Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, all we learn from the Prime Minister's answers is that he is not saying anything. If he does answer, it is that he is going to name a special rapporteur and that he will refer the investigation to a committee of parliamentarians who will not be able to talk about it. The members of this committee, Conservatives, Liberals and Bloc MPs, will be sworn to secrecy for the rest of their liv…
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Mr. Speaker, I hope you will allow me to look directly at the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Westmount. I want to take a look back. Thirty-nine years ago, at the tender age of 14, I became fascinated by a graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada, a naval officer who was the first Quebecker, the first Canadian, to become an astronaut. I remember when the space shuttle Columbia was launched …
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Mr. Speaker, this year, Canadians will feel the brunt of the 4.25% increase in the Bank of Canada's base rate. According to Statistics Canada, 35% of Canadian households reported that it was difficult for them to meet their financial needs in the previous 12 months. What is more, 44% of respondents said that they were very concerned with their household's ability to afford housing or rent. Will th…
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Mr. Speaker, it is as though the minister always does things right. Yesterday, the media reported on the case of Sobhi Akra, who pleaded guilty in January 2022 to sexually assaulting eight women between October 2017 and November 2018. Bill C-5, the brainchild of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice, who got some help from our Bloc Québécois friends, could make it possible for this crimin…
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Mr. Speaker, this Liberal government is facing mounting criticism over Bill C-5, and for good reason. Quebec's justice minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, tabled a motion in the National Assembly with the support of all members. The motion calls on this Bloc-centralist-Liberal government to amend the law stemming from Bill C-5 to make sexual assault offences ineligible for community sentences. We are …
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During Oral Questions, the Minister of Environment misled the House by suggesting that people in Quebec do not pay a carbon tax. I seek the unanimous consent of the House to table my own personal propane bill, which clearly shows that I paid 6.2¢ per litre in carbon tax.
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Mr. Speaker, it is clear that everything the Bloc-centralist-Liberal alliance is currently doing for Quebec is not working. Just think of Bill C‑5, which allows rapists to stay at home, or Bill C‑75, which lets criminals who have been released to obtain bail even if they are still violent. Now, there is Bill C‑11. To add insult to injury, they are refusing to consider the motion that was adopted u…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc-Liberal alliance continues to work against Quebec's best interests. First, their proposed bill, Bill C‑11, fails to ensure that online businesses are subject to Quebec's status of the artist legislation. Second, this bill contains no mechanism for formal consultation with the Quebec government. The Minister of Canadian Heritage has stated that his government is collaborating …
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Mr. Speaker, we know this government's relationship with McKinsey is unclear, so it came as no surprise when we learned that Roch Huppé, the Comptroller General of Canada, instructed his subordinates to be careful what they write about McKinsey. The Prime Minister is still refusing to disclose the substance of the McKinsey contracts. His ministers apparently have no idea what is going on. Now the …
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Perth—Wellington. After eight years of the Prime Minister's dismal governance, he is now trying to turn attention away from his record, the cost of living crisis of his own making, the highest spikes in inflation in 40 years and the doubling of the price of rent and the cost of mortgages. He wants to turn Canadians' attention away from the…
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Mr. Speaker, that is very true. At paragraph 018 of the Bloc's main position paper, we read the following: “We are opposed to censorship, cancel culture, intimidation, humiliation and people's courts that take over for the justice system, especially on social networks and under the cover of anonymity. We subscribe to open conversation and a society based on the rule of law.” Bill C-11, An Act to a…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Speaking of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, I think he would be a bit disappointed to see the way his son is running the country today. That said, when we talk about using the notwithstanding clause, be it pre-emptively or reactively, the fact remains that its usefulness is clear. I believe that when the Prime Minister spoke of using the notwithstanding …
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Mr. Speaker, typically, I think our answers are supposed to be as long as the questions, which means that I am going to be making another speech given how long my colleague's question was. First of all, I could respond to the member for Drummond that his question does not matter to me one bit either, but I will try to be a little more polite than he is on that front. As I said in my speech, it is …
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Mr. Speaker, as I said in my speech, we lived through different times, a different era, with the Bloc Québécois; today, it is a different situation. It is a very left-wing party that all too often supports the positions of the Liberal Party of Canada, which seeks to divide Canadians. The Bloc Québécois is taking advantage of this situation to separate Quebec from Canada. The Conservative Party wan…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague and I agree with him on the vast majority of his speech. As Quebeckers, we all want what is best for Quebec, for our culture and for our way of being. On that note, I support him 100%. On the other hand, one thing is certain: If my colleagues want sovereignty, they should get elected to the Quebec National Assembly, because that is where it is go…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister, unethical firms are still welcome to do business with his government. Although deputy minister Paul Thomson stated that Canadian companies would not be eligible for federal contracts if one of its affiliates had been found guilty of a crime, he also claims that McKinsey does not meet the exclusion criteria. However, as a result of McKinsey'…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister's Bill C-5 passed with the full support of the Bloc Québécois and the NDP. This legislation endangers the lives of Quebec women. Consider the case of Jonathan Gravel. He was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and yet will be allowed to serve his sentence in the comfort of his own home, thanks to the Prime Minister. If a man can rape a woman, and the only consequ…
