Government Orders
Madam Speaker, what needs to be acknowledged this morning is that this government refuses to accept its status as a minority government, and has never accepted it, since 2019. Its minority status means that it has to work with the opposition parties. It refused to do so from the beginning, so the government called an election in the middle of a pandemic to try to win a majority. When that did not …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, last week, the Minister of Finance once again made an announcement about inflation without giving one cent to our farmers. She has been warned for months that agriculture is at risk. Inflation strikes farmers three times, not just once. The price of fuel, fertilizer and animal feed has skyrocketed and added $1.5 billion to their costs. If Ottawa does nothing, producers could go bankru…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I take issue with the same things that the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands does: the time-wasting tactics and the reduced time for debate prevent us from getting to the bottom of things. I would like to know whether my colleague was as bothered as I was when we were called to vote twice instead of once to decide which Conservative member would speak. I cannot get over it and I would…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on this bill, and I will start with a confession. I am surprised to find myself agreeing with many of the criticisms expressed by Conservative members. This does not happen very often when it comes to firearms. The Bloc Québécois supports Bill C-21 and will obviously try to improve it in committee. However, it does not address any of the current problems that are…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, do I start over or continue where I left off?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I was saying that I do not understand why the government does not work with the opposition to table bills that will really make a difference. I was talking about a definition for an assault weapon. That is important. Taking action is a Bloc proposal. We have a lot of proposals like that. Every time I rise, I am thrilled to list the Bloc's intelligent and well-thought-out proposals. I …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the answer is, quite simply, no. We are systematically opposed. We have supported time allocation in some very specific circumstances, but in general, we condemn the practice of wasting time with obstruction tactics on both sides of the House. Both sides of the House share responsibility, since the government members do not have enough respect to consult with and talk to the oppositio…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is a bit of a trick question that I got from the House leader of the official opposition about having confidence in the government, since he knows what I have to say. In fact, it is disheartening. Right now, I do not have confidence in the government, but I am reaching out and I think it could be trusted. There needs to be a change in attitude and a collaborative effort, as was t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague, whom I hold in high esteem, for the quality of his speech and his thoughtful consideration. He is proving it again today. When I mentioned the 95% figure earlier, I was referring to 95% of violent crimes committed on the streets of Montreal. We are not talking about the same statistics. I have not seen the statistic that 75% of suicides are com…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that members of the House should remember this before they vote tomorrow or the day after on the motion to use the hybrid format for the business of Parliament for another year. It does not work all the time. I humbly suggest to my fellow members that the hybrid format should be allowed only when necessary. It should not be the norm, but an exception.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to pay tribute to an incredible athlete in my riding, Marcel Jobin, an 80-year-old Olympic race walker from Saint‑Boniface. Mr. Jobin's career highlights include competing in the summer games in Montreal in 1976 and in Los Angeles in 1984, in the 20-kilometre and 50‑kilometre events. He also founded the Académie Marcel‑Jobin, a not‑for‑profit organization that promotes …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like my colleague to further clarify the very important concept of discoverability. How can we establish processes to force platforms to make local content more visible? How does this not threaten freedom of expression, despite the criticisms we have heard, which I think are highly exaggerated?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this again feels like a bad movie where the Conservative Party members are opposing just for the sake of opposing. I will ask my colleague a two-part question. I hope his answer will show me that they are not opposing for the sake of opposing, in this case. He spoke about local Canadian content and how to determine whether content is local. He seemed to be criticizing the implementati…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my very distinguished and much appreciated colleague from Drummond for his colourful speech in which he found a way to talk about giants that are crushing us, exploitation, advertising pie, rambling and a messed up process. He also talked about paint-by-number, which is what we might think of when we look at the magnificent shirt he is wearing today and which proves that, wh…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. The Bloc Québécois would like to point out that we also do not know who agreed to this and that we were not even consulted. Regardless of what has been said in the past, there are several political parties in the House, and it would have been respectful to consult our House leader on whether our party agrees.