Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer did not drink the Liberal generational Kool-Aid. There is no surprise there: His mandate is to conduct non-partisan analyses. That is exactly why the Liberals want to replace him. They posted a job listing for a permanent replacement with “tact and discretion”. They want a low-key parliamentary budget officer who apologizes before he speaks. A little m…
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Madam Speaker, we will soon be called upon to vote on a budget in which the government has decided to redefine what constitutes an investment. It turns out that the government's definition of investment does not exist anywhere else. The budget says so itself. It does not exist in Singapore and it does not exist in the United Kingdom. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, we are not talkin…
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Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that my colleague has previously served as a city councillor. I would like to know his thoughts on the fact that the federal budget, as presented, includes only $9 billion in new infrastructure funding over five years. Furthermore, within that, there is $5 billion over three years for hospitals from coast to coast. Today, building a single teaching hospital costs m…
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Mr. Speaker, in his speech, my colleague talked about the importance of protecting jobs. Among the first victims of the current crisis are the 300 fathers and mothers who were laid off at Paccar. In a recent interview with Mario Dumont, the Liberal member for Thérèse‑De Blainville told these workers not to take it personally. She encouraged them to visit food banks. She told them to come up with a…
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Mr. Speaker, the budget is kind of the worst of both worlds. It is a Liberal deficit with Conservative ideas: nothing for health, nothing for seniors, cuts to the environment. It is Stephen Harper all over again. I am not the one saying so. The leader of the government said yesterday that this is a budget that Conservative voters can get behind. The Liberals are not even trying to hide it any more…
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance have invented this notion of considering a budget balanced on the basis of operational spending. Under the Minister of Finance's newly invented rules, the Trudeau government would have had a budget surplus in 2015‑16, followed by two years of balanced budgets, a surplus in 2018‑19, and a budget surplus the year after the pandemic. If some…
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Mr. Speaker, there has been much talk about the $78-billion generational deficit in the budget, and rightly so. What are the key features of this budget? Military is the top priority, the fight against climate change is over, oil companies are getting more tax credits and tens of thousands of jobs are being cut. All of these choices would have delighted Stephen Harper, because they are conservativ…
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Mr. Speaker, a $78-billion deficit will affect future generations in my riding. Worse still, the Liberals are increasing the deficit while announcing cuts to health transfers. They are not investing a penny in seniors who are struggling with the cost of living. They are refusing to offer loans at preferential rates to first-time home buyers. They are replacing the only housing construction program…
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Mr. Speaker, the situation is not improving at the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA. Yesterday, the Auditor General confirmed what we already knew, that the CRA is not even answering the phone anymore. Worse still, the Auditor General revealed that when people do manage to get though to the agency, they are only being given correct information 17% of the time. In concrete terms, this means that we ar…
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Mr. Speaker, as you will see, community spirit runs deep in my riding. This year, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of La Petite Maison de Pointe-Calumet, which was founded in 1995 by Diane Grenier. It has grown over the years thanks to the commitment of passionate people like current director Mélissa Corbeil and her hard-working team. With more than 550 people receiving assistance and dozen…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has made six budget-related demands, which can be summarized as follows: Quebec must be given the means to take care of Quebeckers. That means an unconditional increase in health transfers. Due to the cost of living, it means an OAS increase for seniors aged 65 to 74. Quebeckers must also be reimbursed the $814 million that the federal government stole from us to gi…
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Mr. Speaker, this budget also has to tackle the major challenges of our time. One of those challenges is housing, which requires an unconditional, long-term transfer to Quebec for the construction of social and community housing. Another challenge is access to home ownership, which requires loans for first-time buyers to cover their down payment. Then there is infrastructure, which requires a new,…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑12 is the new version of Bill C‑2, with fewer irritants. The reason we have Bill C‑12 before us today is that there has been a huge backlash in civil society against Bill C‑2 and the privacy violations it entailed, particularly with respect to the police opening mail. This led to the introduction of Bill C‑12, which is much more balanced. Many of the irritants that bothered us,…
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Mr. Speaker, we all agree that we need better controls at the border and that this requires many new measures. Bill C‑12 is the new version of Bill C‑2, which created a significant backlash in civil society because many people outside Parliament and in the opposition believed that, in an attempt to strengthen border protections, the government would be infringing on certain rights and trampling on…
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Mr. Speaker, allow me to take a second to thank my colleague for her speech. I think it is the kind of speech that sets the tone we need to hear in the House of Commons. Bill C‑10 is an important piece of legislation. It represents a significant milestone in modern treaty implementation and monitoring. Not long ago, we celebrated the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I admit that this day…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. This is not a pub. If people want to talk, they can go somewhere else.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring things back down to earth. That is often necessary with the Liberals. As the leader of the Bloc Québécois said, in the past 43 years, the notwithstanding clause has been used more than a hundred times. Even if we accept the crazy and illogical idea that it cannot be used pre-emptively, which was the reason it was created in the first place, why has this new legal…
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Mr. Speaker, before the parliamentary secretary lectured us on morality, he did something that he does not often do: He opened up to us and told us the truth. He said that when there were constitutional negotiations, he was in the Manitoba legislature. He said that the Constitution was a compromise that included the notwithstanding clause, and that he did not like that compromise because it reflec…
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Mr. Speaker, I will use my turn to denounce the outrageous remarks made earlier by the member for Winnipeg North. He said that if the Bloc did not agree with the Liberal Party line, they had no place here. To the member for Winnipeg North, some elected members have value and others do not. He stands up and gives us lessons in democracy. Beyond that, if he thinks that Bloc Québécois members have no…
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Rimouski—La Matapédia. It is sad to have to speak after the previous member, after hearing a supposedly honourable member. During a debate on a constitutional issue, he initially said in veiled terms that the Bloc Québécois was racist. He said that the Parliament of Quebec was like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and systematically leaned awa…
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Mr. Speaker, my question has two parts. First, our colleague from Bourassa mentioned earlier that, in his opinion, Quebec's National Assembly is like the leaning tower of Pisa in that it is always leaning in the same direction, against minorities. That is an extremely serious allegation. I would like to know whether the member for Québec Centre shares this opinion about the Quebec National Assembl…
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May it please the Chair, I would like to withdraw my papers.
