Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will begin my speech by saying that on entering the House of Commons earlier, I felt a twinge of sadness at seeing the bouquet of flowers placed on the desk of our departed colleague, the member for Winnipeg South Centre. Last week, I was lucky enough to have the privilege of shaking his hand after his very moving speech on the bill that he was sponsoring. The bouquet of flowers pla…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby for his comments and also for being such a pleasure to work with. We enjoy ourselves, but we also work efficiently. I think he too has a strong desire to improve the bills that are brought before us. That was certainly true of Bill C-18. Several very important amendments were made to this bill, which is much better today than it was in…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saskatoon—Grasswood for his comment, which was more of a comment ending with a question. I will not fall into the trap. I am not going to do what the Minister of National Revenue did last week and take a swipe at the Parliamentary Budget Officer. I think that, for numbers, I would place more trust in the Parliamentary Budget Officer, despite the great respect…
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Mr. Speaker, you can see how hard it is to rein in our young colleagues' enthusiasm. I thank him for his impromptu member's statement and I agree wholeheartedly. That is precisely the purpose of Bill C‑18, specifically, to ensure that these news stories, which make local residents proud of what is happening in their communities, can continue to receive the prominence they deserve and have space to…
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Madam Speaker, I, in turn, congratulate our colleague from Sarnia—Lambton for Saturday's happy occasion. I wish her many years of wedded bliss. I heard my colleague express some concerns about the eligibility of news businesses. I just want to distinguish between Bill C‑21, which we have also been hearing a lot about, and Bill C‑18. Unlike the first bill, in Bill C‑18, the government did not inclu…
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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 recognize the extraordinary contribution of Jean Paul Riopelle to the visual arts and invite the museums of Quebec and Canada to highlight his work and his unique contribution to the arts as part of the centennial of his birth in 2023.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to say that it is an honour to rise to speak to Motion No. 63, which seeks to condemn anti-Asian racism and address it. I know that this motion is very important to many members of the House, and rightly so. I congratulate the member for Scarborough North for moving this motion. I know that a similar version of this motion was tabled last year at the Standing Committee on Canad…
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Mr. Speaker, 2023 will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jean Paul Riopelle, one of Quebec's most outstanding artists. He played an unrivalled role in Quebec's art history, but the National Gallery of Canada will not pay tribute to him because, according to them, he is an old white man artist. According to La Presse, the gallery's CEO did everything in her power to prevent an exhibit in h…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that. I assume that a quick telephone call by the Minister of Canadian Heritage would correct the situation. If he were to do nothing about the National Gallery of Canada, it would either mean that he approves or that gallery management is following his orders. What is happening at the gallery is that the Liberals are literally turning it into an ideological propa…
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Mr. Speaker, what is happening at the National Gallery of Canada is outrageous. Art is being sacrificed to an ideological agenda that no longer has anything to do with the purpose of a museum. In the words of Marc Mayer, former director of the National Gallery of Canada, “it is literally a coup”. It has gotten to the point where Jean Paul Riopelle—Riopelle is no joke—is considered by the gallery's…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. Earlier the member for Winnipeg North praised the government's actions in the area of health transfers with all kinds of conditions. Health care systems in Quebec and the provinces are in a critical state. Now is not the time to dither and try to set standards with absolutely no knowledge of exactly what they entail. My colleague did not see…
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Madam Speaker, my Conservative colleague's last intervention was very interesting. It was about production and delays involving electric vehicles. The Bloc Québécois keeps proposing a gradual energy transition, which would mean taking the money that is being invested in Albertan oil and investing it in the development of clean energy instead. I will ask my colleague a question, since he seems to b…
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Madam Speaker, I am quite pleased to rise again to speak to the economic statement and Bill C‑32. Actually, I am getting a little tired of this. Let me explain. It is not because I do not want to do my job, it is just that I would have preferred to discuss something with a little more content and substance. There were three clear, repeated demands, the same ones that the Bloc Québécois always brin…
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Madam Speaker, I thought I was going to be taken to task by the Liberals after my speech, but instead, in hockey parlance, they are giving me an assist. I thank my colleague, who is also a member of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. He knows where I stand on the media, artists and the cultural industry. There are two extremely important bills that really should be passed quickly. One is…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her question and her comments. It is not complicated. As I said earlier, I firmly believe that all the members of the party currently in power want to make things better. I simply cannot believe that they are acting in bad faith, just to do things differently from what the opposition parties are proposing. There are plenty of places where they can inves…
