Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will start by saying that I am sharing my time with the member for Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d'Orléans—Charlevoix. The Government of Quebec wants to enshrine in its constitution that Quebeckers form a nation, that French is the only official language of Quebec and that it is the common language of the Quebec nation. Why? I believe Camille Laurin said it best in 1977: “By proclaim…
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Mr. Speaker, I totally disagree with my colleague. Just because Quebeckers form a nation does not mean that the first nations do not form one too. There is not just one nation in Canada; there are many, and Quebeckers form a nation. That does not take anything away. In 1977, from the outset, Bill 101 established guarantees to defend first nations laws, and we totally agree with that. Quebec was on…
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Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague knows the answer. The only way to secure the future of the French language in Quebec and linguistic diversity in North America is Quebec's independence. What we are seeing today confirms that. Until that happens, we will continue to defend the French language and the Quebec nation. It does not take anything away from the English Canadian people or nation. If the r…
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Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague did not listen to the answer I gave earlier. We entirely agree with securing the future of first nations languages. As I said, Bill 101 was probably a pioneer in this area, because it contained guarantees for first nations. I would like to remind my colleague that Canadians mixed with the first nations in New France and that we have very strong ties with the first…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked about French as an official language. However, there is one important thing: Does she recognize that French must be the only official and common language in Quebec in order to integrate and include newcomers? Will the federal government continue to promote institutional bilingualism, which runs directly counter to the concept of French as a common and official lang…
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague and congratulate her on her speech. We work together pretty often at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I would like to hear her opinion on the following. The Government of Quebec is calling for the federal government to recognize that, of the two official languages, there is one minority language that is at risk, and that is French. Even the UN's Hum…
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary said that the government recognized this in the bill, but it contains no measures. If French is recognized as the minority language, measures should be included to protect the French language. What are these measures?
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Madam Speaker, what we see is a government that dragged its feet and took its sweet time deciding whether to table a budget or not. Now it is pushing everyone around to get time allocation, even though it knows nobody will go for it. We will not allow ourselves to be pushed around like that. Is this not just the Liberals' way of creating an excuse to trigger an election on the grounds that the gov…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to recognize the 30th anniversary of Antre-Jeunes, an essential organization that has been a pillar of Montreal's Mercier-Est community since 1991. Its two drop-in centres are open to young people aged 12 to 17 every day after school and offer activities throughout the year. Antre-Jeunes is a welcoming community place where young people can do all kinds o…
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Mr. Speaker, housing is an exclusive jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. As we know, the provincial and municipal governments are closest to the issue, so they are the ones best equipped to handle issues related to housing. Earlier, my colleague talked about how the federal government froze funding to Quebec for three years to try to impose conditions. I would like to know what my colleague …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his excellent speech. I am having a hard time understanding the Liberals' behaviour. What is behind this hypocrisy? Their hypocrisy is evident in a number of areas, but this case is particularly bad. Are they simply trying to protect specific economic interests? What are the consequences of agreeing to collaborate like this with a country that is commi…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to get the member's opinion. Earlier, her NDP colleague said that the bill did not completely ban conversion therapy, which will remain legal for consenting adults. The bill prohibits forced conversion therapy for minors, as well as the advertising and marketing of such therapy, among other things. Could my colleague tell me whether she thinks that the bill should have …
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Mr. Speaker, I liked my colleague's intervention on old age pensions. In 1975, the old age security pension represented 20% of the average industrial wage. Today, it only covers about 13%. By the time young people turn 65, it is said that their pension will be worth 8%. What does the member think of our proposal to increase the pension for all seniors starting at age 65? What does he think of incr…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, at a time when Quebec is rallying and its government is introducing a bill on its national language, in Ottawa, the provision of federal services in French continues to decline. The current act requires federal departments and agencies to report on their services in the official languages. Half of them are not even doing it. They would rather break the law than report on their servi…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec is appointing a French language commissioner, not an official languages commissioner, because French must be the common language in Quebec. At last, Quebec will be applying Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses. Quebec is once again asserting its place as a French-speaking nation before Canada. Will the Liberal government recognize that Quebec must have sole authority over…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks of the fact that the government is behaving a bit like it has too much money. It is interfering in areas of provincial jurisdiction, when it is not even fulfilling its basic responsibilities, including transferring money for health from the federal taxes it collects from Quebec and the provinces. We know that all the provinces and Quebec…
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Mr. Speaker, could my colleague elaborate a bit more on the problem with the health transfers and the fact that the new bill does not provide anything for changing the balance and helping Quebec and the provinces?
