Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean asked a question earlier about the digital services tax and the weakness shown by the Prime Minister, who held out for only 24 hours before obeying a tweet from the U.S. President and eliminating the digital services tax. The Bloc Québécois put forward a proposal to save the cultural industry and the media sector, especially the news media, which are c…
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Mr. Speaker, we do enjoy the theatre. That said, one would certainly have expected something more rigorous from an expert in economics and finance. We are somewhat surprised to see so much creative accounting in this budget. There are billions of dollars in spending that the government is treating as assets. We also know that if the same accounting approach were applied to Justin Trudeau's budgets…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech, and I want to congratulate her on the quality of her French. It is always much appreciated. I want to talk about the media crisis. The Bloc Québécois is very concerned about this issue, particularly this week. There is an easy solution that is within reach and that will not affect taxpayers. I am referring to the much-discussed digital services tax…
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Mr. Speaker, we have to give credit where credit is due. The member for Winnipeg North is definitely entertaining, and when it comes to drinking the Liberal Kool-Aid, that member is second to none. Someone should make a T-shirt with his face on it. Having said that, I do respect his opinions and his point of view. That is what democracy is all about. I accept that we can have different opinions an…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture is showing a complete disregard for Quebec's private broadcasters and their workers. Québecor has shed 800 jobs, but the minister is standing idly by. Cogeco Media and Bell Media have asked for help, but the minister is not lifting a finger. He is as indifferent to the media crisis as the Prime Minister is to the climate crisis. Does the m…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a rather odd analogy coming from a former environmentalist. The government has just abolished the digital services tax, which could have financed a fund to support a diversity of information sources and Quebec culture. The government is doing nothing for private broadcasters. When questioned, it says that it is funding the public sector, as if the entire broadcasting system is…
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Mr. Speaker, yes, but there is nothing for private broadcasters. In order to please the very powerful American president, the Prime Minister decided to abolish the digital services tax. The revenue from that tax could have been used to create a fund to provide long-term support to the cultural and media sectors. That would have helped TVA, which is in great need. Not only did the Liberals refuse t…
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Mr. Speaker, earlier, the member for York Centre said in his speech that Canada is importing oil and oil products from Russia. I asked him to clarify and to give some numbers because I know that that is not allowed. Canada has been banning oil imports from Russia since 2022, and we have not imported any oil from there since 2019. He told me that Canada imported oil from Russia last year and that w…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague—a former Quebec finance minister, economist and former banker—on his speech. The Liberal government's budget contains some creative accounting of Olympic proportions. It passes off expenditures as capital investments. Here is an example: Security for FIFA is considered a capital investment, not an expense. The budget contains other examples like that, and i…
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Mr. Speaker, I think you should give my colleague from New Tecumseth—Gwillimbury more time. It is always entertaining when he gives us his answers. I congratulate him on his speech. Many people criticize the Liberal government's new budget for being very conservative. The budget contains a number of measures, and I would like to ask my colleague which of those measures he is happiest with. We will…
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Mr. Speaker, earlier, my colleague from Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj asked my colleague from Rivière-des-Mille-Îles a very respectful question. He spoke to her about the fisheries fund, which is an issue of great concern to the people of Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands. He asked her why the fisheries fund was not included in the budget, given how important it is to the industry. My co…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure you want even the insults to go through the Chair. It would be nice if people could show a little restraint. I listened with interest to my Conservative colleague's speech. He said something that brought a question to mind. He said we import oil from Russia. I am not sure whether that is true. I know that there has been a ban on Russian oil imports since 2022 and that we…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, every year, on November 11, we have a duty to remember those who served in uniform and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the armed conflicts Canada has been involved in over the decades. This year is a very special one for me. I was asked to serve as the poppy campaign's honorary chair for Branch 51 of the Royal Canadian Legion in Drummondville. I proudly accepted because, as M…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, yes, it is important to make criminals pay. Yes, it is important to support organizations that help victims, that provide victims with assistance. However, there already exists a process that works for victims. The Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, which my colleague referred to, does indeed affirm the right to restitution. The same Canadian Victims Bill of Rights also defines a vict…
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Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-238. First of all, I want to acknowledge and congratulate the new mayors and municipal councillors who were just elected in my magnificent riding of Drummond. I also want to give a special shout-out to Drummondville's new mayor, Jean-François Houle, who is a trained lawyer. One of the challenges awaiting him is to calm public fears …
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals take a lot of flack. I would agree that the government is quite often clumsy and imperfect. There may even be some incompetence in certain areas. However, the Conservatives are claiming that a Supreme Court ruling is due to the policies of the government that has been in power for the past 10 years. I would remind my colleague that the Supreme Court assesses the constit…
