be a very meaningful political debate. We think that is cowardly, and that is what we are speakin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I missed the beginning of the question, but I think I got the gist of it, and I just answered it, in part. The courts should not be tasked with examining the use of the notwithstanding clause. We are not saying that there should not be any discussion on the notwithstanding clause. We are saying that the government is using the wrong forum.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals' intervention in the challenge to Bill 21 is a constitutional power grab, as their statements today showed. For them, the problem is more than just secularism. For them, the problem is that Quebec can use the notwithstanding clause to pass laws that Ottawa does not agree with. The Liberals want to weaken this clause, the only tool that allows Quebec to not be subordinate …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are doing more than just challenging Bill 21. They want a say in all Quebec legislation. Their factum implies that Quebeckers lack the judgment to be allowed to pass their own laws without Ottawa's oversight. As proof, they offer utterly apocalyptic examples, such as the possibility that Quebec might use the notwithstanding clause to legalize slavery or arbitrary executio…
Read full speech →