Oral Questions
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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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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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, 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, 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…
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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, 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…
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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, 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, 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, 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, I completely agree with my colleague. Respecting jurisdictions is one thing that could improve the federal system, which is completely dysfunctional. Unfortunately, we have a government that is very centralist when it comes to health. We now have a Minister of Mental Health. I did not know that was a federal responsibility. I completely agree with my colleague. Things would be better …
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Madam Speaker, I totally understand my colleague's frustration, but I do not think the defeat of her bill has anything to do with what we are debating today.
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Mr. Speaker, as always, you seem jubilant and you are in shape, so I will be pleased to talk to you about health. As my colleague pointed out with respect to implementing the economic statement, we do not find the required measures in this bill to counter the reality that affects us today, that being inflation. Members can rest assured; I will not take the same direction as my Conservative colleag…
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Mr. Speaker, I am indeed aware, but I feel like asking my colleague whether he is aware that since 1977, health technologies have advanced and the tax points given in 1977 are no longer adequate. Is he aware that the Séguin report came long after 1977? Is he aware that the reports from the Conference Board and the Parliamentary Budget Officer that prove that the federal government is not paying it…
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Mr. Speaker, to be honest, I think the first thing that needs to happen is for the Minister of Health to understand that this is not just about who has the power. There are real needs on the ground. Unfortunately, the federal government does not have the skills to analyze those needs. It has to listen to health experts and it has to listen to the provinces. That is not what it is doing right now. …
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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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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers want governments that work together, but the Liberals have opted to govern by taking hostages. When it comes to health care, the hostages are patients, victims of the feud between Quebec and Ottawa, which is withholding $28 billion from us. As for infrastructure, the government is holding municipalities hostage by forcing them to get their project proposals in by March or m…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health insulted Quebec and the provinces by saying that their demand for increased health transfers was futile. That is outrageous. Quebec spends more than 40% of its budget on health care. Allocating forty percent of a budget is not futile. That is not futile, especially when we know that, even with 40% of the budget, our system is depleted and out of resources becaus…
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Mr. Speaker, why not just increase transfer to 35%, then? I will quote the minister. When leaving the meeting on health transfers, the minister said, “My job is not to send dollars to finance ministers. My job is to make sure that whatever we do helps my colleagues, health ministers, do the difficult and important work that they are doing.” Quite rightly, all his health minister colleagues clearly…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health's fight against funding comes at a cost. It is not just the patients who are paying the price, it is every taxpayer in Quebec. Quebec invests more than 40% of its budget in health. Even with 40%, we know that expenses are going up in a hurry. All that money is money that is not going to our overflowing classrooms, it is money that is not being redirected to the …
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Madam Speaker, our Conservative friends are talking about how the cost of government is driving up the cost of living. They are saying that the government needs to use taxpayer dollars more wisely and eliminate waste. They are focusing on the $54 million that was spent on the ArriveCAN app. I agree with them that that was a stupid mistake. Last week, we pointed out an even stupider mistake: the mo…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about sound management, reckless spending, financial disaster and the fiasco surrounding ArriveCAN and its $54‑million price tag. He is right. However, there is another even greater fiasco that is part of what I would call the sacred cows of the Conservative Party. First, there is the monarchy, which represents $67 million a year. That said, the fiasco to end all…
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Madam Speaker, I am not mean-spirited. I will not start up again on the subject of hypocrisy, and I will not accuse my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable, whom I like too much, of being a hypocrite. However, there is a sort of hypocrisy in what I have been hearing for a while now. It is hypocritical to not recognize that Canada is an oil-producing country, which is the reason we keep missing our env…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today my riding is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Association forestière du Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. Founded in 1942, the association devotes its day-to-day activities to informing and educating the region's citizens about the importance of our forests, our natural wealth. The association is more than just an educational organization; it also champions the idea of cultivating an…
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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I am having difficulty following my colleague. We are supposed to be talking about the monarchy, not the Liberal Party platform. I am not sure where he is going with his speech, but I do not see the connection between the motion before us and what he is saying.
