Parliamentary Speeches
342 speeches by Francis Scarpaleggia — Page 1 of 7
First Session—45th Parliament
Mr. Chair, I too would like to acknowledge that we are gathered today on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. A little over 20 years ago, I took my seat in this House for the first time, in the very last row, in fact. I took my seat in the House a little over 20 years ago. It was a proud moment, which is why I would like to offer a special congratulation to all the…
Read full speech →First Session—45th Parliament
The elbows are for others, not for us. Canadians want to see sticks on the ice, and it is the responsibility of the Speaker to make this so. I am an optimist; I believe it possible to skilfully and convincingly dissect and refute an argument without recourse to personal invective or intimidation. I have seen all colleagues from all parties achieve this standard. More than 20 years of parliamentary…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I recently had a chance to substitute onto the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs for the study of Bill C-61 and I appreciated sitting with the hon. member, whose interventions were quite thoughtful. In his speech, he mentioned the need to improve the competitive environment, to improve competition. That is exactly what the government did through Bill C-59. Those ch…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, we know that water is a provincial resource, but one of the main levers that the federal government has for protecting Canadian water bodies, for ensuring that they are not polluted, is the Fisheries Act. The Fisheries Act prohibits the deposit of deleterious substances into fish-bearing waters, and we know that all waters are essentially fish-bearing. We know that the Conservatives p…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I always listen intently to the member's speeches, which I appreciate because he is one of the more erudite members of the House. I also appreciate that he actually has lines of argument in his speeches. Lately, we have been hearing steady streams of nothing but vitriol. However, related to this question of giving documents to the RCMP, to an outside third party, is the question of wh…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, education is the key to an individual's success and to the progress of society, whether economic, social, scientific or cultural. The quality of a student's educational experience is dependent upon the passion and creativity of their teachers. I would like to draw the attention of the House to Rosemary Hill, who teaches grade 7 English at Beaconsfield High School and who is a recipien…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the member's speech did not deal specifically with this, but the previous member's speech did. The bill by the Leader of the Opposition on housing was discussed in an article in The Globe and Mail not long ago by Campbell Clark. The headline was about a town in my riding. It was, “Pointe-Claire demonstrates the nonsense in [the Leader of the Opposition]'s housing formula”. Under the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have a question for the hon. member. The Conservatives appear to want to leave everything up to developers in a private sector context to build homes, yet the affordability crisis means that we need to build more social housing. Why are the hon. member and his party seemingly against the use of public funds for social housing the way the national housing strategy requires or promo…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, Mark Jaccard, Canada's leading resource economist, evaluated the 2021 election platforms. According to a CBC article, he found, “The Liberals have the most effective, least costly climate change policy of the...federal parties”. The NDP was not even second. The Conservatives were second because they promised a price on carbon. In 2019, Professor Jaccard said, “In climate policy, exp…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to listen to my colleague, who often shows up at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development and makes a great contribution to the committee. I would like to address the Conservatives' discourse on climate change. Everything appears to revolve around a single solution, namely, spending government money to develop green technologies. That…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member is a very erudite colleague and I turn to him for answers. Members on the other side are saying that this policy is inflationary, yet in 2008, the Harper government reduced the GST by 1% on everything, in other words, everything in the basket of goods used to calculate the CPI. We are just taking the GST off a very narrowly focused basket of goods for a temporary period o…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot about the cost of food being higher in Canada than in the United States. That is true, but there are many reasons for that. One is economies of scale. The United States has a much larger population. It is the same reason the price of food is lower in cities in Canada than in the regions. Another reason is that wages are much lower in the United States. For example,…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the holidays are nearing and being able to take some time to spend with family and loved ones is a joyful opportunity for all. However, for some, this time of year also means tough choices on what we can purchase and how much we can spend. Can the government tell the House what it is doing to make sure all Canadians and their families can better make ends meet this year?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I must say that I really enjoyed listening to the member's speech. I thought parts of it were extremely thoughtful, when he spoke more extemporaneously about the history of fuels and so on. Then, of course he went into what I call the ChatGPT Conservative tropes we have been hearing for four weeks. When it comes to the Conservative Party, there is no such thing as an environmental pol…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we know the Conservatives do not have an environmental policy. They are against the price on carbon, ZEV mandates, an emissions cap on oil and gas, a clean fuel standard, a clean electricity standard and even planting trees. Their only platform is to fund green technology. That is all they have. Does the member detect a hint of irony in the fact that the Conservative climate platform …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we know for a fact that the Conservatives do not have an environmental policy. They do not like the price on carbon. They do not like ZEV mandates. They do not like the clean-fuel standard. They do not like an emissions cap on oil and gas. They do not like the clean electricity standard. The only thing they believe in is giving subsidies to businesses to invest in green technology. Th…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we