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Mr. Speaker, yes, it is important to move forward. I believe that if this nation had been respected 150 years ago, if its rights had been guaranteed and not betrayed, its culture would have flourished and we would be the better for it today. Better late than never. I sincerely commend the government and the minister for their commitment in this regard. I would like to share a little story. May 1, …
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Mr. Speaker, naturally, in Quebec, we fully recognize the rights of all indigenous nations, whether they be first nations, Inuit or Métis. Our position is to conduct nation-to-nation negotiations. I would remind the House that a former Quebec premier, the late Bernard Landry, set an example in this regard by negotiating the peace of the braves agreement. This is not simply a matter of saying that …
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Mr. Speaker, the history of the Manitoba Red River Métis and everything that happened there is fundamental to the identity and culture of the French Canadians who would later become Quebeckers. In fact, according to some historians, the imprisonment and hanging of Louis Riel was the trigger that led people to realize that something had happened there. Honoré Mercier said “our brother is dead”. I w…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to sincerely thank the minister for this excellent bill, which ensures that the treaty has the force of law in Canada. Indeed, I hope we can conclude the debate today so that the bill can be passed more quickly. I have countless other anecdotes and stories to share, both from the perspective of Quebec and that of the Métis nation, regarding the history of Canada. I would …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to come back to an historical issue regarding the impact on the Métis population and on Manitoba today. The Manitoba Act established the province of Manitoba in 1870, but it was limited to a very small territory and did not get control over its natural resources, unlike British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, which both joined Confederation around the same time. Manito…
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Mr. Speaker, a friend pointed out to me that there is no provision in Bill C-21 to safeguard the constitutional rights of other peoples that may be compromised. What are my hon. colleague's thoughts on this?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to provide a bit of historical background. In the 1990s, Ottawa chose to cut transfers to the provinces to balance its books, specifically in the area of higher education. That is why there are now federal grants. When G7 leaders were complaining about protests against austerity outside their Parliament buildings, former prime minister Jean Chrétien told them that he did not ha…
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Mr. Speaker, this is far from optimal. The decisions being made are never optimal when there are overlaps and duplications. It is a reminder that we would be much better off if we managed 100% of the programs ourselves, using our own data. We would be much better off in terms of research, social services and education.
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Mr. Speaker, here is my question for my colleague. Why is he going to such lengths to attack the Conservative Party? Where I come from, when someone is down, the right thing to do is to stop kicking them. Things are not going well for the Conservatives right now. Some of their members crossed the floor, and now the Liberal Party has a majority. It is true that the newly elected MPs have not yet be…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to stay on the topic of graduate scholarships offered by the federal funding agencies. My colleague reminded us that there are not enough of them to meet the needs of the student population and that they have not been adjusted for inflation in 20 years. What is more, the Quebec Student Union requested that the duration of scholarships be extended from 12 to 24 months for …
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Mr. Speaker, I would tell the parliamentary secretary that he is in a better position than I am to answer his own question, and he knows it, considering that he was once Quebec's finance minister. At a time when the federal government is imposing austerity to reach its zero deficit, he opted for the easy solution. I want to point out that Mr. Massé, who was a member of Jean Chrétien's government, …
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Mr. Speaker, the problem is that there is no federal department of education since education, including post-secondary education, is the constitutional responsibility of Quebec and the provinces. Whether Ottawa chooses to give out fewer scholarships or stop recognizing a particular program, this amounts to outright interference. Given that we pay too much in federal taxes, Ottawa's role has histor…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her detailed speech, which provided a thorough analysis of the situation. It was very interesting. I understand that there has been some criticism. Since the minister just said that he was open to making improvements in committee, I have the same question as the member who spoke before me. I would like to know whether my colleague thinks that this bill…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague and friend for her extremely thorough speech. It highlights her deep dedication to her work. She brought up comparisons to the Five Eyes and to things being done in other countries. She also said that there would be some leeway for the committee to improve this bill. She touched on a few topics. Can she give us a few ideas, other than the ones she m…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a lot to say, but 30 seconds is not enough time to get through it all. The current crisis revolves around an oil shortage and rising costs. The answer is not to get even more oil out of the ground, but to reduce our reliance on it. If the member would stop talking long enough to let me answer in the few seconds I have left, I would tell her that the solution is not to rely ev…
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I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Mirabel, who is also often my friend. As we know, gas prices have skyrocketed since the start of Donald Trump's and Israel's war against Iran. The military operation, which began on February 28, led Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, that handles 20% of global oil. The U.S. forces had anticipated this and warned that it would happen, and it did. To…
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Mr. Speaker, as economists, I am sure we have a number of passions and topics of conversation in common. First, Quebec has its own standards, which means that, if Ottawa were to change its standard, nothing would change in Quebec. Second, the Conservatives have made up this wacky number, seven cents per litre, based on an outdated analysis from when oil prices were lower. Now they are putting this…
