Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it is always such a pleasure to hear my colleague from Acadia speak. Whenever she and I talk, I can sense the enthusiasm and dedication that she demonstrated in a few words just now. Yes, the Canadian dental care plan is making people's lives a lot better. I believe some 15,000 seniors and children in my colleague's riding have already benefited from it, and another 15,000 adults betw…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is correct. We have to protect the living standards, the well-being, of Canadians, and in particular those Canadians who rely on the benefits and services of the Government of Canada. That is why we have been clear, the Prime Minister has been very clear, that there will not be cuts to transfers to essential programs like child care, pharmacare and dental care, all these …
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague spoke truly about the six affordable homes that Pierre Poilievre built during his entire mandate. However, he did not mention the fact that Pierre Poilievre is against social housing because he says it promotes Soviet-style living. What does the hon. member think about that?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by congratulating my colleague from Davenport on her re-election. I had the good fortune, just a short while ago, to see her at work in her community, in her constituency, where she was present and powerful. I am not at all surprised that she has been re-elected. As I recall, we visited a dental clinic together. We talked about the importance of dental care for…
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Mr. Speaker, it is such a pleasure and honour to greet my colleague, and now my neighbour, the member for Beauport—Limoilou, for the first time. He touched on the importance of building social and affordable housing in his riding. How does he see the future in his riding? He mentioned 369 social housing units. Is he happy with the Government of Canada's contribution to the construction of these un…
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Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to hear my colleague, with whom I had the opportunity to work in various ways over previous years. I agree, as he says, that we will have a budget at the appropriate time. That budget will contain all the updated information of which the hon. member is legitimately in need. He will be seeing these numbers and this budget at the appropriate time with the appropriate rigo…
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Mr. Speaker, my voice is a little weak today, but any time is a good time to speak on behalf of my constituents. I will be sharing my time with my esteemed colleague, the member for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles. I would like to begin by telling the voters of Québec Centre how proud and grateful I am that, on April 28, they voted for me for the fourth consecutive time. They have given me the opportunity …
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague knows perfectly well, the Canadian government has no intention of maintaining ownership of the Trans Mountain pipeline. It is built, it is operational and it will eventually be passed on to other owners, at the appropriate time. On the issue of trade corridors, my colleague, whom I hold in high regard, also knows that we need more trade corridors between the different …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from London West whom I hold in high regard. She saw that the people of my riding were happy to welcome her. She also showed the people of my riding, Québec Centre, that there are proud francophones living outside Quebec who are proud of their community, who defend and promote it. The Canadian dental care plan is an extraordinary success story. The reason people a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would need a greater amount of time to speak about the absolutely fundamental need to work on reconciliation and the affirmation of indigenous rights and freedoms. On seniors, as the hon. member knows, it is because of NDP support that we were able to—
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the Bloc Québécois and the Conservatives have been talking non-stop about an election since September. We have been working for Quebeckers since 2015. That is why, in recent months, we proposed a program like the Canadian dental care plan, which is helping one million Quebeckers and three million Canadians with their dental insurance, something the vast majority of them n…
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Mr. Speaker, the members of the Bloc Québécois are doing everything they can to pick a fight, cause division and stir up trouble. We are not going to get into that kind of discussion.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, the committees of the House are independent. They do the work that they deem relevant to the well-being of Canadians. The second thing I would add is that Quebec universities are also independent and do their work as they see fit, with the skills and responsibilities that are their own.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague from Ottawa—Vanier for her excellent question. The bad news is when we ask the Leader of the Opposition why he is against the Canadian dental care plan, he says it is because it does not exist and he discourages seniors from registering for it. The good news for Canadians is this deception is not working. More than one million Quebeckers and three million Canadia…
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Mr. Speaker, as my colleague is well aware, committees of the House are independent. They have the right and the duty to do the work they want to do. Obviously, their recommendations are shared publicly. Like all other members of the House, we will review the recommendations and we will see how they can be used or not be used.
