Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent for his question. I see this as a very important issue. Things are relatively quiet now, but I do not think that Quebeckers will let their language disappear. Sooner or later a movement will form. The Official Languages Act is currently one of the main factors behind the anglicization of Quebec. As my colleague pointed out, Quebec is inund…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague on her speech. She said she agreed with the principle that French is a minority language in Canada. What does she think of the fact that all of the Quebec government's requests have been refused or else accepted but in a very ambiguous way? Does she understand that Quebec should be allowed to implement its own territoriality policies? I see that as a c…
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Madam Speaker, for me, this debate is about equity. Right now, traditional broadcasters are regulated. They have to contribute to Quebec and Canadian culture. All this bill does is extend regulatory enforcement to foreign and online platforms. I do not understand what my colleague wants. Is she saying we should deregulate traditional broadcasters? What does she see as the solution?
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Madam Speaker, I feel my Conservative friends' motion is primarily about supporting the oil companies. There are a whole host of measures that could be taken to combat inflation. The current climate emergency must also be a priority. We therefore need to find ways to move toward energies of the future and fight inflation in all sorts of other ways. I would love to hear my colleague's thoughts on t…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to know why the people of Ontario and the sponsor of this bill would place more trust in the federal government than in their own provincial government when it comes to this initiative.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, first of all, the current Quebec government has not decreased immigration that much. It has more or less stayed the same. Second of all, as I was saying, we have two choices. If we increase immigration without sufficient means to teach these immigrants French and truly integrate them, francophones will become a minority in Quebec. If we reduce immigration, as the member said, our po…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from the Conservative Party for his excellent question. I think that the environment needs to be considered here. We are not against Alberta. We are in favour of combatting climate change, and we think we need to reduce our dependence on oil. We are prepared to help Alberta through the energy transition. I do not think it will have a choice. If we wan…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we were eager to read the new bill to modernize the Official Languages Act. Quebec's one request was that it wanted to be solely responsible for linguistic planning in its territory. The Liberals have said no. Ottawa is interfering again. It is ensuring that its legislation will override the application of the Charter of the French Language. It will be optional for federally regulated…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Quebec National Assembly is calling for this, as are the Government of Quebec and all living former premiers of Quebec, namely, Pierre Marc Johnson, Daniel Johnson, Lucien Bouchard, Pauline Marois, Philippe Couillard, and even the very Liberal Jean Charest. Even the House of Commons voted in favour of it at second reading. Only the Liberal government is opposed. Will the minister …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, under the new proposed redistribution, the House would have 342 members, with four new seats, of which 77 would go to Quebec, who would lose one seat. This would cause Quebec's political weight in the House of Commons to go from 23.1% to 22.5%. It is not the Chief Electoral Officer's fault. He is mechanically applying the formula set out in section 51 of the Constitution Act, 1867. …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned earlier that no one in the House is evil. I grew up in an anglophone environment, and of course there are no major differences between people on an individual level. Culturally, however, there are some differences. How does my colleague explain, for example, that in many provinces there are not enough schools for francophones at the moment? Some efforts are be…
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Madam Speaker, we will see if our colleagues will consider this to be acceptable and we will draw our own conclusions. I hope that things have changed, but the result of the vote will give us our answer.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, the media, in Quebec in particular, has reported a very high rate of rejection—up to 80%—for temporary permit applications from francophone African countries. Ostensibly, the government is concerned that these people may want to stay in Canada, so it does not want to give them temporary residency. Anglophone colleges, however, are advertising that they can facilitate access to permane…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to pay one last tribute to Gisèle Pomerleau, an exceptional woman who passed away at the age of 81. Ms. Pomerleau founded the Centre des femmes de Montréal-Est—Pointe-aux-Trembles in 1995 and stood up for women's rights her entire life. Her mission was to help women recognize their potential, and she believed in it so much that she single-handedly ran her organization, u…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the chief of the Ottawa Police Service said that the Emergencies Act was useful. However, as constitutional expert Patrick Taillon said, the act must not only be useful, it must be essential. I think that everything we saw could have been done differently. For the past two weeks, we constantly asked the Prime Minister to meet with all stakeholders, to set up an all-party committee wit…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Repentigny, the riding next to mine, for her excellent speech. Even before the Emergencies Act was invoked, she had already spoken about the fact that a whole series of situations had been resolved, including those at the Surrey border crossing and the Ambassador Bridge. Is the Emergencies Act just being used, to some extent, to hide the government…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, could my colleague tell us more about the potential repercussions of using the Emergencies Act when it is not required, as is being done right now?