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Mr. Speaker, we are also dealing with inflation, where people are paying more for everything. There is that element. Also, in the trucking industry, for example, trucks cannot be converted to a different technology overnight. They must continue to be filled with diesel, which is more expensive. Would a measure targeting that aspect have been more effective and less costly? I would note that what i…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two quick questions for my colleague. First, the total cost of everything being proposed here amounts to $13 billion annually, which would increase the deficit by that amount. Would it not have been better to propose more targeted measures? Second, with regard to the clean fuel standard, the motion says that it would save seven cents per litre. These calculations are based on t…
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Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed to find that, when members are speaking French in the House, English-speaking members often speak louder than those speaking French. This happened during my colleague's speech, and it is happening at this very moment as I prepare to ask a question. This occurs on both sides of the House. It is a deeply saddening situation. Considering the current spike in gas prices,…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to commend the hon. parliamentary secretary on his content-rich speech. I would like to hear his thoughts on what tax specialist Luc Godbout said a few months ago about how we need to resist the temptation to lower the gas tax for either budget-balancing or environmental reasons. I would add to that the pressure that will be felt when the fuel excise tax comes back into effect …
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Mr. Speaker, I am puzzled by the Conservative party's calculations, particularly in today's motion. For example, the Conservative Party claims that we would save seven cents per litre when it comes to the clean fuel standard, which they want to eliminate. This is based on an estimate by the Parliamentary Budget Officer from some time ago, in which he compared the cost of biofuels to that of oil. H…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak to the motion's last two points. First, the Conservative Party estimates that eliminating clean fuel standards would save seven cents per litre, but the actual savings would be zero cents per litre. This is because the Conservative Party's numbers are based on old data from back when oil prices were much lower than they are now with the current crisis and price s…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the House that the offence of promoting hatred involves publicly communicating with the wilful intent to target a group. I would like to hear my honourable colleague's thoughts on that.
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Mr. Speaker, freedom of expression and freedom of religion are fundamental rights. However, we have collectively agreed that freedom of expression cannot extend to the offence of promoting hatred. These are not trivial matters, differences of opinion or insults. Promoting hatred is no trivial matter. The issue here is eliminating the religious exemption in the Criminal Code for this offence. That …
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Mr. Speaker, we are currently witnessing a spike in hateful acts and hate speech. Promoting hate is a criminal offence. The first groups targeted by hate speech and hateful acts are members of the Jewish faith followed by members of the Muslim faith. In October 2024, preacher Adil Charkaoui called for the death of Jews in a prayer he gave at a protest. Under the Criminal Code, this constitutes the…
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Mr. Speaker, why do they want to put an end to transportation electrification when every country in the world, except the United States, is working toward that? Also, as another member just said, would we not just be playing into Donald Trump's hands by reinstating the 1960s auto pact?
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague on his speech. Times of crisis are known to bring about rapid change and opportunities for growth. We saw this during the first oil shock in 1973, which led to the rise of more fuel-efficient vehicles, such as the Japanese cars that are still on the roads today. In 1979, the second oil shock left Chrysler and American Motors bankrupt. We are probably going throu…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my friend from Repentigny. Today's debate makes me think of Back to the Future, a movie that was popular when I was a kid. The characters used a car to go back to the 1960s. A few years later, Hollywood came out with Back to the Future Part II. The movie was no good, but at least they thought of using a car to propel themselves into the future. That is n…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague for his remarks. I could not agree with him more. The entire transportation electrification industry brings into focus one fundamental principle, which is predictability. While the transition to the electrification of transportation is under way in Europe, China, and everywhere else in the world other than the United States and Canada under this governmen…
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Mr. Speaker, what we need to do is seize this crisis as an opportunity to modernize by adopting the next-generation economic model adopted by Europe and most of the rest of the world, with the exception of Donald Trump's United States and, unfortunately, our own country under our government's excessively timid measures. We must accelerate transportation electrification. One of the most promising w…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec no longer has any automobile manufacturing. There was a plant that made Camaros in Laval's north end a few decades ago. When that closed, Jean Chrétien decided to abandon that industry on the pretext that auto manufacturing belonged to Ontario. The Liberal legacy lives on. I recognize that these are very important jobs and that this is a very important industry for Ontario. I w…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague told us that this agreement would be good for his riding and for the Quebec City area. I applaud that. I would like to know if he is aware of any businesses in his riding or in the Quebec City area that currently export goods to Indonesia. I would like him to give us some concrete examples. I would also like to know whether he has any reservations concerning respect for w…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the departing member, but I am not sure whether he will understand it. I would like to ask him about palm oil. Indonesia is one of the major producers of palm oil. Palm oil imports are skyrocketing in Canada. This is causing problems with deforestation of tropical forests and is affecting local populations, who are often forced to work on these plantations, as we…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking my colleague and friend for his speech. He certainly knows what he is talking about, as Olivier Guimond used to say in his famous slogan. In his speech, my colleague often referred to the fact that this agreement contains clauses from another era that are no longer really found in modern agreements. I would like him to discuss that a bit more, focusing on t…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Justice. I believe we are discussing a serious offence here, that of promoting hatred. Can the hon. minister remind us what promoting hatred means in legal terms?
