Government Orders
Mr. President, my colleague said that the government presented its platform during the election. However, nowhere in the platform does it say that it would claim unprecedented power, the power to govern by decree. For example, section 21 allows any proponent to circumvent any and all laws. We heard our Conservative colleagues talk about GC Strategies and ArriveCAN. Moreover, the government is tryi…
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Mr. Speaker, my Liberal colleague is saying that this is written in the Liberal platform and that it is necessary. What is actually necessary is to not impose a gag order and circumvent Parliament. It reminds me of the saying that the ends justify the means. If the ends justify the means, then anything is justified, including violence and breaking the law. This government says it is going to consu…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. For several weeks now, we have heard the Conservatives criticize the Liberals on ArriveCAN and GC Strategies and question their ethics. This legislation will really give the Liberals superpowers, allowing them to shield their developer friends from the law. Proposed section 21 will allow them to exempt developers from ethics laws, the Canada …
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Madam Speaker, I commend my colleague for his speech. I want to pick up on what my colleague from Repentigny was saying. The Liberals did away with the carbon tax and their measures to fight climate change. However, during the election campaign, they promised to increase the carbon tax for big industry. However, there is nothing about that in this bill. Do they intend to do something, particularly…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. We agree in principle with a tax cut and eliminating the GST on new homes. That said, it brings the spending up to about $30 billion. The problem is that there is no budget. We do not know where that money is going to come from. Will it come from a reduction in health transfers? Is the government going to abandon the measures to compensate wo…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to inform the House that I will be sharing my time with the member for Abitibi—Témiscamingue. The subject of today's Bloc Québécois motion is a good example of the injustices that Quebec is subjected to because we are a distinct nation governed by another nation. For example, the federal language policy uses our tax dollars and its overriding legislative power to impose t…
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Mr. Speaker, we obviously agree that industrial carbon pricing should be maintained, because it is very important. However, my colleague missed the point. In this case, the Liberals decided to hand out election goodies for electoral purposes, as they tend to do. In this case, we are talking about a total of $3.7 billion taken from government funds. Quebec taxpayers ended up paying for the Liberals…
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Mr. Speaker, in fact, we take the opposite view. The carbon tax should not have been eliminated. It should have been maintained. We shall see what happens with industrial carbon pricing. There was nothing about it in the Liberals' recent bill, but we hope that something will be done. In all honesty, if the industrial tax is not maintained or even increased, that will hinder our trade diversificati…
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague. Canadian citizens stopped paying the carbon tax as of April 1, which means that their rebates were just vote-getting handouts. Earlier, one of my fellow MPs from Quebec said that no one in Quebec asked to be reimbursed, but he is unaware that there has been a lot of talk about this situation in the media. The Quebec National Assembly even voted unanimously i…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. Throughout the election campaign, the Prime Minister talked about Donald Trump and the disaster that was coming. Now the Liberals are putting forward measures without presenting a budget, which makes no sense. We completely agree on that. It is even more troubling because the fiscal framework the Liberals presented during the election campaig…
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Mr. Speaker, we agree with the Conservatives that committing that much money without tabling a budget does not make sense. The Bloc Québécois commissioned a study from the Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine. We wanted to see if food inflation is tied to the carbon tax. The answer we got is that it is not tied to the carbon tax, or at least not in any significant way. However, it is ti…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. He said that the Liberal government has failed seniors, and I think he is absolutely right. The Liberals increased the pension amount by 10% only for seniors aged 75 and over, so the Bloc Québécois introduced a bill to also increase the pension amount for seniors aged 65 to 74. Members supported that bill through almost every stage of the pro…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her speech. She said that the issue of the French language is important to her. I would like to know what she thinks of the fact that her government's official languages policy only supports English in Quebec. For example, roughly $100 million is invested every year in official languages support programs and it does nothing but finance the development of…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague talk about safety and crime. I would like his opinion on the possibility of creating a registry of criminal organizations, restoring minimum sentences for gun crimes and prohibiting community-based sentences for violent sexual offences.
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to thank my constituents in La Pointe-de-l'Île for electing me to a fourth term. This is my first speech in this Parliament. There is nothing in the throne speech about unemployment or workers. Will there be measures to improve employment insurance? Will there be measures to support workers grappling with the problems caused by Mr. Trump's tariff threats?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are paralyzing the government to denounce its refusal to hand over certain documents and to denounce corruption. I would like to know if my colleague could talk about any measures the Conservatives are planning on taking to fight corruption and improve government transparency.