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, as we know, the Ottawa police asked for 1,800 extra police officers, but the federal government sent only a handful. Can the member explain that?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I agree with my colleague. The blockades had almost all been removed before the emergency measures came into force. Could my colleague talk about the consequences of invoking the Emergencies Act when it is not required?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, we knew that there were extremists within the convoy when we first heard it was coming. We knew there were far-right groups involved. It seems they were allowed to settle in anyway. Once that happened, I think the Prime Minister could have showed more initiative and made sure that the police forces were coordinating their efforts, but nothing was done. What does my colleague think a…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I really enjoyed my colleague's presentation, in which he gave examples of situations that appeared to be far more serious, but for which we did not invoke the Emergencies Act. What does he think of the fact that, three days before invoking the Act, the Prime Minister seemed to be saying that the police had all the tools they needed? Are the government and the Prime Minister not using…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Drummond. As we all know, the Bloc Québécois is opposed to invoking the Emergencies Act, especially as written in the orders, since the measures would apply to Quebec, even though the Quebec National Assembly, including the provincial Liberals, voted unanimously to oppose the imposition of emergency measures within its borders. As we all…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we are talking about a poll of about 300 people. In any case, what does my colleague think about the fact that the Quebec National Assembly voted unanimously against the use of emergency measures? After seeing what has been happening in Ottawa for the past three weeks, it is only natural that people want it to stop. However, putting an end to this situation does not require emergency …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, my Liberal colleagues often say in Parliament that they are in talks with the Government of Quebec, but there is a difference between talking and really listening and discussing. As my colleague said, seven out of 10 provinces are against using the Emergencies Act. The Prime Minister says he consulted everyone and managed to get a consensus, but that is far from the case.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, what does my colleague think that it would take to revoke the emergency measures?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, for operations that call for multiple police forces to intervene, emergency measures are not needed. Why were such operations not carried out sooner?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are the ones politicizing this issue. They could have taken action last year. We saw this coming, and we wrote to them in May, but they did nothing. Instead, they called a pointless election, and seniors paid the price. The Liberals are blaming us and invoking closure. We asked them to send the payment to seniors sooner, in March. The Liberals did not want to, so the paym…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, if I understood correctly, earlier, our Liberal colleague chastised the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives for voting against the motion. We are not against the motion. What we were against was closure. I think my colleague explained it well. Bloc Québécois members sent letters to the Minister of Seniors before the election because we saw this coming. As of July 2021, seniors' GIS…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to know one thing. My colleague said that the Conservatives are not opposed to vaccination. As we know, after the SARS crisis in 2003, the Naylor report criticized Canada for not having the capacity to manufacture vaccines. Of all the G7 countries, Canada is the only one that does not manufacture vaccines domestically. That is in part the result of the Trudeau governmen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the following. Would it not have been a big help if the Liberal government had taken action and we were able to manufacture vaccines in Quebec or Canada?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we agree with the idea of funding rapid tests, but we do not agree with seeing health transfers decline year after year. In the 1960s, the federal government covered 50% of health care costs, but now, it contributes only 22%. At the same time, it is interfering in other sectors while continuing to refuse to increase health transfers. We often see the NDP supporting these federal att…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑10 establishes a one-time payment of $2.5 billion to Quebec and the Canadian provinces for expenses incurred since January 1, 2022, in relation to testing. We agree with that, but the main problem, and my colleague spoke at length about this before me, is that cuts to federal health transfers are compromising the health care system in Quebec and in the Canadian provinces. From …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has said it before, and we will say it again: Quebec leads the way on prescription drug insurance. We are not opposed to the idea of Canada as a whole taking our lead and doing likewise. However, we do not want Quebec to be penalized because we are ahead of the curve. We agree with my colleague's proposal, as long as there is a clause that lets Quebec opt out with f…
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Mr. Speaker, I would say that we in the Bloc Québécois love Quebec enough to hope that it manages to get by after all these decisions, which basically make us less effective in our government administration. There is only one truly sustainable solution that would free us from being at the mercy of the federal government's health transfer cuts, and that is Quebec independence. That is what I want. …
