Parliamentary Speeches
512 speeches by Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay — Page 10 of 11
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, since this morning, we have heard several Conservative MPs talk about the need for a plan. I would remind members that, a month ago, we voted in favour of their motion for a plan to be tabled. The problem is that there is no mention of a plan in the current motion. Why is the need for a plan being brought up in the speeches when it is not included in the motion? Would the Conservative…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I enjoyed the speech given by my colleague from Mirabel. We can always count on him to identify the limitations of the market in a crisis. He would make the founding fathers of political economy proud, because they emphasized the importance of redistribution. My colleague is offering to teach a course in economics, so I suggest that he also offer a course in economic history. Histor…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the banks continue to post profits, and their executives are rolling in money while families are struggling to access or purchase housing. Major corporations also keep making profits while small businesses are suffering. The oil companies are raking in the dough while everyone is paying more for oil and gas. I am therefore in favour of a 3% surtax on those referred to in the motion …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the intermodal terminal project for the storage and transshipment of propane gas that is currently being discussed and that would be located in the Municipality of Upton, Quebec: (a) has Distribution Upton requested ministerial approval for the construction of a new railroad that links with the transfer station in the Municipality of Upton; (b) has Propane Suroît requested ministeri…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we are discussing a Conservative motion today, and I will be speaking as the Bloc Québécois critic for international trade. The Conservatives are conflating several ideas and issues. They legitimately condemn the invasion of Ukraine and affirm their solidarity, which makes total sense. I have nothing to add in this respect. However, they are also promoting the construction and appro…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for defending the Conservative motion that the Bloc Québécois does not support because it does nothing to respond to the crisis in Ukraine. That is something we need to keep in mind. Neither Europe nor Ukraine has asked for oil or gas from Canada, namely Alberta. In the short term—because we all hope this crisis will be short-lived—there are many countries that …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is not realistic to think that hot air balloons filled with natural gas will be departing for Europe tomorrow. I understand that my colleague is asking whether this idea has some potential in the long term. The answer is unfortunately no, because we need to think about transitioning in the long term. Even if it were possible and realistic in the long term, would it be something w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I readily acknowledge that natural gas is important to the economy, even if we will eventually have to move on from it. When we talk about transition, we are not talking about throwing everything overboard from one day to the next. That is not what transition is about. We are doing things intelligently. There are sectors where you do not want to throw anyone out on the street tomorr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we absolutely agree, 150%. That was one of the points we made earlier during question period. That is part of our position. We have to work on that. Also, if there are going to be sanctions against Russia, and there must be sanctions when such an aggression is committed, these sanctions have to be better targeted. I gave the example of Russian oligarchs investing in fossil fuels in …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague is right.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my esteemed and valued colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia. I had four place names to remember, I who also have four names. Elections Canada recently proposed a plan to redraw the federal electoral map—
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, Elections Canada recently proposed a plan to redraw the federal electoral map and give Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia four more seats while taking one seat away from Quebec. This electoral map reform will forever make us, the people of Quebec, a negligible quantity in the Canadian system. While Quebec currently holds 78 out of 338 seats in the current House of Commons, if the p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I think that basically, every province can fight its own battles. I have no problem with that. If Nova Scotia and New Brunswick want to make an issue of this, that can be discussed, no problem, on condition that Quebec does not lose its democratic weight in the House. That is what needs to be taken into account: if the weight is increased for other provinces, then logically, it should…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague criticize me for promoting the fundamental objective of the Bloc Québécois, which is Quebec's independence. I also heard him fiercely standing up for his fellow citizens. That is what we are doing. He was elected to represent his fellow citizens, just like my colleagues and I were elected to represent ours. We were elected as separatists, knowing that this is not …
Read full speech →Government Orders
During its first term in office, the current government promised to reform the electoral system in order to make it more proportional, but that promise was quickly broken. Of course we were in favour of electoral reform, and I have no reason to believe that we would not support it in the future, but on one condition, of course. We will not automatically give our approval because not all electoral …
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. Of course, our opinions differ. Patrick Taillon, a respected law professor at Université Laval who is well known in Quebec, told Radio-Canada today that it is not enough to argue that a law is useful based on what the Ottawa police chief says. He pointed out that the government also has to show that the use of the act is necessary or essential, s…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, the member accurately described the unjustifiable and unwarranted nature of these blockades. He talked about the need to remove them. I think we can all agree on that. My question will be very simple. The first blockades, like the one at the Ambassador Bridge, occurred well before the Emergencies Act. Why was the same formula not simply reused in downtown Ottawa?
