Parliamentary Speeches
634 speeches by Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay — Page 4 of 13
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that option is therefore not off the table. Can we safely assume that?
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Mr. Speaker, let us get back to the retaliatory measures we have been talking about. We know that the Minister of Finance challenged the study conducted by Oxford Economics. If I am not mistaken, he mentioned that earlier. How many billions of dollars were we at? Can he just remind me of the figure that was given a little earlier—
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Mr. Speaker, we know that this initiative is a major source of dissatisfaction. I have the data right here: There are calculation errors in duties and taxes, trouble obtaining technical support, serious system performance issues, and 22 service interruptions. Everything I just mentioned happened in the first month of the program's existence. Is that what the minister calls a system that was ready …
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Mr. Speaker, I heard the minister's press conference too. He was disputing the 97.5% figure from Oxford Economics. On social media, he said that 70% of the retaliatory tariffs that Canada has imposed on the United States since the beginning are still in place. Can we get the most official figures available this evening?
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Mr. Speaker, I believe I am already following his account, but I do not think he is following mine. I would like to return the invitation. Let us move on to another topic. We know that starting next January, the European Union will begin imposing tariffs on imports from countries that do not have carbon pricing. It has even stated that it will start with high-emission sectors, including steel and …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to move on to another topic, namely the negotiations for a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. Negotiations seem to have been stalled for quite some time. It turns out they have been officially suspended for a year and a half. Can we get an update on the discussions?
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the ministers on their appointments to cabinet. I will start with a simple question. Does the minister not find it a little strange that we are here in this committee of the whole, but we still do not have the departmental plans?
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Mr. Speaker, I will clarify once again what I would like to know. Did he get a guarantee from the European Union that the changes made to Canada's carbon pricing system would not have an impact on exports?
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Mr. Speaker, we are really looking forward to that. I am going to ask a question about international trade. The person who is now the Minister of International Trade was once a fellow member of the Standing Committee on International Trade. Trade agreements include safeguard measures that are defined as emergency actions. These measures are taken when there are increased imports of particular prod…
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Mr. Speaker, I will address one last subject. My colleague and I studied the CARM system, the CBSA assessment and revenue management system, twice at the Standing Committee on International Trade. Fears were expressed. The system was criticized by some people, including importers and exporters. Today, according to a survey of their members, things are not going well at all. Apparently, the situati…
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Mr. Speaker, has a date been set for negotiations to resume, or are we not there yet?
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Mr. Speaker, did the main sticking points come up in the discussions that he confirmed took place? We know that for them, it is our supply management system. Hormone-treated beef was also a very difficult subject and was one of the reasons negotiations were suspended. Were these things discussed, or was there just a commitment to raise them again when the negotiations resume?
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa just announced $9 billion in new defence spending starting this year. In the current global context, the Bloc Québécois agrees that we must invest in defence, but that is another $9 billion that the Liberals are asking us to blindly support without a budget or even an economic update. No one will know how that spending will be financed or how big the deficit is at the time of v…
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Mr. Speaker, the layoffs in the forestry industry are an indication of what is going to happen with steel and aluminum if Ottawa does not change its current approach, which is to do nothing at all. We know that it is not what they are known for, but maybe the Liberals could be proactive for once. They need to proactively offer cash to the industry and create a wage subsidy to prevent a wave of lay…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech. He suggested that the pipeline is an element of nation-building. The new Canadian identity is taking shape. We neglected this concept for decades, but now the American giant is forcing us to define Canadian identity. Some believe this new identity should be shaped by a pipeline. If I understand correctly, Alberta's gambit was to convinc…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Mirabel for his presentation. I thought that his focus on the Trojan horse that is one economy out of 13 was interesting. The Liberals claim that they have changed, that they have turned over a new leaf. However, if we look back over the history of governments in the House, whether following the events involving the Patriotes, the world wars, the 1980 refer…
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Mr. Speaker, congratulations on your new title and your new seat. I hope you are enjoying your time in the chair. My colleague talked about the government's intentions with regard to reducing greenhouse gases. First, I would like to know if she believes it. I would also like to hear her thoughts on how these objectives square with all the talk about building this pipeline. Does my colleague believ…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers were told during the election to vote Liberal because their leader would have superpowers that could neutralize Donald Trump. We are seeing the outcome of that today: Donald Trump doubled the tariffs on steel and aluminum. Well done. The Bloc Québécois has said it before: These industries need to be offered liquidity and the money from the retaliatory measures need to be re…
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Mr. Speaker, we are not interested in who the minister had supper with yesterday. We want to know what she is doing today. The aluminum and steel industry has been dealing with tariffs for three months now. For three months, Ottawa has offered nothing to help them. The Prime Minister's negotiations did not produce results. The tariffs even doubled. Today, cash flow and wage subsidies are needed to…
