Parliamentary Speeches

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, the problem is not Bill C-19, but the way it was handled. It could have been dealt with much sooner, seeing as the pandemic had been going on for several months when we talked about it for the first time. We could have debated it in the House for five months and gotten the work done without the need for the government to use time allocation. We need to make a…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. At the beginning, she seemed to be expressing disapproval of the government's extravagant spending. Where would she like to make cuts? What does she think of my suggestion that we start by cutting subsidies to the oil industry?

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sarnia—Lambton for her speech. I would like to know what she thinks about election day. One of the recommendations that was made was to extend the polling period to three days, by holding the election not just on Monday but on the previous Saturday and Sunday as well. That would make it easier to find people to work at the polls, particularly young people, wh…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. It was interesting to hear her talk about women's participation in the war effort. Many women are on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19, given they work in health care. What is lacking in the health sector is resources, not standards. Would the member agree that, rather than standards, what is needed is an increase in health transfers, w…

Emergency Debate

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I know this issue is particularly close to her heart, since it is happening in her riding. Even so, I thought her speech was thoughtful and she did not resort to political rhetoric. I thank her for that as well. I would like to hear her thoughts on something. We know that an energy transition will not happen overnight, but I think we can all agree …

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his speech; as the previous speaker mentioned, it did seem fairly long. I would like to hear what he thinks about the speech that my colleague from Drummond gave about the non-existent Netflix tax and the income opportunities that the government is depriving itself of. I am thinking of regional media, such as Le Canada Français, which is distributed in my…

Emergency Debate

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent for his speech. I understand him. I think he is being realistic when he says that we depend on the petrochemical industry. It is true that we cannot close our eyes and pretend that we do not need oil. However, in the long term, oil will not last forever. In the future, there may well be other challenges like the ones we are seeing now or t…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to spousal sponsorship and visa applications, the staffing and operation of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) visa offices (VOs) abroad, with responses broken down by the Accra, Mexico City, Dakar, New Delhi, Port-au-Prince, London, Paris and Cairo offices: (a) since January 1, 2019, how many spousal sponsorship applications were received each month, broken down by th…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, those most vulnerable are the ones who are the victims of the federal government's immigration problems. Delays are jeopardizing an official request that the Prime Minister made to the Minister of Immigration in his mandate letter. The Prime Minister asked the minister to introduce a fast-track system for 250 humanitarian workers, human rights advocates and journalists who are at risk…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the pandemic cannot be used as an excuse for everything when it comes to immigration. New refugees have been separated from their children for months, even up to two years, or more, because of delays at the federal level. Canada is abandoning children in countries where conditions are often unsafe, while their parents await a decision from Ottawa to finally bring the children here. In…

Private Members' Business

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Montarville for that very inspiring speech. I wonder if he could comment on this. The revenue minister boasts about investing $1 billion in the fight against tax avoidance and tax evasion. As we know that has had only so-so results. From my colleague's perspective, I would like to know what message that sends about the government's true intentions. Maybe…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the federal government's lengthy immigration processing times are not new. Ottawa currently has a backlog of 50,000 applications from skilled workers in Quebec. In 2018, the backlog was 37,000 files. In 2011, it was 33,000. That prompted the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to publish a report entitled “Cutting the queue: reducing Canada's immigration backlogs and wai…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, Ottawa now has a backlog of 50,000 immigration files for skilled workers in Quebec. Yesterday I asked the minister what he was doing to fix the problem and he told me that 56 more people had been welcomed compared to the same period last year. It will take a lot more than 56 people during the same period to take care of the 50,000 backlogged files. What, specifically, is the minister …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, I truly commend the minister on his French. We only wish that the department had improved in the same way, but instead it has had its share of failures during the pandemic. Unacceptable delays in granting work visas and permits are piling up. Applications for permanent residence filed in Quebec remain unopened, while confirmations of permanent residence were issued to people who were …

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, nearly 7,000 applications for permanent residence are waiting to be opened at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada and have not even been acknowledged. This means 7,000 envelopes are gathering dust on a desk. Everyone understands that an acknowledgement of receipt does not speed up the processing of files, but applicants do require an acknowledgement of receipt to access heal…

Oral Questions

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Immigration promised to speed up the processing of applications to immigrate to Quebec, but the exact opposite happened in 2020. Quebec's target was 44,000 immigrants, but the minister acknowledged that he let 17,000 fewer than that in. He also acknowledged that nearly 1,000 applications from workers already residing in Quebec could have been processed but were not. Th…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, this is a first. Sugar shacks are the perfect example of a food service business that is only open in the spring, and their season cannot be postponed. Sugar shacks lost 100% of their revenue last year during the first wave and 100% this year during the third wave, yet there is no federal assistance program tailored to their needs. Clearly no one is aware of this. This type of busin…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. My question has more to do with handguns. Initially the idea was to delegate this responsibility to the municipalities. Eventually the provinces got involved, since the federal government had stepped back. In this case, would a single, standard policy be more effective at controlling firearms than some sort of patchwork approach where the rules v…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I heard my colleague talking about a red flag regime that would help get guns out of the hands of people who pose a risk. Would it not be simpler to completely ban the possession of weapons? In some cases, would the use of this red flag regime not simply trigger someone who is a danger to themselves or others?

