Parliamentary Speeches
582 speeches by Christine Normandin — Page 10 of 12
Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank the member from Whitby for his speech. Just before him, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice made an interesting comment about the possible splitting of the bill. He said that if the bill were to be split in two, witnesses would probably have to be recalled to testify on the separate parts of the bill. What this comment implies is that the testimony cannot …
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Madam Speaker, just to follow up, this has already been mentioned, but members in the chamber do not have the benefit of seeing who is online, whether members have their cameras on or not. That is one thing, which is why my colleague did not assume that there was no quorum. He asked that quorum be checked. In addition, given our hybrid mode, we know that we can also rise to speak from a seat other…
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Madam Speaker, to follow on the question from the member for Barrie—Innisfil, I wonder if we should not have just quickly put the question. I hear the parliamentary secretary speaking not to the motion, but to Bill C‑19, so he is preventing us from debating Bill C‑19. Does that not show that we should have simply gone directly to putting the question on the motion before the House?
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, I can assure the minister that the planes that are grounded here at our airports do not have a single damn Ukrainian family on them. That is guaranteed. In the Laurentians alone, there are 60 families who offered to open their homes to refugees and there are already 260 volunteers ready to help. They have been ready for weeks. All that is missing are the refugees. Why? Line Chaloux,…
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Madam Speaker, a month after he announced that he would charter planes for people displaced by the war in Ukraine, the Minister of Transport has admitted that he has yet to send a single plane. There is already an agreement with airlines, though. The planes are ready, but his government has hit the brakes, claiming that it is complicated because the refugees are moving around. Women have already f…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel for her speech and her bill. Problems with bills often arise in their application rather than their intent. Given the amount of advertising these days, I wonder if the member could explain how there would be follow up. In the past, Quebec's consumer protection bureau was inundated with complaints, and there were only enough resources…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, the Marcel Larocque arena in Saint‑Jean‑sur‑Richelieu is Quebec's only finalist in the Hockeyville contest. That is why I encourage everyone to vote on May 6 and 7. This time around, the important thing is not just participating, it is making sure our arena wins. The Marcel Larocque arena is more than just a little local arena. It is the rink where our youth forge strong bonds with pe…
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Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to adopt the following motion: That the House reiterate that a woman’s body belongs to her and her alone and that it recognize her freedom of choice on abortion for any reason whatsoever.
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Mr. Speaker, let us never take women's rights for granted. Let us never assume that everything we have gained will never be taken away. Let us never believe that the issue has been settled once and for all, that everyone agrees that a woman's body is her own, and that the decision to terminate her pregnancy is hers and hers alone. We need to continue to fight because one careless moment could set …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for Richmond Centre for his speech and his Bill C‑244. I see that he is sitting next to the member for Cambridge, who introduced a similar bill, and I just want to say hi because we both sit on the Standing Committee on National Defence. That member's bill was passed unanimously at second reading. Unfortunately, there was an election, and the bill died on the Order …
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Mr. Speaker, the subamendment just introduced by my colleague from Joliette strikes me as a fairly reasonable social and progressive measure. It proposes increasing health transfers, increasing the old age security pension, taking action on climate change and offering solutions to the rising cost of living. The House will have to vote on these issues. I, for one, am a socialist. However, am I to u…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C‑244. Today we are indirectly talking about planned obsolescence, the opposite of which is the circular economy. Funnily enough, we are engaging in a circular economy with this bill since we are recycling it from another Parliament. As members have mentioned a few times already, the old version of this bill received the unanimous consent of the House. Th…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the health care funding set out in the budget does not even cover inflation and is a slap in the face to Quebec, the provinces and especially health care workers. Health care professionals all called for an increase in transfers. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists, support staff and others all called for an increase. These people are the ones who are working on the groun…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday's budget is out in left field. It offers no solutions to the major crises we are facing, like health care. For starters, there are no increases to transfers, a decision that is completely out of touch after everything we saw during the pandemic. Even worse, the government is poking the bear by writing in black and white that it is not even willing to discuss it. After everyt…
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Mr. Speaker, that is a very interesting question that unfortunately I cannot answer, because, around 2014, the federal government abolished the regional aspect of industrial and technological benefits. As a result, we no longer know where the money goes. We can guess that it goes where it is more helpful for election purposes. What we are hearing through the grapevine is that, since then, Quebec h…
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Mr. Speaker, this is a very interesting question that we will have to consider. It is likely that we will be seeing an increasing number of extreme climate events in the future. Who will respond? Will it be systematically up to the regular forces, because they are the best equipped? Maybe not. Perhaps we should consider another model, for example a paramilitary militia dedicated to this type of re…
