Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think it is a mistake to reduce immigration to a monetary issue. It goes beyond that. What I was trying to explain to my colleague earlier is that Quebec has a unique integration system. What the House is trying to do is put an end to that integration system. It is going to challenge Bill 21 on secularism. A majority of parliamentarians here are against Bill 96. These are two pill…
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Madam Speaker, that just proves my point about what I would call arrogant and predatory federalism. My colleague did not make any effort to understand the explanations I gave about what multiculturalism is. He did not make any effort to understand the specificity of the Quebec nation. Based on the preconceived ideas that he has about what it means to be a Quebecker and the type of nationalism that…
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Madam Speaker, I will share my time with my colleague from Montcalm, the always classy member I am so very fond of. I am a little hoarse. I wish I could say it is because I am angry, but it is just a cold. Actually, I am kind of angry because of what I have been hearing all day. That brings me to one pretty simple question. Is it possible, in the House of Commons, to think critically about immigra…
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Madam Speaker, earlier this week, I took part in a non-partisan media scrum with my colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands, some Liberal members and my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie to denounce a situation that is completely inconceivable, specifically that Canada considers small modular reactors to be clean energy. Ottawa is going to invest in a technology that every other country seems t…
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Madam Speaker, in a momentary fit of enthusiasm and sincere affection, I forgot myself. As I was saying, the Prime Minister has come forward with the bare minimum. Let us go back to that bare minimum. According to the NDP, the minimum was $4.6 billion. The NDP therefore wants there to be more than $4.6 billion. In my opinion, the NDP surely wants the $2 billion dollars that was in Bill C‑46 to als…
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Madam Speaker, I did not quite grasp the part about cash flow, but I did understand what she said at the beginning of the question: She respects provincial jurisdictions. If she does believe in respect for jurisdictions, like me, she should be outraged to see the government implement this ridiculous promise to put in place a dental care system, as this is fully and entirely within the jurisdiction…
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Madam President, I would advise my colleague to go back and listen to the speech on housing given earlier by my colleague for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert. I do agree with her. Affordable and social housing is essential. Apart from that, what I wanted my colleague to take away from my speech is the fact that our health care system is still falling apart. I would point out to her once again that her lead…
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Madam Speaker, I fully understand, but sometimes when we get excited we forget the most basic parliamentary rules. I am pleased to speak to Bill C-47 today. At first, I thought that, as natural resources critic, I would focus my comments on energy but, as luck would have it, I will be able to speak on another one of my favourite issues, health transfers. Members will understand why. I have risen m…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to Bill C-47, especially since I have here with me the Minister of National Revenue, who came just to hear my speech, as well as two of my loyal squires.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the commissioner of the environment is very critical of the federal plan to combat climate change, and the government is not out of the woods yet. Speaking of wood, he specifically mentions the Prime Minister's much-touted plan to plant two billion trees. How is the government doing on that front? It has met 2.3% of its target. Two per cent is not terribly impressive, and that is assu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, there is something unusual going on here. We keep hearing that this is not a partisan issue. Every party is non-partisan here, as everyone knows. None of the parties are partisan. I find it rather strange that my NDP colleagues are bringing this up now. The Bloc Québécois quickly announced that it is in favour of a public inquiry. Why are they moving this motion this evening? I think …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I must say that am surprised to hear my colleague claim that we are being too partisan. What are we dealing with tonight if not partisanship? What is happening tonight is that the NDP realized that it was sticking too close to the government, so it is hoping to use this China situation to restore its public image. It decided to cut the Conservative Party's opposition day short, not …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I am having a hard time hearing my colleague. I would like to hear what he has to say. Could the members opposite quiet down a little?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the ink on the health transfers agreement is not even dry and the federal government is already making cuts. It has announced $82 million in cuts to health care funding, and half of those cuts will be made in Quebec. Ottawa is taking $41 million out of our health care system. The minister must know that all our health centres are in crisis. At this time, the ER in Lachine has been par…
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Mr. Speaker, what the federal government is doing is completely unacceptable. Quebec has not yet received one cent from the forced agreement on health transfers. On top of having to wait for the money to be budgeted in Ottawa, we now know the minister is already making cuts. Not only is he barely meeting one-sixth of Quebec's emergency room needs, but, before the money is even paid out, he is taki…
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Madam Speaker, on March 1, Paper Excellence got its hands on Resolute Forest Products, a forestry industry giant that controls 25% of Quebec forests. If a buyer were to revitalize Resolute, which was investing very little in modernizing its facilities, that would be a good thing. However, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes CBC/Radio-Canada…
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Mr. Speaker, that is not the issue, but all right. Better forestry development, increased processing and new products to replace oil will be key to having a prosperous and renewable carbon-neutral economy. However, that is not the business model of Asia Pulp & Paper. It does as little processing as possible and sends kraft pulp directly to China. The jobs and value added are in China. What conditi…
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Madam Speaker, I want to say that I will be sharing my time with my mentor, the member for Rivière-du-Nord. I think that having a discussion about the role of private health care is a great way to distinguish between certain ideological positions. On the one hand, there are those who think of themselves as social democrats or progressives, even if the latter term is a bit overused. On the other ha…
