Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is quite simple. The first thing that needs to be done is to increase old age security by $110 a month and the guaranteed income supplement by $50 a month for single people and $70 a month for couples. If we do not want to be seen as being phony-baloney, our primary concern should be to ensure that seniors are living more than just a hair's breadth above the poverty line.
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Mr. Speaker, earlier this afternoon, I was thinking about how to approach this issue, and it occurred to me that perhaps the best way was to start with a story. I hope members will see where I am going with it. People refer to themselves as their father's child. I am my grandmother's child. I was raised by my grandmother. She played a rather important role in my life. I can say that I am the young…
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Mr. Speaker, if my esteemed colleague had listened to what I said, he would understand that in my view the issue of health care is inextricably linked to the well-being of seniors. I spoke earlier about the aging population, which will require more health services in the future. That goes without saying. Proper funding is essential to ensure that seniors have access to good services. If the member…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know if that was an interpretation error, but there is no profit in CHSLDs. They are public institutions. My colleague was probably talking about private residences for seniors. There is certainly some work to be done in that regard. I also believe that the crisis showed us that some services are inadequate. If we really want to work on that, better funding for public institu…
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Mr. Speaker, I absolutely remember. It is in fact quite interesting. We do not have to take the word of a sovereignist member of Parliament for it. One only has to look at the Parliamentary Budget Officer's 2013 report to see that the disaster was foreseeable. The Parliamentary Budget Officer clearly wrote in 2013 that if nothing was done, the provinces would run a deficit because the cost of heal…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, that is a disappointment that I saw coming. I would like to come back to what the parliamentary secretary said earlier. He wanted to know what the Bloc Québécois is trying to accomplish with this bill. What we are trying to accomplish with this bill is political autonomy. Obviously, there is not a party in the House, with the exception of my own, that understands what political autono…
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Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the interpreter cannot understand the minister. She is asking her to turn her microphone down.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in January 2020, the genetic sequence of the COVID-19 virus was made public so that scientists around the world could begin the race for a vaccine. The government did not take action to develop a vaccine domestically. Two months later, on March 11, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. The government stayed in neutral. The panel of experts that was supposed to advise the …
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Mr. Speaker, given the SARS experience in 2003, the government knew that we had to invest heavily in vaccine research and production capacity so as to not depend on other countries. That was the very first thing we needed to do at the onset of the pandemic. Not only did the government not do that, but it took five months just to get experts together to consult. Because it was five months late, Can…
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Mr. Speaker, by all means, let us talk about Medicago. They sent their proposal in March but did not hear back until July. That delay was the government's fault. Let me give a quick recap. The government did not create a consortium of all the Canadian researchers with the expertise to find a vaccine. It did not convene experts to advise it until June 26, which was five months late. It did not inve…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I particularly appreciated the part about the forestry industry. As we know, the forestry industry has always been overlooked by the Canadian federation when it comes to both trade negotiations and financial support. In that regard, many forestry industry stakeholders are saying that they want to see the dispute with the United States before the …
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Madam Speaker, since my colleague had such a lot to say about the forestry industry, I would like to ask him two quick questions about it. The first went unanswered earlier. My colleague mentioned a softwood lumber company in his riding. Does he agree that the government should create a good program to help such companies access cash, which is what all industry stakeholders want? The Standing Comm…
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Madam Speaker, one of my shortcomings is a long memory, but at least I do not hold a grudge. I just want to remind my colleague about Barack Obama's Buy American Act. In 2013, one of our aluminum rolling companies, Novelis, was relocated to Oswego, New York. I was part of the revitalization committee, and we tried to get answers from the Conservative government of the day, which told us that we ju…
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Madam Speaker, this time last week, almost to the minute, the parliamentary secretary was talking about Bill C-18. He said that the Bloc Québécois members are always antagonistic, that we complain about not having this or that in trade agreements, and that we should understand that in order to reach an agreement, compromises have to be made. Still, when I look at Canada's relationship with the Uni…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I am really glad my colleague pointed out in her speech that, too often, unfortunately, some of our colleagues read speeches. I am not complaining. It is just something I notice a lot. We are expected to be experts on everything. One day we are talking about natural resources, and the next we are talking about international affairs. Unfortunately, we talk about everything superficia…
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Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the parliamentary secretary. We know this is a transitional agreement and that U.K cheese producers will be looking for a bigger share of the market. It seems to me that this just puts the problem off until next year. The Bloc Québécois proposed a solution: an exemption for supply management, which would settle this issue once and for all in trade agreement neg…
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Mr. Speaker, there was a question asked earlier that has remained unanswered. Perhaps my colleague could enlighten me on the matter. Specifically in the context of CUSMA, we ran into a problem when aluminum was left without any protection. Perhaps the best solution is to ensure that Quebec is at the table during these kinds of negotiations to advocate for its own economic interests—and we will see…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question about transparency for my colleague. I recall that we were the only ones to vote against CUSMA because of the unacceptable status of aluminum. The NDP abandoned us along the way because it supposedly had a deal with the Deputy Prime Minister to be notified of the government's intent to enter into new negotiations 90 days in advance and to be informed of the objective…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, today I spent some time rereading Motion No. 34. As an observer of Canadian politics, I was reminded that centralization at the expense of the provinces never works in the Canadian federation. Attempts at centralization are often rationalized by the argument that Ottawa knows best, and that was what pushed me to get involved in politics and stand up for the interests of Quebec. Toda…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague. My colleague and I are on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources, which recently devoted six meetings to the forestry industry. I wonder if what is happening with Keystone XL is an opportunity to think about Alberta's transition away from fossil fuels. Does my colleague agree with me that there should be a Canadian strategy to diversify Alb…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I thank the minister for his speech, which reminded me of the time he appeared before the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and told us his top priority was Keystone XL. I have to admit that surprised me. I sincerely believe that something has gone awry in Canada around fossil fuel funding, so I would like to ask the minister the same question I asked him then. Does he not thi…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I would perhaps like to begin by saying that I really feel for Alberta's workers. I really feel for them because we went through basically the same thing in the forestry sector that they are going through right now. The pulp and paper industry completely fell apart in the 1990s. In the forestry sector, trade wars wiped out nearly half the harvesting community's major players. The cr…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I thank my loyal listener, the member from Lac-Saint-Jean, for reminding me that I am sharing my time with the delightful member for Repentigny. I believe that the Alberta government was very misguided to invest $1.5 billion in a project that may have been doomed to failure. In my opinion, it created a frenzy of support for the fossil fuel sector that many Canadian politicians joine…
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Madam Speaker, I would simply like to point out to my colleague that one thing that is undeniable today is the climate crisis. Any reservations I have about the oil and gas sector are related to the climate crisis. My colleague used aluminum as an example. It is important to note that aluminum produced in Quebec is the greenest aluminum in the world, the aluminum with the lowest carbon footprint i…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague from the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. There are many solutions. The forestry industry is probably the sector best placed to reduce greenhouse gases. As everyone knows, forests are carbon sinks. They can be used to sequester carbon. Forests can be used in new technologies that allow us to replace plastics and nearly all petrochemical p…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean, who is always on point. I do not know him very well, but I would certainly like to get to know him better. This ties into what I was saying in my introduction. Unfortunately, I get the impression that the Liberal Party does not listen to dissenting voices. That voice could have come from the Minister of Canadian Heritage, since he was part…
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