Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague from Winnipeg North say earlier that we need to support workers. We in the Bloc Québécois stand up day after day because we support Quebec workers. The main problem is that our colleagues opposite stand up and say that they are here to build Canada. Unfortunately, from what I have seen since the last election, they are here to build Canada while ignoring Quebec. A…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, yesterday, the first thing the Liberals did with their new majority was refuse to release the documents on the Cúram software cost overruns. While costs have risen to nearly $7 billion, the Liberals are using their majority to hide the truth from the opposition and the public. Tens of thousands of seniors are struggling to get their old age pension, but the Liberals refuse to let us…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I cannot believe what I just heard. The Liberals know there are problems with Cúram, because they added $451 million for Cúram and the CRA in the economic update. It is absurd for them to claim that there are no cost overruns when they added $451 million in cost overruns in the update. Meanwhile, they are using their majority in committee to hide information. Yesterday, the minister…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and congratulate her on her excellent French, even though she has not been speaking it for very long. Everyone in the Bloc Québécois agrees that she is remarkable. In my view, issues relating to substance abuse and health fall under the Government of Quebec's jurisdiction. I am not trying to avoid her question. I would, however, like to point out tha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, in his excellent speech, my colleague pointed out that no negotiations have taken place between the Bloc Québécois and the government to determine what might make this economic statement acceptable to the Bloc Québécois. Some things are quite obvious, such as the fact that the federal government has never reimbursed Quebec for services provided to asylum seekers or for the carbon tax.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that comes as a surprise to no one. My colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé made it very clear that the Bloc Québécois is disappointed in the budget statement, as did my colleague from Mirabel in his response to the Minister of Finance and National Revenue. I think that his answer was very well put and it showed all the shortcomings of the economic update. This week, in response to oral…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have read the entire document. The whole problem is that the major investments are being made not in Quebec, but in the oil and gas sector. The accelerated capital cost allowance in the economic update applies only to the gas sector. It does not apply to other sectors that are specific to Quebec. There is nothing for our economic sectors. There is only money for the oil and gas sect…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we were all astonished, especially since the leader of the Bloc Québécois seems to have told the Prime Minister about the situation. The following day, after the Prime Minister was made aware of the problem, he told us that we would get an answer in the economic update. Then, lo and behold, the economic update arrived with absolutely nothing. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister said that…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague ended his speech by saying that he is pleased that Atlantic Canada was heard in the economic update. I can tell him that I am sad that Quebec was not heard. Quebec is grappling with the worst of the tariff crisis. The two sectors with the highest tariffs are softwood lumber and aluminum, and there is absolutely nothing for these sectors in the economic update, even though…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, are you familiar with Angine de Poitrine, which roughly translates to “chest pain”? I am not referring to the medical condition, but to the duo made up of Saguenay natives Khn and Klek de Poitrine, the hottest music phenomenon on the planet. They are blowing up on social media. Their song Fabienk has become the most viral hit on Spotify worldwide, and they top the charts in 50 differe…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, in its economic update, the federal government is investing $6 billion to train the construction workforce. The only problem is that workforce training falls under Quebec's jurisdiction. The Liberals say that they want to come to an agreement, but an agreement has already been in place for 30 years now. For 30 years, Ottawa has recognized that Quebec is responsible for determining its…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, let us be honest, the last thing we need is a squabble caused by the federal government. As I said earlier, workforce training has been under Quebec's jurisdiction for 30 years. Quebec is the one that determines labour market needs and how to meet them. Ottawa's role is strictly to fund those measures. Quebec has both jurisdiction and the expertise. We do not need a government with no…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I agree completely with my colleague that we must not play games with the implementation of treaties. Canadian history demonstrates that the federal government has rarely been sensitive to national minorities, whether indigenous or from Quebec. However, there is still a certain degree of consensus. We are prepared to move forward quickly. I would like to know what my colleague thinks …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, on the very day that the Premier of Quebec is visiting Ottawa, the Liberals are announcing that they want nothing less than the right to veto societal choices made by Quebeckers. They are announcing that if the Supreme Court decision comes down against their attacks on secularism and the notwithstanding clause, they are going to take matters into their own hands. Their highly engineer…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois fully understands the urgency of addressing the issue of sickle cell disease. This is a very noble gesture on the part of my colleague. However, as he probably knows, health care falls under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. A number of the points raised by the bill are already being addressed by Quebec's health care system. It is true that there is valu…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak to Bill S-201, an act respecting a national framework on sickle cell disease. This legislation establishes a national framework to support Canadians with sickle cell disease—also known as sickle cell anemia or drepanocytosis—their families and their caregivers. The initiative's primary aim is to raise awareness about this rare chronic disease, which predo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is good to give taxpayers a bit of breathing room when they buy gas, but we know that this is a cyclical problem that will disappear and may come back. Would the long-term solution not be to provide more funding for the electrification of