Parliamentary Speeches
1,041 speeches by Alexandre Boulerice — Page 20 of 21
Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. The amendment that the NDP proposed this evening removes the worst parts of the back-to-work bill. The arbitrator will not be able to stop the collective bargaining by demanding a final offer. We tried to find a way to gain some time and extend negotiations a little. That is what we were able to do, under the circumstances. I am pleased that th…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues who spoke this evening, and I especially want to thank my Bloc Québécois colleague, the member for Beauport—Limoilou, for introducing Bill C-254. This bill is very similar to others that the NDP supported in 2007, 2009 and 2011. We introduced two similar bills ourselves. I will get to that later. We may not agree on the process or way of doing things, but we do a…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her heartfelt speech in defence of the French language. Our party obviously agrees that Quebeckers should be able to work and communicate in French regardless of who they work for. I thank the member for pointing out that the NDP previously supported three similar versions of this bill. We introduced two bills on our own to ensure these equal rights. However, …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, the minister told us that the government is not taking sides in this labour dispute. However, introducing a back-to-work bill when unionized workers have the right to strike is taking sides. That kills the employer's incentive to negotiate in good faith. That is what we saw on Sunday when the minister irresponsibly announced the bill even before the general strike began. Why do the …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I am not sure that I share her point of view. If I recall correctly, in the Saskatchewan case, in 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the right to strike and to take job action is a fundamental right, even a constitutional right. Why would my colleague want the Liberals to violate the constitutional rights of workers when pressure tac…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague from Hamilton Mountain. I would like to come back to an earlier exchange. The Minister of Labour was accused of misleading the House on the dockworkers' ability to deliver medical assistance, vaccines, drugs and personal protective equipment if needed. Obviously the dockworkers are able to do that. Of course there may be several thing…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, some people can complicate things endlessly when they do not wish to find a solution, or when they want to impose special legislation on workers who know perfectly well how to do their job and handle containers so our hospitals can get what they need. I never said that this had just happened. It is true that the union had said that if schedules were restored, there would not be a fu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I have a very simple question for him. We agree that the principle of Bill C-12 on climate accountability is a step in the right direction. In fact, Jack Layton introduced a bill along those lines in 2006. However, there is a lot missing from Bill C-12. The government wants to conduct assessments and produce reports every five years, but, for the…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to hear that the member shares the NDP's position and that she will vote the same way we will. The last time I checked, the two parties were in discussions. I hope they will be able to come to an agreement that will support work-life balance for all workers. At the same time, let us be realistic. The sword of Damocles that the Liberals hung over the union's head has great…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his intervention and his comments. Indeed, we are once again seeing the Liberals and Conservatives working together to undermine a fundamental right and the Quebec labour movement. Daniel Boyer, president of the FTQ; Marc Ranger, director of CUPE Quebec; and Denis Bolduc, general secretary of the FTQ, spoke out today about the right of workers to take job acti…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, it gives me no pleasure to rise in the House to speak to not only a closure motion, but closure on a bill that violates the fundamental rights of workers. It is not a good day for our democratic life or our parliamentary life. It was almost 10 years ago that I was first elected to the House to represent the people of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie. I remember quite well that…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. There is a lot we agree on. Why does he think the Conservative and Liberal governments, which are one and the same on this issue, systematically use special legislation, back-to-work legislation, that dashes workers' hopes of having their rights respected and having truly free collective bargaining?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to repeat what my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville said, and that is that drugs and other COVID-19-related items are still being unloaded at the Port of Montreal, which means that the strike does not pose a threat to the health and safety of the public. It is important to remind people of that because there is a lot of misinformation circulating in …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Thérèse-De Blainville for her speech. On the matter of defending workers' rights, we are on the same wavelength. In her view, what is the meaning of the Liberal government's abusive and systematic use of special legislation that tips the scales at the negotiating table and always favours management?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, that is a very interesting theoretical question. I look forward to being the labour minister to be able to answer the parliamentary secretary. In turn, I would like to ask him if there are circumstances in which the Liberal government would not join forces with management to trample and violate workers' rights, for once. Are there circumstances in which the Liberal Party would stand u…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. His government has targets, but its plan is incoherent, illogical and dubious. We agree about the accountability to Parliament piece and the periodic review of greenhouse gas reduction target achievement. The Minister of Environment and Climate Change does not want us to do that review in 2025. What is he afraid o…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, since 1872, workers have had the right to organize and to use pressure tactics to defend their working conditions. It is a system that works well when there is a balance of power between the parties. The Liberals have upset this balance in the Port of Montreal strike. As usual, the Liberals have threatened workers with special legislation even before the strike gets under way. It take…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her nuanced, intelligent and well-informed speech. The NDP supports the Liberal government's plan to ban and remove from circulation military-style assault weapons, the