Government Orders
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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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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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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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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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, 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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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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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…
Read full speech →Government Orders
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…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
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, 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 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, 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 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, 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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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, 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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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?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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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Mr. Speaker, the hypothetical case that was just raised illustrates exactly what Bill C-3 aims to regulate. A court has ruled on a similar case. A couple working in the public service had a child in Switzerland. They said that if their child were then to have a child abroad while working in an embassy or elsewhere, that child would not have Canadian citizenship. Bill C-3 seeks to address that. Cit…
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Mr. Speaker, could my colleague come up with an amendment to make that proposal acceptable and in line with the court's decision? Under the current legislation, if diplomats have a child abroad and that child also has a child abroad while working as a diplomat, the grandchild will lose their Canadian citizenship. The court is telling us to fix this. The government is proposing something. In my opi…
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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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Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to congratulate my colleague and friend who will also soon be celebrating 10 years in the House. We were elected at the same time on October 19, 2015, although he served as a member of the Quebec National Assembly before that, and I did not. I also want to thank him for his kind words about the history I gave on this bill. I try to learn as much as I can about the h…
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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—
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. I just spent the past few hours in camera analyzing the budget documents and preparing to speak in the House because there was an agreement allowing me to present my party's position. I analyzed the document with colleagues and with my entire team. We prepared our position to present in the House. At the very least, each party should be allowed to pr…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, today in the House, the government tabled the 2024 fall economic statement. Whose economic statement is it, exactly? Did the former finance minister, who announced her resignation this morning, draft it? I am not sure, because she chose to resign rather than endorse it. Is it the economic statement of the new finance minister, who was probably just sworn in moments ago and was the M…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the government is handing out election goodies by eliminating the GST for two months. This measure will benefit the wealthy when they go out to eat or buy alcohol. When the government presented this measure, we saw that it was a pre-election move that would benefit the wealthy and that it was not the right approach to take. That is the new measure set out in the economic statement. …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his kind words, but I must correct the record. The mandate that my Bloc Québécois colleagues and I have was not given to us by the Conservative Party or by Conservative voters. We were all elected in our ridings to come here and be the voice of Quebec. Every time we stand up, we are thinking about the people in our ridings and in Quebec, whom we hold in our …
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Madam Speaker, nothing has changed. The former minister came up with an $83-billion plan that essentially targeted the oil and gas industry. The striptease continues, and the statement comes up short on new details. For example, the government is now explaining how it plans to support hydrogen production from methane. It says that this is good for the environment. In truth, it is really about supp…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be very brief. We have just learned that the Minister of Labour and Seniors is invoking section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to force striking Canada Post workers to return to work. Does the hon. member believe that this government respects the rights of workers and union members?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, in his speech, the parliamentary secretary once again boasted about the merits of the GST holiday that the government adopted with a super closure motion and that we did not even get to study and analyze in committee. In our opinion, the GST holiday does more to help higher-income households. Suspending the GST on diapers and children's clothing is obviously a good measure. However, c…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to see the clock at 2:30 p.m.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I would like to correct the record. In his speech, my colleague said that the Bloc Québécois is against farmers because we oppose Bill C‑234. Let us review the facts. The bill was studied in the Senate, which proposed an amendment. To speed up the process, we are prepared to accept the amendment and vote on the bill as is. That was what our agriculture critic said last January. Howe…
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