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Mr. Speaker, our time might be put to better use if we debated these motions. I would like my colleague to table documents in the House. I would like him to table the Hansard for the day that the House recognized the Manitoba nation. I do not know when it took place. This Parliament recognized Quebec as a nation while the member's own government, which has not changed in 10 years, was right here. …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government may not be MAGA, but I think it is populist. It has a lack of respect for the institutions that have been established, a lack of respect for provincial legislatures, a lack of respect for the law, a lack of respect for the Constitution and a lack of respect for precedents. I think that needs to change.
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Mr. Speaker, I would first like to stress one thing. We lost seats in the last election. We lose some, we win some. Sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down. This teaches us a lesson in humility. I make this appeal to my colleague. We in the Bloc Québécois have come here to table a motion from the Quebec National Assembly. When a Liberal member rises on an opposition day and tables in the Hous…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment to wish a remarkable young lady from my riding, Arielle Courcy, a happy 13th birthday. That being said, civil society, the media and the government have been very critical of the United States, which is experiencing an institutional breakdown. How can we criticize our neighbours to the south when we ourselves have a government that is backsliding on the e…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, on July 1, we learned of the sudden death of Patrick Charbonneau, the mayor of Mirabel, at the age of 46. Patrick was more than an elected official; he was a caring, passionate man with a real desire to serve his community. After entering politics in 2013, he always worked with integrity, vision, compassion and an approachable warmth. Patrick was a friend, an ally, a trusted partner w…
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Mr. Speaker, I understood from my colleague's previous intervention that she wanted an apology. My colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé did not ask for an apology. He asked for a simple correction from the minister. Her comments were unbecoming of a minister and unworthy of the status of French as an official language in the House. I think that, in the Liberals' supposed spirit of co-operation, she …
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about border security. That is all well and good, but things have gotten to this point thanks to 10 years of Liberal neglect. Now, the people protecting the border, the customs officers, are telling us, through their union, that we could need up to 3,000 more officers at the border. Meanwhile, the government has promised 1,000. This was not even mentioned in the throne …
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals and the Conservatives all voted to make Quebeckers pay $814 million in bogus Canada carbon rebate cheques. The Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed it, saying that the funds will obviously be drawn from the consolidated revenue fund. Worse still, Quebeckers are going to keep paying. The Parliamentary Budget Officer also said that there was no doubt that there would be i…
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Mr. Speaker, sometimes we are asked what the Bloc Québécois is good for. At the very least, it is good for having members of Parliament who do not steal $814 million from Quebeckers to write cheques for Canadians. Right now, there are 44 Liberal members from Quebec. All 44 of them voted to steal from Quebeckers, as did the 11 Conservatives from Quebec. They all rejected the National Assembly's una…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his scholarly presentation. I would also like to take this opportunity to greet his family members, who are here on the Hill today. At the end of his speech, my colleague said something very important. He said that it is important to study the estimates, because it is the role of Parliament and, by extension, that of the opposition, to serve as a check on th…
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Mr. Speaker, in response to the question from my Bloc Québécois colleague, the member for Winnipeg North told us to correct him if he was wrong. Here is the situation. The federal government paid incentives to get people to buy electric cars. Seventy per cent of the funds in Canada come from Quebec. Quebec dealerships, small and medium-sized businesses, were the ones that had to provide that money…
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Mr. Speaker, this is a period for questions and comments. There will be no questions. I will make a comment. I rarely do that. I listened to my colleague's speech. It has become clear to me. The Liberals no longer have a moral compass, any ideas, values or principles. They have nothing left. They are prepared to do anything to keep their seat, their big salary and their pension. We saw that today:…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to wish you a good evening. It may be a long night for you as well. Since this may be my last speech before the House adjourns in the next few days, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in my riding a very happy Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day and national holiday. We are going to celebrate in style. We are going to celebrate our national holiday, our French-s…
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Madam Speaker, my regards to the member for Terrebonne and congratulations on her election. Last Thursday, we were studying the estimates with the Minister of Finance. He was asked if he intended to restore the electric vehicle subsidy. He told us that he was not interested and that he would find other ways to help dealers. Barely an hour ago, I asked the parliamentary secretary, the member for Wi…
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Madam Speaker, you can put a new label on a jar of expired peanut butter, but it is still the same old stuff in the jar. Members need to stop telling me that this is a new government. We have not talked about oil per se. I talked about environmental regulations because it seems to me that, for the Conservatives and the Liberals today, environmental regulations are only good when they do not do the…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague is once again talking to us about the opposition motion. I am looking at the orders of the day. We have reached the debate on the main estimates. It is hard to tell whether my colleague knows where we are on the agenda. I will ask a very simple questions. Can my colleague tell us what the main estimates and the supplementary estimates are?