see with this issue that we are setting a precedent in some way. Yes, we know Parliament is supreme. Of course, Parliament makes errors and it is called to order by the Supreme Court, for example. Parliament is supreme, but in this particular case, we are setting the precedent that Parliament is using its power to obtain documents to give to a third party. Let us forget that it i…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, this week is Veterans' Week. It is an important time for Canadians to reflect on the work done by members of the Canadian Armed Forces and to commemorate the service of veterans. We know that the well-being of our forces members during and after their service is key to their success. Could the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence tell the House what our govern…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we know that the RCMP does not want the documents. I assume that it does not want to end up with information that should have required a warrant to obtain, which would undermine the investigation. We have seen that in court cases where, if the proper procedures are not followed, the whole case falls apart. My question for the hon. member is this: Why are she and other members of the…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I enjoyed the play-by-play by the hon. member. His eloquence sets the bar very high in this place. I enjoyed, in particular, listening to him speak about his friend Reg, an extraordinary Canadian. In fact, it was by far the most edifying thing I have heard in the House in the last four weeks. Reg and others fought for democratic principles, and one of those principles is the separat…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Canada has lost a pioneer in global water management. William Cosgrove was a visionary who recognized long ago the crucial importance of water, not only for developing countries struggling with water scarcity for drinking and sanitation but also for a world increasingly in the grips of climate change. Bill's passion for water, the environment and humanitarian development guided a 50-y…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I listened intently to the member's speech; he mentioned many things, including cash for access, but it is my understanding that the Leader of the Opposition is having fundraisers at private homes all over the country. Somehow, we do not speak about that. However, let us put that aside; I am more interested in arguments about funding technology. Whenever governments make economic de…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I really enjoy listening to my colleague when he rises to address the House. He is a great speaker. On the main issue, what concerns me as a parliamentarian and a Canadian is that, with this request for documents, we run the risk of violating an extremely important principle, namely the separation between law enforcement and the government. In a democracy, that is a…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Conservatives has continued his party's tradition of inaction and negligence by refusing to get a security clearance. He chooses to play political games instead of working for Canadians to combat foreign interference. That is not common sense; that is nonsense. Can the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada tell Canadians how our government has taken hist…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, perhaps the member could help me to understand. This would be unprecedented, the House ordering documents to give to a third party. Who might the House want to give the documents to next? This is a problem. This precedent-setting part of the motion is a problem. The RCMP has said it does not want the documents because if the documents land in the RCMP's lap they could compromise the…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I need some clarification from the member. It seems that we are debating a motion to send the matter to PROC. It is a Conservative motion. Why are the Conservatives not allowing us to vote on the motion to send the matter to PROC? Why are they filibustering their own motion so they do not get what they want?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her speech. We sit on the environment committee together. One interesting issue with regard to shoreline erosion is the changing winds that have come with climate change. The member and I, sitting on the environment committee, have been looking at the Jasper wildfires, and one issue that has emerged is that we are experiencing unpredictable winds like never…
Read full speech →Orders Of The Day
Madam Speaker, I am racking my brain. I am not a House affairs historian, but could the member tell us whether, if the documents are handed over to the RCMP, this would be the first time that the House handed over documents to a third party, in other words, the first time the House served a third party? I would like to talk about another thing. I have heard members on the other side say that we do…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Berthier—Maskinongé. This issue means a lot to me. The Lac-Saint-Louis riding covers the westernmost part of the Island of Montreal, known as the West Island, nestled among a network of major rivers and bodies of water. These days, crossing one of these bodies of water via the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge is a little difficult, not because the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I do not accept the premise that nothing has been done. I have a list of programs that are designed to help with the problem of eroding shorelines and I will name a couple. One the government brought in, through a recent budget, is a natural infrastructure fund to support natural and hybrid infrastructure projects that can advance biodiversity goals. I know, for example, the city of…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I do not disagree. I think that we need to improve the way the public service works so that it responds more quickly to requests for information. I, too, often communicate with all sorts of departments and ask for information to guide my next steps. I am surprised at how slow the process is, and I think that we need to do everything we can to improve that. This is not just a problem…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, there is no doubt about it. I think this is a model example of an issue where stakeholders need to come together, including indigenous communities. I was at the INAN committee yesterday when representatives from the community of Kahnawake spoke about how it is their river and they never gave it up, and they need to be consulted properly. Yes, multi-stakeholder consultations are at t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in 2021, we committed to strengthening and modernizing the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in order to better protect the environment and the health of Canadians. With the