Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I used to work as an educator. I taught for many years. As I explained to the House, we still have work to do, and Bill C‑14 does not meet its objectives, because political weight means a certain number of seats as a proportion of the total. Kids learn that in grade two or three. The only thing the member's comments convince me of is that we need to ensure that education is properly…
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Madam Speaker, what a Monday. Only the member for Winnipeg North could tell us that the federation is healthy and he hangs out with separatists. I find that hilarious. He voted to recognize the nation. It is not my fault that the Quebec nation belongs to Quebec and that the Canadian nation decided to have nine provinces. There are other places where nations are recognized, such as the UN General A…
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Madam Speaker, it is always such a pleasure to hear the member for Kingston and the Islands speak, and today's speech was one of his most dynamic yet. He laid out many potentially problematic issues that Parliament would have to examine closely. He spent 10 minutes listing all those problems, but then rejected the idea of creating a parliamentary committee to study them. Does he see the contradict…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague criticized those benefiting from the Chinese government's largesse. Jean Charest, a Conservative Party leadership candidate, is among those who have supposedly benefited from this regime. He allegedly was paid tens of thousands of dollars by Huawei, an appendage of the Communist regime. I am relying on the knowledge of my colleague, who has been a member of the House lo…
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Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois welcomes this motion with great interest. We know that China now has the financial means to hire foreign agents who interfere in the economic and democratic affairs of major economies. One of the current candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party has worked for Huawei. Would my colleague be in favour of lobbying to have all the unredacted contracts be…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment in the House to highlight the work of a constituent in my riding. Serge Blondin, a proud resident of Sainte‑Anne‑des‑Plaines, was until recently the owner of Le point d'impact, a newspaper covering current affairs in the Sainte‑Anne‑des‑Plaines community. It was a lifetime of work that ended last January. We learned, with regret, that after 33 years of jo…
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Madam Speaker, I never thought about that. I just realized that, for my colleague, this represents only 30 seconds of our time. Well, I believe that every minute of my time is valuable. I work hard, which is something that she does not seem to do. That said, if my colleague does not like Quebec's ideas or seeing us raise these issues, then she should let us go. I am only too ready to leave.
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Madam Speaker, they presented a very thin budget in which they overlooked health care, seniors, the provinces and just about everyone else. They missed a budget day, as well as a budget debate. Because budget debates annoy them, they want to cut them off. They feel that they can judge how we use our time. Shame on them.
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Madam Speaker, I can assure my colleague that if his god has any heart, his god will still hear him if he prays in silence. That being said, the Liberals are judging the way we use our time on our opposition days. Does anyone know what I have in my hands? It is the budget they presented a couple of weeks ago. It is a rag. They ruined a day's worth of budget discussions, and yet they talk to us abo…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today. I did not know where to start, so I decided to start by talking about myself, which is not something I often do. I grew up in a small town of a few thousand people in northern Quebec, north of Abitibi. Religion was a big part of this town, the community and my family. As a child, I had to go to mass every Sunday. It was not all bad. I do have some wond…
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Madam Speaker, I am perfectly capable of talking about all kinds of things. That said, the population of Mirabel has almost doubled in 10 years because it is an amazing place, a fantastic riding. Obviously the housing issue is top of mind. That is why we have frequently criticized the fact that the national housing strategy, which is out of line with Quebec's priorities and demands, was postponed …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we are very concerned by what The Globe and Mail has revealed about the Canada Revenue Agency. Half the employees of a division responsible for making multinational companies pay their fair share of taxes stated they were victims of bullying last year. The employees felt they were under inappropriate pressure to approve what they saw as a multi-million dollar sweetheart deal for one c…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the minister never gives an answer. I do not want to call the third-party review into question today, but the agreement was at the very least somewhat contentious. Half the employees said they were victims of bullying. The Canada Revenue Agency is supposed to be the taxpayers' watchdog, but in this case, the dog has turned on the family and is trying to bite. Is it standa…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague's comments about Canada's critical mineral potential were spot on. Quebec has a lot of potential there too. The budget includes a very nice map of the minerals located in Quebec, but it says absolutely nothing about ensuring that processing will happen here, which would be consistent with the Government of Quebec's strategy. Can the member tell me if his government has al…
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Madam Speaker, the member for Thérèse-De Blainville talked about measures that would help workers and help our industries. We heard about labour market impact assessments, temporary foreign workers and anti-scab legislation. These are measures that would not cost a penny. We know that the government is too cheap to help workers. The member for Winnipeg North had to go all the way back to 2015, 201…
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Madam Speaker, earlier today the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands was bragging about the parliamentary system, about the debate and other debates that would take place in committee. What does not help, as we know, with the implementation bill is to have a 500‑page bill that amends 37 acts and includes three bills that have already been introduced. If ever anyone wants to kill debate, that …
