Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there was a time when economic statements contained measures. This one contains nothing but bad news. There is quite the contrast between the enthusiasm of 2015 and the cynical vote-buying deficits of 2024. There is a contrast between the solidarity of 2015 and the ministers who are jumping ship one after the other. There is quite the contrast between the superstar Prime Minister of 2…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Before the House wraps up for the year, the members of the Bloc Québécois want to wish a merry Christmas and a happy 2025 to all Quebeckers, our colleagues and their staffers, all the House of Commons staff, the entire team of clerks, the law clerks, the analysts, the pages, the Parliamentary Protective Service, the warm and welcoming team in the parliament…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I want this on the record in Hansard. This is absolutely unacceptable. It shows a profound lack of respect for all Quebeckers and Canadians, for all the elected members of the House of Commons. It makes no sense. This is total chaos. It is proof that this government is now completely dysfunctional and that we need an election sooner rather than later. We needed a demonstration—
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the motion adopted on December 11 states that “the Speaker shall interrupt the proceedings”. It does not say that the Speaker may interrupt the proceedings. We believe that you have an obligation to interrupt the orders of the day. The Liberals have nothing to say, even though the in camera status has been lifted. There are journalists outside the House right now disclosing the conten…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. The Bloc Québécois is asking for clarifications on the next steps in the process. We received the order that there would be an economic statement today at four o'clock. Our members are here to respond to it. The contents of the economic statement were disclosed in lock-up, so we are ready to address them. We are asking that the opposition's right to …
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Mr. Speaker, I believe that the motion compelled you to interrupt the proceedings, which you did. The government representative chose not to speak. However, her decision not to speak must not violate the right and parliamentary privilege of members of the opposition parties to make statements, followed by a question period. I do not believe that unanimous consent is needed to proceed in this way. …
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. With all due respect, we disagree with the decision that you are making and with your interpretation of the motion. This is all a bit surreal. I do not have the right to say who is here and who is not, but I can say in a roundabout way that there are not a lot of government caucus members here right now. That is an unbelievable affront. You cannot just…
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Mr. Speaker, the former deputy prime minister's resignation confirms that the Prime Minister went too far in pursuing Liberal interests at all costs. It confirms that he no longer has the confidence of his closest colleagues. It confirms that the Prime Minister no longer has the moral authority to present an economic update without a minister to take responsibility for it. It confirms that the Pri…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague to look at the situation that the Canadian government is currently in from someone else's perspective, for example, someone from another country. What are his thoughts on that?
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Mr. Speaker, I will quote the former deputy prime minister: “[Canadians] know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves.” She is right. Seventy-one per cent of Quebeckers think that the GST tax break and the Prime Minister's cheques are vote-buying measures. Democracy as a whole loses when so many citizens believe that a prime minister is trying to buy th…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today I want to acknowledge the work of an extraordinary woman in politics. Like a compass in a storm, she has always pointed us in the right direction. Her poise, competence and attentiveness to our needs have always been a source of comfort. She has been the perfect whip, having mastered the art of knowing when to be firm and when to be gentle. She is stepping aside from her duties …
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Mr. Speaker, this is my first time speaking in the House as the Bloc Québécois whip, and it is a great honour for me to take on this role. However, I am doing so under rather unusual circumstances, to put it politely. These are such unusual circumstances that I may not have another opportunity like this, so I want to wish all the members, and especially the people of Berthier—Maskinongé, whom I ha…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague's opinion on the fact that the Government of Quebec, until quite recently, had to deploy resources to patrol the border even though border surveillance is a federal responsibility. What does he think of that?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, once again, my colleague delivered a very clear speech. As she just mentioned, our borders are porous. The government is not taking this seriously or responding appropriately. I would like my colleague to comment on the fact that the Quebec government has deployed resources at the border, even though the border is a federal responsibility. I would also like her to talk about what th…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not often have a chance to put a question to this colleague, whom I truly appreciate. I have two questions for him. I asked the first question a few times this morning, but I did not get an answer from the Conservatives. Quebec felt it was necessary to deploy resources to protect the border, even though that is a federal responsibility, not a provincial one. Is that a sign of com…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I do agree. We support any measure that can significantly improve access to housing. My colleague asked me whether I had any other ideas. We have plenty, but since I have only 30 seconds to speak, I will simply reiterate our main proposal. Money must be invested regularly over the long term for affordable, social and community housing. We must think outside the box in terms of trans…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, there is a lot to celebrate this year in Berthier—Maskinongé, where three community organizations are marking their 30th anniversary. What an amazing milestone. The Réseau des aidants naturels d'Autray has made it its mission to improve the quality of life of caregivers by providing them with services and a place to meet other caregivers in order to break their isolation. The Maison d…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to hear that the parliamentary secretary