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank the parliamentary secretary for his speech. I would like to hear his thoughts on the fact that, contrary to what was originally promised, the buyback program will not be mandatory. I understand that the firearm owners will be subject to restrictions that will ultimately make the firearms useless, as my colleagues mentioned. Instead of making everyone unhappy, why not push to…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is proud to support sugar shacks. Through the Ma cabane à la maison initiative, maple products were sent to about 40 embassies to promote Quebec's businesses. It never occurred to us that we should also have promoted sugar shacks to the Government of Canada. The budget did not allocate a single cent for sugar shacks. No one in Ottawa seems to realize that sugar sh…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-218. I had the privilege of listening to my colleague from Saskatoon—Grasswood when the bill was introduced and during the first round of speeches. I found his remarks very informative. I am taking the opportunity to speak today, but I do not pretend in any way that I will be able to teach the House as much he did. Bill C-218 is actually…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech on the matter of agreements between the federal government and Quebec. It took years for an agreement to be reached on tax harmonization, for example. If the federal government wants to impose conditions on the transfer of Quebec's share of the funding, then I expect it will take many more years of negotiation. In order to avoid these additional n…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. The Conservatives' proposed amendment to the budget highlights the importance of accelerating vaccinations to end the third wave of COVID-19. That will require greater investments in health care. We have spoken many times about the importance of increasing health transfers. In fact, that was part of the Bloc Québécois' amendment to the amendment.…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am unable to turn my camera on.

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I want to inform the House that the Quebec National Assembly unanimously adopted the following motion in response to the budget: THAT the National Assembly note that the Canadian budget tabled yesterday represents an unacceptable encroachment on its exclusive jurisdictions; THAT it reaffirm its utmost confidence in the Québec network of childcare servi…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-219, which would amend the Criminal Code to increase sentences for offences of sexual exploitation and to add as an aggravating circumstance the fact that the victim is a person with a disability for the purposes of sentencing. I agree with all members, or at least I think all of them, that this bill has a noble objective to protect the …

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I have a very specific question for him. The amendments he wants to make to the Criminal Code target offences that, depending on the severity of the charge, the Crown can choose to prosecute as a criminal offence or an offence punishable on summary conviction. However, the bill suggests that the one-year mandatory minimum sentence remain the same…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. We are debating Bill C-12 today. Although the bill has merit, many of us feel that it lacks teeth. There has been talk about the bill introduced by the Leader of the Opposition, which may be unenforceable. The Bloc Québécois and the NDP have introduced their own bills on climate accountability. What does my colleague think is an essential charact…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, transitioning away from neonicotinoids is also essential for public health. The Institut national de la recherche scientifique found that these pesticides act as endocrine disruptors in humans and may have consequences, especially for women's health. It is clear that these pesticides are harmful to the environment and to health, but we cannot leave farmers in the lurch by banning th…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, neonicotinoid pesticides are threatening the survival of bees. Bees are essential to the food chain. Without them, there is no pollination, no plants and no biodiversity. Three years ago, Ottawa committed to following Europe's lead and prohibiting these pesticides, but it is now backtracking without offering a solution. The Bloc Québécois has, for years, been urging the government t…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I understand his concerns about the clarity of the bill's wording, but I wonder if he might take comfort in the fact that, when judges are called to interpret it, in order to exclude good faith conversations, they will also refer to parliamentary work and the debates for context. Does my colleague take comfort in that?

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his passionate speech. It was top-notch as usual. He mentioned that it is important to define certain concepts to avoid legal challenges in the courts. He spoke mainly about free, prior and informed consent. However, Bill C-15 sets out criteria that, if necessary, will guide the courts in assessing what should constitute consent. All of the witnesses who appea…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, the existing legislation states that mail-in ballots must be received by voting day, but the proposed amendment indicates that the ballots could be received afterwards. Does the member think that this could create uncertainty in the results? In addition, does this provision show a lack of confidence in Canada Post, in some way a rejection?

