Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. With the pandemic, we saw how fragile the global economy is when it comes to supply chains. I really expected the government to propose quicker, more constructive solutions than what it is proposing, which is almost nothing at all. According to my colleague, will Bill C‑34 help to address the supply chain issue? If not, what does the government—
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Mr. Speaker, what I was saying is that with the pandemic, we saw the fragility of global supply chains. Honestly, I expected the government to come up with strategies quickly to help the industries in the Canadian economy overcome this problem. To my knowledge, nothing or practically nothing has been done to help these companies. Does my hon. colleague believe that Bill C‑34 addresses that a littl…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague with whom I have the pleasure of working on the Standing Committee on Finance. It is truly a pleasure to work with him. I thank him for his speech. He raised a number of very troubling issues. I want to refer to the annual report from the department's investment division, which was tabled in Parliament last October. In the preceding year, there were 1…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague who also sits on the Standing Committee on Finance. I would first like to comment on the point of order. I want to quote a line from a French movie, a Christmas classic: “I am not blaming you, Pierre”. This bill is a step in the right direction, but it does not go far enough. That is how I see it. I would like to ask my colleague to explain once more what the gove…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague raised some very troubling points in his speech. There seems to be a trend. Year after year, the number of foreign investments made in Canada goes up, as does their value. According to the latest available data, there were 1,255 applications for a total of $87 billion. Only eight of those applications were reviewed. This bill would bump the number of applications reviewed…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I think we both agree that this bill needs to be improved. However, in my opinion, given the overly limited interpretation by law clerks in committee, any amendments that can be made are too often limited. The Bloc Québécois believes that the government should introduce another bill to better control foreign investments in general, particularly wit…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. We know foreign investment is important in a globalized economy. In 2001, which was before China became a member of the World Trade Organization, Jacques Parizeau wrote, “We do not condemn the rising tide; we build levees to protect ourselves.” Unfortunately, weakening the Investment Canada Act has caused those levees to break. We agree that Bill C…
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Mr. Speaker, according to the latest data released, last year, there were 1,255 foreign investment projects totalling $87 billion. Only eight of those projects were reviewed. With this bill, that number would increase to 24, which is barely 2% of foreign investment projects. Does my colleague think that is enough?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Vancouver Centre for her bill. Bill C‑295 seeks to amend the Criminal Code to create an offence for long-term care facilities, their owners and their managers to fail to provide necessaries of life to residents of the facilities. Furthermore, it would allow the court to make an order prohibiting the owners and the managers of such facilities from being, through …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I am sorry, Madam Speaker, but I can hear the NDP heckling. This is their day—
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Madam Speaker, the federal government just announced health transfers to the provinces. It is giving them one-sixth of what they asked for. I would like to ask my colleague if she thinks the amount announced by the federal government is enough to fix the provinces' health care systems. If so, why were Quebec and the provinces asking for so much?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, yesterday Australia announced that it was removing the British monarchy from its banknotes. Charles III will be replaced by indigenous art. That is a modern and democratic example that Canada should follow. Banknotes are a subtle way for countries to present themselves to the world. Australia has chosen to honour its own culture and its own people. Canada continues to honour a forei…
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Madam Speaker, I was talking about banknotes. I really think it is time for a change. Canada is going to have to replace its currency in any case. When the time comes to get new bills, does anyone really want to see King Charles on the banknotes? It is not up to the Bloc Québécois to choose Canada's symbols, but we find it hard to believe that Canada cannot come up with something better after 150 …
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Madam Speaker, we in the Bloc Québécois are still reeling from the sale of Rona to the American company Lowe's and all the negative consequences that followed. In my hon. colleague's opinion, if Bill C-34 passes as is, will the interests of our economy be better protected with respect to potential transactions?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, our community of Joliette has been in mourning since we learned of the passing of René Laurin. René Laurin was mayor of Joliette from 2001 to 2013, as well as the director general of the school board and a municipal councillor. To me he stands out as the first Bloc Québécois MP from the riding of Joliette from 1993 to 2000. Quebec finally had a voice in Ottawa, and in Joliette that vo…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his interesting speech. The Bloc Québécois supports Bill C‑9, just as he does. The legal community has called for it and we commend this bill. I would like to ask my colleague about the judicial appointment process. We know about the “Liberalist” scandal of the past few years. The government used its party's membership list to appoint judges. The government …
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois agrees to apply the vote and will be voting in favour of the motion.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois members unanimously agree to apply the results of the previous vote to this vote, with Bloc members voting in favour of the motion.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his speech, and I especially thank him for giving the first part in French. We are happy to hear the language of Molière in the House. The inflation crisis is impacting everyone, but it obviously impacts low-income individuals more, and low-income pensioners especially, because their income is rarely or not fully indexed. The Bloc Québécois called on…
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Mr. Speaker, it is with great enthusiasm that we agree to apply the results of the previous vote, and the members of the Bloc Québécois will be voting in favour of the motion.