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Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, that is not the only issue with recruitment and retention. There are many others. One of the problems that comes up the most often but that could be resolved quickly and practically is the issue of housing. Forces members struggle to find housing or run into high housing prices in the places they are relocated to. Some make a bit of money, but others lose a lot. There a…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Beauport—Limoilou. I am pleased to rise to speak to a Conservative motion on this opposition day because it will give members of the Bloc Québécois an opportunity to explain our position on defence and especially on defence-related spending. I want to begin by saying that the Bloc Québécois intends to support today's motion. However, I wil…
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Mr. Speaker, all health care professionals are now calling for a public summit on health care funding, which would bring together the federal government, the premiers of Quebec, the provinces and territories, and all parties concerned. The entire health care community is tired of the shortfall in federal funding, which is negotiated piecemeal and, especially, by playing hardball behind closed door…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the unspeakable images of bodies of men and women strewn across the streets of Bucha are a stark reminder of the horrors of war. It is an affront to our humanity. The entire world mourns as we see these bodies strewn about, neglected, assaulted, murdered, and thrown onto the street. These are men and women who loved and were loved, lived, conversed and laughed just like we do. These p…
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Mr. Speaker, today, Quebec's general practitioners, specialists, hematologists, oncologists, nurses and other professionals in the FIQ, professionals and technicians in health and social services, the FTQ, the CSQ, the CSN, the CSD, and the APTS all called for a public summit on health care funding. They have all had enough of the government's disregard for health transfers, and they criticized th…
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Mr. Speaker, although this is an interesting debate, I have noticed that there are not many members in the House right now. I was wondering if you could check if we have quorum, including the members participating virtually.
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Madam Speaker, my question will be similar to the one I asked earlier. We have heard a lot about francophone minority communities, but I would like to speak more specifically about Quebec. Can my colleague name a single positive measure that provides further protection for Quebec? I want to forestall a potential answer and clarify that giving people the right to work in French in Quebec is not a p…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. Could he quickly talk about the differences between Bill C‑32 and this one, Bill C‑13?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from La Pointe-de-l’Île for his speech. This morning, in her speech, the Minister of Official Languages talked a lot about the importance protecting francophones in minority situations. I asked her a two-part question. I asked her whether she thinks French is in jeopardy in Quebec and, if so, what new measures Bill C-13 brings in to protect it. She recognized that…
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Madam Speaker, the future fighter jet agreement is a losing proposition for Quebec's aerospace industry. If the government buys F‑35s, there is no guarantee that our businesses will be doing maintenance and upgrades. Even so, Quebeckers will pick up a quarter of the $19‑billion tab. The Department of National Defence will have to compensate Quebec, and one way to do that will be through the new dr…
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Madam Speaker, in 2015, the Prime Minister decided not to purchase F‑35s because they did not meet Canada's needs. However, seven years later, he is prepared to spend $19 billion on them, which makes us wonder what has changed since then. The Bloc Québécois demanded a committee study to look at the various models and strategic needs, but that never happened. Today, the F‑35s still have 871 technic…
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Madam Speaker, the minister talked a lot about the importance of protecting French in minority situations, in other words, outside Quebec. I would like to hear her opinion on whether French is also in jeopardy in Quebec. Can she point to even a single measure in Bill C-13 that improves the status of French specifically in Quebec?
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Madam Speaker, since this morning, the Conservatives have been talking a lot about inflation. Inflation may be caused by one of two things: supply or demand. We are more used to seeing inflation due to demand, but many experts agree that the current inflation is caused by supply issues. The Conservatives have talked a lot about house prices. In the context of a supply-related inflationary crisis, …
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Madam Speaker, let us continue to talk about francophones outside Quebec. In the last budget, the government promised $40 million for French-language post-secondary institutions. One year later, these schools have still not seen a penny of that money, and there are only six days left in the fiscal year. Rather than releasing the money, the minister is blaming the provinces and saying that she cann…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands for her speech. She talked about Kyoto and the fact that different levels of government collaborated. A significant portion of Bill C‑8 has to do with COVID‑19 measures, and since that is basically a health issue, would it not be easier for the federal government to work with the provinces if the government agreed to their request to incr…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I must steal a few seconds from my colleague. I simply want to point out something that the House cannot ignore today, and that is the Acting Speaker's birthday. [Members sang a song]
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Madam Speaker, Ottawa says that it wants to protect the French language, but it is dragging to court francophones from British Columbia who require employment support programs in French. These francophones won a court decision forcing the province to serve them in French, but the federal government is planning to appeal. The crux of the dispute is that Ottawa was slapped on the wrist by the court …
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Madam Speaker, I remember that on February 10, we were debating a Conservative motion calling for a plan to lift the public health measures. Every Conservative who spoke told us they wanted all public health measures lifted. Here we have a proposal to lift all public health measures, but they are telling us that there has to be a plan. Could someone please clarify?