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Madam Speaker, I agree with the NDP leader that the solution for improving our health care system is not privatization. However, it is not predatory federalism either. It is not up to the federal government to dictate standards for managing the health care system. The only solution is to fight against the scourge of federalism, or the fiscal imbalance. If the NDP leader is serious, what he can do …
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Madam Speaker, that trap was easy to see coming. I said earlier in my speech that that was what the NDP would say. It is easy. Populism involves using overly simplistic explanations to describe complex realities. They are saying that if we do not vote in favour of the NDP motion, it is because we are in favour of giving the private sector a bigger place in the health care system. We will not be vo…
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Madam Speaker, I would like my colleague to tell me how he can magically find solutions, here in the House, to wait times in the health care system. How can he magically do that when his government cannot even deliver passports on time, deal with irregular border crossers who do not have work permits, and help people who spend weeks waiting for their EI payments? The Liberals should take care of t…
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Madam Speaker, I understand the difficulties my colleague has experienced in the health care system, but the major issue is one of funding and imbalance. To fix that, the government should have listened to the provinces when they asked for an additional $28 billion to increase health transfers from 22% to 35%. That is what needed to be done, and the NDP still has an opportunity to do it. The budge…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, this is Teacher Appreciation Week and I would like to salute them. This year's theme is most appropriate: “Everyday we measure the significance of your role.” Indeed, every day we entrust our teachers with the most precious thing in the world, our children. We send them to learn, grow and develop under their teachers' watchful eye. Our teachers put their hearts and souls into their …
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Mr. Speaker, as you and I both know, the Conservatives love saying that the government is spending too much money. Yet their leader has promised to maintain the Liberal health care funding offer if he ever takes office. It is literally the only Liberal public policy that the Conservative leader has committed to protect if he becomes prime minister. Everyone knows that the Conservative leader think…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, what a great bill. I wondered which member had come up with this brilliant idea, and then I found out that it was the member for Mirabel, an inspiring member. How did he come up with this brilliant idea? Unfortunately, people often mistakenly accuse us of looking for a fight, and yet we have plenty of solutions to offer all the time. The member for Mirabel had this fantastic idea to…
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Madam Speaker, the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles said this morning that he thought this debate was futile. This is what I would say to my colleague. If he wants to do something useful, he could tell us clearly whether the Conservative Party is for or against Bill 21 and Bill 96. I would like the Conservatives to tell us if they would challenge these laws in court if they were in powe…
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Madam Speaker, that question is a classic. It is a classic Conservative move to say now is not the time to be debating this. When we talk about Quebec, it is never the right time. The speech given by her colleague this morning mentioned that. It is never the right time to talk about Quebec, it is never the time to use an opposition day to express Quebec's views. I would like to say to the member t…
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Madam Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is proving me right, because he is using the exact pretext I was talking about earlier. Let us talk about what the notwithstanding clause is really for. In 1977, when Bill 101 came into force, everyone in Canada was complaining that it was disgusting and terrible and that the act needed to be repealed. Today, no one would go against what Bill 101 stands f…
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Madam Speaker, first, I would like to mention that I will be splitting my time with the mischievous member for Mirabel. Now let us talk about the notwithstanding clause. I began by wondering why the Prime Minister wanted to restrict the use of the notwithstanding clause. When he came out and said that, the Prime Minister seemed to use his desire to protect individual rights as an excuse. He was ta…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I have my trinket with me. I hope I do not show it off too much tonight. I would like to go back to Groundhog Day. I loved that movie. In fact, I feel like I just relived Groundhog Day while listening to my NDP colleague speak. I am the member for Jonquière, and the tax centre at issue is in my riding. I remember how in 2019, the former member for Jonquière, an NDP member, said that t…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec, the provinces and the Bloc Québécois have been demanding this for years, and now the Prime Minister is finally inviting his counterparts to a meeting to discuss health transfers on February 7. The Prime Minister does not have the right to turn this meeting into a PR stunt. February 7 should mark the beginning of the end of the crisis. On February 7, the Prime Minister needs to…
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Mr. Speaker, on February 7, the first ministers will finally meet with the aim of increasing health transfers. This was not a foregone conclusion. As recently as mid-November, the Minister of Health was calling this request futile. After years of repeated calls from Quebec, the provinces and the Bloc Québécois, Ottawa is finally taking note of the crisis in the hospitals. Quebec and the provinces …
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It is groundhog day, Mr. Speaker. Once again, on Friday, all of the premiers of Quebec and the provinces called for a meeting with the Prime Minister on increasing health transfers. They costed their needs 27 months ago and are calling for a meeting. For 27 months, the Prime Minister has been ignoring them. For 27 months, their ability to provide health care to the public in our hospitals has been…
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Mr. Speaker, enough with the analysis. What we want is results. However, as long as Ottawa is withholding money, there will be no results. The real reason for the impasse is that Ottawa does not want to pay 35% of health costs. Ottawa wants to shatter the provinces' consensus in order to negotiate individual agreements on the cheap and invest as little as possible. While our hospitals are stacking…
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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 call on the Prime Minister to meet with the premiers of Quebec, the provinces and the territories as soon as possible regarding long-term sustainable funding for health care through the Canada health transfer.
