Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, how can we trust them? When it comes to any federal responsibility, like border management, managing our military, ArriveCAN or employment insurance to name just a few, it is apparent that everything goes haywire with this government. Now he is adding insult to injury by encroaching on areas of Quebec jurisdiction. Does the Prime Minister understand that he will just make the situatio…
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Mr. Speaker, 107 years ago today, on April 9, 1917, a fierce battle began on the slopes of a hill in Vimy, France, between the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the defending German forces. At 5:30 a.m., a single cannon sounded in the distance. On that signal, all hell broke loose on the battlefield. At the same time, all of the available artillery, supported by underground mines packed with explos…
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Mr. Speaker, last week I was in Trois‑Rivières, a city with a vacancy rate of 0.4%. A new report by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, or CMHC, shows that construction is going to plummet over the coming year. CMHC therefore expects that demand will drive up the cost of housing. That is outrageous. Does the Prime Minister realize that people are going to end up on the street because of h…
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Mr. Speaker, over the past week, we have seen nothing but photo ops. It is worth reminding the minister that the current programs are being announced as if they are brand new, but they have been around since 2017. Since 2017, practically nothing has been done with these programs. Once again, the Liberals are resorting to photo ops in an effort to raise their profile, but it is not working. All we …
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Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday morning, as I was reading my newspaper, I came across some disturbing news. The member for Brossard—Saint-Lambert, who is also the Assistant Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, invited the director of two organizations accused of hosting illegal, Beijing-controlled police stations in Brossard and Montreal to a partisan cocktail party last February 20. To make matters wo…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by saying that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Foothills. In exactly one hour, a vote will be held here in the House. It is a very important vote that millions of Canadians and even millions of Quebeckers have been waiting for. I will read the motion to clearly indicate what we are calling for today and what the vote will be about. That the House dec…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said in my speech, Quebec imports food from the rest of Canada. The farmers who grow the food pay the carbon tax. The food processors pay the carbon tax. The carbon tax that is paid by those who transport and process Quebec's food has an impact on the price. People will not see any mention of the carbon tax on their grocery bills. However, maybe an $8 bunch of celery would only h…
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Mr. Speaker, I was trying very hard to figure out where my colleague was going with all that. First of all, the carbon tax is a tax plan, not an environmental plan. Second, my colleague from Montcalm just said that the government's official dance partner is the NDP. I mentioned in my speech that I do not understand why the NDP continues to support the government, but that is their problem. What I …
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Mr. Speaker, of course I speak with my constituents. They elected me because most of them feel pretty much the same way I do. People are really fed up with the Prime Minister and his government. Every time I meet with people in Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, they ask me when this Prime Minister is going to leave. They want him to go because they are fed up. That is what people tell me every tim…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Thornhill. As the Conservative Party of Canada's political lieutenant for Quebec, it is a privilege for me to rise in the House this evening to pay tribute to an outstanding Canadian and a proud Quebecker. I am speaking, of course, about the former prime minister of Canada, the Right Hon. Brian Mulroney. February 29, 2024, will go down in …
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Mr. Speaker, auto theft in Toronto has nearly doubled over last year, and 2024 has only just begun. Where do the stolen vehicles go? They go to the port of Montreal. I would like to commend the efforts of Sûreté du Québec police in February. That said, the federal government must do more to help them. That is why our leader has proposed amendments to the Criminal Code to bring back tougher sentenc…
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Mr. Speaker, former judge Jacques Delisle was convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife in 2012. The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. In 2021, federal justice minister David Lametti intervened to order another trial. He believed there had been a miscarriage of justice. However, a Criminal Conviction Review Group report released on Thursday makes no mention of …
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Mr. Speaker, is the minister aware that, on March 31, 2019, the Ebola and Nipah viruses were sent to Beijing on Air Canada? Does the minister know that? Does he know that viruses that are used as weapons of war were sent to a country that is building an arsenal of biological weapons? We know that Dr. Qiu conducted joint research with Major-General Chen Wei of China's People's Liberation Army. Does…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we read the documents concerning Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory, and the worst is confirmed: There was indeed infiltration by the Chinese Communist Party. Based on its own assessment, the Liberal government allowed a person who is “a very serious danger and a realistic and credible threat to Canada's economic security” to access and compromise the level 4 lab. …
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Mr. Speaker, does the minister know that the Prime Minister has said that he admires China's basic dictatorship? Does he also know that the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg is working on some of the most dangerous viruses in the world and that the scientist who was fired shared sensitive intellectual property and dangerous pathogens, such as the Ebola genetic sequence, with the Chinese…
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Mr. Speaker, I will answer my colleague by saying that, with respect to the issue being discussed today, the Bloc Québécois voted for the appropriations, knowing full well that they were intended for ArriveCAN. There were two separate appropriations of $12.5 million each. That is why it is so strange to see the members of the Bloc Québécois react by saying that what they voted for is scandalous. T…
