Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I am shocked and outraged. As soon as the member finished her speech, the President of the Privy Council and Minister of Emergency Preparedness rose to announce that he was going to limit debate on Bill C-32. That is really shameful and offensive. Why does the government always want to limit debate in the House, particularly when we know that thi…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I want to sincerely commend all the work that the hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton has done on her private member's bill, Bill C‑228. As she so clearly explained again, it is a very important bill to better protect retirees who are entitled to a defined benefit package. I want to commend her cross-party approach. We were able to work with members from each party and set aside partisan…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nunavut for her question and for all the work she is doing to defend her nation, which certainly needs a voice like hers in the House. Since 2015, the government has been saying that it will reform EI. Consultations were held across the country and went on interminably, but we all know what is needed. What we do not want is the current Axworthy system, whic…
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Madam Speaker, the interpreter says there is feedback. The member might want to remove his earpiece and move it away from the microphone.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, as we know, Bill C‑32 contains 25 tax measures and about 10 non-tax measures. There are two kinds: minor legislative amendments and measures announced in the budget in the spring of 2022, last spring, that had not been included in the first implementation bill passed last June. This means that this bill does not contain any measures to address the new economic reality of a high cost…
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Madam Speaker, as I was saying, seniors are the ones most likely to have to make tough choices at the grocery store or the pharmacy, not to mention housing, yet this government is deliberately choosing not to give people aged 65 to 74 the old age security increase even though they need it now more than ever. That is not an inconsequential choice. Hypocritically, the government is trying to raise t…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. In the government's fall economic statement, the word “inflation” appears 108 times. However, when we look at the measures announced in the economic statement, we see that it is essentially implementing the measures that were in the last budget. Apart from rhetoric, the government is not contributing to the response to current inflation and the r…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the work done by my hon. colleague from Elmwood—Transcona and I would like to endorse the overall comments he made on his first point of order. The Speaker's ruling may have been handed down, but I would like to remind the Chair that, over the years, the Chair has consistently taken a stricter and stricter view of the amendments that can be moved in commi…
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Madam Speaker, for seven years now, since 2015, the government has been saying it is looking into what it can do to reform EI. The hon. parliamentary secretary tells us that the minister just said that she will take care of it and is still looking into it. Last year, she told us that she would present her reform this summer. Two seasons later, we are still waiting. The government says that we are …
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Madam Speaker, if that was the government's goal, it has been achieved. I thank the hon. member for Calgary Shepard for his question in French. I commend him. At this uncertain time, what we are asking the government to do is to focus on its core duties, such as EI and health care funding. It needs to stop introducing new programs, projects and policies that intrude on areas of provincial jurisdic…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, this week, all six urgent care chiefs of Quebec's hospitals declared the health care system to be at a breaking point. In that context, on Monday, in Vancouver, the Minister of Health will be meeting his counterparts from Quebec and the provinces to discuss health transfers. Yesterday's economic update did not plan for a penny more before 2028. The hospitals have reached a breaking …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Trois-Rivières for his interesting speech. The French magazine L'Express ran a story this week in connection with what the member was referring to. It said that it can take five, six or nearly seven hours to read the terms of service on Internet sites. That is what we are asked to do before clicking “I agree”. Does the member believe we should set limi…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, if it is truly very important, the Minister of Finance should be the one to go to Vancouver on Monday to meet with the health ministers. She controls the purse strings. She has already outlined her position in the economic update, however: there will be no health transfer increase in the short term. The health minister does not control the money transferred, he is responsible for th…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his intervention and his question. I believe that people are experiencing the same thing in each of our ridings. This government has demonstrated that it is incapable of providing the basic services it is supposed to provide. I do not know anymore how many times I have cited the example of passports. That is a striking example. As my colleague mentioned, eve…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his important question. The short answer is “yes”. I would also like to point out that he asked his question entirely in French. I congratulate him and thank him for that. As Radio-Canada reminded us this week, Canada provides the second-highest oil subsidies in the G20. That is unacceptable. I have been in the House since 2015, and this government has