passage of Bill S-5, Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act, we have kept our promise. Can the Minister of Environment and Climate Change give us an update on the implementation of t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in Quebec and across Canada, we are dealing with a housing crisis that is having an impact on people's lives. We need to build more housing more quickly to help Quebeckers and Canadians access affordable housing that meets their needs. Can the Minister of Public Services and Procurement explain to the people of my riding, Lac-Saint-Louis, what our government is doing to create more af…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, today we are discussing a very interesting and very important topic. We are touching on two important issues. The first is the situation of our seniors. The second is the state of our public finances, especially when the government is dealing with certain constraints that might limit what it can do with the programs it wants to develop. In all honestly, I do not think we can accuse …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what I was saying is that there are budget constraints. Members often talk about Canada's deficit. In my opinion, it is a reasonable deficit because it pays for various programs to provide support to many people. However, according to the Bank of Canada, if the deficit were to increase any further, it could throw fuel on the inflationary fire. Members should ask themselves whether i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the government did not promise the Bloc Québécois anything. I have no other answer for my colleague.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, no, that is not why. The government did its homework. It did an analysis of the demographic situation facing seniors. There were some hard facts about how life changes quite drastically in some ways after the age of 75. For some people, it would not be at age 75, but at age 74. For others, it would be at age 80. We are looking at a general rule here that things become a little tough…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have a certificate for an e-petition that has gathered 1,263 signatures. The petition asks that the Government of Canada consider making a full public commitment in 2024 to assuming oversight, management and funding of the Last Post Fund's National Field of Honour, in view of the cemetery's unique national significance, as called for by the Last Post Fund itself.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, not only is tourism a driving force of economic development, but it is also a matter of pride, pride in sharing our beautiful and magnificent country with the entire world. Tourism exists in every community in the country. It is therefore not surprising that it contributes $43 billion per year to our GDP, while creating two million jobs. Can the Minister of Tourism tell us how our gov…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it will have a tremendous impact. I think it was the Minister of Health who mentioned it the other day during question period. Thanks to the program, people can now get a dental checkup. Some dentists have already found cancers. We can expect many lives to be saved under this program.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am extremely concerned about the health care system. Many of my constituents are afraid to get sick. They would not know where to turn. They do not want to go to the emergency department. They might have to wait 48 hours and get sick while they are at emergency. The federal government is a funder of health care, and a recent study showed that we have increased our transfers to the…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, unfortunately, I am not part of the government. I am a duly elected member of Parliament, but I do not hold a cabinet position. As far as old age security is concerned, obviously there is a financial framework. There are many programs that could be improved. There is the Canada child benefit, the Canada disability benefit. We could improve the child care system. Choices have to be m…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it gives me pleasure to rise to speak to this motion. What I see from this motion is the kind of attention-seeking hyperbole that is becoming the trademark of politics south of the border and the trademark of a certain presidential candidate south of the border. It is the kind of discourse that inserts phrases like, “best ever”, “worst economy”, “best market performance”, “nuclear w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there is a lot of work left to do in the best interests of Canadians. We know that dental care is in the process of being rolled out. We know that the opposition does not believe dental care exists, even though people are signing up and even though dentists are signing up. The third phase of the program needs to be rolled out, and an election now would interrupt that. We cannot take…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, at heart Dennis Smith was a storyteller. He applied this gift as a teacher to impart knowledge and insights to his students about the world around them. Following a career in education, Dennis made the leap to politics. He was a campaign volunteer and then a constituency assistant to both my predecessor Clifford Lincoln and me. Dennis worked for the “no” side in the 1995 Quebec refere…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I take umbrage at my colleagues' characterization of what I said about calculating emissions from the price on carbon. The Conservatives clipped what I said in committee and put it on Twitter, and I got some attention in my riding for that, which I appreciate because people pay attention when something is on Twitter. However, what I was saying is that the reductions in emissions fro…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to the debate. Perhaps it is the late hour, but I find that the Conservatives, as well as the Bloc Québécois, are resorting to slogans and easy solutions. They are overlooking certain realities to convey a simplistic message. It is true that the federal debt is much higher than it was before the pandemic. Relative to GDP, the federal debt is still at a decent lev…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think it is very important to clarify something for the people at home. When we talk about requesting data from the government, we are not talking about hypersensitive data or national state secrets. We are talking about bits and bytes. We are basically talking about computer code. It is not even an Excel spreadsheet, as the member for Kingston and the Islands has said. The headli…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, does my colleague oppose the fact that the federal government made these expenditures during the pandemic? Does he oppose the money transferred to Quebec for child care?
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