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, if I wanted to tease my colleague from Winnipeg North, I would ask him what he thinks it means when colleagues leave the chamber while he is talking or when a bunch of points of order are raised, but I would not want him to take that the wrong way. I really like him, especially when he asks me questions that allow me to elaborate on our plan for independence. I believe my colleague …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his speech. I generally appreciate substantive ideas. That is more or less the case every time with my Conservative colleagues. I would like my colleague to tell us about the rational use of pesticides or fertilizers because he gave a specific example. I believe that we should not go overboard, but should use the right product at the right time, in the right p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, the “sundae with the cherry on top” would love to answer that question. I will not address the other things my colleague said because it could become a bit of a slippery slope. She asked me to talk about our success stories. Every chance I get, I talk about supply management. A great example is the COVID-19 crisis. Some milk was thrown away at first, but that was a very temporary situ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his question and for asking it in French. He made a good effort, and I congratulate him. I understand the question. He is telling me that there is a food crisis, that there will be an energy crisis and that we must do something. We have a certain level of production at present, but we are not going to build pipelines to fix things in 10 years' time. It is happ…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, that is precisely why my colleague from Beauce and I were talking about this. We know we can do it. That is why we are saying we need to make an extra effort and get going on this. We need to do it intelligently and in consultation with other countries, of course, but we have to be at the table. Canada does not have the military power to decide tomorrow morning to open the grain expor…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I sincerely thank my colleague for her very interesting question. That was indeed the basis of my speech. We cannot talk about the food crisis without talking about the environmental crisis. They are both intertwined, and any development needs to be done with sustainability in mind. The thing that gets me down the most in life is the pace at which politicians move. I was taught about …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I thank my esteemed colleague from Beauce. Like him, I hear good intentions and lip service. It is all well and good to establish principles of action in the early days, but at some point we need to take action. I think we are in a position to provide demining equipment, for example. We can do that and we must do it quickly. We can also do it with drones, I believe, without putting hu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I would like to continue along the same lines. The food crisis is directly linked to the climate crisis. It began before the COVID-19 pandemic, although that amplified it. It also began before the war. As a country, it is imperative that we set meaningful targets and find ways to begin a real energy transition. That means Canada has to stop approving projects like Bay du Nord, which m…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I sometimes have the pleasure of working with my hon. colleague from Beauce, and I thank him for his comments. Once again, we agree on the broad strokes, with several nuances. Protecting our agriculture without harming it is what matters most. Above all, we must protect the sectors that are working well. I will repeat my question from earlier, and I expect a positive answer. Does my c…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for his statement. I respect him and I have had the opportunity to work with him several times. I agree with several aspects of his speech, with some reservations, which the future groom opposite may share. Generally, he is right in saying that we must protect our sectors that are doing well and help our farmers rather than hinder them. Speaking of protecting sector…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I thank my committee chair for his speech. We agree on many things when it comes to international action, but I would like to hear his thoughts on local production. I think that Canada will be called upon to play a key role in the global food supply in the coming months and years. Before we look after others, however, we need to look after ourselves. For some time now, we have been brin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food is currently studying the emerging food crisis. One of the things that we have identified in relation to the Ukrainian conflict is the need to open up the ports so this year's crop can be exported. The crops are ready to go, but they cannot leave. It appears that the shelling also targeted critical infrastructure. I would like to kno…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I would like to hear his comments on the allocation of resources. If we take people out of the prison system in the hope of rehabilitating them and turning them into useful members of society, we must have the resources to do so. I am thinking, for example, of social services, which are under provincial jurisdiction. My colleagues can no doubt se…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is very amusing to listen to the major parties criticize one another. However, to change things up I would like to ask a substantive question. Can my colleague talk about his vision for drug and opioid use? In the case of the possession of small quantities of drugs, would it be possible to take an approach that focuses more on public health than criminalization? Does he not belie…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, does my colleague not think that in some specific cases in which a person discharges a firearm, as pointed out by the member for Jonquière, this bill sends a rather odd message to the public, and especially Quebeckers, given the many incidents involving firearms that have happened in Montreal in recent months?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. The Conservatives are very concerned about freedom of expression on social media. The member also said in his speech that the bill is identical to the previous one. That is not true. Several improvements have been made, including to clause 4.1, which ensures that social media creators, users and influencers are exempt from the law, thereby all…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. I really agree with the last thing he said, namely that culture needs the support. I have had a concern about this bill from the outset, and I would like my colleague to comment on this. It concerns community media. We have been hearing that regional media could come together to negotiate. However, I am worried that there are not enough revenue sources for comm…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for such an important speech. I appreciate her efforts to promote indigenous and minority languages. It is important. I have some concerns about the bill, especially for very small media outlets, such as community media. The question was asked earlier: Will they be able to get their share of the pie? A lot of things have yet to be determined. The d…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her speech. From what I understood from it, she is saying that Bill C-11 protects those who have yet to adapt to new approaches, the new digital reality. Is my colleague aware that Quebec francophone culture, with 8.6 million people, must still have some sort of protection in this ocean of 350 million anglophones that is the Americas? I would lik…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague about the importance of small local media, local news. The disappearance of small local media means that events taking place at the village school are no longer advertised to local residents. It means that local sporting events are no longer covered. What does my colleague think about the importance of small local media?