Parliamentary Speeches
1,041 speeches by Alexandre Boulerice — Page 17 of 21
Emergency Debate
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, 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, 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…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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?
Read full speech →Government Orders
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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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, 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, 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, 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…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
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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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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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, 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…
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 …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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…
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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 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, 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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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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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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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, 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, 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, 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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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 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 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…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
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…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
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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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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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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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Shefford for her speech. I want to tell her that I have the same concerns as she does about seniors aged 65 to 74. These seniors know that they too can count on the support and solidarity of the NDP. The NDP is standing up for them. Why does she think that the Liberal government wants to cut support for people who need it right now? She talked about the cul…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have decided to cut the Canada recovery benefit at a time when thousands of businesses are still struggling to get back on their feet and entire sectors of our economy, such as the cultural sector and tourism, are still suffering. What are the Liberals basing these cuts on? Did they conduct any studies or consult an expert panel? Are they reading tea leaves or prophesying…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to take part in the debate this evening on such an important issue. I just complimented my colleague from Drummond, and I also have some kind words for my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona. She did a masterful job on Bill C‑10 at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Her assistant, Laveza Khan, also worked very hard on it, and my assistant Samuel Fortin-Pouliot wo…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Drummond for his speech, but also for all the work he has done in committee. I know his passion for defending Quebec artists and culture. In his view, why is it that the Liberals have managed this file so badly? Why is it that we have reached June 21, after an unprecedented time allocation was imposed on a committee, and we have to debate this tonight? Does he n…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for her brief speech. I was astonished to hear her repeat that we still do not know how much operating revenue web giants earn in Canada or Quebec. The Liberals have been in power for six years, and I see this as an admission of failure on their part. Bill C‑10 is generally speaking a good idea. However, the other failure is the Liberals' poor man…
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Madam Speaker, I would to ask the parliamentary secretary what the date of the last election was. If memory serves, it was October 21, 2019. Since we have a law in this country that says that elections take place every four years and at least two opposition parties have said that they do not want an election in the midst of a pandemic, why is the Liberal government using a gag order that is unprec…
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Madam Speaker, I am rather shocked to see just how poorly the Liberals have managed this file. Based on the Yale report, we all agree that the web giants need to be included in the ecosystem. There is no issue there. That is not what is being debated. The Liberal government imposed a gag order on a committee. That has happened just three times in 150 years. The gag order was for five hours, not ev…
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Madam Speaker, I sense that, at this time, the Conservative Party is being influenced by its religious right wing and is looking for excuses. The Conservatives say they are against conversion therapy, but they do not want to vote to ban it. Conversion therapy is an abomination that sometimes does lasting harm to those who undergo it. Does my colleague agree that all forms of conversion therapy tha…
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Mr. Speaker, I found that last response from my colleague from Nanaimo—Ladysmith quite satisfying. What does my colleague think of the fact that cable companies, which are fewer and fewer in number and have fewer and fewer customers, are the only ones contributing to the production of original Canadian content, when giants like Netflix, Crave, Disney+ and YouTube are currently excluded and are not…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. Arts and culture do indeed shape our views of the world and can influence how people see things or perceive their interactions with others. However, this bill does not give the government the ability to dictate or impose views. It simply requires that the new digital broadcasters, the web giants, contribute financially to our ecosystem. It is sim…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Edmonton—Strathcona and I want to reiterate my thanks and congratulations for all the extraordinary work she has done at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on this issue that is so important for both Canadians and Quebeckers. Obviously the Liberals fell into some traps, sometimes even traps they set themselves. An NDP government would not have acted …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for this question. Unfortunately, I believe that we will never have unanimity on this issue. However, I have absolute confidence in the bill before us, in sections 2, 35 and 46 of the Broadcasting Act, the two opinions of the Department of Justice to the effect that the bill is charter compliant, and the fact that the CRTC must also abide by the Charter of Rights …
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