Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I have taken careful note. Of course, standing committees will be constituted in this House, as they always are. I wonder where that member was last fall, when his party spent three straight months refusing to hear one single government proposal with respect to improving the lives of Canadians, with respect to improving our environment and with respect to moving forward on projects. W…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that, in this time of uncertainty around tariffs and trade with the United States, protecting our workers is critical. That is why we made EI easier to access. We eliminated the one-week waiting period for employment insurance. Also, severance and vacation pay and so on are no longer taken into account, thereby ensuring that workers can benefit from the employment insurance sy…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has been the governor of two central banks. He has had a successful career, which I am sure he is very proud of, in the private sector, and he has come to public service once again. This is another tour of public service for our Prime Minister, with a clear plan to get Canada's economy back on track. That is what the Prime Minister is up to. What the Prime Minister …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am sure you will permit me one burst of enthusiasm to congratulate the people of Edmonton. All Canadians join them in saying, “Go, Oilers, go.” I ask that all questions be allowed to stand.
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Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House, we are so proud to have a new Prime Minister with a clear vision of the country and with a plan to rebuild our economy, a plan to take on the tariff challenges with the United States, a plan to give prosperity to all Canadians and, of course, a plan to comply stringently with the code of ethics for all parliamentarians, which is among the most stringent in t…
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Mr. Speaker, the Thursday question seems to have grown enormously since the election. I have some advice for my friend from Mégantic—L'Érable—Lotbinière: Be concise and hire an editor. I would like to acknowledge his constituents, as well as my own constituents in Gatineau. My fellow Quebeckers across Quebec can rest assured: This new government has a grand vision, a plan for the country's growth,…
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Mr. Speaker, I welcome my hon. colleague from Beauce. What he, like any new member of the House, will learn is that the rules and compliance with our code of ethics are non-negotiable. That is why the Prime Minister was proactive and went above and beyond the requirements of the code of ethics, which the member must also comply with. I hope that he, too, will comply with the code, just like the Pr…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know that evoking conspiracy theories is going to advance the case of the Conservative Party. What I would say, to repeat one more time, is that Canadians should feel very reassured by the fact that we have among the most stringent ethics guidelines in the world and that the Prime Minister has not only met those requirements but exceeded them.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians should feel very reassured that we have among the most stringent ethics requirements for public office holders in the world. The Prime Minister has not only complied with all of those requirements but has also proactively and pre-emptively filed all the information the Ethics Commissioner requires. Obviously, complying with the rules is something we will always do on this si…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister followed all the rules even before they were required. He will continue complying with all the rules. Opposition members like to distract Canadians with these hypotheticals and conjured scenarios. The fact is that we have a Prime Minister and a new government that are hard at work creating opportunity for Canadians, creating the strongest economy in the G7 and reduc…
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has among the most stringent ethics guidelines in the world. The Prime Minister has complied with those ethics guidelines and surpassed the requirements contained in those ethics guidelines. What the Prime Minister is busy doing is not what the member is busy doing. The Prime Minister is busy creating opportunity for Canada, standing up in a trade war against the United States,…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians should rest easy knowing that Parliament and our institutions are governed by one of the most, if not the most, stringent ethics codes in the world. The Prime Minister did everything he could to meet and even exceed his obligations. If the Conservative Party wants to keep trying to dig up dirt, I think voters are going to be disgusted. Our constituents expect us to work here…
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Mr. Speaker, it did not take long for the Conservative Party's question-generating machine to run out of steam. The Conservatives keep saying the same thing over and over. What we are doing here is creating jobs, building a strong economy and standing up to the United States. Naturally, the Prime Minister is meeting and exceeding all the requirements in the ethics code, the most stringent such cod…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, allow me to take a moment to tell all my hon. colleagues that tomorrow, the House will hold its first day of debate on the address in reply to the Speech from the Throne. We anticipate that the six days of debate on the address will be consecutive and that the final vote will take place next Wednesday. In closing, I move: That this House do now adjourn.