agrees with my entire speech. I am very pleased to hear that. Of course I want members to have freedom of speech. It is more than a little worrisome to find out that some political parties forbid their members from speaking out. Even more serious is the fact that members are forbidden from promoting programs that could provide mo…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the Conservatives' motion on housing. Many, if not all, of the members of the House give genuine priority to housing. However, although everyone here sincerely prioritizes housing, their solutions can vary. One person who genuinely puts a lot of effort into the housing file and will be enlightening us on the subject is the legendary member from Jonquière, wh…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that great question, and yes, that would be wonderful. What I want, as I said in my speech earlier, is for the federal government to stop imposing conditions. The member has suggested taking the equivalent of the money collected for the GST and returning it to the communities to fund non-market housing, in other words, community or affordable housing. I appl…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the measure that the Conservatives put forward this morning is fairly interesting. However, does my colleague not think that it is incomplete and that there are other more worthwhile measures that could be put in place, for example, a regular, ongoing investment by the federal government in social and affordable housing, since it is urgent that we reduce the imbalance between supply a…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, recommendation 2 of the report we are currently studying requires the government to demonstrate the effectiveness of technologies before implementing them. The first example that comes to mind is carbon storage. The Conservatives talk about it all the time. However, we know it has been tested elsewhere, and it does not work. I would like to hear my colleague's comments on this. Does…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned a reasonable conversation. I would like to have a reasonable conversation with him. I heard him defend Trans Mountain and the $34 billion spent on a pipeline. I find that a little strange. Now his government is about to invest billions of dollars in carbon capture, even though everyone knows, since it has been proven, that this technology is not working anywhe…
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Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his excellent work, his meticulousness and his powerful speech. I would like him to speak more about the fact that Canada tends to be all talk and no action. It makes lofty promises but does not follow through. There is a lot of tearful rhetoric, but in reality, real abuse is taking place. As we speak, real people are being subjected to rape and forced l…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague began his speech by claiming that the Liberals' hands are tied because the Conservatives are gumming up the House. However, this promise is more than one month old. The House has only been paralyzed for a month. The Liberals promised in budget 2023 that they would take action by the end of 2023, but they did not do it. They made the same promise in budget 2024, which wa…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion, which is seconded by the member for Humber River—Black Creek: That, given that, (i) Canada maintains unofficial, but robust and growing economic, cultural and people-to-people ties with Taiwan, based on fruitful cooperation on trade and investment, sci…
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Mr. Speaker, it sounds like the answer to my last question was yes. No one in the House should be okay with letting two senators override our democratic choice to protect supply management. I have a message for Mr. Boehm and Mr. Harder. If they want to sacrifice supply management, they should run for office and face the voters once and for all, instead of simply cashing their Senate paycheques. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister knows that if Bill C-282 is not passed, the Americans could put supply management back on the table as early as 2026. He also knows that he is not going to be the one at the negotiating table. It will be the Conservative leader. If the Prime Minister does not get Bill C‑282 passed before any future negotiations take place, he is leaving our agricultural industry in …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to start by congratulating my colleague on her excellent speech, which was very clear and included some very insightful points. A few times, she brought up a very important issue, namely local infrastructure. We see billions of dollars being handed to oil companies, which will use these subsidies to continue polluting. We also see what is going on in the municipalities.…
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Mr. Speaker, I know my colleague well because she and I serve together on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. I know that she cares a lot about the issue of climate change and the impact that climate change is having on people. My colleague from Terrebonne carefully analyzed the report that is before us today. It said, that rather than subsidizing polluting oil companies, the gove…
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Mr. Speaker, in tonight's U.S. presidential election, Americans are going to choose the person who will be able to reopen CUSMA, the Canada-United States-Mexico agreement, as early as 2026. Our most important free trade agreement could come up for renegotiation. Donald Trump has promised to do as much, and Kamala Harris voted against CUSMA. That is why it is dangerous to let senators Peter Boehm a…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative member who asked the previous question asked what it was costing us to debate this privilege motion for the fourth week in a row and what we could be doing instead. I would like to remind my colleagues of something rather important. The opposition parties agree with this motion and the Bloc Québécois is prepared to vote in favour of it. If we adopt it again, the gover…
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Mr. Speaker, all parties should be outraged by the filibuster in the Senate against Bill C-282 and the protection of supply management. No one here should accept that two senators, two unelected senators, are trying to overturn an all-party majority vote in the House. It is a direct attack on democracy. Peter Boehm and Peter Harder are unelected individuals who are acting like divine right monarch…
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Mr. Speaker, the greatest institution is our democracy. Peter Boehm and Peter Harder, who I would remind members are two unelected officials, have even refused to meet with the Minister of International Trade in committee. They made sure that they met with every group imaginable that is against supply management, but they did not want to hear from the minister. That is proof that the Prime Ministe…
