Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have a question about urgency. People talk about the urgent need for housing and social housing. The Fédération québécoise des municipalités, or FQM, and the Union des municipalités du Québec, or UMQ, have levelled some criticism at the government for causing housing construction delays. I would like to hear my colleague briefly address that issue.
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from New Brunswick who just spoke, as well as my colleague from Terra Nova—The Peninsulas, who introduced this bill on recreational fishing. The bill is very limited in scope. It specifically concerns Newfoundland. I thank my colleague, however, because this is a topic that almost never gets talked about in the House of Commons. My riding is right …
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the minister a question, one that I often hear when I travel around my riding. There is concern that some smaller communities, which do not have the resources of cities like Toronto or Longueuil, may not be able to access the opportunities provided by this program. Not every town needs 400 housing units. Some communities may need only four or six. The mayors and …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. I would also like to commend the organization Action‑Chômage Côte‑Nord, which is working tirelessly to make elected officials aware of the need to modernize the Employment Insurance Act. My colleague Louise Chabot, who is no longer a member of Parliament, introduced a bill in November 2024 to completely overhaul EI. We do not need to have the B…
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Madam Speaker, as an elected official, I believe that we can make a difference every day in our work for our constituents, for Quebeckers, for Canadians. Of course, we will see what happens when it comes time to vote. I think that sometimes voting against certain measures also sends a signal to do better. It is one way of sending that message. Obviously, we are willing to admit when a measure is g…
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Madam Speaker, I might actually turn that question back over to my colleague. I agree that prices are high. For me, the important thing is to find a solution. If building pipelines and increasing oil and gas consumption means that we pay a carbon tax, I imagine that the more appropriate thing would be to reduce that consumption and production so that we do not have to pay the tax.
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise to speak following my colleague from Mirabel. I plan to take a slightly different approach in my speech, in that my speech will focus more on my riding. My colleague talked about how this measure could look like an election gimmick. He even asked the Minister of Finance if he had his election signs ready. I want to echo what my colleague was saying, because there …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the holiday season is a time to be generous toward those who are less fortunate. For the Liberals, that does not seem to be a priority, because they are cutting $25 million from homelessness assistance programs in Quebec. Last Thursday, the minister confirmed that he is ending the encampment and crisis response program as of March 31. How can the government announce cuts to homelessne…
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Mr. Speaker, since the sitting began, we have been having a hard time hearing certain speeches because the government side is talking very loudly and paying no attention to what is going on in the House. I would like to see more respect for people who rise to speak. We are having a hard time hearing what is being said because of the noise, and the same could be true for the interpreters.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister needs to appease lumber workers, not Donald Trump. By refusing our forestry industry's main request—support for dealing with the countervailing and anti-dumping duties—the Prime Minister is turning his back on them. The softwood lumber dispute has been wreaking havoc since 2017. Donald Trump's tariffs are just making existing problems worse. Our industry is at the e…
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Mr. Speaker, I was surprised at the question from our colleague opposite. He is saying that it is time to start moving legislation through the House. I have been here for 10 years and, quite frankly, I find that the government's legislative agenda is rather paltry. Right now there are not a lot of bills on the table. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the Liberal government's legislat…
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Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for my colleague. With all due respect, what I would say to the Assembly of First Nations is that the government must pass laws itself to monitor it and ensure that it is doing the work it is supposed to do.
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Madam Speaker, Quebeckers know what it feels like to be steamrolled by Canada. Today, British Columbia is experiencing its own night of the long knives. The Alberta Liberals left British Columbia out of an agreement they reached to impose a pipeline on B.C. in the name of the national interest. Quebeckers had better be careful, because the federal government has been mulling over the idea of forci…
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Mr. Speaker, I would need 10 years just to answer my colleague's question. My answer would also likely be very broad. Whether we are talking about indigenous affairs or other issues, everything is being dragged out, as I said earlier. I get the impression that there is no will to do anything. I am seeing this with committees in particular right now. I was not planning on bringing this up, but it i…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nunavut, whom I hold in high regard. I used to work with her on the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and she obviously cares a lot about this issue. There are several indigenous groups that participated in the consultations on this bill. I would like to know what their concerns are in terms of the possibility that the bill may not be p…
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Mr. Speaker, I noticed that the current government is less interested in indigenous issues. As an elected official, I find it rather appalling to see—
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today on behalf of the Bloc Québécois to speak to Bill C-10, an act respecting the commissioner for modern treaty implementation. This is actually the second time this bill was introduced. It was introduced as Bill C-77 in the previous Parliament. The Bloc Québécois supported the bill then and we still do today. I would like to acknowledge the first nations who li…
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Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague talking about ways the government could be more transparent in the implementation of modern treaties. Could he give us a brief summary of what is not working? He said that we do not need another commissioner. The Bloc Québécois supports the bill, but I would like to know more about what he is actually suggesting.
