Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, what I take away from the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report is that this will not meet the needs in housing. I acknowledge that the parliamentary secretary is talking about affordable housing. I would like us to talk more about social housing or non-market housing. In the past few years, we have seen that when the government introduces programs for affordable housing, the funding …
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Mr. Speaker, Jean-Claude Germain passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a stir of words, stories and laughter that still buzz in our ears to this day. Two weeks ago, he was given a warm and colourful tribute at the Centre du Théâtre d'aujourd'hui. Playwright, screenwriter, writer, journalist, lyricist, historian and so much more: with Germain, the labels jostled for position like actors in …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from Mirabel for his remarks. This is obviously troubling and very worrisome for the health of democracy. Earlier, I pointed out that this is a minority government. Normally, a minority government tries to talk to the other parties in order to build a majority in the House and to move bills and the legislative agenda forward. What we have here is a gove…
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Mr. Speaker, roughly halfway through the nearly 650 pages that make up Bill C‑15, there is a hidden amendment that gives any government minister the power to exempt any company from any federal law, other than the Criminal Code, for a period of three years. Bloc Québécois members find this very disturbing. What does my hon. colleague think?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Shefford and congratulate her on her excellent speech. I would like her to tell us more about what our party, the Bloc Québécois, has put forward. I would also like her to talk about the concerns she raised in her speech in relation to the Jordan decision.
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I would ask members to observe decorum in the House. The hon. member for Repentigny.
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I would like to remind the hon. member that we cannot refer to people by name, but rather by title. The hon. member.
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Mr. Speaker, philanthropy is the quiet force that lifts society up. It is a living connection between liberty and fraternity, between the individual and the community. It reminds us that the greatness of a people is measured not only by its laws and institutions, but also by the generosity of its members. November 15 was a day for remembering a certain truth, that philanthropy is hope in action. T…
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Madam Speaker, organizations that support people experiencing homelessness have expressed concerns about the funding for the community encampment response plan. What we understand from reading the budget is that the amount allocated for 2024-26 will not be renewed and that there will be no increase in funding to help organizations. However, we know that this is a serious problem. Can the hon. parl…
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Madam Speaker, the government announced in the budget that it was eliminating the tax on web giants. That could well be included in the budget implementation bill. This tax was supposed to make up for the fact that these web giants pay no income tax. It was announced two years ago. Earlier this summer, the Prime Minister announced that he was scrapping the tax in order to secure a trade agreement …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and for the eloquent answer he just gave. I want to go back to the issue of the deficit announced in the budget, which is $78 billion this year. The government is saying that this includes so much investment that it is no longer calculating the deficit the way it did in the past. When we look at the details, we see, for example, the Parliamentary …
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Mr. Speaker, during the last election, the government chose to abolish the carbon tax for individuals but sent out cheques to compensate them. However, provinces like Quebec that do not pay this carbon tax because they have their own system were not compensated. Through the taxes they paid, Quebec's taxpayers contributed nearly $900 million to this election giveaway. Does my colleague believe, as …
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Mr. Speaker, does the hon. member recognize that, in the budget, the government is taking away one-time health transfers and returning the transfers to Stephen Harper's level of 3% per year? It is a well-known fact that costs are increasing by 6% a year. All Quebec governments, regardless of party affiliation, have asked for a 6% escalator in transfers, and the federal government has refused. Does…
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Madam Speaker, I rise today on a question of privilege concerning the proceedings of yesterday's budget lock-up and the budget documents that were distributed to members of Parliament. It turns out that members of Parliament who consulted the budget in paper format only, as distributed by the government during the lock-up and during the government's economic statement at the end of the day, did no…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Minister of Finance for his speech, which was as long as a Fidel Castro speech. The minister says this is a generational budget. When we read it, we see that it mentions $115 billion for infrastructure. When we look at the numbers, we see only $9 billion in new money over five years. That is not even $2 billion a year in new money for all infrastructure, despite th…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has manufactured more than just his own new shoes. He also manufactured an entire election crisis on the eve of the budget. His government did not hold any consultations. No witnesses appeared before the committee. It did not respond to any of the opposition's requests. There has still been no real negotiations between the parties. The budget is coming down rou…
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Mr. Speaker, here we have the story of the ant and the grasshopper. The Liberals have been busy singing all summer long, and with 24 hours to go before the budget, they are completely unprepared. They threaten an election, fudge the numbers and make partisan attacks. However, they knew that the Bloc Québécois would be asking for money for health care. That is Quebeckers' number one priority. They …
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Mr. Speaker, youth unemployment is indeed a major concern, and we need to address it. I thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for her speech on this. However, I have two questions for her. My first question has to do with the drastic changes made to the approach to the temporary foreign worker program. In my riding, many small and medium-sized businesses in the steel industry, the insurance indus…
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Madam Speaker, the issues surrounding youth employment are very worrisome. However, I would like to talk instead about the jobs of tomorrow for young people, with the artificial intelligence revolution replacing more traditional jobs, especially in the service sector. Should the government not be implementing economic strategies to ensure that we have jobs for the future?
