Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will be frank. In the House, I often hear the phrase “team Canada” and the idea that we should be working as team Canada. I am not particularly interested in team Canada, and I will tell you why. Canada has two main economic sectors: the oil industry and the automotive industry. The federal government is totally absent when it comes to softwood lumber. Today we have heard about nego…
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Mr. Speaker, I can understand my colleague from Winnipeg North wanting to depoliticize the debate because what both the Conservatives and Liberals have done for the forestry industry is pathetic. Earlier, I was listening to my colleague say that it was powerful U.S. lobbyists who managed to get the tariffs imposed. He said that members of the House should not be pointing fingers at one another. He…
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Mr. Speaker, I found it rather surprising that my colleague is patting himself on the back for the agreement reached in 2006. For the people in my region, the 2006 deal was a disaster. The Conservatives never brought in a liquidity program for people in the forestry sector, so they were struggling and were eventually forced to accept a sellout agreement. What my colleague failed to mention is that…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I look forward to working with her on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. My colleague spoke a lot about the relationship with the United States. This relationship is a big part of the issue we are discussing tonight. However, we cannot ignore one of the major issues for the forestry industry, which is that there is no support for secondar…
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Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague from Timmins—James Bay for his speech. We will be working together on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. He ended his speech by asking what we were going to do for workers in the industry. I would like to tell him that what we can do has a lot to do with secondary and tertiary processing. Unfortunately, industry stakeholders are telling us that the federal…
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Madam Chair, everyone knows that I am a fair-minded person, and I am not going to bug my colleague, with whom I shared a lot of good times at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. However, he talked about the Conservatives' 2006 softwood lumber agreement and said that we need to be firm. I would simply tell him that the people in the forestry sector think that the 2006 agreement was a bad d…
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Madam Chair, I always enjoy listening to my Green Party colleague. I would just like to ask her if she believes, as I do, that part of the solution for the forestry industry is to further develop what is known today as the bioeconomy, which significantly reduces the carbon footprint of many sectors of activity. I do not know what she thinks of that.
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Madam Speaker, I would just like to reassure my NDP colleague that we do not agree with the Conservative Party's position. The Bloc Québécois listens to science. Our intention is to be present in the House. Democracy only works when it is out in the open.
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Would you please be quiet? Madam Speaker, during the last parliamentary session, there was one single person on the other side. Science tells us that, if we are all properly vaccinated and we follow the guidelines by wearing our masks, being here in the House is perfectly fine. I do not want to be associated with what is going on in the Conservative Party, where people doubt vaccine efficacy and t…
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Madam Speaker, there are two problems before us today. One is that the Liberals, as my colleague has clearly shown, want to limit debate and do not want to be held accountable for their actions. We saw plenty of that in the last parliament. For their part, the NDP members prefer to remain in their pyjamas in the basement. That is their choice. The other problem I want to raise is the issue of safe…
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Mr. Speaker, it was bad enough that the United States was imposing duties on our softwood lumber, but now Washington is thumbing its nose at us by doubling its already unfair duties. Ottawa was supposed to get the United States to eliminate duties altogether. Amazingly, the opposite happened: Washington doubled them. This is utterly appalling, especially since Quebec's forestry industry has been a…
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Mr. Speaker, since I am absolutely right, I will go on. I hope I will be absolutely right again. What is going on in the United States is very worrisome. Ottawa was supposed to get rid of softwood lumber duties. Washington's response? Double those duties. Ottawa was supposed to lobby for exemptions to protectionism in the electric vehicle sector. Washington's response? Add another layer of protect…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of his speech, I heard the Prime Minister tell us that his government will continue to be there for British Columbians, and I wondered what “being there” means. If “being there” only means putting out fires, I think that is not enough. We also need to prevent fires. We need to show empathy and sympathy tonight, but what we will need in the future is courage. Courage m…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to take just a few seconds to thank the good people of Jonquière who have placed their trust in me once again, as well as my wife, Line Vachon, who is affectionately known as Staline, the dictator of love. I would like to tell my colleague from Abbotsford that in 1996, the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region went through something similar. I want to reiterate my full support. As I r…
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Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed the speech from the Leader of the Opposition. He ended by saying that we must be united and help those who need it most. I totally agree with him. As I told the Prime Minister earlier, simply putting out fires is no longer good enough. What we are doing tonight is showing compassion and sympathy. We are trying to put out fires, but we have to start preventing them. Preventin…