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about possibly lifting a number of health measures. We are all hoping for just that, and we agree it needs to be done. However, we do not feel that there is a clear path forward. What probably upsets people the most is not having any predictability or a plan with benchmarks. This would give us some hope that health measures will be lifted if a certain result or number o…
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Madam Speaker, these health restrictions exist in large part because the health care system is in shambles and cannot keep up with demand. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge those who work in health care, and, in particular, my best friend Stéphanie, who is a special education instructor. By day, she works with people who have lost their independence, such as seniors and people with co…
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Mr. Speaker, like me, you saw that there were technical difficulties when the minister was answering my first question. I ask leave to repeat my question so that the minister has a chance to respond.
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Mr. Speaker, the government can count on the Bloc Québécois when it comes to the war in Ukraine. We worked together to extend Ukrainians' work and study permits. Let us work together again to help the families who are fleeing the war come to Canada. I commend the government for creating the authorization for emergency travel. However, the problem is that it is going to take two weeks to set up, an…
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Mr. Speaker, Europe expects the number of people fleeing Ukraine to reach seven million. Yes, I said seven million. The government has no choice but to be ready in two weeks when its new measures come into force. It must implement a historic airlift operation by chartering as many planes as possible. If not, the worthwhile measures that it just announced will not have any impact. If not, millions …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government can count on the Bloc Québécois when it comes to the war in Ukraine. We worked together to extend Ukrainians' work and study permits. Let us work together to help the families who are fleeing the war come to Canada. I commend the government for creating the authorization for emergency travel. However, the problem is that it is going to take two weeks to set up, and two …
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Mr. Speaker, Canada needs to be prepared for a large‑scale airlift operation to receive refugees. We must be prepared to charter as many flights as possible to take into account an influx of exiles that swells by 500,000 people every three days and could still increase, as the Russian strikes become more brutal. As I said, the government has the support of the Bloc Québécois in its support for the…
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Mr. Speaker, three days ago, 500,000 people had fled the war in Ukraine. Now it is more than a million. I welcome the government's creation of the authorization for emergency travel, but more must be done, and faster. The minister calls it an authorization for emergency travel, but it is going to take two weeks to set up. After that, who knows how long it will take to process applications. Speedy …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, we hope and expect that this war will not last forever. Since the gas pipeline that could be built to help Ukraine will never be finished or operational in time to actually do any good, does the hon. member agree with me that the project would not only be useless, but could even cause harm? A number of Russian oligarchs have interests in Canadian oil companies and in some of the com…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. I understand that one of the Conservatives’ main arguments is to make sure that Putin is not financed because the world is still purchasing its products. We know that Europe is relatively dependent, and that Germany is 50% dependent. Also, when you talk about Canada supplying Europe, it is important to remember that Russian oligarch…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I always enjoy listening to him. When we designate a month to recognize a particular heritage, parliamentarians like to make the most of that celebration both here on Parliament Hill and in our ridings. I was wondering if he has any suggestions or ideas to share with us so we can better celebrate what we are about to adopt.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to speak to Bill C-242, because not only was I a member of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, as the member for Winnipeg North mentioned, but, as a lawyer in my previous practice, I worked with families who wanted to bring their parents and grandparents to Canada. In working with these families, I saw to what extent the logistics, red tape and d…
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Mr. Speaker, before I am scolded for forgetting to inform you, I would like to say that I intend to share my time with my esteemed and excellent colleague from Jonquière. With respect to today’s motion, I will be very honest and start with a confession. Initially, I wondered why it would not be normal that Quebec would lose a seat, since it seemed logical to me, given our smaller demographic weigh…
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Mr. Speaker, I noted this from the very beginning. If we think only of the mathematical aspect, we might think that it is unjustified to demand more of a voice. However, if we look beyond the mathematical aspect and remember that the formula already provides for the recognition of other aspects, it is all the more justifiable to demand more of a voice, especially as francophones, in order to defen…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois prefers not to interfere in the business of others. We are here to represent Quebec's interests. If rural areas want to have this debate and submit a proposal, they should present their arguments and we will debate them. However, I do not believe that is the role of Bloc Québécois members.
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Mr. Speaker, I could not agree more with my colleague. This reminds me of a time in my not so distant youth when I was president of the Parti Québécois’s Comité national des jeunes. Some Franco-Ontarians came to see us at the end of a meeting at which we had discussed Quebec independence. They asked us if we often heard the argument that an independent Quebec would forget about the francophone com…
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