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to answer a question about Phoenix. It is true that it was the Conservative government at the time that launched the project, because it would take time to change the payroll management system. However, let us recall that the Liberal government came to power in fall 2015 and that, in March 2016, it decided to activate the Phoenix system despite the fact that the deputy mini…
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Mr. Speaker, the RCMP commissioner was clear this morning. He wrote to the Leader of the Opposition to confirm that a full investigation will be conducted into the ArriveCAN affair. What is more, we learned from the RCMP commissioner in committee that the Prime Minister obstructed the investigation into both the SNC-Lavalin affair and the Aga Khan affair. Can the Prime Minister confirm that he wil…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, while the common-sense Conservatives will axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime, this Prime Minister, backed by the Bloc Québécois, is not worth the cost. Speaking of crime, today we learned that the RCMP is going to conduct a full investigation into the ArriveCAN scandal. Even so, we also need the House to support our motion, as the Auditor General of Canada…
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Mr. Speaker, what is clear to us is that, in November 2022, the government voted against the proposal to ask the Auditor General to conduct an investigation. The Liberals were not the ones who helped discover what had happened with ArriveCAN. At the time, some 10,000 people were forced to quarantine because of a tool that did not work. Can the Prime Minister confirm this time that he will not obst…
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Mr. Speaker, to answer my colleague's question, I have here the transcript of a committee meeting that I attended on June 16, 2021. At that meeting, I asked a question about an April 2020 memorandum indicating that Treasury Board would be relaxing the rules for awarding contracts to speed up the process during the pandemic. In June 2021, the worst was over. We were regaining control. I asked the c…
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Mr. Speaker, today we are introducing a motion for debate in the House. This motion invites all sitting members from all parties, the 338 members of the House of Commons, to do some serious soul-searching. Let us think back to the pandemic. Let us think back to the report that the Parliamentary Budget Officer released after the pandemic. He said that there had been $500 billion in COVID-specific s…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister, the number of auto thefts in Canada has skyrocketed, and this can be directly attributed to the Liberals' soft-on-crime policies. While the Prime Minister prefers to hold summits and have discussions, for the past three days, the Leader of the Opposition has been proposing common-sense solutions to combat this scourge. First, we will amend …
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Madam Speaker, quite honestly, I do not know what my colleague is talking about. I am not familiar with the amendment. I do not want to give him an empty answer or say something stupid. If I had an answer, I would give it to him, but I do not.
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Madam Speaker, I see that is the question of the day and I will answer it with a question. Why, under the Conservative government, did auto theft go down by 50%? Why were there no problems at the border? Why did we not need resources from the Border Services Agency to go to Roxham Road, for example, after the Prime Minister's famous tweet that invited everyone to enter Canada? The Liberals created…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to our opposition motion and a very serious subject. Auto theft is a problem that is happening right now, and I do not know whether my colleagues are aware of this, but Canada has the highest rate of auto theft in the world. We are the number one exporter of stolen vehicles. Is that something we want to see? No, not at all. It is important to unde…
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Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, the Bloc Québécois members initially voted in favour of Bill C-5, but then realized that it was creating problems. They changed their minds and supported my bill, Bill C-325, and I thank them once again. As far as resources are concerned, the Leader of the Opposition made our case in Montreal this morning. I was with him. We went to the port of Montreal to ma…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday our leader proposed other measures to fix this government's mistakes, like fixing the Criminal Code by bringing back tougher sentences. Three auto thefts would get a minimum of three years in prison. It is pretty simple. Also, by finding savings elsewhere—yes, we can save money; our leader has found savings—we can purchase 24 scanners that would be installed at the ports to …
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister and this government, auto theft has doubled in Montreal. Furthermore, the Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for controlling our borders, including ports. The Port of Montreal, however, has only five Canada Border Services Agency officers on duty to inspect the huge volume of containers transiting through the port on their way to f…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister, auto thefts have increased dramatically in Canada. They have gone up by more than 100% in Montreal alone. Our ports, the RCMP, the Canada Border Services Agency and the Criminal Code all fall under federal responsibility. Instead of taking action, however, the Liberal government has committed to holding a summit to discuss this further. Wha…
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Mr. Speaker, what we know right now is that under this Prime Minister, Canada has become the biggest exporter of stolen cars around the world. This morning, our leader proposed solutions to undo the damage caused by Liberal legislation. For example, we are going to deter car thieves by putting an end to house arrest and increasing jail time for these criminals. That is just common sense. Will the …
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Mr. Speaker, what Canadians and Quebeckers know is that Christmas is coming next week. They also know that they do not have enough money to buy groceries, so does the government really think that they have enough money to buy their children presents? That is what Canadians and Quebeckers have come to realize after eight years under this Liberal government. What is more, on the other side of the Ho…
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Mr. Speaker, the media is reporting that requests for food at a Quebec City food bank, La Bouchée généreuse, have doubled in the past two years. After eight years in power, this Liberal government's legacy is going to be a Canada where people go hungry. The leader of the Bloc Québécois calls himself the adult in the room, but he likes to insult the other party leaders. On top of that, he is callin…