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Mr. Speaker, for over a month now, the Conservatives have brought government to a standstill to talk about contempt of Parliament, specifically the fact that the government refuses to hand over the documents requested by Parliament. They have used this time to give all kinds of examples of Liberal corruption. However, we know that corruption and this kind of phenomenon of contempt of Parliament ex…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the excellent work being done by the Association pour les victimes de l'amiante du Québec, or AVAQ, the Quebec association for asbestos victims. Some members of the association, which is headquartered in my riding of La Pointe-de-l'Île, are here today. The AVAQ has mapped more than 3,700 public buildings containing asbestos, including many federal government …
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Madam Speaker, essentially, that is a way for the Conservatives to pass the cost on to the provinces and to Quebec. With $18 billion in projected housing starts, the same amount it will cost the government in taxes could help build roughly 20,000 social housing units. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about that.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has also condemned the acts of violence that occurred during Friday's protests. I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the Bloc Québécois's bill that seeks to do away with the religious exemption for hate speech. For example, criminal charges cannot be laid if religious-based incitement to hatred or hate speech occurs as part of a protest like the one w…
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Mr. Speaker, I asked another Conservative colleague a question earlier. I wanted to know what she thought about the Bloc Québécois's bill that seeks to do away with the religious exemption for hate speech. She responded that censorship is not going to solve the problem. Does that mean that, under a Conservative government, hate speech will be allowed for everyone or will the Conservatives just con…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I want to pay tribute to Francine Lalonde, after whom the Pointe‑aux‑Trembles lookout was recently named. Francine Lalonde was the first female vice-president of the CSN trade union federation and served as minister of the status of women under René Lévesque. From 1993 to 2011, she was the Bloc Québécois MP for La Pointe‑de‑l'Île. As the foreign affairs critic, she advocated for Quebe…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour the memory of former slaves who became soldiers during the Battle of Vertières in 1803. This was a major event in the history of the resistance to colonial oppression, yet it has never been mentioned in the House. On November 18, 1803, the Battle of Vertières in northern Haiti dealt the final blow to Napoleon Bonaparte's army. It was the last battle of the Haitian Rev…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are making a lot of accusations of corruption. We agree with them on the motion. However, when they were in government, they were also routinely criticized for corruption, influence peddling and so on. I would like to know if a Conservative government will come up with ways to reduce or eliminate corruption.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have the honour of presenting petition e-5054, which has been signed by 228 citizens of my riding to signify their support for the Bloc Québécois's Bill C-319, an act to amend the Old Age Security Act. The citizens are calling on the government to provide a royal recommendation for Bill C‑319 in order to increase OAS by 10% for people aged 65 to 74 and to raise the maximum amount …
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Madam Speaker, the Conservatives talk a lot about Liberal corruption, but there was also a lot of corruption when they were in office. There is an old saying that “opportunity makes the thief”. Often, corruption occurs because the system allows that to happen. I would like to know what the Conservatives are committed to doing to eliminate corruption.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I would seek unanimous consent to present the Bloc Québécois's dissenting opinion.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that the Bloc Québécois will be presenting a dissenting opinion. More importantly, I want Quebeckers to know that all of the recommendations in this report are aimed exclusively at supporting the economic development of English-speaking Quebec. That is really unfair and appalling. We know that the English-speaking community is growing and developing and that it is highly…
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Madam Speaker, I asked the question a few times and so far, I have had no answer. My colleague talks a lot about the Liberals and their corruption. However, examples of corruption involving Conservative governments also exist. Does my colleague have any ideas on ways to prevent this kind of corruption?
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about it at length. Whistle-blowers started speaking up back in 2022, but it took quite a while for things to get to this point. Given everything he studied, does he see any way to make the process more efficient and enable a faster response in the future? Does he see any way to prevent this type of situation from happening again?
