Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by highlighting the member's achievement. She made history when she was elected in Terrebonne, as she is now the youngest Black MP in Canadian history. That is significant. As she so eloquently stated, this year we are celebrating a month that honours the excellence of the Black community. We are supporting 85 initiatives and organizations that fight racism in or…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by wishing a happy new year to the members of the Bloc Québécois, that is, the federal militant wing of the Parti Québécois. I think what bothers them the most is that the Prime Minister's message was one of national unity. Still, I would like to ask them a question. Did they ask Paul St-Pierre Plamondon for permission to ask that question? He has moved on to oth…
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Mr. Speaker, I withdraw the comment. Let me put it this way: I am sure that this year's member for Carleton will stand up for French better than last year's member for Carleton did.
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Mr. Speaker, I learned this morning that the separatist movement wants to impose a loyalty test on Quebec artists. I wonder if the Bloc Québécois supports this approach. That might come as a surprise because the Bloc asked for absolutely nothing in the last budget for the cultural sector. Separatists do not have a monopoly on Quebec loyalty and pride.
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Mr. Speaker, with the exception of the member opposite, no one in Canada believes that Pierre Poilievre will protect the French language in Quebec or elsewhere—
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Mr. Speaker, French actually is in decline across Canada. However, what bothers me is the hypocrisy of the Conservatives, who voted against our plan to invest $4.1 billion across Canada in order to strengthen French in our country. As the Minister of Immigration, I doubled francophone immigration outside Quebec. That is a great result, even if the Conservatives voted against our $4.1-billion plan.…
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Mr. Speaker, what I am fed up with is the politicization of our beautiful language, which we want to promote across the country. I know that the Bloc Québécois members care deeply about French. What I am asking them to do is to join us and all other members who care about French in using our strong francophone strategy, which for the first time in our history has $4.1 billion to spend on supportin…
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Mr. Speaker, I went to elementary school, junior high, high school and CEGEP in French. I completed a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in French and I raised my children in three languages, one of which was French. I love French, and I will defend our beautiful language until the day that I die.
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Mr. Speaker, caregivers are extremely important to this country, as is the care they provide to our most vulnerable. We are still tracking to launch this and clearly this is a priority of the government. This is on track. We may have some modifications to make, but this is still a high priority of the government.
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Mr. Speaker, every five years we review the funding model for the settlement services to welcome newcomers, to make sure they learn English, to make sure they learn French, to integrate them to a new country and to help them to overcome trauma. This is something we can be very proud of as a country. Obviously, this year we have reduced the levels of people we are welcoming to the country. That com…
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Mr. Speaker, if I understand correctly, my colleague wants me to take immediate action here, on the floor of the House of Commons, without informing the United States. Of course, we are concerned about border security. We will continue to strengthen and guarantee border security. I hope the Bloc Québécois will support the reforms to the asylum system that we will be proposing in the near future, b…
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Mr. Speaker, the member seems to be forgetting recent history, and specifically the renewed visa requirements for Mexican nationals. The Bloc Québécois itself claimed victory on this issue. We have been tightening up the immigration system for the past year, and the fact is, it is working. It is important to note that, since November, the number of border crossers being intercepted at the north-so…
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Mr. Speaker, I guess “broken border” was too dumb to reuse today, so the Conservatives tried something else. One cannot make this up. We proposed a set of asylum reforms in May as part of the last budgetary exercise while we were putting money into the Immigration and Refugee Board to increase processing. What did the Conservatives do? They voted against it. It was the same thing last week when th…
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Mr. Speaker, we introduced reforms to Canada's asylum system back in May. We know it is necessary. What did the Conservatives do? They did absolutely nothing. They spend their time making up rhymes and puffing out their chests, trying to look tough. They are doing absolutely nothing. When it is time to take action, they do absolutely nothing. They just sit back and do nothing.