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As the saying goes, Mr. Speaker, we are rubber and he is glue. The housing crisis is at an all-time high, and the Liberals are to blame. The Parliamentary Budget Officer calculated that rents have increased by 26% solely because of the federal government's excessively lax immigration policies. People across the country, including immigrants themselves, are paying 26% more in rent because of the Li…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. The Chair has chosen to group all of the amendments presented at this stage in a single vote. In other words, a single vote in the House will decide whether all the work that was done in committee will be undone. With a single vote, the House will let the committee know whether everything it accomplished was for nothing. What does my hon. colleague…
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Mr. Speaker, your office just grouped all the NDP and Liberal amendments into one vote. In other words, a single vote in the House will decide whether all the work that was done on this bill in committee will be wiped out. How much respect does the government have for the work of this committee?
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Madam Speaker, first, we would like to have a French version of the amendment. That would help us with our work in this debate. With regard to the question just asked by the government representative, I would say that the big difference is that elected officials in the opposition do not have the same influence as the Prime Minister does. Do not forget that when the Prime Minister worked at Brookfi…
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Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague and thank him for his speech. He talked about Brookfield subsidiaries in tax havens. I want to remind the House that there are five that are active in Canada that received the wage subsidy during the pandemic at the same time as they were not paying taxes in Canada because they were registered in tax havens. That is unacceptable. This is my questi…
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Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of the debate, the government and its representatives in the House have been saying that it would be much more important to discuss Bill C‑3, which is not being passed quickly enough. First, I want to remind members that if the government did not try to undo the work that was done in committee, things could move forward much faster. Second, can my colleague tell us…
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Mr. Speaker, we have talked about the good intentions in what the government is saying. However, my colleague also raised the fact that there is a shortage of officers. He said that the government has promised to hire 2,000 more officers, which may not even be enough. During the election campaign, we were told that about 2,000 officers would be hired, but the Speech from the Throne only mentioned …
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague on his fine speech. I have the pleasure of working with him on the Standing Committee on Industry. As he said, my party will also support this bill at second reading. We look forward to thoroughly analyzing this bill in committee. That said, the major problem we see is that there are a lot of commitments, but there are staff shortages at the CBSA and the RCMP. W…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for introducing this very important bill in the House. As he said, most European countries and the United States have a process that involves parliamentarians before final ratification. I was elected in 2015, and there was a lot of talk about protecting supply management. I am pleased because we just passed a law that protects it, but in the last three trade agr…
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Mr. Speaker, in order for customs officers to be able to do their jobs properly, more officers need to be hired. The union says that the Canada Border Services Agency is short between 2,000 and 3,000 officers. During the last election campaign, the Liberal Party platform said that it would hire 1,000 additional RCMP officers and 1,000 CBSA officers. The 1,000 RCMP officers were mentioned in the th…
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Mr. Speaker, the proposed commissioner will not have the authority to enforce compliance, as my hon. colleague pointed out. Their role is to point a finger at the federal government's shortcomings and failures to comply with modern treaties. Their limited powers will only permit them to conduct performance reviews and audits. Would the hon. member like the commissioner to have an enforcement role …
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Mr. Speaker, based on what I understand from this bill, the mechanism of tabling reports in the House and requiring the audited federal institutions to respond is similar to the mechanism for the Office of the Auditor General of Canada. It sounds like it will become increasingly more difficult for the government to avoid taking responsibility for its shortcomings. What does my hon. colleague think…
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Mr. Speaker, five years ago, we learned about the shocking death of Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old wife and mother of seven. Five years have passed since she filmed and broadcast her experience with racism in a deeply tragic, but also infuriating, form. We remember her and what she went through. We stand with the Atikamekw nation and indigenous peoples in the fight against racism in all its forms, …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, with whom I have the pleasure of serving on the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology. I congratulate her on her speech. I would like to raise an important question. Naturally, the Bloc Québécois supports Bill C‑10, whose implementation is crucial. That said, Liberal MP Robert Falcon Ouellette expressed some concerns about Bill C‑5, which was passed last …
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Mr. Speaker, why does my colleague think the government took so long to introduce this bill? Yes, there was Bill C‑66, but it died on the Order Paper. The government has known for 10 years that it needed to act quickly, but it failed to do so. As for General Vance, there were allegations even under the Conservatives. Members will recall that the Liberal defence minister refused 12 times to meet wi…