been …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for her speech. Her speech sounded nice enough, but take a look at the concrete measures in the economic statement and try to see what is new compared to last spring's budget. It is disappointing. The minister just gave two examples of measures that were adopted before this statement was presented. What I liked about her speech is that she recognized that there is…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Elmwood—Transcona for his question. I am fortunate to serve with him on the Standing Committee on Finance. I can say that we often work very collaboratively together, and it is a pleasure to work with him. On the housing issue, the fundamental problem is supply. There is not enough housing, that is, not enough houses and condos to meet the needs of the…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by saying how excited my colleagues and I were this morning to get a look at this important economic statement behind closed doors. As we read through the opening pages, we felt hopeful. We thought the government understood the problems we are dealing with, the global inflationary crisis that is having a real impact on ordinary people. People are having to make do …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague. As I often remind him, he is the member who represents me because my second home is in his riding, so shout out to him. I want to remind him that doubling the GST credit is a measure the Bloc Québécois called for prior to last spring's budget. It is a very good measure. It was passed unanimously in the House, actually. In committee, the clause-by-clause study t…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I would like your guidance on a procedural matter. I thought the government was not allowed to move a notice of time allocation during Private Members' Business.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, a child in Quebec will receive about half of what a child outside Quebec will receive. There is considerable inequity. Why? It is because we already pay for dental care in Quebec. Quebec taxpayers already pay once for children's dental care and they are going to pay a second time for the federal program, even though Quebec will only receive half the money handed out elsewhere. That …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to start by congratulating my colleague and friend from Mirabel on his poignant speech. As he made clear, we are unhappy with the cavalier way the government is managing Bill C‑31. Bill C‑31 was poorly drafted. It does not take into account the reality of Quebec in any way whatsoever. It does not line up with what is happening in Quebec, either with respect to the renta…
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with the principle behind my colleague's comments. However, right now we are talking about technical aspects of the bill, which was drafted quickly. The principle is good, and the Bloc agrees with everything my colleague said. The problem is in the execution. The bill was drafted so quickly that we wanted to know how it could possibly line up with Quebec's program a…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier for his question and for his kind words. The feeling is mutual. I appreciate my hon. colleague's dedication and desire to do good and work hard and everything he does for democracy in the House. We are not in the loop, of course, but we do know there was an agreement to create a dental benefit. The problem is, Ottawa does not have the…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. As I said, we are in favour of the principle. There is a factual problem with his question. He is saying that the program is for every child in Quebec or for the parents of every child in Quebec. That is not true. The Parliamentary Budget Officer looked into this, and he showed that Quebec will receive only half as much as the rest of Canada will…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the year ahead is going to be rough. A further rise in the key interest rate yesterday will increase household debt. The cost of living remains astronomically high, and there are fears of a recession. The government will have to make some tough choices in the economic update it is supposed to deliver a few weeks from now. Spending money left and right would add fuel to the fire. For t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, that was not clear. Some of the most vulnerable that the government cannot abandon are seniors. According to Food Banks Canada, the number of visits this year has shattered records. The number of Quebeckers who needed to use food banks was up 33% compared to 2019. The first people the organization sees in line are seniors who can no longer cope with inflation. Seniors cannot take any …
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Madam Speaker, I have a question for my colleague from Regina—Qu'Appelle. Bill C-31 sets out a dental care program. That is part of health care, which, according to the Constitution, falls under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. The government chose to interfere in that jurisdiction rather than doing its job in its own jurisdictions. Meanwhile, in Quebec, we have a dental care program …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, that is not true. Crisis management is about hours, maybe days. Not three weeks. After three weeks of inaction, it was not the emergency measures that brought an end to the siege of Ottawa. It was the police. It was the 1,800 or 1,900 additional police officers that the City of Ottawa had been calling for all along. The moment the city got those reinforcements, an operation was laun…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
The member for New Westminster—Burnaby would also like to speak to this.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Is that agreed?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Resuming debate. There were five minutes left for questions and comments on the speech by the hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot. The hon. member for Langley—Aldergrove.
