Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and friend, the member for Shefford, for her question. SMEs and merchants in Shefford, and in the rest of Quebec and Canada, are struggling with these excessive fees made possible by the credit card duopoly. These companies are using their power to rake in more money that does not end up back in merchants' or consumers' pockets. The government's ro…
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Madam Speaker, the subject of the report in question is obviously interchange fees. What we are saying is that, in order to lower grocery prices, the government could take action by regulating the fees the companies are charging merchants. The gist of my speech is that the government is not taking action. The question that was just asked, which has nothing to do with the subject being debated, ref…
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Madam Speaker, we will take the time to analyze the amendment that was moved. However, today, we are debating the report that the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology prepared following its study of banks and the fees that the credit card companies charge merchants. The banks said that the fees were very high and deeply concerning, and they asked that the Competition Bureau start looking …
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to say that the question of privilege just raised appears to be very worrisome. I am sure that once the Speaker has heard the views of each party, he will make a very enlightened decision. Today we are debating the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology. It deals with interchange fees, the fees that credit card companies charge busi…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my seatmate for his speech. He talked a lot about the cost of living and housing. I want to refer to two articles from The Economist that were published in mid-October. This magazine is very critical of the current government when it comes to housing. It indicated that the cost of housing has risen by 66% since 2015 and that Canada's per capita housing rate is v…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to know what my colleague thinks about the foundation format itself. We are talking here about a foundation that seems to have engaged in wrongdoing. We are asking the government for documents and the government is refusing to comply, which is why the question of privilege was raised. When the Liberal government created 15 or so foundations in the late 1990s, the then a…
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I thank all hon. members for their contributions to this point of order. Obviously, the Chair would like to remind everyone of the importance of decorum in the House. We need to have speeches and constructive debate. The Chair will check the blues and get back to the House on all of the issues that were raised, if necessary.
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I have to interrupt the hon. member. The interpreters are saying that the microphones are picking up quite a bit of noise from the member's notes. Could that be minimized? The hon. member has five minutes remaining for her speech. The hon. member for Calgary Midnapore.
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I have to ask the hon. member to provide a very brief response.
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Is it agreed?
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We will check for quorum. And the count having been taken: We do not have quorum. Call in the members. And the bells having rung:
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Is it agreed?
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We have quorum now.
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I would ask members on both sides of the House to maintain decorum. I do not want to have to name members because they are talking in the House and preventing us from moving on to orders of the day.
Read full speech →Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his dynamic speech. He quoted the book by Acemoglu and Robinson, which was quite popular in 2012. At the time, Quebec's finance minister said it was his bedtime reading and he predicted its authors would earn a Nobel prize. The authors' analysis led them to predict an economic downturn in China. Political power is too concentrated and the leaders, who fear t…
Read full speech →Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, I see that, even when the debate has nothing to do with the question of privilege, members are still talking about the question of privilege. I want to thank my colleague for his very interesting speech. Obviously, protecting children must be our main concern. My question for him has to do with one of the recommendations set out in the report. The committee recommends that the gover…
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Madam Speaker, I would request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Concurrence in Committee Reports
Madam Speaker, the report we are discussing right now includes 19 recommendations for the government to address its inaction. Does my hon. colleague think that the government should use these recommendations to create legislation to better protect the public?
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on his excellent speech. He provided a very good overview of the situation. My question will focus on the problem of the financialization of housing, which he spoke about so brilliantly. I want to hear his thoughts on how this government could put measures in place to limit the financialization of housing when we know, for example, that one of…
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Mr. Speaker, the government has put a lot of money into affordable housing. However, there is still a lot of criticism because, quite often, developers prefer to pay a fine rather than build affordable housing. Once built, the units are often not affordable. The agreement is supposed to be in place for a decade, yet prices remain very high. What some organizations are proposing, like the Front d'a…
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Mr. Speaker, my question has to do with two articles that were published two weeks ago in The Economist, which severely criticized the government and the Prime Minister on the housing file. As we often say here, housing prices have skyrocketed over the past nine years. They have increased by 66%. Aside from Australia, Canada is one of the only countries in the OECD with this problem. Obviously, th…
Read full speech →Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, my question concerns the question of privilege and the bill that my colleague introduced and got through the House. As I recall, the bill concerned the transfer of family businesses. At the time, the House passed the bill, but the government refused to implement it. It is a bit like what we are seeing here. The House ordered the government to produce documents and the government refus…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, once again the Minister of Health is threatening Quebeckers' access to end-of-life care. He says that Quebec should wait before accepting advance requests for medical assistance in dying. He is even threatening to challenge Quebec's decision, and he promises to clarify his intentions soon. For Quebec, the road ahead is clear. It will go forward for the sake of those who are sick. Queb…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebec will begin accepting advance requests for MAID starting October 30. That is just five days from now. The federal government should be helping to ensure that things go smoothly, instead of making threats. One way it can help is by amending the Criminal Code to reassure doctors. Just today, La Presse reported that doctors are worried about whether they will be legally protected, …
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague quoted several whistle-blowers in his speech. We know that whistle-blowers have to be protected. Does my colleague think it is unusual that a bill designed to protect whistle-blowers originated with the opposition, not the government? In this case, the bill in question was introduced by my colleague from Mirabel.
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Unfortunately, I must interrupt the hon. parliamentary secretary. The hon. member for Calgary Nose Hill.
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I thank the hon. member for raising the question. There does not seem to be quorum right now. We will check and ring the bells if needed. And the count having been taken: We have quorum. The hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton has five minutes to finish her speech.
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I must interrupt the hon. member because his time is up. The hon. member for Sarnia—Lambton has a few seconds to answer the question.