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Mr. Speaker, I already asked the member this, but I think he told me that the NDP would support health transfers up to 50%, even. I asked him why he often proposes programs that would infringe on the jurisdictions of Quebec and the provinces. We are not against pharmacare or dental insurance. However, as these fall under provincial jurisdiction, we want them to be put in place by Quebec and the pr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to hear my colleague's thoughts on vaccination. What does he think about the fact that there are still thousands of people in hospital and a large number of the patients in the ICU are unvaccinated?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, hospitals were already weakened as a result of underfunding and reduced health transfers. No matter what anyone says, the fact that the federal government covered 50% of health care spending in the 1960s and 1970s but only 22% today is what has made hospitals very fragile. Cases have to be triaged, which means that some cancer patients were unable to access care because the hospitals …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, equality is exactly what we are asking for. When we talk about increasing health transfers to 35%, it is not only Quebec asking for this, but all the provinces. This is not something that only Quebec is asking for, as I just said. This really illustrates the problem we have with the federal system. We have a government that constantly centralizes power and makes decisions that interfe…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we agree that more rapid tests are needed. However, Quebec's health care systems and hospitals were already in trouble because of the federal health transfer formula, which does not even cover the increase in health care system costs. As we know, Quebec and all the provinces are calling for health transfers to increase to 35%. Can my colleague talk to us about this without distracti…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we cannot discuss the Constitution without addressing the elephant in the room. Quebec did not sign the Constitution of 1982, which was imposed on it by the English Canadian majority. This considerably reduces the autonomy of Quebec’s National Assembly, for example on language policy. French is in decline across Canada, but also in Quebec. As the Bélanger-Campeau Commission found 30 y…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the Canada emergency business account provides interest-free loans of up to $60,000. Initially, repaying the balance of the loan on or before December 31, would have resulted in loan forgiveness of up to 33 per cent. However, in Quebec we are seeing that almost a quarter of SMEs might not survive, and we think more needs to be done. For example, we have proposed increasing the loan …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the economic update does not include any solutions to address the labour shortage or any ideas on how to increase productivity. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the economic update held the Canadian health transfer escalator to 3%. That is well below the annual health care cost increase. We know the federal government paid for 50% of health care spending in the 1970s. Since then, it has steadily reduced its share down to the 22% we are at now. Right now, Quebec and the Canadian provinces are unanimously calling on the government to increase…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, right in the middle of a pandemic, the health care system was compromised in Quebec and all the other provinces. In the 1970s, health transfers covered 50% of health care spending. They were cut back and now they cover 22%. Quebec and the Canadian provinces all agree that health transfers should be increased from 22% to 35%, and yet nothing is being done. The health care system was …
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, the government's only mention of climate change in the throne speech was a comment that Canada must move talk into action, which is a very vague commitment. The government claims to want to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, but since it did not define these subsidies, it could ultimately conceal them in the form of funding to make oil and gas less carbon intensive. The Liberal govern…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, the latest Speech from the Throne continues to commit to the equality of both official languages, French and English. However, since the coming into force of the Official Languages Act, we know the opposite has been achieved, namely, there has been a growing assimilation of francophone and Acadian communities. In Quebec, there is a decline in French. The action the federal governmen…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Department of Canadian Heritage’s official languages funding programs over the past 10 years, broken down by year: (a) what amounts were allocated, broken down by province, by program and by component; and (b) what is the breakdown of the amounts allocated in (a) to the various institutions across the country, broken down by province, by level of education (primary, secondary, p…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the $10-a-day national child care program that would provide universal access to all Canadian families as of 2026 and the bilateral agreements that the federal government has signed with the various provinces and territories regarding this program: (a) do the eight agreements already signed with British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, M…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, further to my earlier question to the member's colleague, I would like to know if a Conservative government will impose federal standards in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to federal source revenue of post-secondary institutions in Quebec over the last 10 years, broken down by year: (a) what is the total revenue from federal sources, broken down by institution; (b) what share of the revenue in (a) came from (i) the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, (ii) Health Canada, (iii) the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, (iv) the Ca…
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