Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is not news to my colleagues that the cost of living has now made things so difficult that more and more Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque. The Conservatives have made concrete suggestions to give them a bit of relief: Cancel the January 1 tax increase and above all cancel the carbon tax that the government wants to triple. What is the government doing? It refuses to list…
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Mr. Speaker, people nowadays feel like they have lost control of both their wallets and their lives. Government spending is driving up the cost of living. This Liberal government has doubled our national debt, which is now more than that of all previous governments put together. It is the most spendthrift government in history. The more it spends, the more prices go up. As a result, families are b…
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Mr. Speaker, Conservative members have spoken every day in the House about what we are hearing in our ridings. We hear terrible stories about the cost of living. More and more Canadians are going to food banks. Mothers have to make painful choices. Young students have to sleep in shelters. Winter is coming, and families will have trouble heating their homes. We are asking the Prime Minister to hav…
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Mr. Speaker, the price of basic foods is skyrocketing. For example, bakery products are up 16% in one year. Butter costs 26% more and is now $8.26. Thousands of Quebec families are struggling to make ends meet. Instead of wanting to help them, the Prime Minister wants to increase the burden on families. There is only one thing to do: Cancel the tax increase. Can we count on him?
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Mr. Speaker, the riding I represent stretches from the St. Lawrence River to the American border. A very large part of it is rural. With the high cost of gas, it is very expensive for my constituents who have to drive to work, do errands or access health care. To help these people, the Prime Minister needs to do just one thing: Cancel the planned tax hike on gas and paycheques. Does he have the gu…
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Mr. Speaker, the government is looking through rose-coloured glasses. The reality is that inflation is eroding Canadians' morale. The cost of food is up 10.8% over last year, the largest increase in the last 40 years. Parents are struggling to feed their children properly and have to make agonizing choices. This government, however, wants to raise taxes for taxpayers who are already stretched to t…
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Mr. Speaker, according to the National Payroll Institute, 85% of Canadians are worried about inflation and rising interest rates. Furthermore, 37% of them are living from paycheque to paycheque and have to spend everything they earn or even more than they earn. Things are starting to look bad. This government could not care less. It is not interested in coming up with a concrete plan to help these…
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Mr. Speaker, passports are a major issue. In an interview with Paul Arcand this morning, the minister said that she knew for months that the situation was going to become problematic. She let the situation deteriorate. Her negligence is typical of this government. The number of applications the government needs to deal with has gotten so out of hand that we have lost count. The minister misled Can…
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Mr. Speaker, people have to bring a tent and camp out on the sidewalk overnight just to get a passport. This is happening in Canada, a G7 country. That department is in chaos. Passport Canada is processing 75,000 applications per week, down from more than 90,000 before COVID. Employees need to be allowed back to work in person, so the business hours can be extended at all offices. Can the minister…
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Mr. Speaker, the cost of groceries increased by almost 10% in April. It was the fifth month in a row that food prices had increased by more than 5%. The cost of gas was more than $2 per litre. In the greater Quebec City area, house prices have increased by 21% over the past year. With wage increases averaging about 3%, people are struggling to get by. Can the Minister of Finance offer Canadians so…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, the very colleague of the Minister of Public Safety, said, “I am not aware of any recommendation from law enforcement. Quite frankly, this was a decision of government”. This completely contradicts what the Minister of Public Safety said. He has misled Canadians and the House. There must be consequences. Will the Prime Minister do the…
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Mr. Speaker, contrary to what the Minister of Public Safety said, neither the RCMP nor the Ottawa Police Service asked the government to invoke the Emergencies Act. However, true to form, whenever the Prime Minister is confronted with his contradictions, he dodges the issue or blames others, and when that does not work, he takes cheap shots, which is what he has been doing throughout question peri…
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Mr. Speaker, my question is very simple. He misled the House, so he should apologize and step down. Period.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always someone else's fault. Being a minister comes with great responsibility. The minister stated several times, “It was on the advice of law enforcement that we invoked the Emergencies Act.” However, law enforcement never asked for draconian measures. Rex Murphy wrote in the National Post that, for the sake of his integrity, the minister should resign. What is he waiting for—
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Mr. Speaker, on April 26, the Minister of Public Safety said, with regard to emergency measures, “I don't want to speak for every last serving member of law enforcement, but there was a very strong consensus that we needed to invoke the act.” We now know that there was no such consensus at any time. He has misled Canadians. He no longer deserves the confidence of the House. Will the minister do th…
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we believe that serious and violent firearms offences warrant a mandatory sentence. We stand on the side of victims. It is disappointing to see this government openly siding with criminals. It is even letting them serve their sentence at home for such crimes as armed robbery and extortion with a firearm. Those are quite serious crimes. Why is this government…
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Mr. Speaker, a 12-year-old girl found herself right in the middle of a shooting in Montreal. She was traumatized, of course. This is happening in our streets in Quebec. Instead of tackling the problems of street gangs and illegal arms trafficking, this Liberal government is doing the opposite with its Bill C‑5. It is eliminating mandatory prison sentences for gun crimes. How can this government be…
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Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer tabled a study on the estimated cost of implementing Bill C‑13 on official languages. Treasury Board, Canadian Heritage and IRCC refused to provide the PBO with their planned expenditures for implementing this bill. This is public money. It is money given to us by our citizens. This is a question of transparency and integrity. What are they trying to h…