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Madam Speaker, in his speech, my colleague said that he did not understand why it was important to have this debate today. I would simply remind him that, during the worst of the pandemic, there was an opposition day in which the Conservative Party told us that oil was irreplaceable and that we needed a day to celebrate oil. It is clear to me that oil is what excites and motivates the Conservative…
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Mr. Speaker, I think the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader should focus less on partisanship, which seems to be blinding him. In yesterday's debate on the Uighur genocide, he spent 20 minutes attacking the Conservative Party because he did not think it was the time to talk about that. I just want to say to the parliamentary secretary that not a blessed day goes by that we do n…
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Mr. Speaker, all day long, both the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party have been trying to dodge the issue. They say it is not the right time to talk about this and we should talk about inflation and fighting the pandemic instead. Over the past few weeks, however, we have talked about bills C‑3, C‑5, C‑9, C‑20 and S‑4, none of which have anything to do with inflation or fighting the pandemic…
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Madam Speaker, first I want to congratulate my colleague, who is now the environment critic. That is a big file, so bravo. I was listening to him earlier and I was reminded of Bill C-225, which I introduced in 2020 and which gave Quebec precedence with respect to environmental assessments. My Conservative colleagues' penchant for oil is rather troubling. If there were ever an oil or gas pipeline p…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, before I begin, I would like to say that I feel like a bit of an impostor speaking on this topic tonight, especially since the person who told me about the issues facing the Uighurs is the member for Lac‑Saint‑Jean. This topic is a major concern of his, which is clear from the political action he has taken. Technically, it should have been up to him to make this little presentation.…
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Madam Speaker, I am sure he will not mind. It goes without saying that the Bloc Québécois will vote in favour of all measures seeking to protect Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in China by resettling them in Canada. We are prepared to go even further. As a result of the member's discussions with some Uighur groups, we think the motion needs to be improved. We need to increase the number of refuge…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that the best thing we can do is listen to the Uighurs themselves. I think that what is proposed in this motion, namely to welcome 10,000 Uighurs over two years does not have the unanimous support of Uighurs themselves. They do not think that is enough. The best thing we can do is listen to them and shape our policies around their needs. We do not need more proof. A genocide h…
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Mr. Speaker, in my introduction, I admitted that I felt a bit like an impostor since I did not follow the entire course of the work in committee. I was made aware of this political issue by my colleague from Lac‑Saint‑Jean, who has made the Uighurs a prominent part of his work. To answer my colleague's question, I think what we need to do is focus on humanitarian concerns. Unfortunately, in the ca…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. Before preparing this speech, a book that I used to make my students read came to mind. Entitled If This Is a Man, by Primo Levi, the book is about the Holocaust. Everyone who reads this short book by Primo Levi thinks to themselves, “never again”. What we read about in If This Is a Man by Primo Levi should never happen again. Still, it seems to m…
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Mr. Speaker, what can we do? We definitely need to continue the work here, but I think in the short term the best thing to do is listen to people like Mr. Tohti who are being threatened. We must listen to the testimonies of the Uighurs being forced to live with this constant threat and we must continue our work here in the House to come up with solutions to keep Uighurs safe from a regime that has…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague said earlier that there have been a number of references to the fact that certain provinces already have dental care programs, which may provide partial coverage, and other provinces do not. However, the government in Ottawa should not be proposing this type of program. If my colleague is interested in social policy programs, my advice is that he run for provincial offi…
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Madam Speaker, I do not feel that the government is recreating something that already exists. It seems to me that it is interfering in something that is none of its business. It is up to the provinces to develop a health care system. If they want to do it, they will do it. The federal government should do what it has the power to do, which is transfer money to improve health care funding.
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Madam Speaker, perhaps my colleague misunderstood what I was saying. What is really incoherent is forging ahead with a dental care program when home care services for seniors and health care funding are completely inadequate. To me, that is what is incoherent. When my house is on fire, I do not worry about the colour of the curtains. I focus on what needs to be done immediately. Everyone is in agr…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my whip for that great question. I truly believe that the motives of the Liberal government and the NDP leave much to be desired. Obviously, more investments in health would have been good. If we look closely at the bill that is before us, we quickly see that a health care program could be a possibility a few years down the road in a different context. At the stage we are at n…
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Madam Speaker, I do encourage them to leave the chamber, since I am sure their conversations are less interesting than what I am presenting. I would like to get back to the government's motivations. In the early 2000s, a major study was done in several Canadian universities to define Canadian identity. They wanted to distinguish between the identity of Canadians in North America and the identity o…
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Madam Speaker, you are looking sharp this evening. I am sure it will improve the quality of the debate. I am pleased to rise to speak to Bill C‑31. Perhaps I should start by reviewing the principle. I identify as a progressive. If I were asked whether I would support a dental care program, I am inclined to say yes, as a progressive. I believe that what most progressives want, in practice, is to su…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is indeed a great democrat, and I am sure he would like to share his time.
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Madam Speaker, I am a tad skeptical about what seems to be the greatest hypocrisy in Canadian politics. I cannot believe the Conservatives would use inflation to try to advance the interests of big oil. That is a first. Leave it to the Conservative Party to come up with that. I remind members that when the conflict in Ukraine started, the Conservative Party told us that the solution was more oil a…
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