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Madam Speaker, let me start by saying that the Bloc Québécois supports Bill C-14. However, we still have some concerns about the text of the bill, including the discretion that it gives to judges to reverse the burden of proof for certain crimes. These include some serious crimes for which it would be justifiable for a judge to keep the accused in remand. However, some crimes on this list, like au…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague made several interesting points in her speech. First, she said that the Liberals are not going to change the Constitution just because they do not like a law. In that regard, I would like to draw the House's attention to Bill 21, which was passed by the Quebec National Assembly and which the government is challenging all the way up to the Supreme Court because it disagr…
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Mr. Speaker, I commend the member for Winnipeg North for doing such a great job getting our Conservative colleagues all worked up. It happens every time: As soon as he gets up to give a speech, emotions run high in the opposition benches. It livens things up a bit in the House of Commons, and we should be grateful to him for that, even if we do not always agree with what he says. As we have been s…
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague from Oshawa for her speech. I would like to acknowledge her concern for victims of domestic violence. This is an issue that affects us all and one on which we must all stand together. That is why I think there are some interesting aspects to Bill C‑14. When Parliament resumed this fall, the Conservatives introduced Bill C‑242, another bill that deals with pretty…
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With regard to case number 41231, English Montreal School Board, et al. v. Attorney General of Quebec, et al., as of June 17, 2025: (a) how many hours have public servants dedicated to this legal challenge; (b) how much money has the government spent on the challenge; (c) what resources has the government employed with respect to the challenge and how much money has been allocated to each of these…
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With regard to the challenge to Quebec’s Act respecting the laicity of the State, broken down by case in which the government was involved: (a) how many hours have public servants devoted to each legal challenge; (b) how much money has the government spent on each challenge; (c) what resources has the government employed with respect to each challenge and how much money has been allocated to each …
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Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères for tabling this bill, which shows once again that the Bloc Québécois really listens to what Quebeckers want. What do Quebeckers want? What the current Government of Quebec and the vast majority of the Quebec National Assembly want is for Quebec to be able to choose its own integration model. …
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Mr. Speaker, before I ask my question, I just want to say that I find it rich of the Liberals to add a day of debate on Bill C-12 and then not put up any speakers for the day. When it comes time to ask questions after a speech, we can debate the ideas that were presented, but we cannot deny the fact that the Conservatives are addressing the issue on the agenda. I find it especially deplorable that…
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Madam Speaker, there are real concerns, but situations are sometimes exaggerated in order to stir up public opinion, and I find that questionable. My colleague spoke about supervised injection sites, saying that the Liberals are practically deliberately setting them up near schools and early childhood centres. I found her wording a little questionable, although I agree that it is a sensitive issue…
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Mr. Speaker, this is just sad. The Liberals are adding another day of debate on their bill, Bill C‑12, but they are not rising. They are not giving speeches. They are just sitting there. When it is time to ask questions, theirs have nothing to do with the bill. I would ask the government to get serious so we know we are not doing our job for nothing. I have a question for my colleague. I put this …
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Madam Speaker, I understand why the Liberals and the Conservatives are squabbling, but I still think that there are some worthwhile aspects to Bill C-12. I am thinking, for example, of a situation that the Bloc Québécois has often spoken out about in recent years, and that is how refugees who entered the country irregularly between official border crossings and hid for 14 days were given the right…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her speech. Unlike the Liberals, I have been listening to my Conservative colleagues' speeches all day. I find that they offer interesting perspectives. At the very least, they are contributing to the debate that the Liberals have decided to prolong today. That is to their credit, because we can sometimes engage in discussions with them without necessari…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are always bragging about all kinds of things and throwing numbers around. They are saying that they have lowered interest rates and curbed the massive inflation we have been experiencing in recent years. However, the reality for Quebec and Canadian families is that prices are still very high. After the pandemic, prices did not go back down, but wages also did not go up. …
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Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, the Liberals are doing a lot of boasting about lower interest rates. They are boasting about having eased the tax burden, the financial burden on middle-class families. In reality, people are more in debt and are having a tougher time taking care of their responsibilities and meeting their financial obligations at the end of the month. The Conservatives are proposin…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on her speech. I always find it a little strange when I hear the Liberals boast about providing relief to the middle class with tax cuts, when it is the middle class that is currently struggling the most because of the cost of living. They are drowning. Despite that, right after the election, the Liberals decided to forgo nearly $90 billion in potential rev…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague on his excellent speech. What spirit. Earlier, my colleague asked a question of the member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, who is an economist and former Quebec finance minister. He lived through the period of austerity, which he helped create. My colleague mentioned the $83 billion in support that is being paid out to the oil industry. The member for Marc-…
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Mr. Speaker, perhaps my colleague from Trois‑Rivières can respond to that. In the last Parliament, the finance minister at the time, Ms. Freeland, did not want to table a budget with a projected deficit of nearly $42 billion. She thought it was outrageous to propose—