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, one of the tools in the arsenal of the Emergencies Act is the seizure of bank accounts. This was announced with great fanfare. To our understanding, it would be up to a bank or financial institution to play the enforcer, to self-regulate, to determine who took part in the occupation of Ottawa, and to investigate whether a protester has left Ottawa and can therefore have their accoun…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. To sum up the situation, the crowdfunding platforms that are the main reason for the use of the Emergencies Act are already governed by the provinces. There are already laws in place that make it possible to arrest people for a crime or an offence. Thank goodness. Everyone is saying that the siege is illegal. The law already provides for sanction…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Madam Speaker, as you know, the Conservatives and the Bloc are voting the same way, in other words against the Emergencies Act. That being said, I would like to understand something. In 2012, 10 years ago, the student crisis took hold in Quebec. Of course, that crisis did not concern the federal government, but Conservative Party supporters said on the radio that it was time to get out the batons.…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, Karl Marx said that history repeats itself at least twice. The first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce. For Quebec, the War Measures Act is part of a tragic memory. Today, after three weeks of crisis, including one where he was completely absent, the Prime Minister needs to live out his “just watch me” moment by playing tough guy to salvage his failed leadership, which has…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we will leave the shame and guilt aside. I find it unfortunate that the Minister of Canadian Heritage has so little appreciation for his mother-in-law. I hope she is not watching. We salute her nonetheless. At least he said he loved her. I find it odd that he did not hear us say that it was illegal, because we did. In my speech, I specifically stated that if it was illegal, it was als…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, from what I saw, the police in Quebec City managed to enforce the law. They managed to enforce the law at the Ambassador Bridge and in Alberta, when they arrested people who had weapons. There are several examples of where the law was enforced. There has been a serious management and leadership problem in the very region we are in right now. It is as simple as that.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, we cannot make dead men speak. However, and I clearly said this when speaking about both situations, there were real and existing difficulties in both cases. In both cases, the use of the War Measures Act or the Emergencies Act is not justified. We have institutions. We have police. We have the army. We have laws. Occupying a city, or kidnapping a minister, as was the case, is illegal…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the trauma is there, and we must not think of the trauma as illegitimate or irrational. It was an extremely serious situation, for many reasons. We in the Bloc Québécois even moved a motion on our opposition day in 2020 on the 50th anniversary of the October crisis. We simply wanted an apology for the victims. There was no sympathy on our side for any form of criminality. There were v…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, there are a lot of questions there. To begin with, a poll is a poll. It is talked about, negotiated, studied and disputed. We did not analyze the details of the methodology. The important thing to look at is the question being asked. I am sure Quebeckers agree that the act should apply in Ontario or other places where it is needed, but the act does not say that. In its current form, t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we agree with the principle of a public pharmacare program. However, Quebec is often well ahead of Canada and the provinces when it comes to social programs. When the federal proposal clearly includes the right to withdraw with full financial compensation, we will vote in favour. We absolutely support the fact that Canada needs to improve its plan, provided that Quebec can get its h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by wishing all of our colleagues a happy Valentine's Day, and I hope they will be able to celebrate it even though many of them are in Parliament, far away from their partners. Nonetheless, I wish them a very happy Valentines Day. Today, I am pleased to be speaking about Bill C-10, which authorizes a one-time payment of up to $2.5 billion to be made to the prov…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, Ottawa is always trying to centralize powers. Canada is increasingly evolving into a unitary state. It is trying to infringe on jurisdictions that are often not its own. In this instance, we are told that the government is going to move forward but only on the condition that all kinds of programs and supports are created that allow it to encroach on Quebec's jurisdictions. By adding…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am going to be brief. I actually said that we were in favour of the bill. There are things missing from it, but we are in favour of it. We cannot be against what is right. This is a transfer, and we are by no means against transfers. I do not think I ever said in my speech that we needed to slow down transfers for rapid tests.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for his speech. I agree that vaccination is our main ally, since there will be other variants, and that will pose a risk. However, the variants are coming from developing countries. We are starting to talk about a fourth dose, which some people in Quebec and Canada have already received, but there are still three billion people around the world who…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, who chairs the committee I sit on. We will see each other there a little later. I am happy to work with her and to be able to talk to her in the House now as well. My colleague was saying earlier that government transfers made it possible to buy iPads for students. I would like to ask the member what the point of buying iPads is if high-speed Internet is not ye…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. I would also like to ask him a very simple question. If he and his colleagues care so much about the needs of SMEs and other businesses, why did they oppose the assistance program just before the holidays?