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Mr. Speaker, when Ontario's auto industry was threatened with tariffs, Ottawa rushed in with $2 billion. Quebec aluminum has been subject to tariffs for three months now. Still, not a single cent has been released. Ottawa should have already offered direct assistance to the industry and shared some of the proceeds from the retaliatory tariffs. In the next 24 hours, Donald Trump could double his ta…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, today, the third day since our return to Parliament, I am rising for the first time this session. I want to sincerely thank the voters of Saint‑Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton for giving me a third mandate. The riding's name has changed, but it still has the same borders and the same extraordinary constituents. I love them from the bottom of my heart. I will live up to the mandate they have giv…
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Mr. Speaker, this is the first time that I have asked my leader a question, but since we did not confer together earlier, I do not expect any kudos for the quality of my question or my hard work. In fact, what I have to say is quite simple. We heard this question and we know that Ottawa has a long history of using crises to further centralize power. We have also heard multiple times about differen…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to come back to the matter of creating one economy out of 13. The House has recognized on two occasions that Quebec is a distinct nation. The first was when the symbolic motion was adopted in 2006. The second was during the 2019-21 Parliament. The government officially and constitutionally recognized that we are a distinct nation. It voted for that. However, the government seem…
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Madam Speaker, when we speak of borders, that includes the ports. I am not that familiar with my colleague's riding, but auto theft has long been a major issue at the port of Montreal. Clearly, the lack of surveillance is a problem. We have the same problem at the border, which is probably related to the problem at the ports.
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Madam Speaker, I am very honoured to rise today in the parliament of America's 51st state, albeit in the absence of its governor. All kidding aside, I think we are dealing here with a very important, troubling situation. Let us be clear: We must not bury our heads in the sand, but neither should we engage in fearmongering. We are still talking about the threat of tariffs, but our discussions centr…
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Madam Speaker, I do not think so, but I would say that there is definitely a difference. I would say that I agree with both sides. I think it is better to have a deal than no deal, but it is often better to have no deal than a bad deal. That is clear. We agree with that. I also think there may be a way out of this. Stakeholders in the U.S. do not seem to be unanimous on the softwood lumber issue. …
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Madam Speaker, the fact that the provincial premiers are doing all the work may be a sign. First, it is certainly not making me reconsider my political viewpoint. Second, I think that the fact that the agreement inappropriately called “Confederation” states that international relations are the purview of the federal government says something. That being said, the only time Quebec and Ontario were …
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Madam Speaker, it is a very simple principle. The less we depend on one country, the better off we are. There may be ups and downs. At the moment, we are talking about the United States, but, no matter which partner we are talking about, when we put all our eggs in one basket, we make ourselves vulnerable to this kind of situation, as we saw in 2019 when China decided to halt all imports of Canadi…
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Madam Speaker, I think it goes without saying that we are always better off going into negotiations ourselves, 100% focused on our own interests. We should not have to fight tooth and nail to promote and protect little bits of our interests here and there. I gave a few examples. It is a good thing we were there to fight for aluminum, although a concrete change in the status of aluminum in the agre…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no longer any doubt about it: The CARM app is a fiasco. There was already talk of a 50% cost overrun and a $556-million price tag. However, by last March, maintenance costs had already pushed that price tag up to $625 million. At this rate, we could well be over the $800-million mark. Not to mention that CARM must also have been costly ever since it was rolled out, because it…
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Mr. Speaker, it is expensive when the Liberals go digital. There is the Phoenix payroll system, which is still giving public servants nightmares after nearly nine years. There was ArriveCAN, which was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing $60 million, benefiting shady companies that did not even deliver any services. Now there is CARM, which cost at least $625 million, and quite likely mor…
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Mr. Speaker, first it was the ArriveCAN fiasco, and now the CBSA assessment and revenue management, or CARM, fiasco is taking down the Canada Border Services Agency. This app for clearing goods at the border crashed 22 times in its first 30 days, paralyzing imports. It is a complete failure with a 50% cost overrun, inconclusive testing and documentation being hidden from parliamentarians. Clearly …
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Mr. Speaker, the minister responded yesterday by praising the work of border officers. We too salute their work. It is their bosses in the offices we are not so sure about. The CBSA was already in the hot seat because of ArriveCAN. Now the CARM app is creating another fiasco, with its irregularities and cost overruns. At least ArriveCAN worked. CARM does not even work. If Ottawa fixes this as quic…
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Mr. Speaker, the problems with the CARM app is yet another fiasco for the CBSA. The app, which took 14 years to develop and cost taxpayers $556 million, crashed 22 times in one month. We are talking about half a million dollars, which was a 50% cost overrun, not to mention the fact that the CBSA hid important documents from parliamentarians. Today, the Standing Committee on International Trade vot…
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Mr. Speaker, there is a real cost to the CBSA's fiasco with CARM. The cost to taxpayers is $556 million, but there is a cost to business people as well. Their imports are stuck at the border. They have to cope with billing mistakes, automatic withdrawals made twice and endless delays. There is no client service when CARM crashes. It takes weeks for the CBSA to fix these mistakes. What is the gover…
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Mr. Speaker, the fiasco with the CARM app is not a first for the Canada Border Services Agency. The CBSA was also responsible for the ArriveCAN app, which was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing $60 million. Clearly, there is a fundamental problem at CBSA when it comes to being transparent, tracking expenses and staying on budget. The Bloc Québécois and the Standing Committee on Internat…
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Madam Speaker, I apologize. I did not want to interrupt the speech, but is there a party going on in the House that I have not been invited to and am not aware of? There seems to be a lot of jabbering going on.