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Mr. Speaker, does my colleague agree that the government has really taken too long to introduce this bill or its previous version, Bill C‑66? Members will recall that, when the scandal broke, the Liberal government decided to appoint Justice Louise Arbour to make the military justice system independent of the chain of command. That was six years after the Deschamps report, which made the very same…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague and friend to share his comments on the actions, or lack thereof, of the former Liberal minister of national defence in the case of Mr. Vance. I will remind members that the ombudsman attempted to meet with the minister 12 times and that, on those 12 occasions, the minister refused to meet with him and review the evidence, saying he did not want to interfere …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague whether such an amendment should have been made years ago. Various allegations were made, but little action followed, and the previous government did not really make a proactive effort to respond to these allegations.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by congratulating my hon. colleague on his excellent speech. I would like to quote a few lines from constitutional lawyer, André Binette. Defending the Canadian Constitution means defending the notwithstanding clause, and everyone must accept that. It is impossible to remove it because it is the central component of the 1982 political compromise from which Quebec was e…
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Mr. Speaker, I think there was a misunderstanding. What he meant was that his comments were not based on a written speech, but rather on what he had just heard. Therefore, he did not use papers as—
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Mr. Speaker, I sincerely want to congratulate my friend and colleague on his passionate speech. I would like him to tell us, what exactly are notwithstanding clauses, also known as parliamentary sovereignty clauses? We know that the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding or parliamentary sovereignty clause in Bill 21. At the Supreme Court, there was the Ford decis…
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Mr. Speaker, following the reasoning presented by the hon. parliamentary secretary, which the government also argued in court, today in Le Devoir, journalist Marie Vastel said: However convoluted it may be, this reasoning would lead to a federal rewriting of the constitutional compromise that would usurp parliamentary sovereignty and give judges the final say. According to this logic, it would be …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to sincerely congratulate the hon. parliamentary secretary on his speech, much of which was delivered in French. I think that is a first for him in the House, so I applaud and congratulate him. I have the pleasure of serving with him on the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, where we are doing very constructive work, at least from my perspective, so far. I rea…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on what André Binette, a constitutional lawyer, has written. He points out that the notwithstanding clause first appeared in Canadian law in the Canadian Bill of Rights, a federal statute passed by John Diefenbaker's government in 1960. Yes, he was a defender of individual freedoms but, coming from western Canada, he was also a fervent admi…
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Madam Speaker, former U.S. president Barack Obama said we are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it. Does my hon. colleague agree with this statement? If so, what measures does she suggest we take, aside from eliminating the cap on greenhouse gas emissions?
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Mr. Speaker, as I read Bill C-3, its purpose is to resolve this issue. It is not a question of being deserving or not. If the parents and grandparents were temporarily abroad at birth, it should—
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Mr. Speaker, as members know, Bill C-3 responds to a court ruling. I will provide a bit of background. In 2009, the Harper government amended the Citizenship Act to prohibit passing on citizenship beyond the second generation. On December 19, 2023, the Superior Court of Ontario struck down certain provisions of the Citizenship Act, ruling that they violated the section on mobility rights, which st…
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Mr. Speaker, the fact is that we, as legislators, are the only elected officials in the entire system, which goes from judges and the Senate to ministers and the Prime Minister. We legislators are elected. In that sense, we are all the government's boss. If the government introduces a bill that elicits concern or opposition from elected members, those members are duty-bound to raise those concerns…
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With regard to housing programs and initiatives and federal housing transfers to Quebec and the provinces: (a) what is the breakdown of the amounts and data, for the provinces and Quebec, for the projects under the various programs managed or financed by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada since October 1, 2023; (b) what is the updated est…
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Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that this bill is a revival of a previous bill and a response to a ruling from the Ontario Superior Court dating from late 2023, which gave the government six months to comply. My question is as follows: Has the six-month deadline passed?
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Mr. Speaker, I will pick up where my colleague left off. This bill is a direct response to an Ontario Superior Court ruling in a case similar to the example she gave. It involves the child of a Canadian diplomat born abroad, in Switzerland. If the diplomat's child also has a child abroad, that child will lose their citizenship. This bill has nothing to do with security and criminals. We do need la…
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