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed my colleague's speech. He is a sensible, rational man. I would therefore like to ask him a very simple question. This evening, I asked the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition one time whether they agreed that we cannot just put out fires and that we need to prevent them. What we are seeing today are the effects of the climate crisis. Can my colleague tel…
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Madam Speaker, do my colleagues remember Gary Kobinger, a Université Laval researcher? He is the expert who became famous for his discovery of the Ebola vaccine, and he is also the expert who, at the start of the pandemic, developed a COVID‑19 vaccine candidate. Unfortunately, Ottawa denied him funding for clinical trials. Canada still does not have a made-in-Canada vaccine or a modern pharmaceuti…
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Madam Speaker, that is nonsense. Quebec will receive 600,000 fewer doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week, but will receive more doses of Moderna. The reason we are still talking about weekly deliveries is that Canada is still, to this day, 100% dependent on foreign suppliers for our vaccines. While Canada still does not have the high-tech industry needed, at least it had the expertise. Now we lear…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his impassioned speech. I was wondering whether he was in a tent just now. There was a rather interesting background on the screen. I was listening to the member for Kingston and the Islands say that the Conservatives may be motivated by political interests in tonight's debate. In response, I might suggest that he take a long look in the mirror. We get the imp…
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Mr. Speaker, earlier my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean asked the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles a question about the Liberals' transparency. He asked four times how such a lack of transparency was possible. When I think about the redacted documents that were sent to the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians, I feel like asking two more times how this is possi…
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Madam Speaker, earlier the minister used a generic statement when he said that if we really want to understand where we are, we have to look at where we started. I like this kind of statement. It reminds me that it took six years for us to even get Bill C‑10. It also took 120 amendments. My Conservative colleague alluded to this, but it seems as though we have the Bloc Québécois to thank for this.…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague, who was getting all worked up because the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of the government's time allocation motion. I am still shocked to see the Conservative members, particularly those from Quebec, ignoring the consensus. In Quebec, most of the cultural and broadcasting industries are in favour of the bill. The only areas that are expressing …
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Madam Speaker, I am always amazed by the intransigence of my Conservative colleagues, and I would like to share a thought that my colleague might want to reflect on. I have a feeling that, much like with Bill C-6, it is ideology that drives the Conservatives to be so vocal in their opposition to all these bills. I get the impression that they want to strengthen their base, which has a negative vie…
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Mr. Speaker, my Conservative colleagues seem to be forgetting something. To refresh their memory, I would like to go back to an extensive study that I happened to read in the early 2000s. This study attempted to show the difference between Canadian and American culture. When an English-speaking Canadian was asked what the difference is between them and an American, they responded that Canada has a…
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Madam Speaker, when I was a kid, my grandfather used to say there was something screwy going on when a situation did not seem quite right. Well, there is something screwy going on today, because I am hearing the Conservatives blather on about freedom of expression. Where is that freedom of expression when it is time to protect a woman's right to make choices about her own body? Where is that freed…
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Madam Speaker, did I hear my colleague from La Prairie say that he would be sharing his time with me?
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Madam Speaker, I love my colleague's question, and I encourage her to pass along the clip she saw to that Conservative member, whose name I do not remember, but who said that Quebec culture was outdated, that it relied on grants and that it was stuck in the 1990s. I thought that all of those comments she was making were about oil, but I digress.
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Madam Speaker, as my charming colleague from La Prairie said earlier, we will support the motion because we like to be constructive. I completely agree with everything my colleague said. This is like a bad relationship, and I am wondering how we ended up here. I am not here to blame anyone, but I do want to talk about the attitude we are seeing from my Liberal and Conservative colleagues. The Libe…
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Madam Speaker, I may not have as much parliamentary experience as my colleague, but I am sure that Bill C-10 would have progressed much faster if the government had not prorogued the House.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with part of his analysis. Indeed, if we thought we would be returning to the House in September, there might not be this sense of urgency. However, I am pretty sure that we will have bigger fish to fry come September and we will be debating and hoping to come back to the House, so yes, I agree with his analysis.