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Mr. Speaker, things are not moving quickly enough. Thousands of people have complained to their Bloc Québécois MPs, and there are probably more people out there who have not yet realized that they are victims. Does the government realize how many people are affected? Some people have not had any income for months. Service Canada must notify victims of fraud. It needs to find out how this fraud hap…
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Mr. Speaker, Service Canada has completely abandoned thousands of victims of fraud. Picture this. These people lose their jobs and apply for employment insurance. Months go by and they do not get anything, so they ask questions but do not get any answers. They call back and still do not get any answers. Finally, they find out that they are the victims of fraud, that no one told them about it, that…
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Madam Speaker, we are debating the ways and means motion. We have the opportunity to do something now for seniors, to increase their pensions. However, the NDP, which decided to sign an agreement with the Liberals and will therefore support the budget, is being sanctimonious here. We will see how we vote on their bill. However, the NDP will soon vote on a budget that has ignored our seniors, and w…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to remind my hon. colleague that we continue to be separatists, no matter who is in power here in Ottawa, including the Conservatives. I note that she spoke at length about housing. I also note that the Conservatives' housing suggestions are different from ours and the government's. This leads me to believe that the government should perhaps stop imposing conditions, li…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend from Saanich—Gulf Islands for sharing her valuable time with me. If I had to describe the thin little budget that was tabled three weeks ago, the phrase that would come to mind would be “missed opportunity”. I am not just talking about one missed opportunity, I am talking about a slew of missed opportunities. First, the pandemic should h…
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Madam Speaker, the measures put in place by the Liberal government are brown measures disguised as green measures. The Conservatives see the green, and we see the brown. The reality is that they are only half measures. The Commissioner of the Environment confirmed it once again today. My colleague is boasting about his infrastructure bank, which barely worked. My loyalty does not lie with Brampton…
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives have it so easy. Their problem is that they never have enough oil, so their solution is to have more oil. There are times I would love to be in their position. We are talking about investment credits. When an oil company invests $1 but ultimately pays less than $1 because the government makes up the difference, that is an economic subsidy. I do not need any lecture…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec, the provinces and Quebec's health sector are calling for an increase to the Canada health transfer to cover 35% of system costs. Not only is there no health transfer increase this year, next year, the year after or the years after that, but the government goes so far as to write that if the provinces call Ottawa, they will be advised about how to better manage their health car…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the member for Calgary Nose Hill for Bill C-249, which is a subject that I find to be most interesting. The bill is about cryptoassets, cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies. It is truly fascinating because it covers extremely innovative technologies that are being adopted by the more formal economy. We know that cryptoassets and cryptocurrencies …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the tragedy here is that farmers feel like they are begging for their own money. CUSMA has been signed, and that free trade agreement is being enforced. International goods have already started coming in. When the agreement was being negotiated, the government was in a rush and wanted it all to be resolved immediately. However, when it comes time to compensate farmers, it is always …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, with your permission, I would like to share my time with the hon. member for Terrebonne. I want to begin by stressing the importance of pre-budget consultations and their particular significance this year. We are emerging from two years of a pandemic. It has been extremely difficult. Our businesses, taxpayers, workers and families have been through trying times, something quite out …
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Madam Speaker, I did talk about people, but I will say which people I started talking about—
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, people are important to me, and that is why I started by talking about all the stakeholders in the health networks who today asked for an unconditional increase in health transfers. I also spoke about the Minister of Health, who turned a deaf ear. I do not know why I would turn to the Conservatives today when it is the Liberal government that is preparing the budget. I would like my…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, a lot of things in life are unequal. It is true that income and wealth inequalities are growing. There is also inequality in health outcomes. Hospitals are still having to triage and surgeries are still being delayed. However, the Minister of Health still refuses to send health transfers with no strings attached and is spitting in the face of Quebec's entire health care sector. Thes…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague began his speech by misinforming the public, when he implied that the vaccine is not effective because booster doses are required. I would suspect that my colleague has been vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, influenza, hepatitis B, pneumococcus, meningitis, measles, rubella and mumps. All of these vaccines require booster doses. Does my collea…
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Mr. Speaker, today's motion is so incoherent that I do not know where to start. I will begin, however, by saying that I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue. I must admit that I had to check my calendar when I read the motion. The motion contained so many contradictions that I was sure it was April 1. Let us start with point 1, concerning excessive government s…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his intervention. Yes, certainly, there has been a failure in that regard. The reality is that CPP premiums are a payroll tax shared between employers and employees. However, they also represent a kind of forced savings plan, which people need. For instance, the plan makes seniors less reliant on the guaranteed income supplement and other assistance measures o…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. First, we also proposed getting revenues from the excess profits earned by the big banks during the pandemic. I addressed that several times here in the House, and we think it is a good idea. Then there are expenditures, of course, revenues, but also growth. In addition, we need to start the energy transition. There is a new industrial revolution going on, and we are …