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Madam Speaker, the current question of privilege has been before the House for about a month now. The government stubbornly refuses to hand over the documents that the House is asking it to produce. At the same time, it does not seem like the government is in a hurry to return to the usual order of business, to introduce bills, to move them forward. It would rather do nothing and let the debate go…
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Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present petition e-5014, which was signed by a large number of people. These petitioners are calling on the government to ask United States representatives, through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to lift the blockade against Cuba as well as to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism; reaffirm the importance of denouncing the blockade against Cuba as…
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Mr. Speaker, we have been debating this issue in the House for over two weeks. This is the third Friday in a row that the House has been discussing this question of privilege, and the government has still not expressed any interest in producing the documents that the majority of elected members of the House are asking it to provide. Meanwhile, no bills have been tabled, debated or moved forward. I…
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I am sorry, but I have to interrupt the member. I would ask members to keep their questions and comments to about one minute. The hon. member for Kildonan—St. Paul.
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I am going to respectfully interrupt the hon. member. Thank you. From my seat here, I could not hear the discussions, but I would obviously ask all my colleagues to listen to the person giving the speech and not have any discussions in the House. The hon. member for Parry Sound—Muskoka has eight minutes and 30 seconds to continue his speech.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her fine speech. My question is simple. I do not understand why the government does not simply produce the documents. Why is it dragging its feet like this? The order from members was clear. The government needs to comply with that order, but it is not doing so. It seems as though the government is not really bothered by the fact that it has lost control of th…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for his fine speech and congratulate him on being the favourite MP of the Speaker's sister-in-law. That is a great honour that I am sadly not fortunate enough to have. At the beginning of his speech, he reminded us that the Chrétien government set up 15 or so foundations like this one. To me, there is a design flaw to these foundations. In other words, the…
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Madam Speaker, as we know, on June 10, the House voted on a motion ordering the government, Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, and the Auditor General of Canada to each table documents with the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, within 14 days following the adoption of the order, and for those documents to be turned over to the RCMP. The Bloc Québécois is of the opinion that the…
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Is that agreed?
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question, which relates to the speech that he gave on this subject last Friday. This is a matter of ethics. We are talking about people who were appointed to a board of directors and who voted to give money to their own companies, companies that pay them a salary. That makes no sense at all. The bare minimum that is expected of anyone who represents…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nepean for his excellent question. I thank him for raising these issues. What we are saying is that the goal was to reduce transfers to the provinces and keep more money for the federal government, but to conceal it using the mechanism of foundations. That is what former Treasury Board president Marcel Massé said himself. In order to make the money vanish f…
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Madam Speaker, what we want is for the Liberals to talk to the senators, because the senators' priority should be to approve bills passed by the elected members. Everything else comes second. Democracy comes first. Two senators whom no one knows and no one voted for are blocking the will of all the parties to pass Bill C‑282. I would remind the House that if the bill does not pass by October 29, t…
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Madam Speaker, that is a very good question. What is the reason for that? There are several hypotheses. However, what it boils down to is that an order was made. The House asked the government to produce documents, and the government did not do so. Does it really bother the government that it cannot introduce any bills? Clearly, this government is tired and has run out of ideas. It does not have a…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to take my colleague back to 2005. Sheila Fraser, who was the auditor general at the time, published a scathing report on foundations. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Liberal government created some fifteen foundations. As early as 2005, the former auditor general found that $9 billion had been transferred to these 15 foundations between 1998 and 2002. That is eq…
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Madam Speaker, the Senate is thumbing its nose at farmers. Here is the proof. Bill C‑282, which contains only one provision and which was supported by all parties in the House, has been stuck in the Senate for over a year. The Senate has taken over a year to examine a single provision that seeks to protect supply management. By way of comparison, do members know how long the Senate took to pass Bi…
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Madam Speaker, all the foundations, like the one in question, were created in the late 1990s. They were the brainchild of Marcel Massé, who was president of the Treasury Board under Jean Chrétien. The government chose to impose austerity on the provinces, cutting transfers by 40% over three years. Ottawa was left with large surpluses. It looked bad on the balance sheets, so they chose to put those…
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Mr. Speaker, this foundation, like all the others, was created by the Liberal government at the time because all transfers to the provinces were cut back and they ended up with a surplus. To save face, the government put that money into arm's length foundations so that it would not appear on the government's balance sheet. Was it not a bad practice from the outset to want to invest so much money w…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague. We know that these foundations were created by the Chrétien government in the late 1990s. When the government made major cuts to provincial transfers, it ended up with significant surpluses, which it hid in arm's-length foundations. In 2005, former auditor general of Canada Sheila Fraser published a scathing report, one chapter of which was entitled…
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Mr. Speaker, in 2005, the Auditor General published a devastating report on these federal foundations. Today, 19 years have gone by, including 10 years under the Harper government. The Sustainable Development Technology Canada foundation, or SDTC, still exists and there is still no control over its funding. Does the hon. member agree with me that the SDTC case is indicative of a generalized cancer…
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Before moving on to questions and comments, I would like to inform the House that the volume of earpieces will now be reset. Members using their earpieces at this time will have to readjust the volume. The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons.
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I would like to remind the hon. member that he must address his questions through the Chair. The hon. parliamentary secretary.
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Madam Speaker, when the Prime Minister makes a promise, that only matters to people who want to believe it. If he is not there anymore or changes his mind, then it is worthless. However, if there is legislation in place and a government wants to go against it, it will have to introduce a bill to reverse it and then defend its decision to the farmers. I say good luck, Charlie Brown.
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