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. Someone needs to take responsibility. Everyone is throwing the ball in someone else's court and nothing is being done. I would like my colleague's thoughts on that. Does she have any course of action to suggest? Where should we begin?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my riding neighbour for her speech. I am wondering why the government waited so long and why it waited until it was under pressure before calling for this investigation. Why did the government not take action from the very start? Why did it not act right away? The mandate of the inquiry includes a number of things that could be done right now.
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Madam Speaker, my question for my colleague is very simple. Does he believe climate change is a real threat? It is true that we cannot eliminate oil completely, but does he not think it would be wise to reduce our reliance on oil and start switching to renewable energy sources?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government has stopped using Switch Health to manage testing for temporary foreign workers because it is not able to provide services in French, which is causing delays. However, Switch Health is still responsible for serving everyone who crosses the border, and it is a disaster. How could a company that is unable to serve 500 workers be capable of serving all of Quebec? When will…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers are having to quarantine for up to a month because of Switch Health. They are forced to use this company because it is the only authorized provider for testing. Switch Health is unable to provide services in French and unable to collect the tests quickly. It does not operate on weekends or in rural areas. On top of that, it manages to lose tests, so people are forced to sta…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague for introducing this bill, which would make federally regulated businesses subject to Bill 101. This is the fourth time this type of bill has been introduced in the House. I want to start by saying that the principles of the Official Languages Act are at odds with those of Quebec's Charter of the French Language. The purpose of the charter is to make French…
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Madam Speaker, I want to touch on two points. First, I agree that one of the problems with Bill C-12 is that there is no accountability mechanism and no obligation to deliver. Does my colleague know of a mechanism that could be added to the bill to create an obligation to deliver? Basically, talking about targets is all well and good, but we need action. Second, does my colleague agree that we wil…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her presentation, which was very interesting. A Conservative member who spoke earlier seemed to really emphasize carbon sequestration and all the ways carbon can be stored underground. I would like to hear her comments on that. Furthermore, a number of environmental organizations have pointed out the shortcomings in the bill, including the absence of any obl…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to address two topics. First of all, until the 1970s, the federal government funded 50% of health care expenses. Today it funds only 22%. Instead of imposing standards, if we could re-establish health transfer payments, the health care systems in Quebec and the other provinces would not always be at the breaking point. Why does the federal government still refuse to inc…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague's thoughts on two things in particular. First, how does he square the federal government's penchant for centralization with its refusal to increase health transfers? Every year, Quebec sends half of its taxes to the federal government. Cuts were made—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, first, how does the member square the Liberal government's penchant for centralizing decision-making, even on matters of provincial jurisdiction, with its refusal to increase health transfers? In the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government funded 50% of health care expenditures. Today, it funds just 22%, and health care systems like Quebec's are always at breaking point as a result of…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like the member to expand on two points. Bill C-11 leaves out an important aspect regarding online identity protection to prevent fraud, such as identity theft. In addition, the government is not addressing its own problems, since the bill does not apply to the federal government, even though the government's online identity checks are clearly inadequate.