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Mr. Speaker, two of my constituents, Audrée and Nicolas, contacted me about a very serious issue. Each of them has a baby with serious allergies to breast milk and regular formula, so they absolutely have to use hypoallergenic formula. A product recall caused a shortage, and now, extremely worried parents are seeing empty shelves. Apparently Health Canada has implemented an interim import policy t…
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Mr. Speaker, rising gas prices are directly impacting all Canadians. A recent survey indicated that two-thirds of Canadians will forgo travelling far from home this summer. The impact is also being felt on store shelves. Goods cost more to produce and transport and, of course, consumers are the ones who end up paying the price. Who is actually profiting? The government. For every litre of gasoline…
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Mr. Speaker, the right thing to do is to make home ownership a possibility for aspiring Canadian homeowners. Right now, in the Quebec City region, property and house prices have gone up 21%. Even with a good job, home ownership is not a given. Young families are completely giving up on their dream of owning a home. Unfortunately, the Liberals are unsympathetic to their plight. Will this government…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to recognize the achievements of the Blais family from my riding, who were named farm family of the year for 2021. Marcel Blais acquired a small farm in Honfleur in 1969. He married Monique Bélanger the same year, and they would go on to have two children, Dominic and Guillaume. In the early days, the business operated with 23 cows, 92 acres of crops and …
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Mr. Speaker, that is quite vague. Small businesses suffered enormously during the pandemic. As everyone knows, many of them had to temporarily close. Now they are dealing with serious labour shortages and unacceptable delays thanks to Immigration Canada. A landscaping company in my riding has to wait 10 to 12 weeks to get a work permit for temporary foreign workers. In 12 weeks, summer will be ove…
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Mr. Speaker, the delays in processing passport applications are completely unacceptable. People are saying that it is chaos at Service Canada. People are getting abominable service, and some have had to cancel their travel plans. However, this government has a ready-made solution: allow employees to return to work in person at the Service Canada passport offices. When does it plan to recall govern…
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Madam Speaker, now that the pandemic is coming to an end, people are starting to travel again, which is good news. They need to renew their passports, but unfortunately, the wait times are atrocious. People need an appointment to visit some Service Canada locations, but first they have to wait on the phone for hours just to get an appointment. That is completely unacceptable. The problem is that t…
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Madam Speaker, the problems people are running into right now could have easily been foreseen. Telework works up to a certain point, but in the case of passport offices, employees need to be physically on site to provide proper service. We have all come back to work in person here on Parliament Hill. Why then are Service Canada employees not back at work on site?
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Mr. Speaker, Canada is experiencing the sharpest rise in inflation it has seen in the past three decades. Unfortunately, wages are not keeping up, and households are struggling to keep their heads above water. Nearly three-quarters of Quebeckers think inflation is a serious problem. What does this government say? It says it is a global problem. What does the Prime Minister have to say to families …
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Mr. Speaker, the finance minister is saying that constituents who come see us in our constituency offices are liars. The reality is that house prices have gone up by 21% in the Quebec City area. Owning a house now costs 21% more. Gas now costs nearly 2% more. What do the Liberals have to say to Canadians, to Quebeckers and to our constituents who come to our constituency offices and are fed up? Th…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not an answer. Again, the protest this past weekend was orderly. It was simply a matter of leadership. The Minister of Public Safety said, “first of all, we are relieved because of the good work of the police forces on the ground, including the RCMP, which added resources to assure everyone that public safety would be maintained.” That is what he is repeating today. How can he…
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Mr. Speaker, this past weekend, there were protests in downtown Ottawa. The police, the City and the various stakeholders managed the situation effectively and quickly. It was simply a matter of leadership. However, last January, the government was completely overwhelmed by the events on Parliament Hill and hid behind the Emergencies Act. Will the Prime Minister finally admit that he failed to sho…
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Mr. Speaker, when asked about his very luxurious and illegal trip, the Prime Minister says that it happened six years ago and that there is no point talking about it anymore. However, any other Canadian would have had to face due process. Apparently the Prime Minister thinks he is above the law. Is the Minister of Justice okay with this? Does he not think the case should be reopened in light of th…
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Mr. Speaker, real estate costs have risen sharply. Under the Liberals, the average cost of a house doubled from $434,000 to $868,000. That is just insane. Young people cannot even dream of buying their first home. In the rental market, even shacks are out of reach. The government created this real estate chaos, so will it now give a little hope to our young people, who are once again victims of it…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians have had enough. The cost of living and inflation are at a 30-year high, and Canadians overburdened. Everything is more expensive and wages are not going up. The government does not realize how stressful this is for thousands of Canadians. The media and our constituents are telling us about untenable situations and about the difficult choices that have to be made, such as de…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to repeat the question. When newcomers are asked why they would not recommend Canada as a destination to other potential immigrants, 43% blame current government leadership and 35% blame the cost of living. Will the NDP-Liberal Minister of Finance commit to cleaning up her suffocating and inflationary tax policy, which is such a mess that many Canadians, even newcomers, are…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, Canadians, including my constituents, are under a lot of pressure. They are in the clutches of skyrocketing inflation, which is currently at 5.7%. Our fathers, mothers, sisters and children are struggling to make ends meet. Young people cannot buy a home. Seniors are unsure of what they can afford and why they have to choose between food and medications. That is what we are talking ab…
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Mr. Speaker, nobody wants to hear the government's same old tune about how inflation is a global phenomenon. Right now, inflation is at 1.5% in Switzerland, 1.7% in Japan, and 3.7% in Norway. Those rates are all lower than Canada's 5.7%. Can the government compare itself to the top performers and tell us how it plans to slow inflation, which is currently eroding our fellow citizens' buying power?