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Mr. Speaker, the fact is, it is the government's responsibility to get the Conservative Party to accept the bill. We agree on the principle and want to study the bill. However, perhaps the government has not been able to fully convince everyone. I think it is the government's job to convince the Conservative Party, so I urge the government to have a conversation with the Conservative Party.
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois has listened to workers, including those in seasonal industries, who felt that they were not understood or taken into consideration in the latest Liberal budget. There is nothing for EI, even though groups defending the rights of the unemployed, unions and the Bloc Québécois are demanding a major overhaul of the legislation. The measure that had temporarily increa…
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Mr. Speaker, my Liberal colleague is talking about what he sees in the budget, but as we have said repeatedly, let us talk about what is missing from the budget. Personally, I would like to talk about public servants. The northern bonuses are being eliminated. In some regions like mine, there is no succession in the public service, which means that some positions are not being filled. This prevent…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, there are a lot of measures in the budget, but there are also a lot of things missing, especially when it comes to the forestry sector. From back home in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean, to the north shore, to Abitibi, the forestry industry all across Quebec is really hurting. The government is not delivering help. There is no help in the budget, even though there are solut…
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Mr. Chair, I heard the question from my colleague from Madawaska—Restigouche. I am a little surprised. He asked the opposition if it was ashamed to have voted against the budget. I would like to know what my colleague thinks of his answer. Perhaps he should tell the people of Abitibi, Saguenay and Lac-Saint-Jean who have lost their jobs that there may be a few problems going forward, given that th…
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Mr. Chair, all I am hearing from one side of the House are proposals that do nothing to address the current situation. Thousands of jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost, and the Build Canada Homes program is not going to bring them back. That said, with all due respect to my colleague who just spoke, what I took away from his speech was a description of the current situation. There a…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today, although I would have preferred to do so under different circumstances. Of course, I am pleased to speak about the budget, but first I want to express my solidarity with the workers and their families from the Arbec plant in Port‑Cartier, which announced less than 24 hours ago that more than 100 employees in my region would be losing their jobs…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, we need to take action before industries shut down. Things are bad in the forestry sector, Ottawa knows that, but I do not know if it truly understands. Yesterday, there were 100 layoffs at Arbec in Port‑Cartier. Last week, workers in Amos learned they would be laid off for Christmas. Last June, there were layoffs in Lac‑Saint‑Jean, Mauricie and elsewhere. After all these job losses, …
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Mr. Speaker, I must say that, as an MP from a forestry region, I hear the government talk about jobs and employment measures for young people, but I am not satisfied with what I am hearing. Yesterday, I learned that a wood processing plant in my riding is laying off 100 workers, with Christmas just around the corner. The government is doing absolutely nothing for the forestry industry. I would lik…
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Mr. Speaker, we know that the government has used some creative accounting in its budget to magically turn debts into investments. I would like my colleague to enlighten me on how, for example, security costs for the FIFA World Cup can be a government investment.
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Mr. Speaker, the news came as a shock: the Arbec mill in Port‑Cartier is laying off roughly 100 workers. The federal government needs to wake up. Forestry industry representatives, including Arbec, were in Ottawa less than a month ago to share their concerns and discuss solutions. A wage subsidy is needed, precisely to prevent layoffs like those in Port‑Cartier. For the sector in general, the fede…
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Mr. Speaker, in his excellent speech, my colleague summed up the reasons the Bloc Québécois will be voting for Quebeckers. I would like my colleague to talk about the regions. He talked about his riding. I come from a rural region where the forestry sector is not getting its fair share of the budget, and neither is the aluminum sector. Workers in seasonal industries and in the fishing industry hav…
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Mr. Speaker, there would never have been a confidence vote on the budget today if the Liberals had worked in Quebec's best interests, but, unfortunately, here we are. We are here because they refused to negotiate in good faith despite their minority status. They rejected Quebec's demands on health care and infrastructure, just as they ignored the needs of seniors facing the cost of living crisis a…
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers did not vote Conservative, but this is a Conservative budget, despite its Liberal deficits. Health care cuts, mass layoffs and climate capitulation are all Conservative ideas. The government House leader actually confirmed that in the House on Wednesday when he said that this is a budget that even Conservative voters can like. It must be working, since the Conservative rank…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to welcome representatives from the Port of Baie-Comeau to Parliament Hill today, and I especially want to welcome its president and CEO Karine Otis, a woman I admire. Like them, I am here to talk about the north shore, Baie-Comeau and our port, which is a gateway to the entire world. It has close ties with the Port of Rotterdam, which is Europe's largest port, and i…
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Madam Speaker, the forestry industry is on the brink of collapse. It can no longer bear the costs of the softwood lumber dispute on top of Donald Trump's tariffs. Representatives from businesses, workers' groups and municipalities were in Ottawa this week. They are calling on the federal government to cover 50% of future countervailing duties to be paid until the end of the dispute, when our busin…
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With regard to the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces: what was the procedure and what criteria led the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre - Halifax to suspend the search on August 7, 2025, for the two people from Havre-Saint-Pierre who went missing at sea on August 5, 2025?