sole purpose of which is to kill a lot of human beings. We will all be much safer once these machine guns and submachine guns no longer exist. What does my colleague think of the half-baked v…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the Liberals are trying to convince us that they have become the champions of the French language when, in fact, they are not. They are sticking with the same kind of reasoning used with the abysmal Netflix agreement. In their budget, the Liberals did not allocate any money specifically for the production of French-language audiovisual content. This sector was already on life suppor…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, the past few months have revealed the individual and collective difficulties that members of Canada's Black communities face. That is why I am presenting petition e-3147, which calls for Canadians of African descent to stop being marginalized in the workplace. This petition is in line with efforts to fight systemic racism and racial discrimination. The federal government must implem…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. I will address his concerns about a balanced budget. Looking beyond the necessary spending and investments, the NDP noticed that this budget contains some of our own ideas, including a universal affordable child care program. We also need to look at the revenue column, something the Conservatives rarely do. Does my colleague agree t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, today the Liberals released their new greenhouse gas reduction targets, which is great, but they do not have a credible plan to achieve those targets. They cannot undertake an energy transition because they are addicted to oil. According to a report, in 2020 alone, the Liberals gave $18 billion to oil and gas companies. No surprise, then, that they have been downgrading their targets …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, during the pandemic, during the crisis, many, many families and small business employees suffered, but other people raked in huge profits. Canada's richest people increased their wealth by $78 billion in the past year. Does my colleague think the wealthiest people and big corporations such as Amazon and Netflix should pay for the recovery, so that workers and their families do not h…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Hochelaga. She knows that many people have suffered during this pandemic, in particular workers, seniors and business owners in her riding. Many others have become much richer. The wealthiest have amassed an additional $78 billion during this crisis. Big companies like Amazon and Netflix have made record profits. Unfortunately, her government refuses to cre…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. Northern Ontario is seized with a crisis right now. Laurentian University is cutting dozens of French-language programs, including its midwifery program, the only one offered in French outside Quebec. Where in the budget are the Liberal government's commitments to post-secondary education, including French-language programs at northern Ontario un…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to rise today to discuss this very important matter for thousands of people in Quebec and Canada. We have a duty and a collective responsibility to foster social progress and programs that truly meet people’s needs. I would like to thank my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît for introducing this bill. It is similar to motions that have been moved in the past by the Bloc Q…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, “The government has decided to destroy all Armenians living in Turkey. Their existence must come to an end, however tragic the means may be; and no regard must be paid to either age or sex, or to conscientious scruples.” That is a quote from a telegram sent by Talaat Pasha, the minister of the interior of the Ottoman empire on September 15, 1915. The massacre of 1.5 million Armenians …
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I commend the speech and the initiative by my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît. She is right. For about a decade, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP have been proposing measures to take care of the most vulnerable workers when they fall sick, because we know that the current 15 weeks are not enough and that the proposed 26 weeks provide false comfort. I would like her to keep going. The av…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the immigration backlog in this country is reaching ridiculous levels. In Quebec alone, the average wait time is 27 months. A 27-month wait time shows a blatant lack of respect for the applicants. The Liberals are yet again refusing to step up and are instead passing the buck to the provinces. It is the same old story. Will the minister finally pull up his socks and speed up immigra…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, yesterday, dock workers at the port of Montreal began a partial strike refusing overtime. The management side is standing its ground, foreshadowing a labour dispute that could drag on. The Liberals have already hinted that they intend to introduce back-to-work legislation, in complete violation of workers' fundamental rights. This is hardly surprising. Can the Prime Minister promise w…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Timmins—James Bay for his passionate speech on this dramatic event. I would like him to elaborate on the fact that the Liberals always court the francophone vote outside Quebec—
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I very much enjoyed the speech by my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona. I would like to give her the opportunity to expand on her remarks. How can Campus Saint-Jean contribute to francophone immigration in her province? How should the federal government support this francophone immigration, despite Jason Kenney?
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Orléans, for her speech. I have a very simple question for her. Did Canada's chronic underfunding of universities create the situation at Laurentian University, which is not able to continue providing valuable services to francophones, anglophones and indigenous students? What, exactly, will the government do to fund all universities to ensure that…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Mr. Speaker, I thank the member from La Pointe-de-l'Île for his speech. His comments are sometimes a bit confused and unclear. He throws a lot of numbers around. He even said that in Quebec, francophone students are the minority in French schools. I did not quite understand what he was trying to say. That said, I share his passion for defending the Francophonie and the French fact throughout Quebe…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, French is indeed fragile and in decline everywhere in Canada, including in Quebec. It is unfortunate that French educational institutions are not being given more resources, because there is a demand for education in French. We see it in elementary schools, high schools and universities all over the country. More resources should be devoted to education in French.