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Madam Speaker, there is probably a connection between what I just said and the femicides. I could perhaps make a connection with our debate on Bill C-6, an act to amend the Criminal Code regarding conversion therapy, an extremely important bill that could be passed quickly if our Conservative colleagues had one ounce of compassion regarding gender diversity. That is the only answer I have for my c…
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Mr. Speaker, the United States has announced that it plans to double softwood lumber tariffs. Quebec's forestry industry is again under threat. We obviously expect the federal government to show some backbone. It is also urgent that we diversify markets, starting with this one. The federal government can take action to help the forestry industry. It can immediately implement a procurement policy t…
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Mr. Speaker, the government can take action by negotiating with the United States, but it can also support the forestry sector. If the federal government did its part, the forestry sector could create 16,000 new jobs in Quebec, but as always with the feds, the oil industry is the one that gets its pump primed. This year alone, Ottawa invested $560 million to help oil companies pollute a bit less, …
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Mr. Speaker, I gather from my colleagues' speeches that they will not be supporting the bill. Many of them constantly repeat that they recognize Quebec's nationhood. Unfortunately, now that it is time to put their money where their mouth is, it is radio silence. Before I begin, I would like to review the origins of multiculturalism. The scene is 1960s Quebec, at the dawn of the Quiet Revolution, a…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to the brief presentation by my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent, and I share some of his concerns, especially about government accountability. If we do not have all the relevant information, it is impossible for us to act as the watchdog we are meant to be and properly represent our constituents. The democratic process is based on the information we have at o…
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Madam Speaker, I have been thinking about something all day. If I have a drug or alcohol problem, it is considered a pathology and I have the right to seek treatment. My Conservative colleagues are making it sound as though they see sexual orientation as a pathology. I would like to hear it from my colleague's mouth. Does he consider any sexual orientation other than heterosexuality to be a pathol…
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Madam Speaker, I see that you just arrived. It was probably so that you could listen to me speak, and I really appreciate that. I really like my colleague from Calgary Centre. He is a gentleman with whom I work on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, and I truly appreciate him. He always makes an effort to speak to me in French, and I value my friendship with him. With regard to Bill C-262…
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Madam Speaker, I do not know what I will manage to accomplish in four minutes. Perhaps I will simply talk about the intentions that I noticed while following today's debate. I do not always agree with my Conservative friends because I sometimes find that they are too quick to engage in partisanship. However, today, I was disappointed by my Liberal colleagues, whose attitude made it clear that they…
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Madam Chair, I did not pick up on a question there, but I did hear a statement that I would also be prepared to support. I talked about the transparency issue, but there is also a serious lack of accountability. I get the impression the government is sometimes allergic to the idea of accountability.
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Madam Speaker, I was thinking today about how I should approach the budget implementation bill. I have a particular fondness for the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. I like it when he says we are trying to pick a fight. I was wondering how to interpret that, and I was reminded of a name my father used to call me when I was a teenager. My father was the king of neologisms. He was a…
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Madam Speaker, what a fantastic opportunity. My party commissioned a study on maximizing the potential of the forestry industry in Quebec. We are talking about 16,000 jobs over a 10-year period. The forestry industry is probably the sector that is best positioned to fight climate change and rising greenhouse gases. As everyone knows, the forest is a carbon sink. Unfortunately, the federal governme…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is quite right to be concerned. When we return to the House after the next election campaign, we will probably come back to the idea of a balanced budget. That is what usually happens. I do not want to displease my colleague, but governments, whether Liberal or Conservative, sadly have this unfortunate habit of balancing their budgets on the backs of the provinces. That…
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Madam Speaker, I challenge the parliamentary secretary to say that to the seniors in my riding who saw the $500 for those 75 and up as a direct affront and a vote-grabbing ploy. If he is interested and would like an answer, I can forward the emails and Facebook messages I received. I am certain that my colleagues would be very pleased to do the same. He would have enough reading material for proba…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague said there is a special place for Quebec, but not Alberta. If you look at the federal funding for the oil and gas industry and the funding for the forestry industry—
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Madam Speaker, it is good to see you again. I noticed earlier that you were so eager to hear from me that you might have called on me a little too soon. Just for your enjoyment, Madam Speaker, before I get to Motion No. 38, I would like to share an image that came to me today while I was thinking about the motion moved by the member for Etobicoke North, a motion I support, incidentally. It made me…
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Madam Speaker, as I was explaining, the balance of power that opposition parties have means that sometimes they have to vote against the government. If opposition parties are prevented from using their vote to support the balance of power, then democracy is no more. That is what I said. We cannot accuse a party of wanting to have an election every time it votes against the government. That is over…
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Madam Speaker, I have listened carefully to most of the speeches today, and it occurs to me that I should make a point that I feel it important but that has not been properly emphasized: the purpose of the motion, or my party leader's purpose in moving it. I would like to focus everyone's attention on what was said yesterday during question period. My colleague from Saint-Jean mentioned it, and I …
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to hear you say that. Your government was ready to work collaboratively, so long as there was no electoral window suitable for triggering an election. Perhaps unfortunately, you saw my Conservative colleagues drop a little in the polls. You see this window opening, and your first reflex is to bring back Bill C-19. You bring it back to us under time allocation—
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Madam Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. The Liberals realized that the NDP was going to vote with them come hell or high water. Their only objective and the only option for triggering an election now is to quickly pass Bill C-19. If they do not want an election during the pandemic, then Bill C-19 is no longer of any use. I completely agree with my colleague.
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