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech and his ability to focus. For a guy who celebrated his birthday yesterday and must have gone to bed very late, he seemed very focused despite the noise in the House. Good on him. Now, he is part of a government that has given up about $90 billion in revenue, according to the most reasonable estimates. His government is still going to provide $…
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Mr. Speaker, my apologies, I know that. I suppose I must have forgotten that this government is the same as the last. I apologize for my blunder. I withdraw the remark. This former finance minister chose to resign rather than propose a budget with an outrageous $42-billion deficit. We are about to see a budget tabled with a deficit of nearly $100 billion. How is it that the $42 billion was so outr…
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Mr. Speaker, I am a little concerned because I am watching the Liberals, and I see them cutting measures that could generate billions of dollars in revenue, such as the digital services tax, which has been eliminated, as well as countertariffs, which we have not seen at all. The same can be said of the Conservatives. When I asked the Leader of the Opposition earlier what he would do to put money b…
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Mr. Speaker, the speech that my colleague from Thornhill made earlier was very interesting. Finally, we have a Conservative motion that the Bloc Québécois can get behind. Of course, it is easy to say that this government's management is abysmal when everyone can see we are digging ourselves in deeper and deeper. This government needs to manage a financial crisis for families in Quebec and Canada a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague to talk to us about the fact that the Conservatives are moving a motion on a bill that has yet to be assessed by the law clerks or even found in order. The Conservatives are trying to use this motion to muzzle the House of Commons. That approach seems rather unusual to me, and I would like my colleague to talk to us about it.
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Mr. Speaker, people often say that the Conservatives put forward simplistic solutions to highly complex problems, but their proposal today makes some sense. It is true that we have a duty to protect our communities and it is also true that a growing number of repeat offenders are being released into the community awaiting trial, including people charged with violent crimes against women. Maybe we …
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives are not entirely wrong. There are several reasons why we really do need to focus on the justice system, look after it and reform it. One of the problems that was identified a long time ago has to do with the appointment of judges. The government is behind on that. However, Quebec has long been asking to have its say on the judges Ottawa appoints to sit on higher cour…
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Mr. Speaker, in his work Zadig; or, The Book of Fate, Voltaire said, “It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.” This is a principle that exists in all democracies, in all developed societies around the world. Keeping an accused person in jail rather than making efforts to release them under the presumption of innocence goes against all the basic rights that we s…
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Mr. Speaker, there are also many farmers in the Drummond area. I realize that this is a complex problem. The issues facing farmers are complex. My colleague from Lévis—Lotbinière spoke about this earlier, and he speaks from experience. However, it seems to me that the Conservatives are reducing this to a very simplistic, even populist solution and are refusing to see the problem as a complex whole…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. A Conservative member is answering my question, and I would like to hear him. However, his own Conservative colleague is making noise. I would have liked to hear my colleague's answer. I wonder if he could say it again so I can understand his answer. No? That is too bad.
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives often have the habit of presenting serious problems for discussion and then putting forward rather simplistic solutions, intellectual shortcuts or sometimes even populist shortcuts. The issue we are discussing today is serious. The cost of food and groceries is a serious problem. Even high-income families now have to make choices and be careful about what they buy at…
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Mr. Speaker, this is not a problem that can be solved with just one solution. There is not just one key that can unlock this door. In my view, the government's efforts to engage the grocery giants have not been successful. In particular, my colleague talked about a code of conduct that the big grocery chains have pledged to follow. I would like to know what has actually gotten done so far, because…
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Mr. Speaker, I would have liked to hear the Leader of the Opposition talk more about how the Prime Minister has a stake in just about every decision he makes and how he benefits financially. However, I want to circle back to today's topic, which is the cost of groceries. I see that the Conservatives are proposing to eliminate many taxes, including all carbon taxes and the packaging tax, meaning th…
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary is talking about solutions to a crisis. Today's motion is talking about the rising cost of groceries. As I said earlier, there is not just one solution to such a complex issue, certainly not a simplistic solution like the one the Conservatives are proposing. Earlier, the Liberals said that there was already a code of conduct that grocers and major grocery c…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my Conservative colleague on his speech and I applaud his passion. He is clearly very committed. I can tell that this really matters to him and gets him fired up. The cost of food is a major problem, but I do not think the solution is as simple as what the Conservatives are proposing. It is much bigger than that. Does my colleague agree that we need to do more to suppor…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by saying that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj. I would like to take us in a different direction with today's debate. I thought that it might be beneficial for a number of colleagues here, who regularly hear Quebec's grievances but are not familiar with our history, to learn a little more about our jou…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by wishing Shana Tova to my colleague from Mount Royal and to the entire Jewish community in Quebec and Canada who are celebrating the new year today. I acknowledge the fact that my colleague and I will likely never agree on this type of issue. However, having worked with my colleague many times, I admire his openness to intelligent and lively debate. Even so, I have t…
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