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Madam Speaker, what is a government that is sinking in the polls faster than the Titanic after hitting an iceberg to do? It can try to get people talking over Christmas dinner. It can come up with some sort of a measure, a PR stunt, a half-baked measure that gives the impression of putting more money in people's pockets. This measure takes the form of a cheque, for workers to be exact, and not for…
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Madam Speaker, I think that when a government is in free fall as the government is now, its first instinct is to panic. It starts improvising out of necessity. What could it possibly come up with next? We are being invited to take part in a complete sham, a real PR stunt that does not even help the people who are struggling the most. Right now, the most vulnerable people are those who are more lik…
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Mr. Speaker, Trump's tariffs are meant to force Canada to tighten its borders against illegal immigration and drug trafficking. Quebec has been calling on Ottawa for years to fix the border, which is like a sieve. It has even deployed members of the Quebec provincial police force to patrol the border. The Bloc Québécois has been hounding Ottawa to do something about smugglers and organized crime f…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister needs to announce that he is finally taking responsibility at the borders. He needs to announce how he is going to plug the holes in the border by January. That is the bare minimum that he needs to do after shirking his responsibilities, despite repeated warnings from Quebeckers. Smugglers and organized crime bosses have been running the show at the border for years…
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Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump wants to impose a 25% tariff on all Quebec and Canadian products. That would be a disaster for us and for Americans. First, we appreciate the fact that the Prime Minister has agreed to meet with his Quebec and provincial counterparts tomorrow. However, he will have to present a clear plan. He needs to take immediate action to protect supply management with Bill C-282. Ott…
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Mr. Speaker, I am puzzled by my colleague's question, because I did address that point. I devoted several minutes to talking about Bill S-211. That bill that does not cover all human rights. I would remind my colleagues that the UN recognizes human rights as a whole, whereas that bill addresses only forced labour by adults and children, which I obviously agree with, but which is not enough, and on…
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Mr. Speaker, I move that the 21st report of the Standing Committee on International Trade, presented on Wednesday, October 30, be concurred in. The number of shipments seized at Canadian customs, all regions combined, for use of forced labour is zero. That does not include the one shipment that was seized in 2021 and then released following an appeal by the importer. In comparison, Washington seiz…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague touched on a number of areas. We support Bill C‑262. I am a supporter and co-sponsor of the bill, and I thank the NDP for bringing it forward. We support this legislation and, as co-sponsor, I fully and freely endorse it. It is a perfect example of genuine due diligence legislation. The Conservatives and the Liberals voted for Bill S‑211. As I said at the end of my speech…
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Mr. Speaker, I need to start by clarifying something for my colleague. The Liberal chair did not vote in favour of the motion. She was absent that day. His Conservative colleague, the committee's vice-chair, was presiding that day. The vote came down to a tie, and it was his colleague who voted in favour of the motion. I thank him for that. I thank the Conservatives for supporting our motion. I ho…
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Mr. Speaker, I would need a good two or three hours because there is so much to say about that. I have just been asked a question by a colleague from my own party, and I am tempted to pretend that I am reading from notes and to say that I thank him for his hard work and his very relevant question. However, I did not know the question in advance and I do not have an answer written down. There are s…
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Madam Speaker, I request a recorded division.
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Mr. Speaker, we have said it a number of times: We agree that we want to have the documents and that what has been done is unacceptable. Now, why are we not voting? Are my colleagues in the Conservative Party aware that they are making the Liberals happy and helping them because, as long as the House is paralyzed, the Liberals are doing what they like to do best, which is nothing?
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Madam Speaker, let us look at this. First we heard about WE Charity, and then we heard about the $237 million that was given to a couple of guys who started a business just 10 days before they were awarded the contract and who were unable to deliver even half of what they were asked for. Next, we heard about non-indigenous companies passing themselves off as indigenous in order to get contracts. T…
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