Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to the budget presented by the Minister of Finance. It is certainly a historic budget, since this is the first time that a female finance minister has presented a budget in the House of Commons. The budget is 739 pages long. It is a lot of work to read through it all. The budget contains many new elements, measures and programs. In fact, it contains nea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comment and question. Indeed his party made that promise, but it is not enough. Our view and that of seniors in our ridings is that it is unacceptable to create two classes of seniors, in other words people 65 to 74 and people 75 and older. Again I refer to Gérald Fillion, who said that many seniors live in poverty and that “nearly four out of ten people…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I sincerely thank my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable for his questions and comments. I completely agree with the points he raised. First, people over the age of 75 will get $500 right before the election is called. This cheap election ploy is revolting and unacceptable. Then, the increase to old age security for people 75 and over will be included in a bill, which, if I understand …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from Repentigny for her comments. Ottawa has been going down this road for years now. It is building itself up into an increasingly central power that looks less and less like a federation where Quebec can exercise a certain degree of autonomy. Some time ago, Anglo-Canadian activist Naomi Klein pointed out in her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is unbelievable that compensation was included in last year's fall statement but in the 841 pages of the budget, which proposes new measures totalling almost $150 billion, there is still nothing with regard to compensation for supply-managed producers. That is truly unacceptable. I moved a motion in the House to ensure that producers receive full compensation for the new NAFTA. M…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I too would like to sincerely congratulate the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance on her first budget. It is certainly an historic moment for her and for the economy. I sincerely congratulate her on the volume of work that has been done. Her speech laid out a host of unprecedented measures. Many are very interesting, and we will certainly have time to come back and review t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
We now move to questions and comments. I would ask the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands to repeat her question.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it has been five years since the Panama papers came to light, and we know that Revenu Québec recovered $21.2 million that was hidden in tax havens. That is not a lot, but it is more than the federal government was able to recover for all of Canada. That brings me to the single tax return. The Liberals are saying that they are against it because Revenu Québec would not be able to fight…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the National Assembly passed a unanimous motion. Quebec wants this, and we see the contempt of the Prime Minister for the will of the Quebec nation. The Prime Minister is doing nothing about tax havens. It is embarrassing that Quebec has recovered more money than all of Canada thanks to the Panama papers and without access to foreign tax information. It is even more embarrassing when …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I was at the Standing Committee on Finance, and I agree with the Conservative member's comments. The government did a bad job of introducing this idea. Increasing the debt ceiling is a measure that has not been used before by the government in its legislation. In my opinion, the government should have taken the time to meet with each party to explain the idea behind the proposal and…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the interpretation is not working.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is unbelievable. It is April 12, and we are still debating Bill C-14, which implements certain measures announced in the fall economic statement. We are still debating this many months after the economic statement was presented. Part 1 of Bill C-14 deals with the children's special allowances program and corrects a problem regarding the Canada emergency rent subsidy. We support…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would first like to thank my colleague for her question and comments. I would also like to tell her that it is a pleasure working with her on the Standing Committee on Finance. In a recession, an economic recovery plan is obviously the best or the least bad solution. However, in that case, there must be full confidence in the government and the measures must be very well targeted.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Vancouver East for her question. I completely agree with her. We need to help our SMEs and our businesses for as long as the crisis lasts. Often, we are talking about businesses that have been operating for decades, family businesses, people who do not have a ton of money and who contribute to their community and to society. We do not want to wake up tomorr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to acknowledge my colleague from Beauport—Limoilou and thank her. Before the last election, there was plenty of talk in the House about how the billion-dollar investment would tighten the net. We saw what happened with the Panama papers: $21 million were recovered thanks to that $1-billion investment. Of course the Canada Revenue Agency needs the resources to investigate and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands. I want to congratulate her on all the work she has done for so many years to save the planet. We are in the midst of a pandemic, a terrible crisis. However, the real crisis of our time is the climate change crisis. We must do everything we can to stop it. In order to succeed, we must indeed take measures to reduce our greenh…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. Until recently we had the chance to work together at the Standing Committee on Finance and it was always a great pleasure. As I said in my speech, part 7 of Bill C-14 is problematic. It calls for increasing the debt ceiling. We had questions about that, but I was quickly reassured when my questions were answered, including through the responses from the Parliam…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, climate change is the defining issue of our time. We must transition our economy to a green economy. I know that it is quite complicated and is causing hardship for families in his riding and province who work in these sectors. I know it is not easy. However, I believe, as does my party, that we do not have a choice. Can we afford not to shift to a green economy and—
