Parliamentary Speeches
512 speeches by Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay — Page 6 of 11
Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, we know that buying local is crucial. However, to benefit from local goods and services, we need entrepreneurs with solid regional and national roots. The Acton region understands this extremely well. The Acton business community owes a great deal to Johanne Joannette, who headed the local chamber of commerce for 22 years. Under Johanne's leadership, the chamber thrived. It moved into…
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Mr. Speaker, it is unanimous. This morning, with one voice, the Quebec National Assembly spoke out against Ottawa's decision to give Boeing the contract for surveillance aircraft without a call for tenders. All of the elected officials in Quebec have spoken out against this deliberate choice to discount our aerospace industry. Ottawa's contempt is not just depriving our industry of a $9-billion co…
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Madam Speaker, before getting to the heart of the matter, I too want to join my colleagues in expressing my full solidarity with the artisans from TVA who were laid off as part of this restructuring. People are now unemployed, the national news media is in crisis, and a culture is under threat. We must take action and be proactive by translating solidarity and compassion into meaningful action. I …
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Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleague. We work well together on the Standing Committee on International Trade. As the member knows, we have our work cut out for us. We are currently studying a Health Canada regulation that hurts Canadian and Quebec products and gives a leg up to our American competitors. After that, we will be studying the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement. We will then study the …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and fellow member of the Standing Committee on International Trade. We did that study together, in fact. I think we can both attest to the fact that we were able to do what had to get done, although any new important facts could well deserve further study. Can my colleague tell us more about why the Standing Committee on International Trade is perhaps not the be…
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Madam Speaker, as I said earlier, just because we disagree with the amendment does not mean we disagree with the report and do not think this issue warrants further investigation. More broadly, what does my colleague think of the fact that Canada has one of the worst records when it comes to protecting travellers? ArriveCAN is a scandal for travellers whose trips were cancelled and who had no righ…
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Madam Speaker, I just want to ask my colleague why the debate on numbers is so taboo. The ministries are responsible for determining integration capacity. I think the operative word here is “capacity”. A Quebec government minister in a previous legislature talked about taking in fewer immigrants but taking better care of them. This idea would be a reasonable topic for debate. Why is everyone so qu…
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Madam Speaker, it is funny to hear Gérald Godin being quoted. Did the member know that Godin also said, “The federal policy on French in Canada can generally be summarized as follows: strengthen French where it is on its last legs; remain passive where there are real chances for it to assert itself and weaken it where it is strong”? It can be fun to quote Gérald Godin, just like the parish priests…
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Madam Speaker, I rise in the House today to speak to Bill C‑34 as the Bloc Québécois critic for international trade. This bill seeks to improve the Canada Investment Act to add certain control mechanisms for foreign investments that might undermine national security. Is Canada, a laggard in so many sectors and industries that have an undeniable strategic value, breaking from its idyllic vision of …
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Mr. Speaker, you picked the wrong member for a short 15‑second question. You know me. The time is already almost up. We welcome the progress and the improvements that the bill makes to the current act, but why are the rules still so slack, and why is there so little scrutiny?
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was criticizing the Bloc Québécois for voting against the Conservative amendments. I just want to make it clear that the Conservative amendments were intended to label just about every state-owned enterprise not run by our Five Eyes partners as hostile. I do not know if he is aware that 40% of European investments made in Canada are made in Quebec. One example is Airbus, …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is a Quebec MP. I suspect he is sensitive to the interests of Quebec. Some of the Conservative amendments proposed during the review of Bill C‑34 may have cast suspicion on certain foreign state-owned companies outside the Five Eyes group. What impact would that have had on the A220 aircraft currently being assembled in Mirabel in partnership with the government of Queb…
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Mr. Speaker, we still do not understand why, following a health crisis and after having removed investor-state dispute settlement from NAFTA, Canada insists on including it in new agreements. It poses a constant threat to democracy and the right to legislate. In the case of Ukraine, for example, we would not be able to seize assets, as Ukraine has done with some of its citizens for collaborating w…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers are proud of their aerospace sector, and especially proud of Bombardier. Bombardier has developed outstanding expertise over the years, and has turned Joseph‑Armand's company into a key international player in aircraft construction. However, when the time comes for Ottawa to modernize its Aurora maritime patrol aircraft, it turns to Boeing, no tender process needed. With no…