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Madam Speaker, a few years ago, preacher Adil Charkaoui said the following at a demonstration: “Allah, take care of these Zionist aggressors. Allah, take care of the enemies of the people of Gaza. Allah, identify them all, then exterminate them. And don't spare any of them.” Quebec's director of criminal and penal prosecutions said that he did not have the tools to make an arrest following these h…
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Mr. Speaker, the amendment is based on the Criminal Code's prohibition against promoting hatred, which is a criminal offence. There have been situations, like that of imam Charkaoui, for example, who promoted hatred against the Jewish people. He was not prosecuted because of the religious exemption. Eta Yudin, vice-president of the Quebec chapter of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said t…
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Mr. Speaker, we request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, we request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend for his excellent speech and congratulate him on it. I would like to continue with the issue of taxing web giants. This is a matter of basic fairness. These multinationals use tax havens to avoid paying a single penny of taxes in Canada. The government had put in place a tax to offset that, but over the summer, the current Prime Minister s…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his excellent speech. I want to come back to a point he raised about the open banking system, consumer protection, data portability and things like that. To his knowledge, has the Government of Quebec been consulted and is it on board with the content of Bill C-15? To his knowledge, has there been communication between the Government of Quebec and the …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my colleague more questions about high-speed rail and the contents of Bill C‑15, which takes rights away from expropriated individuals. Last week, I attended high-speed rail consultations in the town of Berthier, in my riding, near Joliette. I witnessed a massive mobilization effort by farmers, who are deeply concerned. The government says that a corridor 10 kilometres w…
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Mr. Speaker, at the end of his speech, my colleague mentioned the Prime Minister's interests in Brookfield and his other investments. I would like to ask him a question about the governance choices the Prime Minister is making and the potential benefits to Brookfield, for example. One example is his elimination of the minimum tax for American companies that use tax havens. Brookfield had just move…
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Mr. Speaker, I went to an Alto event last week in Berthierville where the farmers of Lanaudière turned out in force. They are deeply worried. In my colleague's opinion, what does Bill C‑15 require in terms of taking rights away from expropriated individuals? If that was not part of Bill C-15, what would stop the project from moving forward, perhaps with a little more respect for the people it woul…
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Madam Speaker, at the end of their motion, the Conservatives ask the House to “pass policies to immediately expel foreign nationals convicted of serious crime in Canada”, but under the existing legislation, such individuals serve their sentences here in Canada and are then deported. Our concern is that people who are convicted of serious crimes will be immediately deported without having to serve …
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question concerning the last part of the motion, which reads: “(d) pass policies to immediately expel foreign nationals convicted of serious crime in Canada”. Under the existing legislation, a person who is found guilty of an offence must serve their sentence before being deported, while under the motion, such individuals would be deported without serving their sentence. I am…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her compassionate speech. My question has to do with a point that she raised in her speech and in her response to the government, and that is the atrocious processing times for claims. We are currently talking about roughly 40 months, whereas some European countries that are also facing waves of migration have implemented measures to speed up the process. In F…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two questions for my hon. colleague. First, does she agree that the main problem with regard to asylum claims is the processing time, which is currently more than 40 months? Let us look at Europe, for example, which is dealing with waves of migration and where officials have made a significant effort to reduce processing times. In France, the processing time is six months, and …
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Madam Speaker, today, we are discussing Bill C-20, which seeks to establish Build Canada Homes as a Crown corporation to build affordable housing. Obviously, the Bloc Québécois is in favour of that. The budget, which is currently being debated as part of Bill C-15, provides for $13 billion over the next four years, until 2030, and gives the government and the Crown corporation the power to build s…
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