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, yesterday, the Canadian Medical Association announced that health care costs for seniors are projected to reach $490 billion over the next 10 years. That $490 billion is just for elder care. It does not include care for children, care for people with serious illnesses or mental health care. I could go on all day. That is exactly why, in tabling its budget yesterday, Quebec reiterate…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I cannot believe it. The figure is $490 billion, yet he spoke about $20 million and $500 million. I am not at all reassured. Ottawa is making cuts to health care, as everyone has pointed out, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Conference Board of Canada, the Council of the Federation, the Quebec National Assembly, the unions, and even the House of Commons. Quebec demons…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is crazy. The Prime Minister refused to acknowledge the need to increase health transfers, but eventually said we could discuss it after the pandemic. Today there was an announcement that the federal government will be increasing health transfers slightly during the pandemic. They have a hard time understanding, but they get there in the end. Does the Minister of Finance understand…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let us talk about that. From the start of the pandemic, the federal government left Quebec and the provinces to fend for themselves. At the start of the pandemic, for every $100 it spent, the federal government invested 15¢ in health during a health crisis. With today's announcement, for every $100 spent, $1 will go to health during a health crisis. That is an improvement, but it is o…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
moved: Motion No. 1 That Bill C-224 be amended by restoring the long title as follows: “An Act to amend An Act to authorize the making of certain fiscal payments to provinces, and to authorize the entry into tax collection agreements with provinces” Motion No. 2 That Bill C-224 be amended by restoring the preamble as follows: “Whereas the residents of Quebec are the only ones in Canada who have to…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want the sound quality to be good enough for the interpreters to do their extraordinary work. I will then resume my speech. I was talking about the article by journalist Joël-Denis Bellavance in today's La Presse newspaper. According to the article, there is a document circulating internally among deputy ministers and within the government to remind everyone what a fiscal imbalanc…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia. Before discussing the motion, I would like to comment on the speech from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons since it is directly related to what I wanted to say about the Conservative motion. When asked about this, the Liberal member said that…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his question and reiterate what a great pleasure it was to work with him on the Standing Committee on Finance for a time. We worked well together and got a lot done. Based on my analysis of the motion, this is yet more encroachment on Quebec and the provinces' areas of jurisdiction. However, the specific point my colleague raised, vaccine suppl…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what I am criticizing is how long it took to get the first vaccines. After we were told that vaccination was a month behind schedule, what was the economic and social cost of that? That kind of delay has major repercussions. I think Canada could have done much better and made things happen a lot faster, but that did not happen. Fortunately, we seem to be catching up. I want to stres…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the motion may imply that, but that is not the only thing it implies. It is basically Quebec's and the provinces' job, and their respective public health authorities and legislative assemblies, “to support safely, gradually and permanently lifting COVID-19 restrictions.” I hate the fact that the Conservative Party campaigns on respecting jurisdictions and giving the provinces a lot …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-234. This bill amends the Income Tax Act to create a home security tax credit. First, I wish to inform you that the Bloc Québécois will be voting against this bill. Our party and I recognize the challenge of home security, especially in rural areas. I come from a rural village called Saint-Jean-de-Matha. I commend the great passi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, for those who may not know, the city of Joliette, for which my riding is named, was established after Barthélemy Joliette built a mill on the bank of the L'Assomption River. At that time, the city was named L'industrie, which clearly shows the importance of entrepreneurship for our regional county municipality and for the northern Lanaudière region. I already knew that before I was el…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as we said, we will support this bill. However, we are still disappointed. We need to do more than what is in the bill, much more. First I will reiterate our requests, and I hope that the Minister of Finance will include them in her first budget, which we are eagerly awaiting. The betting is that it could come as early as late February, or else in March or April. The federal governm…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader for his intervention, his comments and his question. Clearly, he and I are not talking to the same people. I invite him to come to Quebec—virtually, of course, because of the pandemic—and visit the Quebec National Assembly to speak with any elected official there. Every one of them will tell him that health is a Queb…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her intervention. The aerospace sector is not in my riding, but it obviously plays a vital role in Quebec's overall economy. There is, of course, a clear link between aerospace and aviation. In light of the pandemic and the COVID-19 variants, extra caution is required. That is what the Quebec premier has been telling the Prime Minister over and over again. W…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in short, yes. The Manawan Atikamekw live in my riding. They are in desperate need of health care. We stand with them. The government must do more for health care, especially during a pandemic.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to wish you a happy new year and hope that we will turn the page on this pandemic. I listened carefully and with interest to my colleagues' interventions on establishing a single tax return administered by Quebec. I will start by thanking my colleague from Montarville for his eloquent speech, and also my colleague from La Prairie. I also acknowledge the speeches mad…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →