Oral Questions
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, 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, 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 …
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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 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, 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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Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. During question period this Tuesday, I made a remark that I wish to withdraw.
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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 …
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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…
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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…
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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, 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…
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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, 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, 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, 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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Madam Speaker, let us calm down. The Bloc Québécois keeps making up scenarios that are absolutely not in play. Our border services have a plan. They have always had a plan and will always have a plan to keep our border secure. We will work with the U.S. administration, regardless of which party is in power. We will collaborate with our partners in the United States. The Bloc Québécois should rest …
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Madam Speaker, we have made the necessary plans to secure our borders and, obviously, we are also working with the Government of Quebec. We have given more funding to provide asylum seekers with shelter and services. These are perhaps the most vulnerable people in the world. Once again, the Bloc Québécois members cannot stop talking about immigration, because they have discovered that they can sco…
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Madam Speaker, we join with the hon. member in worrying about the hare-brained schemes to put Albertans' pensions at risk. The Canada pension plan is a sterling pension plan that Canadians rightly have come to rely on and that, the world over, has been recognized as a model of good management and stability. In fact Canadians can be reassured that the Canada pension plan will be there for them for …
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Madam Speaker, we will always stand up for Canadian workers. We stood up for Canadian workers previously, and we will stand up for Canadian workers at all times. In fact, even today, I know the Deputy Prime Minister is dialoguing with labour leaders across the country. On many levels, all members of the government, on a regular basis, talk to working men and women from our communities to make sure…
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Mr. Speaker, I spoke with the BC MEA and the ILWU on the weekend and reminded them that it is their responsibility to their members, to each other, to Canadians, to farmers, to workers and to businesses to make a deal. It is their responsibility, and they need to do the work necessary to make an agreement.
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Mr. Speaker, the government is monitoring the situation closely, indeed daily. Mediators are working with the parties and are available to assist at any time. We urge them to continue their efforts to reach an agreement. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission will continue to monitor this company for regulatory compliance to ensure the safety of workers, the public and the environment. The facilit…
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Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from the right-to-work Conservative Party on labour relations in Canada, the people who have stood up repeatedly to vote to remove power from unions, to force unions to reveal their financial statistics and to make sure that unions find it hard to certify in workplaces. The union-busting Conservatives will give us no lessons. I work daily with my colleague from…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saguenay—Lac‑Saint‑Jean, but I am surprised to see that after voting against lowering the age of retirement to 65, after voting against the dental care plan, and after voting against increasing the guaranteed income supplement for the most vulnerable seniors, this gentleman is rising to ask us why the cost of living is going up. The cost of living is going up…
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian airlines are, of course, private sector entities. The government sets a minimum standard and lets the hard work of collective bargaining take it from there. Flight attendants have a collective agreement that sets out their hours and their wages, and it is not my place to comment on it.
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Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Government of Canada, the Liberal government, we were able to lower the retirement age to 65, increase the GIS and help hundreds of thousands of Quebeckers by providing dental care for seniors. As a result, we were able to lower seniors' poverty rates well below the national average, all without the support or help of the Bloc Québécois.
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Mr. Speaker, we are delighted by the excellent news my colleagues have just shared with us this morning. Pharmacare is now the law in Canada. Unemployment is now firmly on the decline and wages are on the rise. The only thing in danger of going down is the number of public servants in this country. Every week, this member hints that drastic cuts are coming to our federal public service. Some trans…
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Mr. Speaker, since the Bloc Québécois members no longer seem interested in this file, I would like to remind them that, yesterday evening, I went to Domaine de la Gappe in the beautiful riding of Gatineau to wish residents there a happy Thanksgiving. Incidentally, I also want to wish all members of the House a happy Thanksgiving. These people reassured me. They said, “Mr. MacKinnon, we registered …
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Mr. Speaker, these are not partisan attacks. I would remind the Bloc Québécois that the results of votes in the House are public. Everyone can see what the parties voted on and whether they voted yes or no. In the case of the Bloc Québécois, it voted against increasing the guaranteed income supplement. It voted against pharmacare, which is in effect today and will help diabetics in Quebec with the…
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Mr. Speaker, all of us in the Outaouais region and throughout Quebec and Canada are thrilled that this dispute has been settled after nearly a year. The workers and their families, some 210 families in our region, suffered during the lockout. I obviously want to thank the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for its very active involvement. This has been a top priority for me and my colleagu…
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Mr. Speaker, it is very interesting to hear my colleague talk about people 65 to 74 when we know that she and her political party, the Bloc Québécois, teamed up with the Conservatives to oppose lowering the age of retirement from 67 to 65. The members of the Bloc Québécois are talking about age 65 now, but not so long ago, they wanted us to retire at age 67.
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Mr. Speaker, we would attach a little more credibility to what the separatist party opposite is saying if it had not acted openly and aggressively to oppose hundreds and hundreds of dollars in dental care for every senior in need, not only in Quebec, but across Canada, including 14,000 seniors in the member's own riding. There needs to be a little consistency here.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to reassure my colleague and the entire Bloc Québécois that we know that they are saying yes. However, they have also said no a lot too. They said no every time we increased support for seniors in Quebec and Canada. They like throwing numbers around. There are 2.4 million seniors who benefit from the guaranteed income supplement. We increased the GIS, and the Bloc Québécois vot…
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Mr. Speaker, I have visited my colleague's beautiful region many times. I invite her and everyone else to come to the Outaouais region. While she is in Outaouais, she can explain, through the media or any other forum, to the 14,000 people benefiting from the federal Canadian dental care plan in her riding, Shefford, why she voted against that program.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has never taken a single opportunity to support our seniors. They said no to the guaranteed income supplement. They said no to dental care, which today benefits 14,000 people in Shefford. They said no to housing measures for seniors. When will the Bloc Québécois say yes to seniors?
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Mr. Speaker, when it comes to seniors, I would take the track record of the 35 Liberal members from Quebec over the doings of the Bloc Québécois any day. The Bloc members voted against dental care. They voted against the guaranteed income supplement. They voted against investments in housing for seniors. Every time we have made a proposal for Quebec seniors, Bloc members rose in unison to say no. …
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Mr. Speaker, I will tell the House what seniors are afraid of. They are afraid of having dental care taken away from millions of Canadians. These seniors, certainly seniors in Gatineau, are wondering what the Bloc Québécois is doing with the Conservative Party in favour of austerity, cuts to child care spaces, cuts to dental care and cuts to health insurance. Together with the Conservatives, the B…
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Mr. Speaker, I visited a lot of seniors in my riding on the weekend. Obviously, I take the time to have a good conversation with them. I hope, knowing my hon. colleague, that he said the same thing and was very clear with the seniors, especially when it comes to his opposition to lowering the age of retirement to 65. The Bloc Québécois voted against that. When we increased the guaranteed income su…
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