Parliamentary Speeches
799 speeches by Alexandre Boulerice — Page 16 of 16
Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I share his sense of urgency. A considerable amount of money is being stolen from artists every month and every year. I am not an artist, but I am quite familiar with their situation because my brother is part of the Quebec folk band Le Vent du Nord. Members of the band are paying close attention, and they want the government to act as quickly as possible. I think we can do that bec…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I know that there is a very active and vibrant artistic community in her riding that has been weakened by the laissez-faire approach of successive federal governments and by the current crisis, which is still ongoing. I think she made an excellent point. As a progressive opposition party, we must be very vigilant about the powers given to the C…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia for her excellent intervention. This reform of the Broadcasting Act could indeed have been a good opportunity to do that. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has beautiful, modern facilities in Montreal, but unfortunately, the corporation itself could use a little updating in terms of its mandate, its role and its resourc…
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Madam Speaker, we have arrived at many of the same conclusions. Conservative cuts to health transfers did a lot of damage, and the Liberals only compounded the error, which bears repeating. The health care system is under pressure, and the federal government needs to increase transfer payments in a sustainable, stable and permanent manner. We are aware of this, and we agree. There is also another …
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Mr. Speaker, the reality is that the Prime Minister has been absent since the beginning of the convoy crisis, and that is nothing new. He has been absent when it comes to the housing crisis, the increased cost of living, the climate crisis and health transfers. Today, people feel neglected and abandoned. They want a Prime Minister who does not wait for the worst to happen before taking action. Why…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from La Pointe-de-l'Île for his speech. I obviously agree with him that our public health care system has really been devastated by the Conservatives' cuts to provincial transfers, cuts that the Liberals maintained. However, my colleague and I do not quite agree on the impact of a universal public pharmacare program, which would not only enable the public health n…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I agree with him on some things, but not so much on others. I think that the Conservatives have hit the nail on the head with this motion in that Quebeckers and Canadians have had enough, particularly with the yo-yoing on some measures. They are frustrated and fed up, and that is understandable. However, I find the wording of the motion rather id…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. We agree on two points. Yes, people are fed up and we need a plan. However, the motion moved by the Conservatives today is a straightjacket. There is no nuance and the conclusion has been written in advance. The motion calls for all restrictions to be lifted, no matter the circumstances or context, with no accounting for science or public health re…
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Mr. Speaker, the entire discussion today is a reminder of how Canada's major railways have enjoyed immense power and totally unacceptable benefits and privileges for decades. This is still true, because they have often become corporate citizens that are not very good for their communities. Recently, a 31-year-old woman died on the outskirts of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie and Mile End because there w…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and his historical reminders complete with quotes that are indeed shameful in this day and age now that we have zero tolerance for racism. I would like to ask him a question. Today's debate takes us back to a time when the federal government was the board of directors for the Canadian bourgeoisie. Are things fundamentally any different now? Consid…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Laurentides—Labelle for her speech and her very relevant comments. I also thank the various Quebec stakeholders who are trying to address this major crisis. This is a Canada-wide crisis. In the past six years, nearly 25,000 people have died in Canada, which is an average of 20 people a day. This number is particularly high in British Columbia, which sees six …
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians across the country are struggling to pay for groceries and rent. Demand for food banks is skyrocketing. Where is the Prime Minister? What is he doing? The city of Ottawa is under occupation. Residents are being harassed, and their city is being taken over. Where is the Prime Minister? What is he doing? We expect the Prime Minister to step up during times of crisis, but he ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I agree with him on one point: The Liberal government bears some responsibility and leadership is lacking at the moment. That is why this protest, this siege or occupation of Ottawa, has unfortunately been dragging on for 10 days. I would also like to point out the cacophony of noise coming from the Conservative Party at the moment. This convo…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. She provided some interesting angles and perspectives, but I would like to come back to something that was said earlier by her colleague from Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia. She said that the Liberals were hiding behind jurisdiction to explain their lack of responsibility and leadership. She even mentioned that since this is happening in Ottawa,…
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Mr. Speaker, immigration processing times are long and have been long for quite some time. Families, workers and students have to put their lives on hold while waiting for an answer that never seems to come. Too often, these people are asked to fill out a second application and pay the fees a second time because the Liberals are taking too long to get to their file. The system is broken and does n…
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With regard to the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) recipients who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, the Canada Recovery Benefit, the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit: (a) what are the details, including the findings, of any studies, analyses, estimates or projections of the impact of reducing the monthly amount of the CCB; (b) for the documents i…
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With regard to the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) recipients who received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB) and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB): (a) how many CWB recipients received the (i) CERB, (ii) CRB, (iii) CRCB, (iv) CRSB; (b) of the applicants in (a), how many single individuals reported i…
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With regard to the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB), broken down by province: (a) how many recipients had their CWB reduced because they received income support from a COVID-19 financial assistance program, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit; and (b) of the applicants in (a), what was the average monthly reduction in their CWB payment, broken down by each month in 2021?
