Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the plan is to not be afraid of our own shadow, as the Bloc Québécois always seems to be. We have a plan. We are working on it, no matter who the president turns out to be tomorrow morning, but we are not going to reveal it on the floor of the House of Commons 24 hours before the election. We will respect what happens tomorrow. We can discuss it with the Bloc Québécois after the elect…
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Mr. Speaker, the member knows well that we worked with families to devise this program. She also knows well, or should know, that since the war broke out, we have facilitated the departure of 9,000 people from Sudan. In this particular program, we will continue to reunite families and work to make sure that they come to Canada in safety.
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Mr. Speaker, every time we have put forward measures to help seniors, the Bloc Québécois voted against them. Even when it comes to dental care, which is very popular in the member's riding, I heard the Bloc leader describe this initiative as poison. That is very odd. I would encourage the Bloc Québécois to think carefully about what it is doing, rather than paving the way forward for the Leader of…
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition has said that there has been consensus on immigration for 150 years. That means he is okay with the Chinese head tax. That means he is okay with not letting Jews in after the Second World War. That means he is okay, and we know it already, he was in cabinet, with the barbaric practice of a snitch line. How does the Leader of the Opposition want to fix thin…
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Mr. Speaker, the answer is yes.
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Mr. Speaker, that is the first time I have said “yes”, and he is complaining about it. The reality is that we have always managed the border with the United States effectively. I can say, with evidence to back it up, that this was the case during COVID‑19. This will continue to be the case after the presidential election.
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Mr. Speaker, I honestly did not hear a question in there.
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Mr. Speaker, I was flabbergasted to hear the Leader of the Opposition's answer today, the most immature answer on immigration that I have ever heard. He is late to the game. He is so late to the game that he has not even come up with a slogan yet. When he comes up with a slogan, perhaps we will take the chance to respond, but what we propose is a plan for controlled migration. We are proud of it. …
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Mr. Speaker, I want to personally thank the member for her contribution on this matter. She knows, on this side of the House, how important immigration is to this country, its past and its future. We need a manageable system that is controllable. That is what we are doing today with the levels plan. The reductions we have proposed would alleviate the impacts on infrastructure and housing. It is so…
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is well aware that, since the Canada-Quebec accord, the Government of Quebec has set its own targets. That is within its jurisdiction. It also has 50% control over temporary residents. We are waiting for the Government of Quebec's plan. We have proposed a Canada-wide plan, and we are waiting for its response. This is entirely within its jurisdiction, and it has the…
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Mr. Speaker, there is no truth to the claim that Quebec is taking in 50% of asylum seekers. My colleague can simply check the documents that we give him, or the documents from Statistics Canada. With the decrease in arrivals, particularly at the Montreal-Trudeau airport, the percentage stands at 29%. It is quite clear that the member opposite is trying to mislead the House.
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Mr. Speaker, everything I have been hearing from the opposition leader so far has been totally inconsistent. I would like the member's opinion on our francophone strategy outside Quebec. For the first time, we have reached the 6% target of francophone permanent residents outside Quebec. We want to get to 10%. That will be the first time in our history. She should be proud and she should support us…
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Mr. Speaker, I see the member continued reading from her paper instead of answering my question. I would like to see the Conservative Party's plan. The Conservatives are not mature enough. They have not even put any thought into their next slogan. I would like to hear their plan because our plan is reasonable. It provides for controlled immigration for Canada and Quebec over the next three years.
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Mr. Speaker, the leader will have to put forward a plan instead of slogans. I have not even heard the slogan on this because he has been so delinquent on coming up with any valid points to make on the immigration system, the consensus of which is challenged. Let us hear him. Let us hear his plan. Let us even start hearing the slogan, because we have not heard it yet.
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Mr. Speaker, what is being proposed today is a reasonable immigration plan that lowers the targets for permanent and temporary residents. The plan is reasonable and carefully crafted. It takes account of contributions by people across the country who have spoken up and asked us to lower the numbers. I think that Canadians have a lot to be proud of. The reduction is not drastic. It is the same plan…
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Mr. Speaker, what I said is that it is garbage to focus on anything other than the circus clown the member is supporting.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the Bloc Québécois for once again contributing to national unity.
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Mr. Speaker, I withdraw the comment.