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Mr. Speaker, the truckers' occupation of Ottawa dragged on because the federal government blocked any possibility of intervention for three weeks. We know that when the City of Ottawa asked for reinforcements of 1,800 police officers, the federal government did not grant the request. However, we also learned from the commission that the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, repeatedly asked the federal gov…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
I thank the House leader of the official opposition for raising this issue. The Chair will examine the matter and come back with a ruling on it. The hon. parliamentary secretary to the government House leader wishes to comment on the matter.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. parliamentary secretary for his speech. I would like him to clarify something. Newfoundland has submitted a climate change action plan. My understanding is that if the plan is accepted, the province would be excluded from the federal tax and these concerns would no longer be an issue. Can my colleague comment on that?
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. What are her thoughts on the statement by the European Central Bank's chief economist about how boosting the most vulnerable people's purchasing power is the best way to fight this round of inflation, and how this policy should be paid for through redistribution, which means drastically increasing taxes on the very rich? Do she and her party agre…
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Madam Speaker, the current inflationary crisis is affecting everyone and putting millions of households in hopeless situations. Families must make agonizing choices to be able to continue making rent or mortgage payments. Many low-income Canadians are cutting back on food and going hungry. The same is true for many middle-class households that are heavily in debt. Such a huge increase in prices, e…
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Madam Speaker, I think most members in the House recognize the connection between climate change and human activities. Strong, credible and expeditious commitments are needed. For the Bloc Québécois, the Paris Agreement is the minimum. We really must not exceed those targets. We know from the natural sciences that, if we do meet them, the effects might be too much, so strong action is required.
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Madam Chair, I want to thank and congratulate my colleague for his very moving speech. I think that everyone in the House felt my colleague's emotion and commitment, which we certainly share. I thank him. We have been talking about the opioid crisis and what needs to be done. The member told us that we need a host of measures that depend in particular on the context and the place. I would like him…
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Madam Chair, I would like to congratulate my colleague for his very interesting speech. We obviously have the same values. I would like to remind him that the French author Michel Folco wrote a novel about a sad character in a book called Même le mal se fait bien, or even bad things can turn out well. A question comes to my mind when I hear my colleague's comments and when I look at everything tha…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
The time provided for the consideration of Private Members' Business has now expired. The order is dropped to the bottom of the order of precedence on the Order Paper. Before adjourning the House, on behalf of the speakership, I would like to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all members and to all employees of the House, who do extraordinary work, from the Parliamentary Protective Service to the inter…
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Madam Speaker, the government claims that this modernized legislation will create a right to a healthy environment. That is not the case, according to the senior officials who presented the bill to parliamentarians when it was introduced. Does the member of the governing party agree that this legislation does not go far enough?
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Madam Speaker, the current bill is the same as Bill C-28, which was introduced in the previous Parliament. Does my colleague know why the government chose to call an election before passing the bill? Was it because, for the government, getting a majority was more important than this environmental legislation, or does he think it was because the government needed to get the hon. member re-elected t…
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I apologize but must interrupt the member for Sudbury. Resuming debate, the hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley.
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I would remind the hon. member to direct his questions to the Chair. The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from Beauport—Limoilou for her question and for the excellent and tireless work she does in the House. The Competition Bureau is not doing enough at the moment. Obviously, it is up to the government and the House to tell it to do more, to take on more cases, conduct more studies and intervene more. Competition is very important. I will remind members …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his speech. When it comes to the work of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, we should draw inspiration from what the British Parliament is doing. We know that the food distribution sector is an oligopoly. Do its members engage in reprehensible practices? Did they take advantage of their position and increase profits off the ba…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. With regard to possible collusion in the food distribution industry, we know that the industry is an oligopoly of five giants that control 90% of the market. These giants can easily agree amongst themselves to negotiate for low prices with agricultural producers or set high prices when selling to consumers. The motion alludes to this indirectly. …
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Madam Speaker, the motion calls for: (a) forcing CEOs and big corporations to pay what they owe, by closing the loopholes that have allowed them to avoid $30 billion in taxes in 2021 alone, resulting in a corporate tax rate that is effectively lower now than when this government was elected; The motion talks about tax avoidance by all corporations in every sector to the tune of $30 billion. In fac…
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