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Mr. Speaker, thousands of migrants are fleeing persecution and seeking refuge in Canada. They are not illegal, just desperate. The Liberals decided to help a Liberal Party donor make money at these people's expense. Rather than resolving the situation, the Liberals are writing cheques to a friend to lease land near Roxham Road to house asylum seekers. However, all the Liberals had to do was withdr…
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Mr. Speaker, on Saturday I was in Anjou where I joined many families in a march against gun violence in the wake of the recent death of young Hani Ouahdi, who was gunned down. People were obviously very concerned about young people accessing guns, the flow of firearms and the fact that we have to do more to limit access to guns. People also talked a lot about the lack of community infrastructure a…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for her speech. I found her ideas to be consistent with the NDP's progressive vision. I took part in a march last Saturday in Montreal, with families wanting to condemn gun violence on the streets. Concerned parents have said that their children hear gunshots in the neighbourhood almost daily. A 20-year-old man died recently. Street gangs are recruiting child…
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There is a little blue dot too, Madam Speaker. We are debating a motion from the Conservative Party that identifies a real problem but offers a bad solution. I think it is important to have this discussion to actually see what the real solutions are for this housing crisis. The housing crisis has reached catastrophic levels in many Quebec and Canadian towns and cities, particularly in Montreal, wh…
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Mr. Speaker, 160 professionals at the Office of the Auditor General have been on strike since November 26. Seventy-five per cent of them are women. They have been working without a contract for three years. These employees ensure that the government is accountable to the public. They are essential. What are they asking for? They are asking to be treated the same as every other public servant, noth…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to hear him say those words. My colleague proved that I was wrong and that the Conservatives can say the words “social housing”. However, they cannot commit them to paper because they forgot to put them in their motion. The problem is only partly solved, and there is still a long way to go. If my colleague is concerned about truly affordable social housing, co-operative…
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Madam Speaker, the member is looking at this all wrong. The problem is not the amount of land. The problem is that people are spending too much money on housing and living in poverty. I am less interested in the 12% or 19% of available lands than I am in the 23,000 Montreal households on waiting lists for social housing. We have to take care of people first. If more land is needed after that, fine…
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Madam Speaker, once again, it is the same thing. Is housing a problem for seniors in this country? Yes, it is. These individuals are often on a fixed income and they are seeing rents go up. It is a real problem. However, the Conservatives offer no real solutions. If the federal land they want to free up is used by developers to build condos for the wealthy, that will not help impoverished seniors …
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Madam Speaker, I want to start by saying that I will be sharing my time with my excellent colleague from Vancouver-East. I feel compelled to follow up on the comments of my colleague from Longueuil, who very proudly represents the Quebec wing of the Conservative Party, by voting for a motion that is full of holes. I will, however, correct something he said when he stated that the Liberals took up …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I are also riding neighbours, although we are not separated by a river. I thank her for her speech, but it was just a long litany of projects, programs and figures, along with a whole lot of lip service. That is unfortunate, since there appears to be a disconnect between what she said and the realities of the housing crisis. I would remind her that the Liberals' def…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table in the House a petition whose signatures were collected by a Montreal resident, Ms. Sally Livingston. The petitioners are very concerned about the climate crisis. They are calling on the federal government to do more, to set targets that are consistent with science and the Paris Agreement, to significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, to eliminate our dep…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Montarville for his speech and his remarks. I liked it when he said that we should look at whether we can get to the bottom of things. I am not going to look into the past and pick at scabs, but getting to the bottom of things also means asking ourselves whether a military venture like the one Canada was involved in in Afghanistan is really not the predicta…
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Mr. Speaker, opioids are wreaking havoc in Quebec and everywhere. There has been an overdose crisis for years. Hundreds of people have died as a result of substance abuse. According to just about everyone who has studied this issue, including police forces, public health agencies and the World Health Organization, the solution is simple: We must decriminalize the simple possession of drugs. The pe…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, Geneviève Bergeron, Hélène Colgan, Nathalie Croteau, Barbara Daigneault, Anne-Marie Edward, Maud Haviernick, Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz, Maryse Laganière, Maryse Leclair, Anne-Marie Lemay, Sonia Pelletier, Michèle Richard, Annie St-Arneault and Annie Turcotte, 14 young women with bright futures, had their lives taken from them just because they were women. Thirty-two years ago, they …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I found it a little strange that he would imply that the NDP would not want the Bloc Québécois to ask relevant questions about the bill. On the contrary, we will welcome such questions—as long as they are relevant, of course. I still think we are moving in the right direction. I am sure it will come as no surprise to my colleagues that protecting t…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. The protection and advancement of workers' rights are central policy issues for the NDP. Throughout the pandemic and 2020, we pushed the Liberal government to give people paid sick leave. Of course, we are talking about employees under federal jurisdiction, which does not include everyone. The Liberals were not interested. They told us no or put it…
