Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the following point. These last two Parliaments, the Conservatives have devoted almost all of their opposition days to abolishing the carbon tax. The Conservatives said it was driving up food prices. The Liberals took a page from the Conservative playbook and abolished the carbon tax for individuals. However, it has not had any impac…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, who is also a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. First, I would like to know how he explains the fact that the Liberals eliminated the carbon tax and yet there has been no impact on the cost of food. Second, does he see a link between climate change and the effects of pollution, like floods and wildfires, which are having an impact on farmers…
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Mr. Speaker, there has been talk about supply. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the following. To improve the supply of imported fruits and vegetables, the government could promote greenhouse cultivation. It could also stop making cuts to agriculture, particularly to research centres. This would enable farmers to adapt and to develop technology to be more competitive. The govern…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what the Leader of the Opposition thinks about the fact that the government opposite's scrapping of the carbon tax has had no impact on food prices. I would also like to know whether he believes that rising food prices can be attributed to the industrial carbon tax and environmental laws alone. Do any other factors come into play?
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to pass on my regards to my colleague. I would like to know whether he has considered the impact that the proposed measures will have on pollution and climate change, or the impact that climate change, floods, forest fires and other events have on farmers and food prices.
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Mr. Speaker, it is far from clear that the taxes aimed at preventing pollution from everything oil-related are actually linked to food prices. However, pollution increases climate change and all its impacts, such as floods and forest fires. That creates considerable costs for farmers, and the bill is then passed on to consumers. Has my colleague taken that into account?
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Mr. Speaker, we at the Bloc Québécois have long been proposing an increase to the GST credit, and we think it would have been better to increase this amount regularly starting now, rather than making a single payment by June. We agree with the subsequent 25% increase, but we propose paying the credit monthly because we know that the most vulnerable are really struggling financially. Since credit c…
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Mr. Speaker, this measure was not included in budget 2025. It materialized out of thin air. It is a one-time cheque, which means that it is clear it is a vote-buying scheme. It aims to address the increase in the cost of living, which was in fact created in part by the measures of this government. What are my colleague's thoughts on this?
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was talking about, among other things, reducing the carbon tax. However, the more the government supports the oil industry and subsidizes oil companies, the more greenhouse gases that are emitted, which increases the effects of climate change like flooding, wildfires and so on. This is a cost that trickles down to the people. Climate change has a price. In addition, it is…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the fact that, as he said earlier, the Liberals have already adopted several of the measures set out in the Conservative motion, including doing away with environmental protection measures, providing additional support for oil companies and axing the carbon tax. Can my colleague explain why the Liberals are shifting toward favouring …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on something in the Conservative motion. The motion talks about providing free trade bonuses to remove internal trade barriers, but what are these barriers if not each province's respective language laws, environmental laws, public rules, workforce training and labour standards? This is basically a direct attack on the sovereignty of the pr…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the polluter pays principle, which requires polluters, particularly oil companies, to bear the costs associated with managing the effects of the increase in greenhouse gases they produce. As we said earlier, these companies rake in over $130 billion in profits, 60% of which goes to the U.S. Instead of helping to ensure that these c…
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Madam Speaker, I want to know what my colleague thinks about the fact that the Conservatives' motion seems to imply a weakening of provincial sovereignty. The motion encourages investments that would lead them to pull away from their laws and rules in accordance with their priorities in terms of the environment, language and their specific needs.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois agrees with Bill C‑16 as a whole. It includes several of our recommendations. We see that the Liberals want to strengthen certain laws in order to undercut the Conservatives. For example, we rose several times on the issue of the Jordan decision because prosecutions for serious crimes, like murder or sexual assault, were dropped as a result of delays. Fortunately, B…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec has lost a great patriot. Jean Dorion passed away after a lifetime devoted to Quebec independence. Early on, Jean Dorion was an activist with the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale and a founding member of the Parti Québécois. He served as chief of staff under René Lévesque and was responsible for key portfolios, such as immigration and the enforcement of the Charter o…
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Mr. Speaker, the new Minister responsible for Official Languages is already fed up with his mandate. He thinks that saying that French is in decline is about electioneering. He thinks that saying that Montreal is being anglicized is an identity-based grievance. That is how he is starting his mandate. For him, it is very clear that defending French is a boring file that gives racist, xenophobic sep…
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Madam Speaker, Bill C-241 raises the major issue of flood and drought prevention. These phenomena are no longer isolated incidents. They have become recurring realities that disrupt our communities, weaken our infrastructure, and threaten our economy. The numbers cannot be denied. Over the past 10 years, the average cost of insured disasters in Canada has been $2.5 billion a year. Last year, we re…
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Mr. Speaker, by officially scrapping the carbon tax, Bill C-4 confirms that Quebeckers were robbed. The Liberal government decided to entice voters with compensation for the carbon tax, even though the tax had not even been levied for the period in question. This was funded through taxes paid by Quebeckers, meaning we lost $814 million. What does my colleague think of that?