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Mr. Speaker, how astonishing. A Liberal who does not agree with the idea that the federal government should mind its own business? That is no surprise to me. The federal government has no jurisdiction in the matter. It does not manage hospitals or health care systems. It is not good at it. Just the idea that the same government that runs the department of education could get involved in health car…
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Mr. Speaker, we are learning a lot today from the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report on the Canada Revenue Agency's performance. One of the things we have learned is that, in a comparison of more than 150 tax administrations around the world, the Canada Revenue Agency ranks second to last in terms of its collection ratio. This means that the CRA, whose job it is to go after the money that is ow…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister is pleased to come second-last. This is a real fiasco, just like Phoenix, welcoming Ukrainian refugees, border management during the pandemic, and the indigenous communities waiting for clean drinking water. Same government, same fiasco. We often talk about areas of responsibility, but when it comes to the federal government and Revenue Canada, would “irresponsibility” no…
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Madam Speaker, when I go to my riding, Mirabel, I meet with mayors there. They tell me they want to diversify their revenue sources and are concerned about the future of the federal gas tax fund because the transition is coming. When I chat with municipal administrators, they have no interest in seeing the federal government interfere in their area of taxation. I wonder if the same is true in my c…
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Madam Speaker, personally speaking, I have never seen the federal government start to encroach on the jurisdiction of Quebec or the provinces and then express regret and step back. I get the impression that by encroaching on the property tax domain, the government is putting one foot in Quebec's taxation jurisdiction, and the next step will be to dance on the grave of provincial fiscal jurisdictio…
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Madam Speaker, in our view, Bill C-8 represents a significant encroachment on provincial tax jurisdictions. This new tax on underused housing infringes on the property taxation jurisdiction. The Bloc Québécois proposed an amendment at the Standing Committee on Finance. We asked that Quebec and the provinces be given the right to opt out, so that the provinces could tell the federal government not …
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Mr. Speaker, I am looking at the work we have to do. The cultural sector is in need of assistance, the employment insurance regime is in need of reform and health transfers need to be paid, yet today we are debating the opposition motion. When the Liberals brought up vaccines during the election campaign, they cast their line. Since then, the Liberals have been reeling it in and the Conservatives …
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Mr. Speaker, given the rough week that the member for Winnipeg North has had, I can understand why he is so energetic and impassioned here today. We are calling for a plan and for more predictability with respect to health measures. This will help maintain social cohesion. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the idea of a flexible plan that would enable us to look forward and provide s…
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Mr. Speaker, the agreement between the Liberals and the NDP is not the only agreement that was negotiated in the dead of night. The 1982 Constitution, which was negotiated in the middle of the night to the detriment of Quebec, clearly states that health is a responsibility of Quebec. Can my colleague tell me why the NDP is always ready to help everyone? It is even prepared to help the Liberals hav…
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Mr. Speaker, speaking of degrees, I know my colleague is a graduate of Queen's University and Western University, so I assume he is capable of calculating a marginal tax rate. The Liberals keep talking about their middle‑class tax cuts, but they do not seem to understand that when the tax rate is lowered by 1.5% for the tax bracket for people making just under $90,000, it is the rich who benefit. …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, this bill is about tax rules for charities, specifically certain dispositions of real estate or private corporation shares. I would like to know if my colleague thinks it would be appropriate at some point to expand the scope of the bill to other types of assets such as those that can be liquidated by estates and that might have appreciated over time.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for introducing this very interesting bill. I am perhaps one of the few people in the House who really enjoy studying taxation. I want to take a moment during my speech to acknowledge the people of the Sainte-Scholastique sector of Mirabel, who continue to fight to have the Minister of Transport approve the Synergie Mirabel project. This project, which the Liberal…
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Madam Speaker, let me begin by saying I will be sharing my time with the member for Terrebonne. On this first day of spring, and I wish you an excellent spring, Madam Speaker, I see that the NDP is dedicating its opposition day to the Liberal Party's election platform. I wonder why. Part of the Liberal platform was to charge this surtax on the profits of the big banks. I think maybe the NDP no lon…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Winnipeg North knows how much I admire him. I find it fascinating that the Liberals are forming a coalition government with the NDP and are now claiming that there is a coalition of the opposition. Perhaps they are a bit embarrassed. That being said, I have mentioned this before. It is true that large corporations pay out dividends. It is true for banks, which must…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Winnipeg North knows just how much I enjoy listening to him and, in some respects, he knows that he inspires me, especially when he leads the charge against NDP misinformation. I am going to talk about the tax cut for the middle class that the government made in its first term, because the Liberals do not understand the marginal tax rate. They lowered taxes by 1.5% f…
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Madam Speaker, there are two things I want to say. That is what happened in wartime, during World War II, when the debt ratio increased. The government collected exceptional contributions from the big banks and corporations, far more than is being asked for today. That allowed us to get through very difficult times. Now, my colleagues need to understand that, by its very nature, the Canadian banki…
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