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Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite thinks that security certificates from the Modi government are reliable, he needs a little clearance too, on top of his leader, who should probably get a better briefing on the national security of this country. The Conservative leader should get the clearance, get the briefing, stop being a baby and be responsible.
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Mr. Speaker, the member knows well that this plan was devised with community members and community organizations, and we worked hand in hand with them to put out this program to get 8,000 Sudanese people fleeing war. We plan to make sure these people get here, hopefully by the end of the year, with more next year. I will constantly be working with community members, who I will be meeting with as e…
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Mr. Speaker, the member is right. This is a shared responsibility with the federal government. We must do our work in collaboration with the provinces that are on side for welcoming asylum seekers. We are asking all the provinces to do their part. I am prepared to work with the provinces that are willing. We will continue to do that because it is very important to continue to work with compassion,…
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Mr. Speaker, the shortage of teachers in Quebec and across Canada is nothing new. Although the member opposite wants to blame asylum seekers, they are not the reason why there is a shortage of teachers in Quebec. It is clear that we have more work to do, but it seems to me that the member missed the past six months. If he had read the letter that I sent to the Premier of Quebec and to Jean-Françoi…
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Mr. Speaker, I think we can all agree as a House that the best way to make sure that Gazans are safe is to make sure there is a ceasefire, so we can continue to work with people to get people here who have connections to family members and who are looking to be reunited with them. We will continue, as a government, to work with the authorities on the ground, whether we agree with their positions o…
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Mr. Speaker, it takes only 60 days to get a work permit. The Minister of Public Safety and I will be meeting with Quebec's new immigration minister, Jean‑François Roberge, tomorrow. We are expecting to see some progress as well.
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Mr. Speaker, I almost heard my hon. colleague pay me a compliment. From now on, I expect the Bloc Québécois to support our reduction measures, which, as announced, will achieve our objective of lowering the temporary immigration level from 7% to 5%, I hope. Furthermore, my colleague himself had a hand in that. The last time he contacted my office, it was to increase the number of temporary workers…
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Mr. Speaker, I am being showered with compliments today. I would simply like to remind the member opposite that this is the same Quebec government that tripled the number of temporary residents in Quebec under its jurisdiction. We always have a duty to make adjustments. That is what we are doing, and we will continue to do so.
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Mr. Speaker, it is everyone's responsibility to adopt a humanitarian approach to asylum seekers. The provinces have to be on board. If some provinces attempt to gain political advantage at the expense of asylum seekers, that will get complicated. These conversations will be ongoing. We will keep working with the provinces to make sure they are doing their fair share. The burden is obviously greate…
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Mr. Speaker, I listened very closely to the question and I would say that there is no smoke without fire.
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Mr. Speaker, what we are debating before the House is a bill that would fix the egregious breaches of the charter that the Conservatives, including the Leader of the Opposition, perpetrated on women and on children of people born abroad. This is something that we as a House need to fix. It is a charter violation. It is a particular instance of the Leader of the Opposition, supported by his previou…
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Mr. Speaker, of course we need a plan that makes sense for all of Canada. Two provinces are contributing more than their fair share: Ontario and Quebec. The other provinces have to get on board. The federal government is offering financial and organizational incentives. We are here to work, regardless of the efforts by certain provincial premiers to exploit this issue for their own re-election cam…
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Mr. Speaker, without further comment, it is certainly dangerous to see politicians scoring points on the backs of asylum seekers.
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Madam Speaker, please let me know if the problem persists because my phones were rather far away. I will go back to what I was saying about the statutory mechanism allowing those who do not want to become Canadian to renounce their citizenship. A few requirements need to be met. The person must not be a resident of Canada; they must not become stateless as a result of renouncing their Canadian cit…
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moved that Bill C-71, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2024), be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, as we return to the House, I want to begin by acknowledging that we are gathering today on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples. I am honoured to rise in this House today to discuss the proposed amendments to the Citizenship Act. The l…
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Madam Speaker, what the member opposite fails to note is that this is a question the rights of Canadians, people to have the right to be Canadian, the right that was denied to them by the Harper government. He wants to talk about numbers, and perhaps that is important from a logistical planning perspective, I do not deny that, but please do not continue to deny the rights of Canadians who duly sho…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking the Bloc Québécois members for their support. They are not necessarily the biggest advocates of Canadian citizenship, but they are supporting us in correcting an injustice related to Canadian citizenship. This is a fundamental matter of justice and rights, as they so clearly said, and I thank them for their support. The first step will be to pass th…
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Madam Speaker, as soon as possible, obviously. This question is best answered by the Conservative Party. A lot of us in the House would like to see it approved at all stages and get it enforced, so we can get these rights recognized by Canadians who are waiting, and have waited for a hell of a long time, to become citizens.