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague for introducing Bill C-222. As we have seen in the few minutes that we have been discussing it, this bill should be something we can all agree on. Ideology and partisanship often prevail in Parliament, but in this case, we are talking about what we hold most dear, our loved ones, our children, those we have lost. That brings a whole new p…
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Mr. Speaker, the softwood lumber industry does not have 10 years to wait for the Prime Minister and his economic diversification trips. The Bloc Québécois is calling for a real rescue package for our forestry industry. To begin with, Ottawa needs to finally release the financial aid it has already promised. That would be a good start. On top of that, a wage subsidy is needed to protect workers and…
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Mr. Speaker, the conflict with Donald Trump is far from over and yet Ottawa is already abandoning our workers. On October 11, Ottawa is set to make cuts to its emergency measures for accessing employment insurance and reduce the adjusted unemployment rates that allowed more workers to quality. It is creating an additional distinction between different types of workers at the expense of seasonal wo…
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Mr. Speaker, the same Prime Minister who returned from Washington empty-handed cannot now abandon workers as if the tariff war were over. Every Quebec labour union is demanding that Ottawa maintain all of its emergency measures related to access to EI. They also point out that if the Liberals had reformed employment insurance like they have been promising for the past 10 years, we would not need e…
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Mr. Speaker, allow me to quote postal workers: “Repeated government interventions in our dispute have completely ruined...negotiations. Every time the Government has stepped in, it has only made reaching new collective agreements that much harder. With every intervention, the Government has pushed the parties farther apart.” Ottawa created this conflict and is solely responsible for the disruption…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the tariff war is ramping up, but Ottawa is abandoning workers in rural areas as if the dispute were over. Starting October 11, the federal government is cutting back on temporary employment insurance measures and lowering the unemployment rate that is used to determine eligibility. Worse still, it is creating two classes of workers by favouring those whom Ottawa describes as “long-te…
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Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of the week, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Jobs have been asking Canada Post and the union to go back to the bargaining table to settle the general strike. Before this government got involved, there was no general strike. Before last week, the parties were negotiating. The union was waiting for an offer from the employer, and mail was being delivered. Will…
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Mr. Speaker, I hope the minister will not always be this arrogant. We are talking about thousands of workers who are at risk of losing their jobs and who have been calling for reform for 20 years. It is not like Canada Post only started losing $10 million a day one year ago. It takes some nerve to ask the two parties involved in the postal dispute to be reasonable and return to the bargaining tabl…
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Madam Speaker, the postal service is an essential service, particularly in rural areas where the delivery of medicines is on the line. No one is receiving their mail today because the minister triggered a general strike at Canada Post. In the middle of negotiations, while both parties, including the workers, were coming up with solutions for the future of postal services, Ottawa killed the negotia…
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Mr. Speaker, I am inclined to ham it up a bit and say that I am not even aware of this new government's current priorities. It seems to be recycling the old ones. We are talking about the notwithstanding clause now, and we talked about it in 2023. There is nothing new here. They are just sticking with the same agenda. Are they organized? I do not get the sense that they are. Time will tell. Obviou…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Shefford for her question. It not only specifically calls attention to the government's paternalistic attitude, a term I used earlier, but also its contempt and arrogance towards Quebec. Simply to assume that Quebec, as my colleague said, had passed 41 laws using the notwithstanding clause—laws that were progressive and sought to improve the lives of …
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my colleague, the member for Jonquière. I am really glad to speak today on this Bloc Québécois opposition day. People get involved in politics because they have values they want to defend. We want to defend our constituents, and I, as a proud member of the Bloc Québécois, want to defend Quebec. That is really what we are talking about today. I will repea…
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Mr. Speaker, I have already answered this question. I would instead prefer my colleague to share with us whether she is standing up for Quebec and whether she is in favour of Bill 21, which was voted on by our National Assembly and which is legitimate. This member from Quebec is right now telling us that Quebec does not have the legitimacy to pass its own laws.
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Mr. Speaker, that is a funny question because of the role reversal. The Constitution's notwithstanding clause is meant to protect Quebec and the provinces, so that is a totally different premise. The Constitution, which Quebec still has not signed, includes this notwithstanding clause, so the question is hypothetical. It is political fiction, and I do not think it is up to the courts to debate it.…
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Mr. Speaker, the notwithstanding clause was the condition without which the provinces would never have signed the 1982 Constitution. For Quebec, who never signed the Constitution, the provision remained too weak a safeguard against the federal government's desire to subject Quebeckers to a centralized Canadian authority. Today, that same weak safeguard is too much for Ottawa. The Liberals want to …
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