transportation? We have seen a rather significant withdrawal on the part of the government in this respect. Does my colleague agree that, if we w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I understand that my Conservative colleagues are concerned about inflation, the rising cost of living and the rising cost of fuel. We know that it is cyclical. We know that when there is a geopolitical crisis, the cost of fuel goes up. However, there is a long-term solution that I never hear my Conservative colleagues talk about. The solution is the electrification of transportation. …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am sometimes surprised to hear the Conservatives' complaints about clean fuels, because those who advocate for the industry present these standards to us as beneficial to their sector. Similarly, industry representatives present carbon capture and sequestration, which is incredibly expensive, as beneficial to their sector. I find it strange to hear Conservatives making such a fuss a…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the motion before us today effectively represents federalism as we know it. The Conservatives are showing us their concern for the auto sector and for the oil and gas sector. However, apart from the Bloc Québécois, no one in the House ever takes advantage of an opposition day to talk about economic sectors that Quebec has a stake in. The economic sectors most affected by tariffs right…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, conversations about the auto industry are a bit triggering in Quebec. I would like to remind my colleague about what happened during the 2008 financial crisis. The federal government paid out $10 billion, and we know that about $6 billion of that became a direct subsidy to the auto industry. I would like my colleague to comment further on that. Earlier, I talked about the double stand…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the only benefit Quebec can derive from the automotive industry is if there are more electric vehicles on our roads and if people use more electricity. That way, Quebeckers get something out of it. The Leader of the Opposition's indifference toward Quebec is well known. Just think of Don Cherry and the Order of Canada. The leader of the official opposition supported his nomination, de…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we are in a situation right now where the price of gas is skyrocketing because of conflicts. We are also in a situation that calls for a certain degree of environmental responsibility. Everything points toward facilitating, or even accelerating, the electrification of transportation. The federal EV purchase subsidy is a perfect example. When the government decided to eliminate this su…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I cannot be the only person who heard the Prime Minister say during the election campaign that he was going to implement an ambitious construction program to help our forestry sector, one of the economic sectors paying the highest countervailing duties and the most tariffs in Canada. Although nothing in the bill necessarily promotes the use of lumber, that is not what concerns me. By …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, housing construction generally falls under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. My concern is that the federal government is again creating a structure that will increase the amount of time it takes to build housing. Does my colleague agree with me that it would be much simpler to transfer the money to the provinces and ensure that the homes are built, as they are the ones in…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech and noticed a potential blind spot. If the government wants to build more housing, it will have to support the forestry industry, which is going through one of the worst crises in its history. Right now, what we are seeing is consolidation within the forestry sector. This means that if a major construction initiative started tomorrow, a lo…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are deeply ignorant about Quebeckers and francophones, but now they have outdone themselves. They have nominated Don Cherry for the Order of Canada. If they had nominated his suits, that would have been one thing, but the man himself has been known for making francophobic comments his entire life. He has looked down on Quebec athletes and French-speaking athletes in …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Quebec National Assembly was unanimous and now so is the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. All of the parties, including the Liberals, are asking the government to hold an inquiry into the following federal IT fiascos: Cúram, Phoenix and ArriveCan. Every time Ottawa gets involved in an IT project, it results in serious problems for citizens and staggering cost overruns. The H…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, while the Liberals continue to bury their heads in the sand, there are still 69,000 pensioners who are having problems with their OAS pension because of Cúram. After 10 years of problems with Phoenix, the public service union said two weeks ago that there are still 233,000 files to be settled. These are not statistics. These are people who deserve these fiascos to end once and for all…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I get the feeling that the government is going about things the wrong way. There is a major housing crisis. They are going to set up a Crown corporation to address this crisis, but they are not securing the materials we will need to build these homes. Right now, the forestry sector is facing the worst crisis in its history, and we are losing forestry sector players month after month, …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I share my colleague's concern that we may simply be adding another layer of bureaucracy. Will setting up a Crown corporation give the government the flexibility needed to respond to the housing crisis? That is also my concern. Could the government not have addressed these concerns by simply transferring Build Canada Homes funding to Quebec and the provinces, who have jurisdiction ove…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I recall very well the Prime Minister's rhetoric during the election campaign when he introduced this initiative, Build Canada Homes, as part of a strategy that would allow the federal government to support the forestry industry. I have to say that we are disappointed. I will come back to that. It is very commendable for the government to want to respond to the housing crisis, but is …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I said that the agreement with Quebec and its $1-billion infrastructure funding was a good thing. I certainly will not stand in the way of housing construction. It is the government's ineptitude that is killing one of the economic sectors that is essential to housing construction: softwood lumber. The federal government is literally allowing this sector in Quebec to die. There has bee…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague on the bureaucracy issue. I do not believe that creating a Crown corporation is the way to solve the