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Mr. Speaker, our Conservative colleagues talk a lot about corruption. One way to combat corruption in politics is to have a system where political parties receive a per-vote subsidy. The Conservatives are the ones who did away with that system. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we agree with the Conservatives. The government's refusal to produce the documents requested by Parliament is unacceptable. However, the Conservatives have done the same thing in the past. In fact, under Mr. Harper, the Conservative government fell on that very issue. Has my colleague given any thought to ways of preventing this kind of situation from happening again? Would he be will…
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Mr. Speaker, I have asked two or three times now what could be done to prevent this kind of situation from ever happening again. This does not seem to be of any interest to the Conservatives. The Conservatives have also been reprimanded for refusing to table documents at Parliament's request. We agree that the Liberals are no better. What guarantee do we have that the Conservatives will not do the…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about this. Of course it is unacceptable that the government is refusing to comply with an order of the House to produce documents. We have heard allegations that this also happened with previous Conservative governments. I would like to know whether my colleague has any ideas about what we can do to prevent this type of situation from hap…
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Madam Speaker, I was wondering whether my colleague has any ideas as to what measures could be put in place to prevent this kind of situation from happening again, to prevent the government from simply refusing to give access to documents and getting away with it as it is now.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to mark the 350th anniversary of Pointe‑aux‑Trembles, which is known for its rich history, heritage sites and larger-than-life personalities. Local luminaries include authors Robert Chevalier, Claire Wojas and Serge Bouchard, athletes Rodrigue Gilbert and the Dufour‑Lapointe sisters, artists Marie‑Claire and Richard Séguin and Christian Bégin, and the Léger family of p…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Governor General has had three years to learn French. Taxpayers even paid $28,000 for her to take lessons. Clearly, she has not been trying. Why should she bother? She already landed the job. This is another example of history repeating itself for francophones. Today, we are talking about Mary Simon, but it was the same thing when Air Canada appointed Michael Rousseau. When will t…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is blaming the Bloc Québécois and talking about Quebec. However, when it comes to immigration, we have no idea where the Conservatives stand. Do they agree on the need for a more equal distribution? What are their concrete commitments? In terms of official languages, for example, we know that almost all official language funding is spent on English in Quebec. Have the C…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague to comment on the fact that the exemption for religious texts that promote hatred is maintained in the bill. What does he think of the religious exemption for incitement to hatred?
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her speech. Would she agree that we should split the bill? That way, we could deal with part 1, which covers everything dealing with sexual content, separately from the other parts of the act that we find more problematic.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, by hiring unilingual anglophone employees, Canada Post is undermining the right of all its employees in Quebec to work in French. This issue is putting the reformed Official Languages Act to the test. Let us not forget that Quebec and the Liberals reached a compromise that does not require federal corporations to comply with the Charter of the French Language. Canada Post is using tha…
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Madam Speaker, the budget implementation measures in Bill C-69 are full of interference in the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces. Whether it is a question of housing, health, education or the banking sector, the fiscal imbalance really is on full display. I would like to know what my colleague thinks.
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Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague on his excellent speech. Personally, I think this is a case of major interference in Quebec's businesses and financial services. How does my colleague think the financial community in Quebec will react? What dynamic can we expect to see?
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his French, and I salute all Franco-Manitobans. We have heard several Liberal ministers say that they are going to take action to protect French in Quebec and that they recognize that French is in decline in Quebec. However, an analysis of the public accounts reveals that 94% of official-language funding programs in Quebec are used to strengthen Englis…
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With regard to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Client Support Centre, in its Montreal offices: what is the number of (i) unilingual anglophone, (ii) bilingual, (iii) unilingual francophone, agents?
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Madam Speaker, we saw in the motion that the Liberals seemed to be trying to prevent the release of the report. Earlier, we heard the Minister of Environment and Climate Change say that he had stopped subsidizing oil when in fact he continues to subsidize the oil companies in all manner of ways, including the pipeline and so-called carbon capture. What does my colleague make of this doublespeak?
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Madam Speaker, it seems that the Conservatives moved this motion because the Liberals wanted to censor the report. Now the report has been released. The Liberals keep saying that they have stopped funding oil, although they continue to fund oil companies in many ways, from building pipelines to subsidizing new carbon capture processes. Could my colleague comment on the fact that the Liberals keep …
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Madam Speaker, as everyone knows, the Liberals say they have stopped subsidizing oil, but they continue to do so indirectly. They are subsidizing big oil through the pipeline project, as well as through all the subsidies to help carbon capture and, basically, to help make tar sands oil cleaner. Does my colleague think that oil companies really need these tax credits? Will this not just lead to eve…
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Mr. Speaker, my question is not about the substance of Bill C‑40, but about the time allocation motion. There are times when the Liberals filibuster, for example at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. They have done that at several meetings now because they refuse to accept the majority decision at the Standing Committee on Official Languages. In this case, they are tabling a time alloca…
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Madam Speaker, initially, it seemed that the government had done everything it could to cover up the issue. It began by refusing to hold a public inquiry. I want to know whether the government is now actually prepared to get to the bottom of the matter and expand the commission's terms of reference.
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