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Mr. Speaker, give me a break. Aeronautics industry leaders are on Parliament Hill today. The director of the International Aeronautics and Civil Aviation Observatory, people representing machinists and UNIFOR, and even the former commander of the RCAF are here. They have all the answers to any question the government might ask. They have all the information that proves that, when it comes to aeron…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's trenchant condemnation of the lack of transparency in most of these negotiations. What a shame the Liberals did not listen during his speech. Had they listened, they might understand when we ask them questions about investor-state dispute settlement. Maybe they would not get that mixed up with state-to-state dispute settlement, and then maybe they could avo…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House to speak to Bill C‑57, which seeks to modernize the 2017 Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, or CUFTA. I rise as the Bloc Québécois international trade critic, and I am pleased to speak on behalf of my political party today. I just want to remind the House that our party is continuing a tradition, because Quebec's independence movement has been advocating fo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not sure how to unpack everything I just heard. First, yes, in its agreements, Canada has some experience in undermining supply management three times, failing to protect aluminum in CUSMA, not pushing for our interests and fundamental values multiple times, and hiding several things from us. To the question from my colleague who says that we should allow the negotiators to do th…
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Mr. Speaker, we can rest easy about the supply management aspect, because the text excludes those sectors. There is nothing that resembles the order the government made on the sly, somewhat surreptitiously, in 2022. We can rest assured on that front. As for the power of multinationals, we will assess how much flexibility we have because, as I said, there is very little we can change. However, that…
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Mr. Speaker, our level of confidence in this government is as low as the official opposition's. We sometimes wonder whether the government truly deserves our trust. In this case, one of the irritants is transparency and, frankly, the Conservatives are no better in that regard when they are in power. There are models out there in the world. It is not necessary to present an agreement like this and …
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Mr. Speaker, in response to my colleague's question, I can say that there is indeed some good. We support the principle and we have no interest in dragging out or disrupting the natural process. Indeed, sooner would be better. However, I want to reiterate what I was saying at the end: I do not want our reservations to be diminished. I am calling on the government to commit to us, whether through a…
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Mr. Speaker, I only have a few seconds. A quick question lends itself to a quick answer. I apologize for not heeding your instructions. I do not want you to think, even though we were friends even before we sat together, that I do not respect your authority as Speaker. My very short answer to the question is no.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Amnesty International is calling on Export Development Canada, EDC, to stop funding Canadian mining companies in Colombia, where human rights violations are on the rise. Some 146 political dissidents were killed last year. That represents 46% of all political assassinations around the world. Environmental activists, farmers, indigenous people and anyone who has reservations about the …
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Mr. Speaker, CORE, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, does not even have the authority to call witnesses. I went to Colombia in 2021 as part of a human rights mission. I can confirm that there are some disturbing accounts there. Ottawa has no idea what is happening with the mining companies abroad. Export Development Canada has no checks and balances or credible monitoring. Otta…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C‑38, an act to amend the Indian Act, which corrects serious mistakes committed in the past regarding the status of many first nations members. Today, I speak on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, but also as a member of the Huron‑Wendat Nation. First, let me say one thing: The Indian Act is a colonial law that introduced a system of domination a…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, and as one might imagine, when I was asked to speak to this issue, I immediately contacted the grand chief of my nation, the Huron-Wendat Nation. I asked him what he thought of this. It goes without saying that this must be done. That being said, when it comes to leadership, it takes two to tango, as they say. It has to come from both sides. The desire for dialogue and lead…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by congratulating our colleague on his excellent efforts to speak French. Allow me to applaud him. I understood his speech completely. First of all, I would like to say that, for my own sake, I have long given up trying to explain the Liberal's slow response to a host of issues. Some things are better left chalked up to the mysteries of life. Even on my deathbed,…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to be sure that I understand the situation that my colleague just described to the House. His intervention was very interesting. Something that has always bothered me is the use of the term “indigenous people”. Of course, people use it to be brief and concise, but indigenous people are not a homogenous group. We refer to first nations because there is more than one nation. Each…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, neighbour and friend for his question. Let me make one thing clear. The title of this bill, while perhaps a little better than the title it replaced, is in itself a sign that it must be abolished. I used the word “Indian” unwillingly, and it turned my stomach every time I used it throughout my speech. I was using it for the sole reason that it is the title of the…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a simple question. Why are we talking about sustainable jobs and not a just transition?
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Mr. Speaker, I hope the tomatoes are the only red things in my colleague's riding. Who does he think stands to gain from this? Why are we here? Why choose such an ambiguous title? Why put such gobbledygook in something that should be very sensible and straightforward?