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Madam Speaker, another day, another dark chapter of gun violence in Montreal. Another person was killed in Anjou last night. This is the 32nd homicide. Close to 60 weapons destined for the streets of Montreal were seized at the border. There are still too many guns on the streets. People have had enough, and so have border officers. We need more resources to protect the children in our neighbourho…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister of Labour for his speech. I also want to thank him for the content of this bill. The NDP obviously welcomes this type of bill, since the idea came from the NDP. In 2020, the leader of the NDP asked the Liberal government 22 times to bring in 10‑day paid sick leave. He was told no at the time. The Liberals finally saw the light. Unfortunately, this comes as we ar…
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Madam Speaker, it is true that we need to protect health care workers. We completely agree on that. We have to maintain a balance between freedom of expression and freedom to protest. Recognizing the aggravating factors of a situation is something that has been done in the past, including when the Criminal Code was changed to better protect bus drivers who were victims of a growing number of recur…
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Madam Speaker, that is a good question, and I thank my colleague for asking it. For starters, I would just say that it is true now, and it was even more true 18 months ago. My colleague is right, but I do not know why his party did not think of this before, especially when we firmly insisted that the change be made. The premise of his comment is absolutely right. Only 10% of Canadian workers are f…
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Madam Speaker, this is my first speech in this 44th Parliament. As many of my colleagues have done, I want to take a moment to extend my sincere thanks to the people of Rosemont—La Petite‑Patrie for the confidence they have placed in me to represent them in this institution and to be their voice in the House. It truly is an immense honour to do so for a fourth time. I never thought I would last th…
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Madam Speaker, I want to come back to something that is very obvious to everyone this afternoon. Sick days are good for workers. Sick days are good for the workplace. Sick days are good for the community during a pandemic. Therefore, I am very pleased that the Liberals have seen the light. Why did this recently become a good idea in 2021, when it was a bad idea in 2020, in the midst of the pandemi…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona for her question and for the excellent work she has been doing for two years now. She now has a new mandate and I congratulate her on her re-election. That is a very important and troubling question. We have known for six months, for a year, even for a year and a half, about the realities of the pandemic and the dangers of going to work …
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Madam Speaker, I think there is a consensus that 10 days of sick leave is ideal. According to the Decent Work and Health Network, six to nine days of sick leave is ideal, so that employees feel comfortable and able to take them, especially considering that it often takes three or four days to recover from the flu or gastroenteritis, for example. Earlier, we talked about leadership and the role the…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, the deputy critic for labour in the NDP caucus, for this important question. We do have concerns about this. Over the years, we have seen this issue at airports, for example. There is a void in the Canada Labour Code and when a contractor or subcontractor moves to another company, the collective agreement no longer applies. People lose their rights and their pa…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Shefford for her important question. The cultural sector is definitely among the hardest-hit sectors in recent years. I can attest to that, and it is certainly the case in my colleague's region as well. The cultural sector of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie was vibrant, full of life and truly dynamic. Those people have suffered a lot but, unfortunately, they have be…
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Mr. Speaker, the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development's report was clear. The federal government is going from one failure to the next. The Liberals will never meet their own climate target. That is pathetic and irresponsible. A study shows that this government is investing four and a half times more in fossil fuels than in renewable energy. Either the Liberals just do not g…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, there is a situation that is increasingly worrying our entrepreneurs. At the beginning of the pandemic, the federal government offered assistance, but in the form of a loan. For many small businesses whose operations have not yet returned to normal, the repayment date is fast approaching. In Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, that is the case for Gabriel Campeau of Vélo Festif Montréal, who…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. We can see that she has a passion for the environment and is committed to it. Before I ask my question, I want to congratulate her on her next title, that of grandmother. That is an extremely prestigious title. I am sure it will bring her a great deal of joy and happiness. I will now talk about the Liberals, who say one thing but unfortunately do…
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Madam Speaker, I would simply like to say that no one here is surprised that the Conservative Party is calling into question the vaccines, science, modernity and the new ways of working, such as telework or working remotely. What does surprise me, however, is the fact that the Bloc Québécois is siding with the Conservative Party. I find their about-face rather surprising. Why should we keep the op…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Outremont for her intervention and speech. I am still a little surprised to see the Bloc Québécois joining hands with the Conservative Party. It seems to me that by default the majority of members should be in the House to do their job. However, why not keep this option of a hybrid Parliament? People could work from home, as we have for a year and a half. We …
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