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-11 imposes obligations with regard to the collection, retention and disclosure of personal information, which is good. However, it does not require businesses to verify that the person they are dealing with is who they claim to be before authorizing a financial transaction. In the interest of regulating banking practices and reducing fraud, should we not be requiring financial …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I liked what he said earlier. He asked if we wanted a bilingual country. Recently, there was an unprecedented admission that French is in decline, even though we had been aware of that decline for a long time. Assimilation rates in the francophone and Acadian communities go up year after year. I think that the overall rate of language transfer to E…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I have two questions for the minister. First, does she intend to support the plan to make the University of Sudbury a francophone university? Second, the minister said that she wants to help promote French in Quebec. Does this mean that the government will continue to fund English only through the development of official-language communities program and the enhancement of official lan…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I wish to express our complete solidarity with Franco-Ontarians and their ongoing struggle to preserve their language. I think that the young people of the sizable francophone community of northeastern Ontario deserve quality services without having to move as far away as Ottawa or Quebec. Laurentian University, in Sudbury, is about to slash some 60 pr…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I will try to slow down, because the interpreters tell us that the faster we talk, the more difficult their work is. My point is that the language issue has been brushed aside for too long. Up until very recently, we were told that everything was great and that Canada stood as a model in terms of treatment of linguistic minorities. Meanwhile, assimilation rates of francophone populati…
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Mr. Speaker, I may have misspoken. I meant to say that the proportion of funding that goes to university services in French in Ontario is 3%. I was not talking about Franco-Ontarians. I think that the percentage of Franco-Ontarians whose mother tongue is French is 5.9%. There is a serious underfunding of post-secondary institutions, including French-language ones, across Canada and Quebec. There i…
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I would say that the Government of Quebec is asking that positive measures of the Official Languages Act—and this is different from post-secondary funding—not be implemented in Quebec unilaterally, but that they be agreed to by Quebec, and that they consider the real needs of the anglophone community in Quebec as well. The federal government must work with the Government of Quebec. I think it is t…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, my colleague gave me the answer in his question. I would also like to thank him for being an ally at the official languages committee and helping to launch the first ever study on French within Quebec, as well as French outside Quebec. I agree that we need to focus as much as possible on the idea of “by” and “for” francophones. In partnership with the Association des enseignantes et e…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, what I said earlier was that students in Montreal are in the minority in French schools. I will send him the numbers, and we can debate them at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I do not think what I said was confusing. Everyone who defends French in Quebec supports the territorial model of bilingualism. If the member were more accustomed to listening to them, I think he w…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, we talked about Laurentian University. The University of Sudbury also wants to become a French-language university. We say that schools must be “by francophones, for francophones”, because bilingual and immersion schools often facilitate the assimilation of francophones. The same more or less holds true for universities. Does my colleague think that the government should strongly su…
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Madam Speaker, the interpretation is not working.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House express its concern about the closure of 28 French language programs and the layoff of some 100 professors at Laurentian University in Sudbury; That it reiterates its solidarity with the Franco-Ontarian community; and That it recalls the…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today we got some disturbing news about Laurentian University in Sudbury and the future of French-language education in Canada. The university is poised to eliminate around 60 programs in a bid to avoid bankruptcy, and programs for francophones are expected to be hit especially hard. Once again, the French language and francophone institutions are the first to be sacrificed in Canada.…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the positions of deputy ministers, assistant deputy ministers and associate deputy ministers, as of December 31, 2020: (a) what are the language requirements for the positions of deputy minister, assistant deputy minister and associate deputy minister; (b) what was the breakdown by first official language spoken; and (c) what was the breakdown of anglophones and francophones in posi…
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Mr. Speaker, in full solidarity with the Haitian people, I am tabling petition e-2448, signed by 148 citizens, to shed light on the role played in Haiti by the Canadian government and member countries of the “Core Group”, which many believe are propping up the current prime minister of Haiti, who is accused of corruption and repression, not to mention all the horrors to which the Haitian people ar…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister has a major credibility problem when he says that he will defend the French language in Quebec. His own office violated the Official Languages Act when it submitted thousands of pages of unilingual English documents about the management of the pandemic to the health committee. The act is clear. The government is required to provide bilingual documents so tha…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal Prime Minister's record speaks for itself. Since he said he would defend French in Quebec, he has refused to apply Bill 101 to federally regulated businesses. He has voted against adequate knowledge of French to obtain citizenship from within Quebec and now he has violated the Official Languages Act by providing thousands of pages of documents to the law clerk in English o…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Court Challenges Program, since the announcement on February 7, 2017, that it would be reinstated: (a) what is the total amount offered under the program; and (b) what are the specifics regarding each funding recipient, including the (i) name, (ii) amount promised by the government, (iii) amount received by the person concerned, (iv) court case concerned, (v) date on which the f…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in the throne speech, the Liberals said they wanted to meet the Paris targets by 2030, but there is nothing about those targets in the bill. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour the memory of the Acadian activist Jackie Vautour, who passed away on February 7 at the age of 92. Jackie Vautour spent his entire life fighting on behalf of the 228 families whose land was expropriated by Ottawa in 1969 to create Kouchibouguac National Park. What the federal government did to those Acadian families warrants an apology, at the very least. Depriving po…
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Mr. Speaker, only one official language is in jeopardy in Quebec and Canada, and that is French. In Quebec, we have come up with tools to defend French, starting with the Charter of the French Language. The problem is that federally regulated businesses are not subject to it. Again, Ottawa thinks that it can do better than Quebec. The solution is simple: Make federally regulated businesses subject…
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