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Mr. Speaker, this bill is poorly thought out. The government is offering a tax cut, but at the same time, this means higher taxes for some seniors and some people with disabilities. What does my colleague think about these flaws in the bill?
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Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to recognize the 40th anniversary of Les Relevailles de Montréal centre in La Pointe‑de‑l'Île. Since 1985, this centre has supported 15,000 families as they transition to parenthood and through their journey of parenting a child from birth to age 2. The centre provides training, support services, in-home respite care and prenatal and postnatal activities in Montreal Ea…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on an excellent speech and for all the work he has been doing. My understanding is that the final outcome will be that someone may have been a resident of Canada for five years, but over a very long period spanning many decades, and that their descendants will automatically gain Canadian citizenship without undergoing a security screening or p…
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives want tougher measures to fight crime. I would like to know their thoughts on the following ideas for cracking down on organized crime: creating a registry of criminal organizations and making it illegal to display symbols or insignia used by criminal organizations. What does my colleague think about that?
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives want tougher measures to fight crime. I would like to know whether they agree that we also need to crack down on criminal organizations by, for example, creating a registry of such organizations, making it easier to seize their assets and prohibiting them from displaying their insignia and symbols.
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Madam Speaker, the bill seeks to restrict the principle of restraint, or at least set guidelines for it. I would like my colleague to tell us more about the reasons for these restrictions.
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Mr. Speaker, what is concerning is that, in committee, we asked how many people might be impacted by this measure, and the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship was unable to answer the question. She did not know. One of the effects of the amendments proposed by the Liberals and the New Democrats is to remove the requirement to produce reports that indicate how many people will actuall…
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Mr. Speaker, basically, if we were to accept the Liberal and NDP amendments to the amendments proposed in committee, let us just say that someone could have lived in Canada for three years out of 65, and their children, who never lived in Canada, could automatically apply for Canadian citizenship by descent without a security check, language test or citizenship test. Why does my colleague think th…
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Mr. Speaker, one objective of the amendments proposed is to grant citizenship by descent. However, the amendments state that the applicant should still be required to undergo security, language and knowledge testing, like any other naturalized citizen. What have my colleague and the Liberals got against that?
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Mr. Speaker, beyond the semantic debates about naturalization and descent, with Bill C‑3, we could have someone who obtained citizenship in Canada after living in Canada for three out of 60 years and whose children could get citizenship without ever living in Canada, without knowing the language and without passing a security assessment. What does my colleague think about all that? Why are the Lib…
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Mr. Speaker, what we are increasingly seeing around the world is that models based on multiculturalism are being rejected. Multiculturalism involves interacting with people on the basis of their ethnic origin, which encourages people to remain within their ethnic group. In contrast, the Quebec model, which we call an intercultural model and which many people today refer to as cultural convergence,…
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Mr. Speaker, English is hardly at risk in Quebec. It is unacceptable to waste $52 million of our money to anglicize our hospitals, rather than providing people with actual health care. Obviously, the Government of Quebec has spoken out about this, saying, “Once again, the federal government is infringing on Quebec's jurisdictions....Instead, it should be transferring the money to Quebec with no st…
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Mr. Speaker, according to the bill, border officers have a surveillance mandate, but they are not truly a part of national defence. They cannot intervene directly. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about that.