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Mr. Speaker, it comes down to this: Do we trust the guy who renegotiated NAFTA with Mr. Trump, the guy who secured the border during the pandemic of the century and the guy who went down to President-elect Trump's playing field to fight for Canadians to secure the border, or do we trust the guy who spent 20 years making up interesting rhymes and spent 20 years securing one and only one thing, his …
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Madam Speaker, while the Leader of the Opposition was in his basement figuring out what rhyme to put up on Twitter to express his displeasure with the government, the Prime Minister of Canada was meeting with Donald Trump, our most important partner. That is responsible. At the same time, when the Leader of the Opposition is not doing that in his basement, he is skipping around the greater Toronto…
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Mr. Speaker, these people are just not serious. She supports the Leader of the Opposition who sat idly by in government while it cut money to border enforcement at the Canada-U.S. border and at the immigration-refugee border. For those of them who are saying this is ancient history, we proposed an asylum reform package in May. What did the Conservatives and the clapping seals in the back do at the…
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Mr. Speaker, again, we see a member of the House constantly making things up. We are very concerned about any foreign agent working in Canada, whether it is as part of any purported terror. The enforcement agencies in our country work diligently to clamp down on these people, to arrest them, to bring them to justice or to kick them out of the country. We will continue to do so.
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Mr. Speaker, this is from the gleeful authors of the barbaric practices snitch line. That was their approach to immigration when they last had a chance. We have been very serious with President-elect Trump about our intention to secure the border. It is something we clearly intend to do. They have an opportunity to do a number of things and that is to support any asylum reform we put in front of t…
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Mr. Speaker, I hear them heckling me, but who they really should be heckling is the Leader of the Opposition, who is pandering to all these groups, promising visas to everyone and not to deport anyone. That is not responsible. He really needs to grow up if he is going to be responsible.
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Mr. Speaker, hundreds of thousands of people come to this country every year and then leave. They are called tourists. Hundreds of thousands of people come here as temporary residents and then they leave. Some become permanent residents. There is a plan to achieve that. They will migrate into permanent residency. However, not all can stay here and when they refuse to do so, they will be removed. W…
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Mr. Speaker, the members opposite should get their facts straight. They float around numbers: three million, five million. They actually do not know what they are talking about in response to their own Order Paper question—
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Mr. Speaker, we will tweet out the video of him pandering to people, entertaining false hope, promising visas to everyone, promising they will not get deported. That is highly incompetent. Worse than that is that he is refusing to get his security clearance. That is irresponsible for any purported leader of our country or any responsible person in politics. He needs to grow a pair, get the briefin…
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Mr. Speaker, I withdraw the words. On a day like this, I would say that the Leader of the Opposition is all flannel and no axe.
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Mr. Speaker, let us examine the latest round of hysteria from the Leader of the Opposition. We are talking about 4.9 million documents, sometimes many that apply to one person. They are tourists. The vast majority of the people leave the country, including artists who come to this country, such as Bruce Springsteen and others. When someone's visa expires, they are expected to leave. If they do not…
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Mr. Speaker, again, we see the Conservatives' “roll over first” program. They are talking about people who are here who do routinely leave the country. They come in as tourists. It includes a vast array of people. He is answering an OPQ question that the Conservatives posed to us. We were very precise in the answers we gave. Sometimes it is not five million people; it is a number of documents atta…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said very clearly in my previous response, I will be pleased to address the House in due course and explain exactly what happened. If the allegations are true, that passport should not have been issued. We will conduct internal checks before speaking about this issue publicly.
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Mr. Speaker, if the allegations are true, that passport should not have been issued. I am checking internally with Service Canada and the security agencies. I will be happy to report back to the House at the appropriate time.
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think we will take any lessons from someone who has spent the last 20 years lighting fires in the House of Commons. We put forward a plan two weeks ago to reduce immigration levels by 20%. Canadians expect us to be responsible and to react to their needs. That is what we are doing with this plan. The parliamentary budget officer himself has said that this new plan will reduce…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about integration. If we had listened to the Bloc Québécois and the provincial governments, there might have been a significant increase because the last time the CAQ begged me to have more people, it was about welcoming people temporarily. Quebec has its own challenges with international students right now. It is a shared problem.
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Mr. Speaker, let us review the facts. Since 2009, the Quebec government has tripled immigration to the temporary areas under its control. That is a fact. We will work together to bring that down. The plan I presented last week proposes a 20% reduction. It is important and it is responsible. That is what Canadians and Quebeckers are asking us to do.
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Mr. Speaker, I think the member may have spent too much time in Ottawa if he thinks that the federal government has total control over immigration. He knows full well that in Quebec, in particular, the provincial government controls over 50% of the volume. We all share responsibility.
