Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I find that amusing. My colleague knows I appreciate him. More than anything though, I like the facts to be accurate, and those figures come from one of the least transparent federal institutions. We do not know where Export Development Canada, or EDC, makes its investments, and it is one of the largest sources of taxpayer-backed public funding for oil. What surprises me is that the C…
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Mr. Speaker, I will give a more general answer because I do not have all the information on that subject. There are circumstances where it can be worth it to subsidize certain activities, like the clean energy transition and cases where there is unfair competition, for instance. Some subsidies that have been in place for a long time and have never been revised end up being a complete waste. The ba…
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives have all kinds of things to teach us on this opposition day. However, they need to be reminded that the last Conservative government ran deficits for seven years straight. I would sure like to know what today's Conservatives, whose leader was part of the Harper government, would do differently from what they always did in the past—should they come to power—so they …
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has been calling for a reform of the Competition Bureau system for 20 years or so. For years, we have been asking that the Competition Bureau have the authority to prevent mergers and acquisitions regardless of any efficiency gains they might generate if, at the end of the day, it means higher prices for consumers. That is what happened in the case of grocery stor…
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Madam Speaker, in 2012, in the Quebec National Assembly, the member for Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis's premier bragged about taking $200 million out of Quebeckers' pockets with the carbon exchange and said he was happy that Quebec was taking part in that carbon exchange. His colleague, Minister Pierre Arcand, even said that it was a very prudent and conservative approach. However, the other day…
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Madam Speaker, I apologize. I wanted to point out that she had misled the House. Having supported Jean Charest, she seems very uncomfortable with the Conservative philosophy, so I simply wanted know whether my colleague has checked to ensure that his colleague has a valid Conservative Party of Canada membership card.
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Madam Speaker, I would ask for the consent of the House to share my time with the hon. member for Shefford.
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Madam Speaker, I want you to know that I am very critical of this bill. Obviously, it does not set out any harmful measures. It sets out some mini-measures and some relatively important things. It is clearly not a panacea, but we will support it because we cannot be against it. However, when I read the bill, I could not help but be very critical of it for the following reasons. We are dealing with…
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Madam Speaker, let us deal with the parliamentary secretary the way we have to deal with the Conservatives on social media, in other words, let us set the record straight. When it comes to the $900 million in the national housing strategy that is stuck in Ottawa's coffers—it is in fact stuck in Ottawa's coffers—if it were not for the Bloc Québécois bringing this up during every question period in …
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Madam Speaker, earlier, the previous Conservative member was supposed to speak for 10 minutes. The Green Party objected and he got 20 minutes. He did not even talk about housing. He focused on the price of a bag of chips. Now my Conservative colleague, who deals with economic matters, is talking about the price of Pepsi. I find that a little unusual. Earlier I mentioned all the mergers and acquisi…
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Madam Speaker, Quebec is the only province with ongoing social and co-operative housing construction programs. Because it does not understand Quebec's programs, the federal government is incapable of negotiating this quickly and correctly. I agree with my colleague on the substance. The market does not house those who need it most, those with fewer financial means. We need to correct that market w…
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Madam Speaker, Bill C-56 includes measures to eliminate the GST on new rental housing. In the long term, this could impact supply, at least theoretically. However, this is for housing that will be built a long time from now, housing that will be started in 2030 and completed in 2035. Meanwhile, during a briefing, we learned that the government had not commissioned any analysis or study on how much…
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Madam Speaker, I know that the hon. minister is delighted that I am here for his speech. I thank him for his clarifications. It is true that the current Competition Bureau regime focuses on efficiency when analyzing mergers and acquisitions, sometimes to the detriment of consumers. As a result, over the years, many large grocery groups have formed. This enabled them to lower their costs while rais…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his high-energy speech. That is not surprising. We know our colleague well. The Prime Minister, who is of course a member of his political party, recently took aim at Quebec municipalities by saying that housing was not being built quickly enough because of all kinds of regulations. What is rather surprising is that, in my riding, for nearly 50 y…
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Madam Speaker, I am listening to what the government House leader is saying, and it is mind-boggling in its intellectual dishonesty. If he keeps talking about electronic voting and all the little things in the reform of the Standing Orders, it is for an obvious reason: He is embarrassed to talk about the way he works. We have before us a government that shows contempt for Parliament, for parliamen…
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Madam Speaker, we know how things work in the House and we know how the negotiations went for these changes to the Standing Orders of the House. The government House leader went to see the NDP. They came to an agreement. After that, they did not talk to the other parties. They decided to shove new rules down the members' throats. Here we are in mid-June discussing this under a gag order at the las…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I worked together at the Standing Committee on Health, and he knows that I appreciate him. I know he is a democrat. In his speech, he discussed the importance of having a well functioning democracy. He believes that the new rules could help us to enhance the way democracy functions. I am wondering if he does not see that there is a certain paradox in the fact that, …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech because, since this debate began, we have been hearing all kinds of generalities and nonsense about who votes virtually and who does not. The hon. member for Winnipeg North has once again lowered the level of debate. However, I think my colleague raised the level of debate. Indeed, he pointed out that the way this motion is being put…