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Madam Speaker, I know that I do not have much time left, and I will try to answer quickly because it is a very pertinent question. One of our Bloc Québécois colleagues, the member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, is a strong advocate for housing. The entire country is grappling with this crisis. It is more acute in certain places, of course, but it is also starting to affect cities where it was not pre…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague from Beauce on his speech. I respect the member a great deal and hold him in high regard. We are actually on the same wavelength on several issues that he raised in his speech. Towards the end of his speech, he addressed the issue of Bill C-21, which is currently being studied and has many people talking. Hunters are very worried about it. I was a li…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by saying what an honour it is to speak after my colleague from Repentigny, who shines every time she speaks. She humbles us. She makes us realize how much more work we have to do and that there is still a long way to go. I congratulate her on her speech and thank her for sharing her time with me. I want to say that it is also a privilege for me to deliver my first spe…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint‑Jean for her brilliant question, once again. I think we must give ourselves the means to match our ambitions. If we decide that it is important to preserve heritage assets and places, we must provide the means to do so properly. How will this be done? Will this require a better education program, as I was proposing? I am not necessarily speaking about t…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Winnipeg North for his question. I think he should remember today as the day when I agreed with him almost all across the board. Yes, it is a good step forward. Yes, it is an important bill for heritage preservation. Yes, we have some absolutely fantastic sites in Quebec and Canada. There are many places, monuments and buildings that are worthy of our attention …
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Mr. Speaker, it is always too far for people who are going nowhere. That is a well-known fact. Yes, there are many shortcomings that the Conservatives and the Bloc try to point out. Just look at passport management, border management, immigration management. It is an utter failure. Does that mean that we should do nothing for other things that are just as important in the long term for our history…
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Mr. Speaker, I have 20 seconds to answer a question that I would like to spend 20 minutes on, but I will try to be quick. I would say this to my hon. colleague: I think it is time for this government and all governments to withdraw from issues that pertain only to indigenous nations. Indigenous nations should be given the means to preserve their heritage, which is very important. I always hesitate…
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Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague on his speech. Cybersecurity is essential, and it is also a race against time because hackers are becoming better and better organized. They are fast, equipped, cunning and, on top of that, dishonest. That gives them an advantage over us presumably honest people. The government has been slow to act, legislate and get aggressive with cybersecurity.…
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Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague from Lac-Saint-Louis on his speech. He obviously has an excellent grasp of the file. I put this question to another colleague earlier, after a speech, and it is something that really concerns me. I am asking it again because I do not know if the member was here earlier. We cannot begin to imagine how organized hackers are. They have such a big hea…
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Madam Speaker, I think my point of order has a little more substance than the one we were just treated to by the member for Kingston and the Islands. I just want to point out to my colleagues that during his speech, the member for Vancouver Kingsway was shuffling his papers near his microphone. Some people may not realize it when they are speaking in the House, but these sounds are very disruptive…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague from Battle River—Crowfoot on his speech and on taking the initiative to stream it live on his Facebook page. I had a look, and I thought that was a good idea. I also found it interesting that other House of Commons colleagues commented on my colleague's Facebook page. Anyway, he talked about how he thinks sentences should be tougher, especially for more …
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Mr. Speaker, it is the classic tough on crime approach being promoted once again. I agree in principle. We have to stand up and violent criminals have to serve their sentence or at least enough of their sentence for it to fit the crime. Nonetheless, there are many other factors to consider. Every inmate in the Canadian prison system costs $110,000 or $120,000 a year. We have to keep that in mind. …
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague from Shefford on yet another brilliant speech. We gladly welcome the creation of the PCRC. Let me share an anecdote. I have an old friend who is a Canadian citizen, but is originally from Martinique. She has family there and often flies there and back. Nine times out of 10, she is taken aside at customs and she or her luggage is searched. She told me that…
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Mr. Speaker, Jean Lapointe has left us. He left an indelible impression on us as a comedian who made Quebeckers laugh for decades, and as a prominent actor in Quebec films such as Les ordres, L'eau chaude, l'eau frette and Le dernier tunnel. We will never forget his star turn as Duplessis, arguably one of the most remarkable performances in the history of Quebec television. We will also never forg…
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Madam Speaker, I congratulate my Conservative colleague for his comments and his speech. The Bloc Québécois expected three things from this economic statement. First, we wanted health transfers with no strings attached, as Quebec and the provinces have been unanimously calling for for quite some time. There is still a consensus on that. Second, we asked for an increase in seniors' pensions that is…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. In passing, I would like to point out that we have had the pleasure of serving together on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage since the beginning of this Parliament. I heard her talk about coal, oil and those types of resources, but I would like her to talk about another issue in connection with what my colleague from Shefford said about h…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her remarks and her speech. We are going into what may well be a recession in 2023. One might have expected the government to implement slightly more aggressive measures to help Quebeckers and Canadians weather a possible recession. First of all, we have yet to see the EI reform that was promised. At this time, six out of every 10 workers who lose their j…
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Madam Speaker, I commend my colleague from Nova Scotia on her speech. Her ears must have been burning yesterday. I was having a bite to eat with a friend who rents a house in Nova Scotia every summer, and we spent about an hour raving about how wonderful Nova Scotia is. We hope that hurricane Fiona did not cause too much damage. I know that Nova Scotia's health care system must have had a hard tim…