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Mr. Speaker, we have been trying, since 2017, to make this Prime Minister understand that he needs to renegotiate the safe third country agreement with the Americans to resolve the situation at Roxham Road. Instead of dealing with the issue, he is letting it deteriorate. Now we have learned that New York City is giving out free bus tickets to send migrants north, and they are crossing right at Rox…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this Prime Minister, Canada has become unrecognizable, but for all the wrong reasons. Writing on the subject of the Prime Minister's Bill C-5, columnist Joseph Facal of the Journal de Montréal wrote that “fanatical lunatics have taken over the asylum”. He cited as an example the recent case of a 31-year-old woman who was found guilty of repeatedly beating her 11-y…
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Mr. Speaker, after eight long years under this Prime Minister, taxpayers are coming to the realization that this country is being mismanaged. Across the country, families are suffering because everything is more expensive. Part of the reason everything is more expensive is that this government is spending money like crazy. For example, consulting firm McKinsey got $120 million in government contra…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. That is the basis of our commitment. That is the reason why we were elected to the House. When a person runs for federal office, it is to work in the interest of Canadians. Each and every one of us represents about 100,000 people. These people trust us to represent them and to work in their best interests. However, what we have been seeing for th…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. That is exactly what I said at the beginning of my speech. These are hard times. People are working hard for their money, and many of them do not have enough to live on because inflation is making everything more expensive. We have here a government that is freely squandering taxpayers' money. These questions deserve answers. That is why, today, …
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Mr. Speaker, I am sure he did. The Conservative government at the time, with former finance minister Jim Flaherty, also worked with Dominic Barton. We have never tried to hide that. The Liberals can say whatever they want, but we were clear. We know contracts were awarded. We know Mr. Barton talked with Mr. Flaherty, but we also know that, in 2014, McKinsey got no more contracts while the Conserva…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Shefford for her question. That is the crux of the matter. As long as there is secrecy surrounding all the studies commissioned and paid for by a firm that provides strategic plans and advice on how to direct Canada's destiny, I think we have a right to know what is going on. This is all shrouded in secrecy, but there is still a way to do it right. For exampl…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan for sharing his time with me. Today we are debating concurrence in the fifth report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates. The motion asks that the Auditor General be called upon to conduct, as soon as possible, a performance and value-for-money audit of the contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company sin…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about the pandemic. The Parliamentary Budget Officer has confirmed that $200 billion of the additional $500 billion spent during the two years of the pandemic had nothing to do with the pandemic. Another expenditure was a $173-million investment in a company called Medicago. On Friday we learned that Japan's Mitsubishi Chemical Group was closing Medicago completely. The fe…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is doing his job of trying to defend the indefensible. Thirteen premiers are calling for the same thing we are, as are all the associations representing the police officers who are out on the street, working to protect citizens across Canada. These people are not asking for legislative reform for nothing. They see that the status quo is not working. Our motion targets t…
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Mr. Speaker, every government uses private sector legal or technical services from time to time. What we have here is a Liberal government that has completely lost control of government over the last eight years. The Prime Minister has handed his governance responsibilities over to multinational corporations like McKinsey. Instead of wasting billions of dollars on these companies, the Prime Minist…
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Madam Speaker, indeed, the issue at the border is a major one. We have raised it many times. The government needs to put far more effort into controlling illegal weapons trafficking at the borders. These weapons are being used by criminals on the streets of Montreal, Toronto and all over Canada. We did not include it in the motion today because we are specifically targeting Bill C-75 and the fact …
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to our motion, which is very important. I will begin by saying that I have been here for eight years, the same amount of time that this Liberal government has been in power. Under this Prime Minister's reign—and I say “reign” because the Prime Minister behaves like a king who is not accountable to anyone, whether the decisions are good or bad—it has become clea…
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Madam Speaker, things always get emotional when we talk about crime, but facts are facts. The streets of Montreal would be safer had Bill C-5 not been passed, for example. Last week, we saw one of the harmful effects of Bill C‑5, which was passed before Christmas. An individual who committed aggravated sexual assault eight years ago was sentenced last week. There were many delays related to the co…
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Madam Speaker, my Bloc Québécois colleague started by clearly stating that Bill C‑75 was not perfect. That is precisely what we are talking about today. We want to improve Bill C‑75 as passed, by making changes to it. My colleague talked about an academic, but we are not questioning all grounds for bail. We want to make it clear today that we are targeting violent criminals, criminals who use fire…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is trying to change the subject, but the question is clear. The government has lost confidence in its public servants. Moreover, the Prime Minister appointed Isabelle Hudon as the president of the Business Development Bank of Canada. The first thing Ms. Hudon did was award a $4.9‑million contract to McKinsey to do work that BDC's team could have done. Her employees …
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, we will be witnessing a magical moment over the next few days when a team of young Ukrainians participates in the Quebec international pee-wee hockey tournament. This all goes back to March 2022, when Sean Bérubé, a former hockey player who trained in Ukraine from the age of 14 to 17, decided to host his former coach and his coach's wife when war broke out and Russian tanks were five …