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Mr. Speaker, every party voted to protect supply management with Bill C‑282. Every party has demonstrated with the farmers to call on the Senate to stop blocking the bill. Everyone is urging senators Boehm and Harder to do their job. Now it is time for the Prime Minister to shoulder his responsibility towards our farmers. He is the one who appointed the senators who are blocking the bill and it is…
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Those are fine words, Mr. Speaker. Now, not only has he appointed the senators blocking Bill C‑282, but one of them is actually his buddy. Peter Harder brags about it on his Senate page. He says that when the Prime Minister was in opposition, he called the senator several times asking for advice and favours, six months before rewarding him with a seat in the Senate. It was the Prime Minister himse…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. If I understood the intention of the defeated amendment correctly, my colleague was saying that she thinks that we should review how CBC/Radio-Canada employees are paid. I think that is an excellent point. However, it is a complex issue. Competing private broadcasters pay their executives big salaries. Of course, everyone currently agrees that it…
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Mr. Speaker, considering my colleague's choice of words and targeted attacks, he must be thinking ahead to the upcoming election. Of course, I am only teasing my colleague. I essentially agree with him, especially the last part of his statement when he emphasized the importance of the francophone side of CBC/Radio‑Canada. I would like him to tell me what he thinks about this: When CBC/Radio‑Canada…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, there are some pretty surreal moments in Parliament at times. That is what I think when I hear the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons asking the official opposition party what it is scared of and demanding answers, when all we have been talking about for weeks is the transparent handing over of unredacted documents. That is a question for t…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by commending the member for Portage—Lisgar for his touching tribute. We were touched by his testimony. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois and all of the people we represent, I would like to extend my deepest condolences to my colleague and to the family and friends of Robert Sopuck. I encourage them to take care of themselves. I was elected in 2019, so I did not ha…
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Madam Speaker, I would like people to stop saying that names have to be released. As we all know, in the context of the foreign interference commission, we were told that anyone who discloses names could face criminal charges. If the Conservative Party leader wants to know the names, he should get his security clearance. I would like my colleague to respond to that.
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague's speech. I will repeat what I said yesterday and what we have likely been saying over the past few days: We agree that the documents must be tabled. We are ready to move on to a vote and force the government to table the documents so that we can then work on something else until an election is called. I know that my Conservative colleagues want an election. The m…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to comments about Bill C‑234. We have always supported this bill. When it came back from the Senate, we did the rational thing, not because we obey the Senate, but because we felt it might not come back to the House if it were sent back to the Senate again. We wanted to lock in the new grain drying provision. The truth is that the Conservative…
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Mr. Speaker, let us change the tone in here. I think it is time for someone calm and collected to take the floor. Let us come back to questions and comments to advance the debate. I want to congratulate the last member who spoke because his arguments were better articulated than anything we have heard in several days. He said that when someone is a victim of a crime, they call the police. They do …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciated your intervention earlier. I felt like we were off to a rough start for a Monday morning. With all due respect, I think that it is soon going to take more than a warning when members get out of hand like that and start saying that others are dumb. This is not the place for that. I needed to say that. Here is my question for the member about his speech. I find it rather o…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague did a good job of taking up a lot of time in the House of Commons to say that the documents must be handed over. I am going to share something that should not be a news flash. We all agree on that, and we are ready to vote to force the government to hand over those documents. Could she let me know when the Conservatives will be ready to vote? I think everyone could be rea…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to stray from the formula that has been playing out for the last few minutes and ask a question that has to do with the subject at hand. Actually, I will take up the question asked by my colleague opposite, which was indeed relevant, but I will add a few details. This is not the first Liberal scandal we have seen. We all remember WE Charity. We remember ArriveCAN. It seems …
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Mr. Speaker, some senators even came here this morning to apologize for the Senate's conduct, and rightly so. Two senators, Mr. Harder and Mr. Boehm, who were appointed by the Prime Minister—not elected—are undermining the democratic process. These two senators are more easily swayed by the arguments of big lobbyists than by the will of the people's elected representatives. To do nothing is to all…
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Mr. Speaker, Senator Boehm said he cannot study the supply management bill because, in case people had not noticed, there are a few wars going on. He and Mr. Harder, our two future Nobel Peace Prize winners, are going to start by ending war. Then, if they have any time left, they will use their superior intellect to take a closer look at the supply management bill. Now that is what I call arrogant…
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Mr. Speaker, farmers from all over were in Ottawa this morning. They came from Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, everywhere. They came to show their support for Bill C‑282. Representatives from all parties were there, too: the Greens, the NDP, the Conservatives and the Liberals. Everyone was there to support the Bloc Québécois bill, which has become a bill everyone can get …
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