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Mr. Speaker, he could at least have the decency to answer the question. The NDP-Liberal party has no idea of what our constituents are going through. We meet with them every weekend. What do they talk to us about? They talk about groceries, which now cost an additional $1,000, and houses, which cost an average of $868,000. When will the government do something? The budget is coming, so it is time …
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Mr. Speaker, let us leave former prime ministers and the leadership race out of this debate. The Conservatives have moved a clear and simple motion calling on the current NDP‑Liberal alliance to present a credible, reasonable plan to balance the budget with well-defined measures for government spending. Every expenditure must correspond to revenue. That is what we are saying today.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not saying that we should not work with all other parliamentarians and other parties. Having been a parliamentarian and a minister, I know what it means to negotiate with other parliamentarians and reach a compromise. That is very normal and that is why we are here. That is why we have committees: to improve bills and arrive at the best possible solution. However, what we are tal…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has announced that she will table a NDP-Liberal budget on April 7. We are very worried. We have serious concerns. We moved a motion, which I will read, because that is what we are debating today. That, given that, (i) excessive government spending has increased the deficit, the national debt, and fuelled inflation to its highest level in 31 years, (ii) taxes on…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, founded in 1892 by Father Joseph‑Onésime Brousseau and Virginie Fournier, who became Mother Saint‑Bernard. This community settled in Saint‑Damien‑de‑Buckland. These women performed many tasks and devoted their talents to the service of the most vulnerable and to teaching the residents of rural parishes. It is thanks t…
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Mr. Speaker, young people cannot afford to buy a house and are being forced to camp out in their parents' basement. Seniors are having a hard time buying food and paying for their medications. Gas is now $1.85 a litre in my riding. Meanwhile, the Liberal government is signing agreements with the NDP, which also wants to spend recklessly. The government has done nothing for the past few months. Now…
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Mr. Speaker, the Canadian provinces and our international allies have eliminated many of their restrictions. The NDP-Liberal government is faster at signing secret agreements than at lifting restrictions on domestic flights. It does not realize that Canadians have had enough. When will the NDP-Liberal government look at what is happening in other G7 countries and eliminate the federal restrictions…
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Mr. Speaker, I am here and I know what is happening. Science has not been the NDP-Liberal government's main concern for a long time. It used the pandemic for political gain, and Canadians are not fools. They realize it and even the member for Louis-Hébert has condemned it. Will the Minister of Health finally stop playing political games and immediately lift the federal restrictions?
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government is so caught up in its new secret alliance with the NDP that it is forgetting to lift public health measures, as the other G7 countries are doing. Being vigilant does not mean being stubborn and inflexible. When will the NDP‑Liberal government reassess the measures still in place at the federal level?
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Mr. Speaker, today the province of Ontario is lifting a whole raft of temporary measures to fight COVID‑19. People can finally have faith in the future and get back to normal. I think it is about time. Given that the provinces and other G7 countries have reached the same conclusion, when will the Liberal government announce the end of mandatory measures at the federal level?
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has been home to a Ukrainian community for decades. In fact, we have some Ukrainians right here in the House. The United Nations estimates that a million Ukrainians have already fled to neighbouring countries to escape the atrocities of war. Can the government show some empathy and flexibility, as we have been calling for since January 27, and immediately allow Ukrainians to co…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec and other provinces have the situation under control without using the Emergencies Act. In fact, they do not want it. The Prime Minister has been warned. Will this Prime Minister, who listens only to himself and is introducing emergency legislation without consulting anyone, respect the wishes of the provinces not to have this legislation enforced in their jurisdiction, as is t…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister cannot justify the invocation of the Emergencies Act. He cannot tell us what tools he used and what steps he took before deciding to use this extraordinary piece of legislation. He can hardly criticize us for seeing this as a ploy to cover up his failure to act, his lack of leadership and his negligence. I want to give him another chance to enlighten us. What steps …
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Mr. Speaker, on Friday, February 11, the Prime Minister said that the Ottawa police had all the resources they needed to end the impasse. On Monday, February 14, he suddenly invoked the Emergencies Act. What happened between February 11 and 14 to justify this decision? What legal principles is this decision based on? Is this an attempt to deflect attention from his serious lack of leadership?
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