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Mr. Speaker, those of us in opposition have very few weapons to use against the government, which has all kinds of ways to control what happens in the House. Some of those weapons are time management, filibustering and opportunities to oppose all kinds of motions. In this case, the government is sneakily taking many of those tools away from the opposition in this bill. Does my colleague think that…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned that his government has invested heavily in infrastructure. As with any type of investment, there are good ones and there are bad ones. Among the billions of dollars invested in infrastructure, there are the investments made in Trans Mountain. At the outset, Trans Mountain was supposed to cost $7 billion. So far, it has cost $30 billion in public money. It is …
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Madam Speaker, that was the first issue that I began working on, even before I was elected. Unlike the NDP, I work in this riding every day and I understand that there are very sensitive issues, like safety and social harmony. I consulted all of the parties. We worked with the environment minister and the minister responsible for indigenous relations. We are still working on this. We worked with j…
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Madam Speaker, our Conservative colleague mentioned our carbon exchange and the emissions permits we have in Quebec. When we sell emission units, a large part of the money, if not all, goes into Quebec's green fund and is used for various investments to make us more resilient to climate change and better able to adapt. Would my colleague not say that, in the western provinces that rely on oil, ins…
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Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure to see you and all of my colleagues. I want to take a moment to send my best wishes and thoughts to everyone affected by the forest fires right now. I am thinking of the community members who are supporting all those who are helping with the evacuations as well as my colleagues, the members for Abitibi—Témiscamingue, Manicouagan and Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik…
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Madam Speaker, it is a rare opportunity for me to address you twice in such a short period of time. I am sure you are delighted. I would like to take a few seconds to say that I am thinking of the people in my riding and all the organizations in my riding that are working very hard in these increasingly difficult economic circumstances, when housing and food prices are rising. My thoughts go out t…
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Mr. Speaker, my regards to you and to all our valiant colleagues who are here with us. This is a debate at report stage on the budget, specifically Bill C‑47. It is the month of June. The Stanley Cup finals are going on. It is hot out, we still do not have a budget and we have a minority government. As we have seen all this week and today, there is a blockage in Parliament. Everything is delayed, …
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Mr. Speaker, what is happening is that the government has developed a habit of overspending given the flexibility that it has. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has shown that, to maintain its debt-to-GDP ratio, the government has roughly $40 billion in fiscal flexibility. However, the government has developed a bad habit of using its fiscal advantage to take over areas of provincial jurisdiction. …
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Mr. Speaker, I am not a New Democrat, thank God. I do not agree with the approach the New Democrats took when they decided to support the government no matter what. I think they took their own risks, and at some point they will have to figure out when it stops being a compromise and starts being a denial of who they are and what they believe in. I think my colleague said it well. I can think of tw…
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Mr. Speaker, what kind of a world is this when we state the facts and get accused of being partisan? What would make life better for Quebeckers is if the government respected the Quebec National Assembly and respected the unanimous motions from the Quebec National Assembly. The 125 elected members in Quebec City are standing up for policies in Quebec's own jurisdictions. It is not partisan when ev…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his fiery speech, as usual. Quebec made a choice to have an emissions trading system. That is its own system, which is why the carbon tax does not apply in Quebec. My colleague spoke eloquently of the Montreal Protocol on CFCs. Obviously, we eliminated the threats to the ozone layer. The whole reason this came about was that an emissions trading system was i…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague has some complaints about the budget. Members of the official opposition do not like the budget, and neither do we. We think there are many things missing from this budget. What are we going to do? We are going to respect Parliament and vote against the budget. The Conservatives have been wrapping themselves in a cloak of virtue for some time, telling us that they have on…
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Madam Speaker, I was not expecting to ask a question, but I have one all the same. My colleague is complaining about the fact that there are regulations on clean fuels. Here, he seems to take offence at the fact that a producer who does not comply with the regulations will be taxed. When I speed or fail to obey the law, I get a ticket. What should be done with producers who breach the standards? D…
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Madam Speaker, in looking at the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report on the cost of the biofuels measure, it is clear that these costs are quite high for households, particularly in provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and Alberta. The provinces with the largest oil and gas industries, and where people rely heavily on oil, are basically paying for this measure. Is it not time w…
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Madam Speaker, in the House we often hear the Conservatives argue against carbon pollution pricing by saying that the continued rise in greenhouse gas emissions is proof it does not work. I have explained to my Conservative colleagues on several occasions, in the lobbies, that emissions could have risen even more if not for the carbon tax, but that does not seem to have worked. I know that my coll…