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, the wonderful city of Saint‑Hyacinthe is blowing out 275 candles this year. This afternoon, I welcomed the mayor, André Beauregard, to my office and presented him with a commemorative plaque to mark this very happy anniversary. What is now a city was once a seigneury. Its first mayor was Louis-Antoine Dessaulles, Louis-Joseph Papineau's nephew. In the 19th century, it was home base …
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. People can have conversations in our lovely lobbies. In fact, there are even cubicles just outside where people can have conversations without bothering everyone. They are very comfortable, so I invite members who are not interested in this debate to go there. My question is very simple. I would like to know why the Liberals and the NDP are afraid of the words, “just transi…
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Mr. Speaker, I cannot hear myself.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure what I did to deserve such applause and support from my Conservative colleagues, but I appreciate it. Sometimes it is possible to be transpartisan when one has good ideas. I tip my hat to my dear friends. It is a great pleasure for me to rise in the House today to speak to Bill C‑280, which is extremely important for our farmers, particularly our fruit and vegetable grow…
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Mr. Speaker, I think that there are some things on which we can agree. First, public spending is needed in times of crisis, that is obvious. Even when we are not in a crisis, public spending is needed, which can sometimes create deficits. Of course, balancing the books must not be synonymous with brutal austerity, like in the disastrous days of triumphant neo-liberalism. At the end of the day, wha…
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Madam Speaker, let me read point (a) of the Conservatives' motion: (a) the Bloc Québécois supported the so-called “Clean Fuel Standard”... I have only one question. Maybe you can enlighten me, Madam Speaker, since you know so much about parliamentary procedure. How is it possible to support a standard?
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Madam Speaker, I am going to repeat my colleague's very simple question. Is climate change real or not?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I salute my colleague, who is the chair of the committee I sit on. We have been working together almost on a weekly basis for almost four years. I congratulate her on her bill. Obviously, the Bloc Québécois will support it. We see no reason to oppose it. That being said, the measures in this bill are mostly symbolic in nature, like an awareness month or producing a report. Once it h…
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Madam Speaker, both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have blamed municipalities for the delays in housing construction. However, according to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the National Bank and TD Bank, the lack of housing in Canada has more to do with a sharp rise in demand. This sharp rise in demand is partly the result of immigration. What does the Leader of th…
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Mr. Speaker, the Competition Act, which was the main focus of the speech by my colleague opposite, has two components. It prohibits certain anti-competition practices, and it makes corporate mergers and acquisitions more difficult. In Canada, the status quo boils down to a single practice: efficiency gains. The efficiency argument allows buyouts. The Competition Bureau gives them a pass. Could my …
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Mr. Speaker, with this bill, which is a mini-reform and contains a few small measures, is the government admitting that the Canadian housing strategy is a failure? Objectively, it has been a failure. Is that what the government is admitting?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to Bill S‑222, which finally appears to promote the use of forest products in public works. After all, it was about time, was it not? The Bloc Québécois has repeatedly proposed that the oh-so-generous federal government use its procurement policy to support the forestry sector. It is such a bold idea that it could even have economic a…
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Madam Speaker, as we know, Canada was built on the railway and has since trended toward constant deregulation. That, of course, led to the Lac‑Mégantic disaster. The only thing that has increased since that tragedy is the transportation of oil by train, which has increased dramatically. That is the only thing that has changed since 2013. This bill proposes increased regulation for goods. A few yea…
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Madam Speaker, the Lac-Mégantic tragedy happened in 2013, and Bill C-33 was introduced in 2023, 10 years later. Ten years passed between those two events, and the Liberals were in power for eight of those 10 years. Why is it that, even in urgent situations where people are in danger, the Liberal MO is always to put things off indefinitely, introduce a bill that is too weak and spout a bunch of emp…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today is National Indigenous Peoples Day. On this day, we celebrate the traditions and cultural wealth of the first nations and Inuit peoples, and acknowledge the tremendous debt that we owe them. Quebeckers acknowledge this debt. They realize that more must be done. When it comes to residential school victims, murdered and missing women and access to resources, rhetoric is not enough…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague did a good job of explaining that, although forest fires have certainly always existed, climate change is making conditions worse and far more conducive to these types of fires and many other disasters that will keep making headlines. Over the past few days, the air in Ottawa was absolutely impossible to breathe and the sky was totally grey. It was terrible here, even th…
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Mr. Speaker, I have often heard the Minister of Environment boast in the House about 2021, saying that emissions reached record-setting lows that year. This is hardly surprising, considering there was a pandemic going on. Although he denied it, I remember that the vast majority of Quebeckers had to comply with a curfew for half the year, which says a lot about the strict lockdown in effect at the …
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Madam Speaker, the dinosaurs are presenting the environmental transition as a cost. It is true that polluting may seem like the profitable option when we look just at the economic indicators. During the rise of globalization and the triumph of neo-liberalism, we were told to forget about national production and buying local and to go global instead. We were told to think about the international di…
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Mr. Speaker, I will start with a little aside to congratulate my colleague from Repentigny for her exceptional work in committee. In his speech, my colleague spoke about the issue of labelling. The Senate proposed all sorts of amendments concerning labelling, toxic substances and even GMOs. Why did the Liberals vote against these amendments? Will the Liberals promise to make labelling a focus of t…
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