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Mr. Speaker, what do we know about the McKinsey case? We know that the Prime Minister, the Finance Minister and Dominic Barton are very close friends. We know that their friendship is also one of the reasons Mr. Barton has been able to secure over $117 million in federal government contracts for McKinsey over the past eight years. We know that all of the contracts given to McKinsey were for work t…
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Mr. Speaker, I can tell the minister that until last November no judge could impose a sentence to be served at home for aggravated sexual assault. Again, with the complicity of the Bloc Québécois, this option now exists. Crown attorney Alexis Dinelle also said, “What message are we sending to victims of sexual assault? I get the impression that we are now going backwards, and we will again allow c…
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Mr. Speaker, Jonathan Gravel committed a violent sexual assault but avoided going to prison after eight years of legal proceedings. Instead, he received a 20-month suspended sentence that he can serve in the community. Why? It is because the Prime Minister, with the help of the Bloc Québécois, passed Bill C‑5. When the sentence was handed down, the Crown prosecutor, Alexis Dinelle, said, “Now [the…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage, the Prime Minister's right-hand man in Quebec, had a strong reaction to the appointment of Amira Elghawaby, the federal representative to combat Islamophobia, who once made disparaging comments about the Quebec nation. He said, “As a Quebecker, I am deeply hurt by these comments, I am deeply insulted”. Given that he is hurt and insulted, will his wor…
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Mr. Speaker, under Bill C-21 on firearms, law-abiding citizens will no longer be able to hunt, but criminals will be able to continue terrorizing our streets. Meanwhile, the provincial premiers are unanimously calling on this Liberal government to take immediate action to strengthen Canada's bail system. In December, a police officer was killed by a criminal who had been granted bail even though h…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the leader of the Bloc Québécois are totally out of touch when it comes to the safety of Quebeckers. They are working together to criminalize law-abiding citizens, while allowing criminals to roam free in our communities. Bill C‑5, which was passed with the Bloc's support, allowed a criminal to avoid jail time this week despite being arrested in possession of tw…
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Mr. Speaker, the Department of Citizenship and Immigration has assigned more than 59,000 immigration applications to 779 inactive employees. Some of those officers have not even been employees of the department since 2006. What is most disturbing about this whole affair is that the Liberal government does not seem to care. Even the minister does not seem to think this is all that serious. Will the…
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Mr. Speaker, if I understand correctly, the minister is saying that CBC News is reporting fake news. That is what it sounds like to me. It is being reported in the news this week that 59,000 cases were transferred to 779 employees who no longer work there. On top of that, we are also learning that CBC News warned of problems at the beginning of the year. However, the minister never said anything a…
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Mr. Speaker, is there any country in the world where the prime minister allows the Chinese communist regime to have access to its secrets? I know of one: Canada. Two years ago, the Prime Minister awarded a contract to Nuctech, a company with ties to the Chinese communist regime. It was hired to install systems in our embassies around the world. Luckily, this contract was cancelled. Today, we learn…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has a major problem with its contracting. Two years ago, when the Nuctech issue came to light, there were specific recommendations to halt purchasing from companies with close ties to the Chinese communist regime. How could the government have awarded a contract to a company tied to the Chinese communist regime for, of all things, security devices as important as the RCMP's com…
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Mr. Speaker, there has to be some sort of limit to what we are going to hear from the Minister of National Revenue today. It is one thing to attack the Auditor General and say that she doubts her integrity, but she even had the gall to say that managing the pandemic as a minister was more difficult than managing the Second World War. Does the minister have the courage to stand up today and apologi…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very disappointed in the Minister of National Revenue's lack of courage. She is the member for Gaspésie, and I would remind the minister that there were people from my regiment, the Régiment de la Chaudière, who landed at the beaches in Bernières‑sur‑Mer in 1944. Those soldiers were courageous people. Can the minister from Gaspésie demonstrate as much courage as the Régiment de l…
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Mr. Speaker, I believe I am well aware of it, just as I am well aware that the United States is a safe country. People in the U.S. who want to seek asylum should seek it in the U.S. When people cross the border from the U.S. to Canada, they are violating the safe third country agreement. There is a loophole in the safe third country agreement, and we are waiting for the government to close it. It …
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Mr. Speaker, December 5 is International Volunteer Day. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the exceptional community involvement of my constituents in Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles. Since being elected in 2015, I have had the opportunity to meet many devoted people who do not hesitate to do their part and give their time to help others. These volunteers quite often work in the…
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Mr. Speaker, in January 2017, the Prime Minister invited all those fleeing persecution and war to come to Canada. Instead of prioritizing genuine refugees, he rolled out the red carpet for those who were visiting or were permanent residents of the United States, a safe country. It is possible that, in 2017, those individuals wanted to flee the United States because they were afraid of Donald Trump…
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With regard to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation, or other government entity: (a) how many government employees have been found to have made fraudulent claims for the CERB; (b) what amount of money is represented by the fraudulent claims in (a); (c) of the employees in (a), how many were (i) terminated, (ii) disciplined, but not term…
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