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Mr. Speaker, imagine being this out of touch with Quebeckers: On Thursday, the federal government announced $52 million for Quebec's health care system, but not for treating the sick. No, that $52 million is for anglicizing our hospitals. What our hospitals need is money to care for Quebeckers, not money to anglicize Quebec. English is alive and well in Quebec, including in hospitals. When will th…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the minister on his speech. The Bloc Québécois has long called for better border control, whether to combat the export of stolen vehicles, reduce the number of asylum seekers in Quebec, or fight fentanyl and money laundering. We are pleased that Bill C‑12 is doing away with the most problematic elements of Bill C‑2 with regard to privacy violations. However, there is on…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the fact that the Customs and Immigration Union estimates that we need an additional 2,000 to 3,000 officers in order to truly ensure better border control. What are his thoughts on the fact that the Canadian Coast Guard, despite having a mandate to control and monitor the border, is not authorized to intervene and is not a part of…
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. The interpretation is not working.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois welcomes this bill. This is a step in the right direction. I only hope that it will not be a repeat of the situation with the Commissioner of Official Languages. Although numerous complaints have been filed over the past 50 years, it seems like things are moving backwards instead of forwards. In my colleague's opinion, what will make this position more effective, ev…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois supports the principle of the bill. However, we see that nowhere does it provide for authority to compel the government to do anything. The commissioner will have no power. We worry that it will be a bit like the Commissioner of Official Languages, whose office was established 50 years ago. For 50 years now, French has been in decline and francophone assimilation ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I salute my colleague, with whom I served for a long time on the Standing Committee on Official Languages. When the Conservatives criticize and say that this is nothing but red tape, we have reason to be concerned. The Bloc Québécois supports the principle of the bill. However, we see that it does not provide for the power to enforce compliance. It kind of reminds me of the Commission…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was consistent. She said she would support amending the bill to give the commissioner more power to force action. Could she give us an example of how that might be worded?
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his rather nuanced speech. He says that he agrees with continuing the reconciliation process and implementing modern treaties, but that he views the commissioner position as bureaucracy. In that case, there are two options. The commissioner could be given more of an enforcement role and more powers so that the position is not just bureaucratic. Otherwise…
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Mr. Speaker, my Conservative colleague says that the commissioner position is a distraction. Would he be willing to amend the bill to give the position more teeth? What would he be willing to do to exert more pressure for a real implementation of modern treaties?
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Mr. Speaker, as we saw, the Conservatives turned a blind eye by appointing Mr. Vance chief of the defence staff even though rumours of sexual misconduct were already circulating. The Liberals did even worse. I will come back to my colleague's suggestion. Should we not find ways to ensure that the process is not completely controlled by those with political power?
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech, which was somewhat nuanced. However, considering that it was the Conservatives who appointed Mr. Vance in the first place when there were already allegations of sexual misconduct, and considering that the Liberals did everything they could to ignore those allegations, it is clear that the system needs to be overhauled. The idea behind the rec…
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Mr. Speaker, we saw that the Liberal defence minister turned a blind eye to all the allegations against Mr. Vance. He pretended he had not received them. My colleague spoke about the need to take action. I think it is good to ensure that the process is no longer exclusively in the hands of the military. However, the Minister of Defence will be the one appointing the judges. Should this not be expa…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague spoke at length about the Jonathan Vance case, but both the Conservatives and the Liberals looked the other way in that case and pretended there was nothing to see. There were already rumours about and allegations against Mr. Vance when the Conservatives appointed him as chief of staff and tasked him with taking on sexual misconduct in the military. The Canadian Armed Fo…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague. Why does he think that no government in Quebec has ever signed the Constitution Act, 1982 and its draft charter?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, but he just revealed that he did not really listen to my speech, because I did talk about minorities. Quebec is a plurinational state. The charter is supposed to defend minorities against the dictatorship of the majority, except for the Quebec national minority. I do not think Quebeckers are the majority in Canada. He cannot dispute that. We are …
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers care deeply about state secularism. The first demands came from the Patriotes of 1837 and 1838. In their declaration of independence, they called for freedom of conscience and a strict separation of church and state. Secularism is one of the driving forces behind the birth and development of modern Quebec. The Quebec nation has a special history where the Catholic faith had…
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, we never said that. We are all Quebeckers. I agree that diversity of opinion exists among Quebeckers. However, because a lot of Liberals were elected, they sometimes say that they represent Quebeckers. When the 1982 Constitution was introduced, only one Liberal member from Quebec voted against it. It was Mr. Duclos, who subsequently resigned. Furthermore, no Quebec gover…
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Mr. Speaker, I would remind my colleague that one of the very first Black members to sit in the House was elected under the Bloc Québécois banner. That said, one of the challenges we face today is the increasing anglicization of Montreal, a phenomenon caused in large part by Montreal's municipal government. It makes things difficult for us. I am the only Bloc Québécois MP on the island of Montreal…
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