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Madam Speaker, I found it very amusing just now when this part of the House emptied out, and suddenly, we saw the other side of the House come in. Now we know what was needed to make the Liberals come to work in the House. All it took was a call for quorum. To me, it was like lifting up a rock. I think members will understand the image. I find it a little insulting to hear the Bloc being called la…
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Madam Speaker, I will be brief. I would like to ask for an apology from the member for Trois‑Rivières, who made the mistake of referring to me by my name rather than by the name of my riding of Drummond. I was thinking of rising on a point of order, but I will let it go this time. I wanted to raise the issue of our interpreters' schedules in the context of the decision that the government is prepa…
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Madam Speaker, I thought it was a little much when I heard the member for Winnipeg North lecturing the member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles earlier on how to vote when a motion is moved or a bill is introduced. I thought that was a bit over the top. That being said, we are being criticized and told that opposition members do not want to work. It feels as though insults have been flying this evening d…
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Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to the speech by my Conservative colleague. Earlier, I made the mistake of asking my colleague from Winnipeg North two questions at once and obviously got a partial answer to one of the questions. I do want to note that he made an effort to answer one question. I wanted to ask my Conservative colleague the same question I asked the member for Winnipeg …
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Madam Speaker, the curtain fell on the Québec Cinéma gala in 2022, with its last broadcast on Radio‑Canada. This is a sad and, I believe, ill-advised decision. Obviously, it is not up to this Parliament to decide on public television programming, and I am not about to tell Radio‑Canada decision-makers what should or should not go on the air, but as a proud Quebec film buff, I am concerned. I am co…
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Mr. Speaker, I enjoy watching my Liberal colleagues trying to defend the ArriveCAN app today. I do not know if my colleagues travelled a little during the time that this app was in effect and saw how seniors in particular grappled with this complicated app or how border services agents tried to help people. What a waste of time. That said, I agree that some measures had to be implemented. I am not…
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Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague say in her speech that we have lost so much money because of this app, or $54 million. I completely agree with her. That $54 million is a lot of money for an app used for two or three years. That is too much money that could have been spent on other things. Last week, the Bloc Québécois moved a motion to get rid of an expense that costs us $70 million every year. …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and congratulate him on his speech. At the beginning of his speech, I was listening and thinking that if he lived in Quebec, he would surely be a member of the Bloc Québécois, because he defends many of the Bloc’s arguments. I heard him speak about the unwieldy system and the interminable debates we have on issues that could be settled much more ea…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my Conservative colleague for his speech. Earlier, another of my colleagues on the Conservative benches mentioned all of the red tape and the hard time the government has carrying out its regular duties. He wondered whether the government should be taking on new duties, especially in an area that falls outside its jurisdiction, when it has difficulty meeting th…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on delivering a passionate speech, as always. I asked his other colleague a question earlier, and I am going to ask him the same one now. I may be naive, but I hope to get a good answer eventually. The member for Battle River—Crowfoot may agree with me. A number of the Liberal government's new programs encroach on the jurisdiction of Quebec and the province…
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague from Terrebonne for her excellent speech and her concise and accurate answers. That is a real asset in the House. I take umbrage when I hear the member for Winnipeg North, for example, saying that the Bloc Québécois is opposed to this and does not want Canadian children to be covered by a dental care program. We all want that. Would the right solution not be to …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague, the member for Beloeil—Chambly and, incidentally, leader of the Bloc Québécois and my distinguished friend, on his speech. Our Conservative and Liberal colleagues will spend the day saying that there are other, more important priorities to deal with. That is absolutely true, but when governing a country, it is essential to be able to deal w…
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Madam Speaker, I want to start by saying that I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Shefford, who is second to none. Here we are discussing the British monarchy, or, rather, the Canadian monarchy, because that is what has our interest today. I am going to rephrase that: That is our “concern” today. All day long, we have heard from the Conservatives and the Liberals—
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Madam Speaker, I was saying that we have been hearing, all day long, from Conservatives, Liberals and even NDP members that there other priorities to be dealt with today besides talking about the monarchy. That is true, they are quite right and we have never denied it. There are many other topics and there will always be many others. I have two comments to make to that. First, if a party that gove…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Mount Royal for his question. I also thank him for asking a real question that allows for discussion and dialogue. I think that is very important. Besides, if one believes that the House will overwhelmingly support the Bloc Québécois motion and allow this split with the British Crown, that is just wishful thinking. However, I must candidly admit that it was…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite‑Patrie has enough weight within his caucus to be able to contribute to the choice of topic for his party's next opposition day. In the meantime, in the Bloc Québécois, we saw that there was a debate on this topic in Quebec. I am sure that my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite‑Patrie read about it in one of our many newspapers or heard about it fro…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rivière‑des‑Mille‑Îles for his question. Australia opened the debate. People are being heard at present and they are mainly talking about the place that first nations must have in those discussions. I completely agree that we must listen to what is being done elsewhere, to what is already starting to be done elsewhere and we must follow suit. As my colleagu…
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