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his intervention. My question will be a very simple one. Do you not think that you would have been more successful had you presented something more specific instead of lumping everything all together? There are a lot of things on which we agree, but we cannot vote in favour of all aspects of the motion.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as my colleague opposite so often says, “at the end of the day”, knowing that no other parties are going to support this omnibus Conservative motion, not much is going to change. “At the end of the day”, nothing will change. However, I would like to know if my colleague opposite is prepared to do something that, “at the end of the day”, would make a big difference, for example, help…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague for his intervention. Rather than eliminating the taxes on gas, does he not think that we should charge a special tax on the profits of oil companies, which have reached a record high this year? We could also introduce a special tax on businesses that made more than $1 billion in profit last year in order to help those most affected. We could stop decre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I have a great deal of respect for him. I am disappointed because today the Conservative Party has an omnibus motion for us after they slammed Bill C‑19 for being an appalling mammoth of a bill, and that was echoed by the Bloc Québécois. Now they present us with this motion in a sort of giant lump. There is so much in there that I am surprised it…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for her speech. It is quite disappointing to see the Conservative Party move an omnibus motion that combines so many issues. That said, the Conservatives are acknowledging some basic points, such as the situation for low-income earners who are struggling right now because of high inflation. I am not getting the impression that the government is doing…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the interpreter is saying something about the Larsen effect, but I do not know what that is. However, it is affecting the interpretation.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have no doubt that the member for Winnipeg North could have continued speaking for some time. I will make him happy and start with his last statement, which referred to child care. We are pleased that this has now been established in the rest of the country and that Quebec has served as the model. That makes us very proud. I would invite my colleagues in the House to remember this…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the federal government would do well to follow Quebec's lead in many areas, and pharmacare is one of them. When the Liberals are ready to bring in their own pharmacare plan, I would invite them to follow the model I referred to at the beginning of my speech, namely child care, and let Quebec continue to manage its own affairs, which means giving Quebec its fair share of the funding.…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague from Laurentides—Labelle for her fantastic question. I proposed a few solutions earlier. For example, we talked about green financing. It is quite a challenge to get pension fund managers to give a clear answer about where our money is invested so we can ensure that it is not going into fossil fuels. It can take a long time to find out that informa…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, that is certainly not very much time. I thank my colleague for his question. I think he, too, would agree that Quebec is a model to follow in many areas. I never claimed that Quebec's pharmacare system was perfect. Our day care system is not perfect either. There is a shortage of spaces and so on. However, it can serve as a base model for reference. What sets me apart from my collea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member for Newmarket—Aurora talked a lot about labour shortages from various perspectives. I would like to ask him about a proposal made by the Bloc Québécois to offer a tax credit to early retired or retired workers aged 65 and over after a certain number of hours or years of work. This could help keep a skilled, efficient and reliable workforce active in our businesses. I hear…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the member can go ahead and insist that they increased health transfers, but the truth is that the provinces and Quebec unanimously called on the federal government to increase health transfers to 35% of health spending. Her government ignored them and refused to do it. Here is my question. Will she commit to working on the inside to enable the government that has jurisdiction and k…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech, but I do need to share some concerns. I might encourage her to dial back some of the things she said. She said western oil is among the cleanest in the world, but we need to acknowledge that, empirically, tar sands oil is extremely polluting. I would like her to clarify what she meant and tell us what oil she was talking about. Given this problem…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, today I will be tabling a petition that I sponsored calling for shoreline protection, as well as a series of resolutions in support of the petition, which were passed by various municipal councils in my riding. The petitioners are calling upon the federal government to implement a shoreline protection program for the St. Lawrence River and take the necessary steps to counter erosion…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to start by thanking every single one of my colleagues for their kindness. I rise today to present petition e-3748 regarding shoreline protection. I sponsored this petition, which is backed by a series of resolutions of support from various municipal councils and RCMs in my riding. I will share these resolutions of support with the minister in the coming days. This petition, wh…
Read full speech →