Read full speech →Mr. Speaker, I would also like to congratulate you on your election. There have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That, notwithstanding any standing order or usual practice of the House, until the end of the current supply period ending June 23, 2025: (a) Standing Orders 81(4) and 81(5) be replaced with t…
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Mr. Speaker, it is customary in the House for the Bloc members to dismiss the government's economic plans out of hand, before even reading them. That is why they voted against the Canada child benefit. That is why they refused to support the dental plan for Canadians, which benefits many Quebeckers. They voted against the guaranteed income supplement. They consistently vote against many measures t…
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Mr. Speaker, shouting partisan slogans, like the member opposite is doing, is certainly not going to unite this country. The government has a serious plan to move forward in the face of American protectionist threats. As part of our economic statement to be presented later today, we will deliver prosperity for all Canadians. Yes, we will be there to protect Canadians from any protectionist threat.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada went through a four-week postal strike where letter carriers, who we do thank for their service to Canadians and who I know we all have deep affinity for, were out for a very long time. Not only the government but the Canada Industrial Relations Board has judged there to be a fundamental impasse in the negotiations. We have found an imaginative way forward, a way to get a colle…
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Mr. Speaker, as that member well knows, postal workers and Canada Post were struggling to find a path forward at the negotiating table. It had gone on for four weeks. Canadians were, quite rightly, whether they were indigenous or in remote communities, whether they were small business persons or whether they were people expecting medicines, pressing us to act. We found an imaginative way forward w…
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Mr. Speaker, later today, the government will present its economic plan. It is a solid plan for Canadians that will help us ensure fairness, maintain jobs and continue to look out for the best economic interests of all Canadians.
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Mr. Speaker, it is time to set partisanship aside and join forces, because Canada will indeed face a protectionist threat from the other side of the border. We are getting ready and we will have a solid plan. I hope we can count on this member and his party when the time comes for Canada to address this threat.
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Mr. Speaker, of course we did respect and do respect workers' rights to negotiate a collective agreement. That is why the government has proposed, and I have proposed, a way forward where we can avoid the postal workers' being on picket lines for an untold and unknown amount of time, take a pause and have an independent, respected arbitrator look at the situation, propose a way forward and indeed …
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Mr. Speaker, we acted decisively today to offer a creative solution to the labour dispute between Canada Post and its workers. That constitutionally protected right to strike has been exercised for four weeks. If workers were not to be on picket lines for some indefinite period over the holidays, a solution had to be brought. We work for all Canadians in the House. Canadians were suffering. Small …
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Mr. Speaker, we sit in this place and hear Conservatives ask the same question, written by their party leader, over and over again. That question has been asked and answered dozens of times in the House, so I have a question for my Conservative friends. They seem very concerned about deficits. Can they offer one thing? Where are they going to start cutting? They should be specific.
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Mr. Speaker, the job of the Minister of Labour is to respect the Canada Labour Code. That is exactly what we have done. Today, I acted decisively to use one of the powers granted to the Minister of Labour by Parliament, under the Canada Labour Code, to provide a reasonable solution to workers and a creative way out of this very fundamental impasse that we see at the bargaining table. We are going …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), I have the honour to table, in both official languages, Canada's report with respect to international labour organization instruments adopted at the 111th session of the International Labour Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland, in June 2023.
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑377 and Bill C‑525, some of the most anti-labour legislation in western history, passed in a previous Parliament. The spokesperson and main architect of those bills was none other than the current Leader of the Opposition. That makes him the most anti-union leader in Canadian history. I invite that member to explain his position.
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C-377 and Bill C-525 will go down in history as some of the most oppressively anti-labour legislation ever passed in Parliament. One of the very first acts of this government was to repeal both of those pieces of legislation. The author of those pieces of legislation was none other than the Leader of the Opposition, its chief architect and chief salesman. He is the most anti-work…
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Mr. Speaker, of course, we are very proud of the low unemployment rate in Quebec, the record level of foreign investments coming into our country and being a world leader in that regard. What does my colleague do when we offer a tax holiday on children's clothing, toys, Christmas trees and restaurant meals? He stands up and votes nay. He wants to make life affordable, but he is against affordabili…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, here is what needs to be weighed by the member and all members of this House of Commons: The Conservatives are asking the New Democratic Party to vote for a leader who says, “The union has the power to shut down a workplace.... These legal powers give the union a state-enforced monopoly on labour”. Those are the exact words of the member for Carleton, the leader of that member's party…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased that the member is talking about the government's track record. This member will never have a track record, because his party will never form the government. However, he is talking about a very serious situation: homelessness. That is why, yes, we are investing record amounts in housing. We are investing $110 billion in the national housing strategy, which includes t…
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Mr. Speaker, no one believes the Leader of the Opposition. He will not stand up for Canada and he is in the right-wing echo chamber with respect to trade with the United States. He failed to stand up for farmers and for others in a bumper crop. There are these foreign interference allegations, and the member is quite right: The member for Calgary Nose Hill ran as fast as I have ever seen anyone ru…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During question period this Tuesday, I made a remark that I wish to withdraw.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, in the House, and in other public settings, there has been a member of Parliament, and I will let the leader guess which one, but that member has been here for about 20 years and has a big pension, who has said the following couple of quotes. Perhaps the member could comment on them. This member has said, “The union has the power to shut down a workplace...legal powers give the union …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time. Perhaps the member for Kings—Hants will even be nice enough to finish my speech. I am honoured to rise today to speak about our government's strong commitment to fairness for Canadian workers in the face of a very hypocritical Conservative leader who is determined to weaken the labour movement in Canada. The member for Carleton is trying to wax poetic in t…
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Mr. Speaker, I find what my colleague said hard to believe. Let us consider the fact that he just voted against removing the GST from coats, mittens, children's clothing, and a good number of restaurant and prepared meals. This member not only voted against the GST cut, but, believe it or not, he is also against the breakfast club. He does not want to fund breakfast and lunch at schools. It is unb…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I fear my friends across the aisle will not enjoy the rest of my speech. When I left off, I was talking about the abject hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to working people, unions and the labour movement in this country. I am going to quote a few things here. The Conservative leader said union contracts that pay workers a decent wage result in a pointless, unnec…
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Mr. Speaker, in the spirit of the season where white stuff is indeed on the ground, if members take offence to being called a snowflake, then I certainly withdraw the snowflake comment that I said about the snowflake thing.