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Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Finance has said many times, it is a question of fiscal responsibility. Canada has the best fiscal record of any G7 country in terms of debt-to-GDP ratio, deficit-to-GDP ratio, interest rates and interest paid on debt. On top of that, interest rates are falling, inflation is dropping and employment is on the rise. What would be irresponsible is to do what the Conser…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague talks about common sense. I want to talk about their nonsense. In her own riding, 100 affordable housing units are being built on Guillaume‑Couture Boulevard with the Lévis municipal housing office, the City of Lévis and Mayor Lehouillier, as well as Minister Drainville, from the Government of Quebec. They are very proud of these 100 housing units. However, she is allowi…
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Mr. Speaker, knowing how to count helps. One, two, three, four, five, six affordable housing units; that is all the Conservative leader built across the country during his entire career as minister responsible for housing. There are 8,000 affordable housing units being built right now in Quebec thanks to the $2-billion agreement we have with the Quebec government. Several hundred of those affordab…
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Mr. Speaker, the question was indeed irrelevant, but here is one that is relevant. Why does the member not speak for himself? Why does he not speak for his constituents and for the other Conservative members from Quebec? The Conservative leader claims that the affordable housing being built in his riding and in other Conservative ridings does not exist. He says that housing projects do not exist, …
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Mr. Speaker, as our colleague likely knows, education falls under provincial jurisdiction. If he wants to talk about education and how to protect children in the Quebec school system, then he should talk to the Government of Quebec. The House of Commons is not really the proper forum for talking about such issues.
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Mr. Speaker, unity and connection are exactly what the Canadian federation encourages. That is why in Canada, including Quebec, we are proud to be part of a united country that defends the right and freedom of each and every person to do what they think is best for them. Once again, the Quebec government has jurisdiction over education. I invite our colleague to ask good questions not here, but at…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for raising an issue that brings the House together. We all have the right, and I would even say the responsibility, to support all the initiatives that we can, as the Canadian government, in order to encourage inclusivity and growth in a great country where diversity has been our strength and pride for many years. We are working with the Quebec gove…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Ottawa—Vanier for her excellent question. Indeed, the Conservative leader is very inconsistent. He says he wants to cut taxes, yet he voted against the tax break last week. He says he is against the Canadian dental care plan, which helps three million Canadians. The dental plan clearly exists, yet he says it does not. He is against social housing because he s…
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Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, we love accountability and that is why we thank the Auditor General for all of her work. She did a solid job, and it is important to acknowledge that this morning. It is also important to acknowledge that when the pandemic hit, the only thing the Conservatives wanted to do, according to the Leader of the Opposition, was cut corporate taxes in the hope that corporation…
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Mr. Speaker, as our colleague is well aware, our relationship with the United States is our most important relationship of all in terms of security and the economy. We have been working very well together for years, for decades. That is also what we have done over the past several years. My colleague knows full well that, just 18 months ago, we signed a new safe third country agreement that the Un…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is talking about control, jurisdiction and confidence. I just answered his question a few moments ago. One thing that is within his control is asking for his security clearance to protect himself from his own blatant incompetence. He is incapable of protecting himself and his own MPs. That creates a confidence issue. The confidence of Parliament and the confidence of Can…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is well aware that the relationship with the United States is the most important relationship that we have when it comes to economic and border security. That is why, for many decades now, we have been working actively and constructively with the Americans. That is what we have done in recent years, particularly with President-elect Trump's previous administration. The P…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about what is sad and what is responsible. It is indeed very sad that our Conservative colleagues from Quebec have been muzzled by their leader. They are not allowed to come visit the hundreds of affordable housing units that we are building in their ridings. They are being hidden by their Conservative leader. That is irresponsible. These MPs are unable to defend their com…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about incompetence. The Conservative leader built not one, two, three, four or five, but six affordable housing units across the whole country during his entire mandate. That is the definition of incompetence. Today, there are hundreds of affordable housing units being built, including some in our colleague's riding. The bad news is that not only does the Conservative lead…
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Mr. Speaker, is my colleague familiar with Guillaume-Couture Boulevard in her riding? Through a housing project on Guillaume-Couture Boulevard, 100 affordable housing units are now being built for seniors. My colleague talks about incompetence. The incompetent one is her Conservative leader, who claims that these affordable housing units, the Unitaînés project's 100 affordable housing units for se…
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Mr. Speaker, the real scandal would of course be if an opposition party like the Conservative Party or the Bloc Québécois had opposed the Canadian dental care plan, because over 13,000 seniors in my colleague's riding have received a Canadian dental care plan card over the past few months, and thousands of them have been able to see a hygienist, denturist and dentist, often for the first time in y…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two points I would like to make. First, no federal government has done more for seniors than the Liberal government has done since 2015. That is one reason why the poverty rate among seniors has dropped by 20% since 2015. Second, if we had listened to the Conservatives, who, unfortunately, are often supported by the Bloc, we would not have brought the age of eligibility for old…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister has already answered this question multiple times. However, there is one question we have not yet received an answer to. Why is the Conservative leader refusing to get his security clearance in order to protect himself and his MPs and future candidates in the next election? What does the Conservative leader have to hide? What is behind his refusal to be briefed on the ris…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a real shame to hear so many falsehoods uttered in so little time in the House. It is a real shame that the Conservatives are investing so much of their energy in falsehoods that lead the House astray, skew opinion and distract the House from what really matters, which is working for Quebeckers and Canadians. One thing we still do not have an answer to is why the Conservative le…