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, we heard several recommendations in committee, including one to hold the election over several days. Holding the election on the weekend would make it easier to recruit election workers, especially young people, because the older people who usually work the polls may have more concerns about doing so. What does the member think about the idea of holding the election on weekend days …

Government Orders

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for her speech. I have noticed that unfortunately, when the Conservatives talk about certain social issues, they often focus on enforcement measures, such as increased penalties. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts this evening on some positive measures that could be implemented to support women, to boost their self-confidence and to promote the idea that…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for her passionate speech. All of the speeches we have heard this evening have been passionate. There is one topic that we have not really talked about, though, and that is violence among seniors. Talking about how seniors have been affected by the pandemic has become a recurring theme for the Bloc Québécois. Financial violence is a form of violence, and we have h…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on equality and what can help achieve it. We know that women are currently not equal to men. They have been more harshly affected by the pandemic. There are still problems with pay equity. Furthermore, more women are victims of violence. In the 1970s, a royal commission on the status of women stated the following: “No country can make a cla…

Government Orders

Madam Chair, it is a pleasure serving with my colleague at the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. Some things have been done in the area of immigration. For example, it is no longer mandatory to reside with one's spouse to finalize the sponsorship application. This requirement often forced women to remain in an abusive situation. I would like my colleague to speak of other things w…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, when we saw how ludicrous it was to pay $1,000 to people returning from a non-essential trip, the government was quick to announce that it was prepared to introduce a bill. However, it wanted to pass that bill quickly, which would have required the unanimous consent of the House. We did not agree with that principle and told the government to introduce a bill to allow us to put the …

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, we must act now. The situation for sugar shacks is urgent because 75% of them could go bankrupt this spring if the government does not do something about it. As sugaring season begins, I would remind the government that the majority of Quebeckers are locked down in a red zone. Sugar shacks could lose all of their sales two years in a row and there is no federal assistance that meets…

Oral Questions

Madam Speaker, there is nothing more quintessentially Quebecker than the sugar shack as a business model. It might even be too quintessentially Quebecker. As the Bloc Québécois has repeatedly pointed out, sugar shacks are falling through the cracks when it comes to help for businesses, and Ottawa never seems to know what we are talking about. Sugar shacks make their entire annual income in two mon…

Madam Speaker, on Wednesday, March 10, the member for Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon pointed out that the French version of Bill C-19 at subclause 239(2) does not have the same meaning as the same subclause in the English version. We agree that on reading the bill, we see a significant difference between the two versions, because the receipt and counting of the special ballots do not appear to be d…

Government Orders

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Sarnia—Lambton for her speech. My question has to do with the mental illness aspect, which she talked about. She said that there are risks. However, in 24 months, we can expect the process and requests to be carefully regulated based on medical opinions, as is currently the case for other requests. She also spoke about the fact that people who are suffering…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to my Conservatives colleagues speak all day. It is clear to me that no matter what guidelines or safeguards are in place, they absolutely do not want to make medical assistance in dying available in cases of mental illness. We have been talking about depression, so would my colleague acknowledge that there are some psychiatric illnesses that cannot be treated wi…

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her speech. I find it somewhat presumptuous to say that there will be no safeguards for people with mental health problems, given that we will still have 24 months to provide better guidelines for dealing with this situation. The member also spoke of the need for support. Would that not actually be an option to consider? Should we require a person to have tried …

Statements by Members

Mr. Speaker, his name was Stéphane. Everyone in Montérégie and the separatist movement knew him because, all his life, he devoted all of his energy to Quebec. Stéphane is one of the thousands of Quebeckers who was taken from us, either directly or indirectly, by the coronavirus. Had he not succumbed to COVID, he would have found a way to help combat it because that is what he did in life: help. Li…

Routine Proceedings

With regard to visa requirements for foreign nationals entering Canada, since December 1, 2016: (a) what formal review of the visa exemption has been undertaken by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; (b) what consultations with federal departments and agencies have been undertaken with respect to the visa lift, including, for each consultation (i) the date, (ii) the place, (iii) the agen…

Private Members' Business

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Motion No. 18, which seeks to declare the month of March as Irish heritage month. I unfortunately do not have the pleasure of having any Irish ancestry, at least as far as I know. That does not prevent me from knowing how proud Irish descendants are of their heritage. Take for example my uncle's partner. I lived with them while I was in school. With Joe, it …

Government Orders

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. He talked a lot about the importance of transportation in the regions. I will refer to my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue who spoke just before him and also talked about the importance of transportation in the regions. The Bloc Québécois has raised concerns about the sale of Air Transat to Air Canada. These concerns have been echoed by several…