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that fundamental question. Access to services and training is one side of it, but midwives can then provide care and use the expertise they gained at university. The demand for the midwifery program was high because it meets a need in the community. Pregnant women need access to midwifery services. If this program and the training and services it provides ar…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, the effect is not only major, it is absolutely disastrous. Unfortunately, I have to remind my Conservative colleague that former Conservative governments have not exactly helped fix the problem. Cuts to provincial transfers for post-secondary education made the situation worse and made it more difficult for universities to balance their books. The last thing I want to see is for a u…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, thank you for clarifying that. I was about to ask my hon. colleague from Timmins—James Bay a question, but I will go ahead with my own speech after the really impressive one he just gave. It will be along the same lines as the question I was going to ask. Each year and in each election, the Liberal Party of Canada tries to charm francophones outside Quebec, telling them how wonderfu…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I would like to talk abut something that is critically important to us. We are talking about drug trafficking. We must obviously do everything we can to put an end to it, because it affects our youth in particular and many people in our society. However, the NDP has put forward a proposal to decriminalize simple possession of narcotics. We are not …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to present three petitions. The first petition was signed by hundreds of people who are concerned about the civil war and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The people of Yemen have been suffering since 2015. The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to encourage both sides in the conflict to seek a long-term, peaceful and democratic resolution and to p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my Conservative colleague for his speech. This is yet another example of taking a very harsh approach to safety and security issues. The Conservative Party tends to go overboard with turning these issues into legal and police matters. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the NDP's proposal to address the drug problem by decriminalizing simple possession of narcotics…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, the second petition concerns a group of immigration applicants who have been living in Quebec for some time. Wait times have become extremely long, exceeding 30 months in some cases. This situation is putting them at risk and making their lives extremely difficult. The group is asking the Government of Canada to grant a bridging open work permit to persons who have applied for permane…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the St. Lawrence River is one of our most precious assets. It represents hundreds of kilometres of rich biodiversity. The NDP supports the proposal of the International Observatory on the Rights of Nature and is calling for the St. Lawrence River to be granted legal personhood to protect it, because it is at risk. Unchecked industrialization is jeopardizing many species. The port of M…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) advertising since November 4, 2015: (a) how much has CRA spent on advertising (i) on Facebook, (ii) on Xbox, Xbox 360 or Xbox One, (iii) on YouTube, (iv) in sponsored tweets on Twitter, (v) on Instagram; (b) for each advertisement, what was its (i) nature, (ii) purpose, (iii) target audience or demographic profile, (iv) cost; (c) what was the media au…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the federal deductions that apply to the taxable income of individuals, between fiscal years 2012-13 and 2020-21, inclusively, broken down by each deduction and each fiscal year: (a) what is the number of individuals who claimed each deduction whose total annual income is (i) less than $60,000, (ii) less than $100,000, (iii) less than $200,000, (iv) between $200,000 and $1 million, …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the email exchanges of February 11 and 12, 2020, between Kevin Chan, global director and head of public policy at Facebook, and Owen Ripley, director general at Canadian Heritage, regarding a job offer from Facebook, and the statement from the Minister of Canadian Heritage to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on January 29, 2021, “I did ask the department to look into the …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, the Auditor General of Canada unequivocally stated that the Public Health Agency of Canada failed to fulfill its mandate during this pandemic. Because of underfunding under Liberal and Conservative governments, the agency underestimated the impact of COVID-19 and was not ready to protect Canadians. The agency did not even keep the public properly informed in both official languages,…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I think that, without social housing, without space in women's shelters and without financial independence, it is extremely difficult for women to escape. Unfortunately, I do not have time to go into more detail, but those are the important points to consider.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rivière-du-Nord for his speech and for the months he has spent working on the whole WE Charity scandal. He painted quite a captivating picture of all of the Liberals' mistakes. However, I want to mention the students, who have been overlooked in this scandal and who did not end up getting the money or assistance. The Liberals dragged their feet on the Canada …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech and for all of the work that she has done over the years to support women's rights. I want to come back to the scandal involving sexual assault in the Canadian Armed Forces and the Liberal government's many versions of what happened there. The Minister of National Defence told us in committee that he had never heard of this scandal. We then learned …
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