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Madam Speaker, this is fundamentally about rights. The court case that generated this is a pretty short one. I would invite members to take a quick read of it. One of the telling statements by the judge in the case was to highlight the fact that women, in particular, were unduly burdened as to where they would have to decide to have their child, failure of which to have them in Canada would result…
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Madam Speaker, that is probably a question best—
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Madam Speaker, I would expect that to be the case. Again, I want to thank the New Democrats for their support. This was a modification that we made relatively recently, simply to ensure that the court did not feel like it was constrained to a certain number of days by our legislative process. We have told the court time and again that we plan to put this into force as quickly as possible. Otherwis…
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Mr. Speaker, I have met with many organizations in Montreal that do their best to welcome asylum seekers. They frequently tell me that they do not receive much money from Quebec, despite the fact that we have handed $5.2 billion over to Quebec since 2015. It is clear that extra effort is needed. That is what we have done by meeting with our counterparts. I just had a meeting with my provincial col…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said very clearly, we have invested $5.2 billion in Quebec since 2015. We have not asked for any accountability. Maybe Quebeckers need to ask more questions about this. It is also very, very, very clear that we are making an extra effort, and that is because the woman who was quoted in the newspaper article is right. We need to better coordinate the distribution of asylum seekers…
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Mr. Speaker, the member will have to wait until Monday to get an answer to that question, just like everyone else. The party that is doing nothing is the Bloc Québécois. For six months it has been asking for asylum claims to be fast-tracked. Yesterday, the geniuses in that party rose in the Standing Committee on Finance to oppose the measures to streamline the asylum system. It is shameful and utt…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that the Bloc Québécois wants to fast-track asylum claims. However, the height of hypocrisy was when a Bloc member spoke during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance to oppose the government's proposed reforms for fast-tracking asylum claims. I know that the Premier of Quebec thinks that the Bloc Québécois is useless. I do not share that opinion, but I am becoming less…
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the entire opposition opposed our asylum system reforms, which are designed to speed things up. I think this is ridiculous. The Bloc Québécois should take responsibility. We are talking about light blue and dark blue, but it is pretty much the same thing. With regard to Monday's meeting, the member will have to wait until Monday.
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Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago, the member across the way claimed that it took six, seven or eight months, I no longer remember how long. People are not entitled to a work permit before three months. We are doing our best to give them one. Obviously, money earned can go a long way. It is clear that we can do better. It is clear that we want to do better. Obviously, in light of the record number of…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member opposite for his very fair question. It is true that Canada, like many other countries, is facing a record number of asylum claims. This year is another one for the record books. That does not mean we are not taking things seriously. On the contrary, we are stepping up our efforts to ensure that the people who come here, fleeing war and violence, are well received a…
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Mr. Speaker, again, he is going to blame immigrants for rising food prices. Come on, we have to be reasonable. It is clear that Canada is going to play a role, and it must bear some responsibility in all this. That is why we are working closely with Quebec to send asylum seekers to other provinces. There is work to be done at several levels. It is a job I look forward to working on with Ms. Fréche…
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Mr. Speaker, once again, it appears that the member opposite is asking the question of the wrong legislature. It should be noted that under the Canada-Quebec agreement, Quebec holds the majority of the power to select francophone immigrants. It has the power and the ability to do so. Considering the $5.2 billion it has received in transfers since 2015, it also has the financial capacity to do it a…
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Mr. Speaker, that is precisely what we are doing in the task force with Minister Fréchette and other provincial ministers. The member across the way seems to forget that Bill 101 has been around for a long time. He also seems to forget that we have been transferring $5.2 billion since 2015 to Quebec, without accountability, for francization. Obviously, if Quebec needs more francophone immigrants, …
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate and respect the member's passion in this matter, particularly for a set of people who indeed are in Canada and are subject to abuse at times. There should be regular pathways for people who are here irregularly. I can confirm to the House that pursuant to the minister's mandate letter, we are looking at a number of options. I would say for all Canadians that there is no c…
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