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for repeating his question. He is asking whether I think there should have been an investigation into that issue. Inflation and rising prices are hot topics right now. There is certainly work to be done there. The topic of grocery store prices keeps coming up more and more. We as a society should never accept that someone might get to the register and not be abl…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to hear my colleague talk about working with the provinces, because the Quebec National Assembly and the provinces share a demand. I am, of course, talking about health transfers. They are demanding that the money be sent without conditions and that the provinces be able to choose how to use the money, since they are the ones paying these taxes. They want the people of …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will try to respond. The interpretation was rather quick. I want to make sure I understood the question. To my understanding, our colleague would have liked the government to tackle the price of food. Did I understand correctly? Would it be possible to ask my colleague to repeat his question a little slower? I want to be sure I answer correctly.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will share my time with my esteemed, and I hope estimable, friend and colleague from Beauport‑Limoilou. I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-8, an act to implement certain provisions of the economic and fiscal update tabled in Parliament on December 14, 2021 and other measures. That is its actual title, but since it is a little long, we will simply refer to i…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I do not believe I conflated any such thing. That is not what I said. I invite my colleague to ask me about something I actually said if he wants me to explain any part of my speech.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, there are a lot of questions to answer. This small measure is nowhere near enough, but it is a step in the right direction. We are not fans of the interference, however. Even though the federal government took over the housing file in 1935, it is meant to be a provincial jurisdiction according to the Canadian Constitution. Do we need to bring in skilled workers? Yes, absolutely. The…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his intervention. As we know, the Speech from the Throne is meant to express a general intention and is one of the most significant moments in a new mandate and at the beginning of a new Parliament. Here we have my colleague talking about child care centres and the importance of encouraging women to work. I am glad to see that Quebec has been a source of …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, people are going out and getting their third doses. They are doing their part. What people want to hear is not that there are enough vaccines for a possible fourth dose. What they want to hear is that the pandemic is over. For that to happen, everyone around the world needs to be vaccinated. Two weeks ago, I heard the government celebrate the fact that there were one billion doses in …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, people are worn out by COVID‑19. We are all fed up with omicron, but we cannot give up yet. What we need now is one big push to end the pandemic once and for all. What omicron showed us is that the pandemic will not be over and done with until the whole world is vaccinated. Global vaccination is the only way out of this crisis. What is the government doing to speed up vaccination in o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, it is pretty clear that time is running out. If 70% of the world's population is not vaccinated within the next six months, there could be a new wave. We could end up in another crisis. Time is of the essence. Last month, the vice president of human development at the World Bank said: “At this stage, it is not obvious that this objective will be achieved”. Global vaccination is headed…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank the opposition leader for his speech. To those of us in the Bloc, it is pretty clear that beneath the veil of humanitarianism lies the real reason for Canada's involvement: fossil fuels. That said, here is my question for him: Would his hawkish, provocative stance not just strengthen Russia's ties with China?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, trade with the United States is challenging these days. As members know, the Deputy Prime Minister wrote to American senators, threatening them with retaliatory actions if they go after Canada's electric vehicle sector. We agree. However, we have to wonder why Ottawa is not doing anything about softwood lumber. When the Americans announced that they were doubling their tariffs, there …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I also thank him for congratulating our colleague from Trois-Rivières. Winning by just one vote is still a win. We are very happy to have him here. As far as I know, there are no studies showing that mandatory minimum penalties have any effect whatsoever on someone's decision to commit a crime. Since my colleague is claiming that mandatory minimu…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, there is a very dangerous intersection in Sainte‑Marie‑Madeleine in my riding. Accidents happen there all the time. There have been quite a few news reports about them lately, including in Le Journal de Montréal. I know I am going to hear about how road signage is a municipal matter. However, there is a railway, and that means Canadian National and Transport Canada are involved. Every…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Quebec is the main target of the United States in this new chapter of the softwood lumber dispute. Ottawa is not standing up to the Americans to defend our industry. Ottawa should have made the Americans understand that Quebec has a completely separate forestry regime that must be examined separately from that of the rest of Canada, since Quebec's regime complies with the North Americ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, my colleague spoke of great missed opportunities. The Bloc would support two amendments to CUSMA. The first would be to regulate these infamous disputes, which are dragging on while our industry is going bankrupt. The Americans are using all kinds of smoke and mirrors to slow down the processes. The other would be to create a standing advisory committee on softwood lumber through CUSM…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, since my colleague is from British Columbia, if I am not mistaken, I would like to hear what he has to say about the stumpage system in his province. The stumpage system in British Columbia is set by the government, as opposed to the Quebec system, where prices are set by the market. That seems to be the sticking point for the U.S. How would my colleague defend British Columbia's syst…
Read full speech →