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Mr. Speaker, that “transparent discussion” is code for standards. We will say it again. What the health system needs is not standards; it needs Ottawa to contribute its share. Quite frankly, no one believes that there are no standards in the Quebec health care system. The federal government's pretentious and dismissive attitude toward the provinces, saying that it will show them how to do things, …
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec's finance minister will table his economic update on Thursday. He will have to make do with what he has because the Liberal government is still stubbornly saying no despite Quebec and the provinces calling for higher health transfers for years. ERs are in crisis. There are not enough workers. Even pediatric units, which care for our children, are paying the price, yet Ottawa co…
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Mr. Speaker, the government does not want to increase health transfers. It wants standards. What standards? What makes Ottawa think it can tell Quebec and the provinces how to do their job? Consider what Ottawa did with Phoenix, Roxham Road, the passport crisis, the old age pension delays, and the delays with EI and the immigration department, which is where applications go to die. How dare the go…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, later on, I will be presenting the Minister of Employment with the demands of local organizations that are fighting for a better EI system. Two weeks ago, L.A.S.T.U.S.E du Saguenay, which represents unemployed workers, and Récif 02, a round table of Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean women's groups, held a protest in front of my office to condemn not just the inhumane delays at Service Canada, b…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' carbon tax rhetoric never fails to surprise me. Let me point out that this tax does not apply in Quebec. To hear my Conservative colleagues tell it, the carbon tax can be blamed for everything from the temperature to a Canadiens win or a Bruins loss. I have a hard time seeing a connection between fighting poverty and the carbon tax. Even the best economists have not…
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Mr. Speaker, children's hospitals are overflowing like never before, yet, the day before yesterday, the Prime Minister once again blamed the provinces instead of announcing solutions. Seriously, this has to stop. The provinces are not to blame; underfunding is. For two years now, Quebec and the provinces have been asking the government for $28 billion, and, for two years, the government has been f…
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Mr. Speaker, it has to be said that the only two things the federal government has done to respond to the crisis at children's hospitals is to blame the provinces and hold back the money. I challenge any Liberal member to visit a pediatric emergency room in their riding and tell a parent that it is the provinces' fault that there are no health transfers. We do not have any more time to waste playi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, there is a problem with the interpretation.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak about Bill S222. If we want to trace the origins of the discussions that led to an act that would benefit forest products, we need to go back to the proposals of the Bloc Québécois. As early as March 2010, Bill C‑429, which dealt with something very similar and was sponsored by the member for Manicouagan at the time, was being studied. The same thing happened …
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Mr. Speaker, it was not clear, but perhaps the interpretation was better. Moving up the deadline by two years and threatening to keep the money if cities cannot turn on a dime is almost blackmail. The federal government wants its infrastructure fund to be used quickly. We agree. However, it should be used intelligently and equitably for the best possible projects for all municipalities, both small…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a fine grocery list, but that is not what we are talking about. Incredibly, this is the first time in over a year that the Prime Minister has had anything good to say about Quebec or the provinces in terms of transfers. All it took was a face-to-face meeting. In my mind, that would suggest that organizing meetings could lead to an agreement on increased funding for health care…
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Mr. Speaker, on the topic of health, the Prime Minister came out of his meeting with François Legault at the Sommet de la Francophonie a changed man, I would say. He said that Quebec is doing, and I quote, “a very good job” with data collection. It is amazing how things progress when we communicate. Imagine how much progress would be made if the Prime Minister brought all the premiers together to …
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Mr. Speaker, we must act now. The time for distractions is over. For over a year now, we have been calling for a premiers' summit on increasing funding for health care. Meanwhile, surgery waiting lists are extremely long. Some people feel ill but cannot get a diagnosis. Some health care workers are thinking of changing careers. All of these people expect their governments to reach an agreement to …
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Mr. Speaker, sometimes the answer should actually match the question. That needs to be made clear to our colleague. The federal government can clearly see that the health care system is underfunded. Everyone can see that the elastic is about to snap. People are at the end of their rope, but what the federal government fails to see is that it is the one that must do more. Quebec allocates 43% of it…
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