housing crisis. The simplest solution would have been to take the money associated with this program and transfer it directly to Quebec and the provinces, which have the capacity to build these housing units. However, the federal government likes to slap a lit…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, what my colleague so eloquently highlighted is the injustice that Quebec has become accustomed to. Specific sectors of the Quebec economy are overlooked when it comes to government policy. Which two sectors are currently subject to the highest tariffs? They are the aluminum sector, which is predominantly based in Quebec, and the softwood lumber sector. Is anyone in government expressi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I understand that there are federal programs to support housing co-operatives. It is only natural for an MP to support projects in their constituency. That is simply part of an MP's job. What I wish the member for Winnipeg North would take away from my speech today is that the government is putting the cart before the horse. The government is creating a framework without first securin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague's previous question is a good example of what we have been experiencing with Bill C‑9. I would describe it as blatant misinformation. I have received calls at my office from people who have a very narrow view of the purpose of the bill. Hate speech is hate speech. We need to make that clear to people. We are not taking away anyone's right to practise their faith. We are n…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I know that my colleague is a serious member, so I am confident that he will respond with his usual seriousness. I am wondering whether he truly believes, as some of his colleagues are suggesting, that under this legislation, people will no longer be allowed to quote specific passages from the Bible. Does he think it is the role of a legislator to spread misinformation, in the hope of…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to the debates all day and I want to say one thing: There is an immeasurable gap between what I am hearing and Quebec's position. People are probably familiar with the expression “the two solitudes”. When it comes to religion, clearly not many members of the House are in tune with what Quebeckers think. There may be a few among the Liberals, but certainly not amo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, perhaps we should bring the debate back to the substance of the bill. The bill says that a person cannot promote hatred under the guise of religion. We have been debating this for far too long already. In committee, there has been systematic obstruction from the Conservatives that makes no sense. From what I understand, my friends think that a person should be able to promote hatred i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, when someone wants to promote hatred, that is an offence. That is what we are talking about today. There is a religious exemption that allows people to promote hatred based on a religious text. My colleague says we should keep that because it is part of religious freedom. He says people should have the right to promote hatred if it is based on religion. Furthermore, he said at the beg…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to come back to something important that we seem to have forgotten since this morning. The bill aims to remove the exemption that allows religious speech to promote hatred. For ideological reasons, I will use another example: a socialist. Conservatives have a special fondness for socialists. A socialist could not promote hatred against individuals with a different ideology, say…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague said in his speech that the government had not presented any cases where hate speech had been uttered based on religious principles. In Quebec, there is the case of Adil Charkaoui, who called for the death of Jews. The director of criminal and penal prosecutions decided not to prosecute him because of the religious exemption. My question for my colleague is very simple. D…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois will be voting in favour of Bill C-221. The bill seeks to better inform victims about decisions made by the Parole Board of Canada and the Correctional Service of Canada. This measure will not change the whole game for victims and their loved ones, but it would nevertheless allow for greater transparency. It could answer some of the questions raised by victims, who …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, on February 16, we were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Thomas De Koninck, an internationally renowned philosopher and pillar of Université Laval's faculty of philosophy. Thomas De Koninck will, of course, be remembered as the inspiration for Saint-Exupéry's character the Little Prince, but to students like me who knew him personally, he was a legend in a different way. He …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Quebec company Lithion will be bought out by the Americans if Ottawa does not invest $30 million by March 3. There are four days left to avoid losing another company in our battery industry, this time to an American rival heavily subsidized by Washington. The battery recycling market is expected to top $70 billion by 2040. It is worth the investment. Abandoning a Quebec company to…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I really appreciate my colleague for Calgary Centre, who used to serve with me on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. His mother is from Jonquière. That is why I like him. I know that he shares some of my views on the special tax treatment given to the oil and gas industry. In the budget, there are major tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration. There is also the ac…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I want to take a moment to commend the work of my colleague from Mirabel. The government often accuses the member for Mirabel of levelling harsh criticism. When we take a closer look, we see that he is a model of co-operation. He is a champion of collaboration. Through this bill, he managed to get the government to add phosphate to the list of critical minerals, which will ensure th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we have repeatedly pointed out the lack of consistency in the budget regarding the tax credits that will be given to the oil and gas sector. The member for Winnipeg North is trying to tell us that this is the best thing since sliced bread. However, one of his colleagues does not believe this. Just this week, on a podcast, the member for Laurier—Sainte‑Marie said that he has had many m…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, earlier, the member for Winnipeg North did not answer my question. He said we want to shut down all of oil. That is not an answer. We never suggested shutting down the oil sector. What we are saying is that the federal government should not submit to the industry's will and use Quebeckers' money to give very generous tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration. That is not all. A…
Read full speech →