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Madam Speaker, with all due respect to my esteemed colleague, the interpretation service is unable to translate her words because of a poor audio signal.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Is that agreed?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Is that agreed?
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Does the hon. member have the consent of the House to split her time?
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Order. The member for Saint-Jean on a point of order.
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I thank the hon. member for Saint-Jean for this important point of order. I believe they got the message because the noise seems to have stopped. The hon. member for Repentigny may continue her speech.
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The hon. member for Drummond has 20 seconds for a brief response.
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Does the hon. member have the unanimous consent of the House to split his time?
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Mr. Speaker, I have a comment for the parliamentary secretary. I would like him to ask himself some questions. Why does the Bloc Québécois feel it has to filibuster the Standing Committee on Official Languages to slow the passage of the official languages bill? Because the Liberal Party, this government, with the support of the third opposition party, opposes amendments put forward by Quebec to pr…
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Laser beams are not what they used to be, Mr. Speaker. The federal government is bringing the deadline to submit infrastructure projects forward by two years. If Quebec fails to meet the deadline, the federal government will keep $2.7 billion that is owed to our cities. It is bullying our municipalities and threatening to keep every cent that is not spent by March 31. Meanwhile, yesterday, the fed…
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Mr. Speaker, we are concerned because this is not the first time this government has stolen money that belongs to our municipalities. That is exactly what it did last June with $342 million in another infrastructure program, so, yes, we are concerned when this government threatens to keep every penny that has not been spent by March 31 of next year. When it comes to stealing money from our cities,…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. What we are trying to do here is improve the legal system as a whole. In this particular case, the issue is connectivity. I would like my colleague to comment on the problem of judicial vacancies, internal problems at the Parole Board and, of course, the existence and use of the “Liberalist”.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to begin by informing the House that Quebec is currently in mourning. We just learned of the death of Jean Lapointe, a great writer, composer, performer, actor and comedian who was very involved in society. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I want to extend my sincere condolences to his son, Jean-Marie, to his family, friends and loved ones, and to all Quebeckers. We will reme…
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Madam Speaker, I thank and congratulate my colleague for his speech. In the fall economic statement, the Minister of Finance reneges on a commitment she made in last spring's budget, which was to limit credit card fees for merchants. In the spring budget, she told us that she would introduce legislation and the issue would be dealt with this fall. However, now it has turned into a commitment to ta…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. In his speech and during questions and comments, the student loan measure was mentioned. The Bloc Québécois supports this measure because we see that it will help students in the rest of Canada. However, I would like to remind my colleague that Quebec is not part of that program because it already has its own loans and bursaries program that work…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his speech. He just went over the whole inflation problem. The word “inflation” appears in the fall economic update 108 times. We know that in contrast to the previous budget, there are no new measures. It is just a rehash. It uses different rhetoric to justify the same measures. The government is rightly concerned that a recession could hit t…
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Madam Speaker, the federal government is threatening to steal $2.7 billion in infrastructure money meant for our municipalities. It is moving up Quebec's deadline to submit proposals from 2025 to next March. Miss the deadline, miss out on the cash. The Liberals changed the date unilaterally. Then they had the nerve to accuse Quebec of dragging their feet and leaving federal money on the table. For…