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Mr. Speaker, I think Canadians expect a responsible government to take decisive action. We saw the plan for immigration levels that I tabled two weeks ago. It proposes a 20% reduction in the number of permanent residents. The Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the plan would reduce housing needs by 50%. It is a responsible plan. The member opposite wants to call an election. He has no plan, ex…
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Mr. Speaker, I thought the Bloc Québécois had rightly distanced itself from the CAQ government and was no longer fearmongering about asylum seekers, but it seems a leopard never changes its spots. We have always been able to manage the border effectively, and we will continue to do so. Everyone understands that it would be pretty silly of us to reveal our plans in the House of Commons.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is well aware that, over the past few months, we have reduced the percentage of asylum seekers arriving at Montréal-Trudeau airport, which now stands at 29%. He knows very well that we have made a lot of progress working with Quebec. As for the plan to have a well-managed border with the United States, that will continue to happen, no matter who wins the presidency tom…
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Mr. Speaker, the plan is to not be afraid of our own shadow, as the Bloc Québécois always seems to be. We have a plan. We are working on it, no matter who the president turns out to be tomorrow morning, but we are not going to reveal it on the floor of the House of Commons 24 hours before the election. We will respect what happens tomorrow. We can discuss it with the Bloc Québécois after the elect…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a plan, but the member is not going to find out what it is 24 hours ahead the election. He knows that. It would be extremely reckless to unveil such a plan on the floor of the House of Commons.
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Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree as a House that the best way to make sure that Gazans are safe is to make sure there is a ceasefire, so we can continue to work with people to get people here who have connections to family members and who are looking to be reunited with them. We will continue, as a government, to work with the authorities on the ground, whether we agree with their positions o…
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Mr. Speaker, I am being showered with compliments today. I would simply like to remind the member opposite that this is the same Quebec government that tripled the number of temporary residents in Quebec under its jurisdiction. We always have a duty to make adjustments. That is what we are doing, and we will continue to do so.
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Mr. Speaker, it takes only 60 days to get a work permit. The Minister of Public Safety and I will be meeting with Quebec's new immigration minister, Jean‑François Roberge, tomorrow. We are expecting to see some progress as well.
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Mr. Speaker, I almost heard my hon. colleague pay me a compliment. From now on, I expect the Bloc Québécois to support our reduction measures, which, as announced, will achieve our objective of lowering the temporary immigration level from 7% to 5%, I hope. Furthermore, my colleague himself had a hand in that. The last time he contacted my office, it was to increase the number of temporary workers…
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Mr. Speaker, I listened very closely to the question and I would say that there is no smoke without fire.
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Mr. Speaker, it is everyone's responsibility to adopt a humanitarian approach to asylum seekers. The provinces have to be on board. If some provinces attempt to gain political advantage at the expense of asylum seekers, that will get complicated. These conversations will be ongoing. We will keep working with the provinces to make sure they are doing their fair share. The burden is obviously greate…
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Mr. Speaker, what we are debating before the House is a bill that would fix the egregious breaches of the charter that the Conservatives, including the Leader of the Opposition, perpetrated on women and on children of people born abroad. This is something that we as a House need to fix. It is a charter violation. It is a particular instance of the Leader of the Opposition, supported by his previou…
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Mr. Speaker, of course we need a plan that makes sense for all of Canada. Two provinces are contributing more than their fair share: Ontario and Quebec. The other provinces have to get on board. The federal government is offering financial and organizational incentives. We are here to work, regardless of the efforts by certain provincial premiers to exploit this issue for their own re-election cam…
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Mr. Speaker, without further comment, it is certainly dangerous to see politicians scoring points on the backs of asylum seekers.
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Madam Speaker, I would expect that to be the case. Again, I want to thank the New Democrats for their support. This was a modification that we made relatively recently, simply to ensure that the court did not feel like it was constrained to a certain number of days by our legislative process. We have told the court time and again that we plan to put this into force as quickly as possible. Otherwis…
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Madam Speaker, please let me know if the problem persists because my phones were rather far away. I will go back to what I was saying about the statutory mechanism allowing those who do not want to become Canadian to renounce their citizenship. A few requirements need to be met. The person must not be a resident of Canada; they must not become stateless as a result of renouncing their Canadian cit…
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Madam Speaker, what the member opposite fails to note is that this is a question the rights of Canadians, people to have the right to be Canadian, the right that was denied to them by the Harper government. He wants to talk about numbers, and perhaps that is important from a logistical planning perspective, I do not deny that, but please do not continue to deny the rights of Canadians who duly sho…
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moved that Bill C-71, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2024), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, as we return to the House, I want to begin by acknowledging that we are gathering today on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples. I am honoured to rise in this House today to discuss the proposed amendments to the Citizenship Act. The l…
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