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Mr. Speaker, the minister has already responded to this slew of falsehoods. What we still have not heard is the opinion of the Conservative MP for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles. The Monterosso project is in his riding. Dozens of affordable housing units are being built thanks to the agreement we signed with the Quebec government exactly one year ago. However, his Conservative leader says these …
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Mr. Speaker, once again, the member is cobbling together all sorts of falsehoods in an attempt to make this story make sense. The minister has repeatedly responded to these questions and false allegations. What we still do not know is how the member who just asked the question is going to protect himself from foreign interference in the next election if the Conservative leader refuses to get his s…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles seems to be having a hard time expressing himself today. There is something we would like his thoughts on, and that is the narrative of his Conservative leader, who claims that the agreement we have with the Government of Quebec seeking to build 8,000 social housing units is not currently allowing any social housing to be built. Ther…
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Mr. Speaker, the good news is, this morning, we announced an additional $92 million for the historic agreement with the Government of Quebec, which is now building 3,000 new affordable housing units. This is a big problem for the Conservative leader, who says those homes do not exist. Where is the Conservative leader going to hide his members for Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, Chico…
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Mr. Speaker, I have two things to say. The first is that what the member just said is false. The second is that the minister has explained himself several times. What we have not heard today is the reason why, after several hundred days, the Conservative leader is still refusing to get his security clearance, not only to protect himself but also to protect his members. His only priority is to trig…
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is absolutely right that it is important to support the middle class and all those working hard to join it. That is why it is so sad to see the Conservatives vote against the Canadian dental care plan, which the NDP also worked very hard to bring in. One million Quebeckers now have their Canadian dental care plan card. We are looking forward to moving forward in 2025 to …
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Mr. Speaker, our colleague is well aware that, in the House, members have to choose the right words to express things properly. If he would like to learn more about indigenous procurement, which is very important to the Canadian government, then he should ask respectfully and I will be more than happy to meet with him to explain how it works.
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Mr. Speaker, first, let us talk about investment. In my colleague's riding, investments were made for affordable housing units that are currently under construction. The Conservative leader raised doubts about funding for more than 200 such units last week because he wants to cancel the agreement with the Government of Quebec. Second, let us talk about important things, too. Will my colleague ask …
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Mr. Speaker, the worst way to defend supply management is to join forces with the Conservative Party and form an alliance with it. It is the Conservatives who continue to oppose supply management and always will. They could not support us when we defended supply management when dealing with the Americans. Unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois is currently forming an alliance with them.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to make three points. The first, which my colleague knows, is that the Conservative leader built a total of six affordable housing units across the country during his entire term in office. The second point is that, a week ago, the Conservative leader announced that he would cancel a $900-million agreement with the Quebec government that is about to launch the construction of 8…
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about three realities. First, the economic reality is that interest rates are falling, inflation rates are falling and the unemployment rate is falling. Now let us talk about the reality that the Leader of the Opposition still does not understand this Halloween, specifically, that the Canada dental care plan exists. It did not magically disappear. The third reality is that…
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Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of respect for my esteemed colleague, and he can make up all the numbers he wants, but they still will not add up, not even on Halloween. What he can do, however, is ask his colleague and seatmate, the member for Brantford—Brant, to rise in the House at least once to apologize for the anti-francophone comments he made last week.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right. He mentioned hurting farmers. That is exactly what the Bloc Québécois is doing by aligning itself with the Conservatives. If any party in the House is against supply management, it is the Conservative Party. The Bloc Québécois will now have to explain to people, including farmers, why it is entering into an alliance with the Conservatives and saying that the onl…
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Mr. Speaker, it is astounding to hear Conservative members talk about the importance of taking care of children when the Leader of the Opposition says that supporting the Breakfast Club, La Cantine pour tous and elementary school teachers in my colleague's riding is nothing but bureaucracy. How can my Conservative colleagues from Quebec sit there while their Conservative leader insults the Breakfa…
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Mr. Speaker, it is Halloween, and the Conservative leader is an amazing magician. He told Radio‑Canada that the Canadian dental care plan does not exist. He made 800,000 seniors' Canadian dental care plan cards disappear in Quebec alone. He says it does not exist, so he cannot say why he is against the Canadian dental care plan when 20,000 seniors in the riding of our Conservative colleague from B…
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Mr. Speaker, is the Conservative leader looking for some good news? Interest rates are down, inflation is down, and unemployment is down. Today is Halloween, and the one thing scaring the kids is the Conservative leader's refusal to get his security clearance to protect Canadians and members of his caucus. When will he answer the question on the minds of kids everywhere today?
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