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Madam Speaker, when the biofuel regulations came out, parliamentarians asked the Parliamentary Budget Officer to assess the cost of that measure. When the Conservatives read the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report, they decided that there were indeed costs involved and that they should oppose the measure. Now I am trying to figure out whether they are spreading misinformation or whether they sim…
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Madam Speaker, today, during a Conservative opposition day, I heard and carefully listened to many unreasonable arguments. I have to say that, like my colleague, I represent an agricultural riding, and even though I do not share his conclusions, there are several interesting elements in his speech. However, he told us that the carbon tax was a bad thing for our farmers because our international co…
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Madam Speaker, my regards to you and all our dedicated colleagues who are here in the House with us. I very much like being surprised. Today, I was very excited because we knew there was going to be a Conservative opposition day. Yesterday, I scratched my head and wondered what they would talk about. I came up with three options: taxes, taxes and maybe taxes. In the end, I was wrong. The Conservat…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, whom I really like, for his question. I think the Conservatives would probably have preferred a tax, because a tax has one benefit that this type of regulation does not have: It generates revenue that enables the government to make the policy more progressive. That is exactly what they did with the carbon tax, which is not perfect but does send money back to so…
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Madam Speaker, I will depart a bit from my colleague's question, but not to avoid it, because it was excellent. We always come back to international comparisons, to what is done elsewhere and the fact that our competitors have or sometimes do not have taxes. That is indeed important. Let me come back to biofuels regulations. Many studies in many places have shown that it is a policy that does have…
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is often criticized for the topics we choose for our opposition days. I am not going to pass judgment on the topic. What I said was that I was not surprised that it is always the same topic, but the Conservatives have the right to choose whatever they want to talk about. That being said, we are definitely feeling the effects of climate change. There are fires burn…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to read from an open letter written by Eric Montigny, professor of political science at Laval University, published in today's La Presse: [The Prime Minister] has mastered the art of stalling for time. When controversy tarnishes his government, he usually resorts to the same strategy: first, play down the scope of the scandal and then sit tight while the storm blows ove…
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Madam Speaker, Laval University professor Eric Montigny is calling for a public inquiry today in an open letter. He states that “holding a public inquiry into foreign interference must first be seen as an exercise in protecting Canadians' confidence in Canadian democracy.” What the Liberals are doing today, in pointing the finger at the Bloc Québécois, the Conservative Party and the NDP instead of…
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Madam Speaker, I am astounded by the member for Vaughan—Woodbridge's convoluted logic. He started his speech by telling us Canada is known for the quality of its democracy and that people trust it. Then, he went on for 10 minutes talking about generalities just to end up telling us that we do not need a public inquiry. Basically, what he was saying is that Canadian democracy is like good wine. Sin…
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Mr. Chair, this is the first government budget that we could describe as a postpandemic budget. Obviously no one here in Parliament is to blame for the virus. However, the programs that might have helped us to get through the pandemic at the time are the responsibility of this Parliament. We need to learn important lessons and make corrections. We also need to prepare for the next crisis that coul…
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Mr. Chair, before the Axworthy reform of the 1990s, 64% of Canadians were covered by EI; today, 40% are covered. Does the minister believe that going from 60% to 40% is the right way to help the unemployed who have bad luck in the labour market?
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Mr. Chair, the minister confirmed that she supports the ongoing underfunding and that she also borrowed on behalf of the provinces. This is not a gift from the federal government. The money that the federal government sent during the pandemic was borrowed money. Now there is no money for health care, but there is money for a dental plan. This is being done with the help of the federal spending pow…
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Mr. Chair, I like clear answers. Do the minister and her government plan to offer the Government of Quebec the right to opt out with full compensation? Yes or no?
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Mr. Chair, I notice that the longer the answers are, the more they seem like a “no” in disguise. We know that during the pandemic, health care was underfunded, that there was a shortage of hospital beds that led to people being turned away, and that the pandemic measures needed to be extended. If, during the pandemic, we had had a dental plan like the one the minister is planning, how many more ho…
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Mr. Chair, during the pandemic, we saw significant gaps in the social safety net, especially Canada's social safety net, which led to the use of a set of temporary measures. Naturally, all parties quickly agreed to them. One temporary measure after another was implemented. Ultimately, these measures were poorly targeted and very costly. Although it does not want to do so for China, does the govern…
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Mr. Chair, there is the EI spring gap for temporary workers. There is the problem of inadequate coverage through the EI system. There is the actuarial financing of the EI fund, which is poorly suited to economic cycles and major disasters like the one we just went through. We have been calling for EI reform for years. Since 2015, the Liberals have been promising EI reform, but we have seen nothing…
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Mr. Chair, indeed, just over $25 billion in additional funding was put into EI during the crisis. That was a small portion of the $250 billion to $300 billion that the Government of Canada spent to help Canadians and Quebeckers during the pandemic. For the other programs, unlike EI, Quebeckers and Canadians have decided to stand in solidarity and band together to cover all of these pandemic-relate…
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