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Madam Speaker, if the minister is so very aware of the situation, he should cancel his decision. The federal government does not understand the implications of moving up the deadline by two years. Its job is to announce funding and show up at the ribbon-cutting when the work is done. The fact is, there is a labour shortage in the construction industry, contractors are fully booked, and most munici…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. I would like to talk to him about the rhetoric coming from the party in power. In the spring budget, the government said that the supply chain issue needed to be addressed, but no measure was proposed. In the fall economic statement, it is the same thing. It talks about supply chains, but no concrete measure is proposed to deal with the iss…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I am shocked and outraged. As soon as the member finished her speech, the President of the Privy Council and Minister of Emergency Preparedness rose to announce that he was going to limit debate on Bill C-32. That is really shameful and offensive. Why does the government always want to limit debate in the House, particularly when we know that thi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to sincerely commend all the work that the hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton has done on her private member's bill, Bill C‑228. As she so clearly explained again, it is a very important bill to better protect retirees who are entitled to a defined benefit package. I want to commend her cross-party approach. We were able to work with members from each party and set aside partisan…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. In the government's fall economic statement, the word “inflation” appears 108 times. However, when we look at the measures announced in the economic statement, we see that it is essentially implementing the measures that were in the last budget. Apart from rhetoric, the government is not contributing to the response to current inflation and the r…
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Madam Speaker, as we know, Bill C‑32 contains 25 tax measures and about 10 non-tax measures. There are two kinds: minor legislative amendments and measures announced in the budget in the spring of 2022, last spring, that had not been included in the first implementation bill passed last June. This means that this bill does not contain any measures to address the new economic reality of a high cost…
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Madam Speaker, as I was saying, seniors are the ones most likely to have to make tough choices at the grocery store or the pharmacy, not to mention housing, yet this government is deliberately choosing not to give people aged 65 to 74 the old age security increase even though they need it now more than ever. That is not an inconsequential choice. Hypocritically, the government is trying to raise t…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the work done by my hon. colleague from Elmwood—Transcona and I would like to endorse the overall comments he made on his first point of order. The Speaker's ruling may have been handed down, but I would like to remind the Chair that, over the years, the Chair has consistently taken a stricter and stricter view of the amendments that can be moved in commi…
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Madam Speaker, for seven years now, since 2015, the government has been saying it is looking into what it can do to reform EI. The hon. parliamentary secretary tells us that the minister just said that she will take care of it and is still looking into it. Last year, she told us that she would present her reform this summer. Two seasons later, we are still waiting. The government says that we are …
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Madam Speaker, if that was the government's goal, it has been achieved. I thank the hon. member for Calgary Shepard for his question in French. I commend him. At this uncertain time, what we are asking the government to do is to focus on its core duties, such as EI and health care funding. It needs to stop introducing new programs, projects and policies that intrude on areas of provincial jurisdic…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nunavut for her question and for all the work she is doing to defend her nation, which certainly needs a voice like hers in the House. Since 2015, the government has been saying that it will reform EI. Consultations were held across the country and went on interminably, but we all know what is needed. What we do not want is the current Axworthy system, whic…
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Madam Speaker, the interpreter says there is feedback. The member might want to remove his earpiece and move it away from the microphone.
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Madam Speaker, this week, all six urgent care chiefs of Quebec's hospitals declared the health care system to be at a breaking point. In that context, on Monday, in Vancouver, the Minister of Health will be meeting his counterparts from Quebec and the provinces to discuss health transfers. Yesterday's economic update did not plan for a penny more before 2028. The hospitals have reached a breaking …
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