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Mr. Speaker, there was a time in the House when the honour of the members was to be presumed. The question that came from across was strongly intimating that the Minister of Public Safety willingly put children in danger. We do not do that in the House. We should not do that in the House. That is not cool and that is not correct. That member should apologize to the Minister of Public Safety for im…
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Mr. Speaker, how dare the Conservative Party of Canada members stand up in the House and talk about the treatment of seniors. I will remind the member that her former leader, Stephen Harper, went to Davos for the World Economic Forum, instead of going to King—Vaughan, to announce to Canadians that henceforth, the retirement age would be moving to 67 from 65. We reversed that. That member should be…
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Mr. Speaker, the member spoke about a political decision. Was it a political decision for the Bloc Québécois to vote against every increase to the guaranteed income supplement? What did the Bloc Québécois do when it came time to support the Canadian dental care plan for the most vulnerable seniors in Quebec and Canada? It made a political choice to say no to dental care for seniors. That side of t…
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Mr. Speaker, let us not get into the Bloc Québécois's political choices. It has made several political choices that are bad for the future of Quebec and for the future of seniors in Quebec. On a different note, we have improved the Canada pension plan. Quebec adopted its own version to improve retirement pensions for future generations and future seniors. The Bloc Québécois was against that. We we…
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Mr. Speaker, the member seems to be referring to incidents last summer where, I might add, I consulted with the Conservative Party, which was urging me, as we did at the time, to come to the aid of farmers in Saskatchewan and throughout western Canada who were trying to get what was a bumper crop to the ports and international markets, which is the pride of Canada. We intervened to save Canadian f…
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Mr. Speaker, happily, the member and her party have supported the Liberal record of success in supporting seniors, on things like dental care, expanding old age security and topping up the guaranteed income supplement. We have managed to accomplish this in this Parliament and it is a great tribute to those members who have voted for those things. Unfortunately, we have had to do so walking into th…
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Mr. Speaker, my friend across the aisle would have more credibility if he had not systematically voted against all the supports we thought were needed during and after the pandemic to help our seniors. Consider, for example, the GIS increase and the housing programs that will build more homes for seniors in Quebec and across the country. We will take no lessons from the Bloc Québécois when it come…
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Mr. Speaker, we are committed to helping seniors, despite the push back from the other side of the House, from the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois, who consistently vote against helping our seniors, time and time again. Consider the Canadian dental care plan. The Bloc Québécois has systematically voted against hundreds of thousands of Quebeckers who benefit from it. The Bloc Québécois voted a…
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Mr. Speaker, we would think this was not from the party that supported the anti-union, oppressive Bill C-377 and Bill C-525. We would think this was not from the party who has in its own policy handbook the fact that it will be bringing in right-to-work, Alabama-style legislation to the House. We would think this was not the party that refused to debate that very motion this morning in the House o…
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Mr. Speaker, we would think that was not the party that opposed 10 sick days for employees in federally regulated industries. We would think that was a party that did not have right-to-work, Mississippi-style legislation in its policy platform. We would think that was not the party whose very leader decried the involvement of unions in procurement and other processes. The current Conservative Part…
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Mr. Speaker, I guess that member is back from announcing the housing projects in her riding, which she voted against in the House of Commons. It is a joke. It is a sick joke to watch these Conservatives line up behind this leader and his fake, false bravado, putting motions on the floor of the House. Then, when we ask them to debate those very motions, what do they say? They say no. They refuse to…
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Mr. Speaker, we have invited Quebec to invest with us to combat homelessness in cities and towns across Quebec. I hope that the Government of Quebec will accept the Government of Canada's help so that, together, we can fight homelessness in our cities. As for tax avoidance, the Government of Canada has made major investments in that regard. The Canada Revenue Agency strives every day to reduce tax…
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