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Madam Chair, my colleague does not seem to have understood my speech, even though we have excellent interpreters with us. Actually, it seems he did not listen to my speech. Here is what I asked: Where in the Liberal election platform does it say that a sentence on the front page replaces the will of the legislator and the work done in committee? I did not get an answer to that. Our colleague rises…
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Madam Speaker, I want to say hello to my colleague and wish him a good evening. It could be a long night. I understand from my colleague that he had a good career in the energy sector and in the business world and that he has now been elected as a Conservative member of Parliament. This is his first term. Since taking office, since we have been sitting, he voted with the Liberals last week to stea…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is a right-wing Conservative. He talks about freedom ad nauseam. What always surprises me about these right-wing Conservatives is that they become communists when it comes to taking public money and sending it to the oil and gas industry, with subsidies for small modular nuclear reactors that make oil with nuclear power, or with subsidies for research and development for …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Fort McMurray—Cold Lake is someone I really enjoyed working with. We are far from agreeing on everything, but she is always very easy to work with. I must remind her that in Quebec, we are obviously celebrating our national holiday, which, coincidentally, falls on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. We wish a happy Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day to all francophones in Canada. The Li…
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Madam Speaker, what the Conservatives are doing is incomprehensible. They are telling us that the Liberals are stealing their ideas, so we are proposing that they study the bill in committee. The Conservative position in the debate is that the Liberals are not going far enough. They have an opportunity to improve Bill C‑5 and have even more of their ideas stolen, but they are passing it up. I thin…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is a member from Quebec. She must know that, when the Parliamentary Budget Officer appeared before the Standing Committee on National Finance, he confirmed that during the election campaign, there were so-called carbon tax rebates in eight provinces on a tax that had not been collected. That is further proof that Quebeckers were robbed of $814 million. I know that we neve…
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Madam Speaker, first of all, before us are two bills that have been merged. Had the government given it any serious thought, it would have split the bill in two. Second, the member for Winnipeg North tells us that the bill reflects the fear that Canadians were feeling during the election campaign. I agree with him that the Liberals campaigned on fear. That was their main selling point. This bill a…
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Madam Speaker, the economists at the International Energy Agency have not said that. The economists at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have not said that. All economists are saying something: We have to take our time. Where was the gag order in the Conservatives' platform and the Liberals' platform? Where in both of those parties' platforms was the idea of muzzling Parli…
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals were so afraid of losing their seats over the past few months, before the new Prime Minister came along, that they fell prey to a cult of personality. Now no one dares challenge this Prime Minister, who appeared like a saviour and says he is going to cut taxes, but will not say how he is going to pay for it, and this is after presenting a completely flawed economic and …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned in her speech that, during the election campaign, the Prime Minister said one thing about oil and gas projects in English for Alberta and another in French for Quebec. I just want to confirm that she was indeed talking about how, in western Canada, the Prime Minister said in English that he would use his prerogative to authorize projects that he describes as b…
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Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge my friend, the parliamentary secretary who said this morning in committee that the Liberals feel that they are right to impose a gag order, cut short debate, fail to send the bill to committee and short-circuit all the work of Parliament because they indicated on the first page of their platform that they intended to introduce a bill on free trade within Canada. For the …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to repeat my question because it is important. According to the Liberals, the fact that this was part of their election platform is enough to keep Parliament from doing its job. That alone is enough to short-circuit democracy. I trust my colleague and his ability to answer the question accurately. What other items on the Liberal election platform does he believe are so urgent a…
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