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Mr. Speaker, I think my speech was clear. The current situation in Canada is unprecedented. This government has put our public finances in a very bad state, and has caused unprecedented inflation and interest rate hikes. Workers can no longer make ends meet. They do not have enough money to pay their rent and their other bills at the end of the month. That is the problem. All of the opposition par…
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Mr. Speaker, right now I am voting to protect Canadian jobs. Right now, we have a problem with foreign replacement workers and we are not getting any answers. I am more than happy to talk about Bill C‑58, but we want answers. We are taking advantage of this debate to ask the government why companies will be hiring foreign replacement workers. In our opinion, that is the same thing as bringing in s…
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Mr. Speaker, first, I am sick and tired up of hearing my colleague ask questions based on the premise that we work the same way as in the U.S. We do not work the same way as in the U.S. As I mentioned in my speech, our concern is clear. We want a coherent policy and to take coherent measures to ensure that Canada is more effective when it comes to transport and energy. As for development, the futu…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to this morning to speak of workers, the labour context, industrial relations and replacement workers. One of the main factors to consider in today's debates is the Liberals' mismanagement over the past eight years. Liberal mismanagement has raised the cost of living for all Canadian workers. The Liberals' disastrous mismanagement and astronomical deficits sent inflation and in…
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Mr. Speaker, the president of the CBC is completely out of touch with reality. A month ago, she hired a Paris-based company to translate a podcast, rather than hiring Quebeckers, because she did not like our accent. Now, when hundreds of employees are wondering whether they will still have a job after Christmas, she has decided to head off to Australia for a good time, even though she is supposed …
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Mr. Speaker, the minister can laugh all he wants, but what will he say to the 30-year-old guy from Sherbrooke who has no place to live and cannot find a place to rent because $1,500 a month is more than he can afford? Right now, he says that he will have to live in a tent this winter at an encampment that has practically become a refugee camp, in the middle of Sherbrooke. It makes no sense. Every …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question and I thank him for his work as our party's shadow minister for veterans affairs. The fact that the government used veterans is what bothers me the most in all this. By citing a bad survey, a pseudo-survey, to claim that this was the veterans' choice, it was using veterans for its own political ends. As my colleague who did a tour in Afghanistan…
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Madam Speaker, I do indeed believe that we are at a crucial point in the process. It is not too late. There is still time to change things. All the government has to do is swallow its pride and say it thought it was doing the right thing, but, as it turns out, the poll results were not really what it thought they were. There are so many ways the government could backtrack. I am pretty sure that ha…
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Madam Speaker, I enjoy seeing my colleague try to shift the blame off the Liberals while painting the Conservatives as people who do not care about veterans. I would remind my colleague that a Conservative government was at the helm during the war effort in Afghanistan, ready to provide the equipment that our troops needed on the ground. We made sure that things changed, because the mission got of…
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Madam Speaker, I rise once again this morning to speak to a situation that, sadly, happens all too often in this country. For the past eight years of this government, we have witnessed a total lack of respect for the institution of government in its broad sense, as represented by the House of Commons and the various departments of the Government of Canada. Today, we are referring more specifically…
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Mr. Speaker, last Saturday, our leader premiered a documentary on the housing crisis to explain its cause to Canadians and outline the solutions he is proposing. The documentary Housing Hell has garnered nearly four million views for a good reason. After eight years of this Liberal government, the price of houses, rent and mortgages has doubled and the number of people who are homeless is skyrocke…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we learned that the American economy grew by 5.2%, while the Canadian economy shrunk by 1.1%. The American economy is booming and the Canadian economy is at a standstill. Americans are getting richer, while Canadians are getting poorer. Nothing has been working in Canada for the past eight years. Given these numbers, will the government recognize that its economic plan is a…
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Mr. Speaker, I will continue with my question. Children in Quebec have been sending their letters to Santa Claus to Opération père Noël since 1995. This year, instead of asking for toys, children are asking for winter boots and snowsuits. That does not make any sense. Does the Prime Minister think it is normal for Santa Claus to be getting these kinds of requests from children?
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Mr. Speaker, to give a clear answer in French to the member here, who made this type of comment before on May 5, 2009, I would say that my colleague from Lethbridge apologized to the committee. That being said, can the government tell me what it is thinking—
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Madam Speaker, I do not know what is the matter with the member for Jonquière today. He has a long list of smears. What he just said is totally false. I would like him to withdraw his words.
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Madam Speaker, after all this smearing of Conservative MPs from Quebec, I would like to reiterate my point. I never did what the member for Jonquière is accusing me of, and I would like him to retract his accusation.
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Madam Speaker, in his speech, the member for Jonquière personally accused me of calling people in the riding of Richmond—Arthabaska to ask them to call the member and ask him to resign. I never did that. He directly accused me of doing that as the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles. I am just saying that I did not do that.
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