Statements by Members
Madam Speaker, the town of Fermont is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The name Fermont naturally evokes its mountain of iron ore, its immense open-pit mines and its mythical wall. Personally, I also think of its pioneers, who are now watching their children and grandchildren grow up in Fermont, where the warmth of humanity is matched only by the love that the people of Fermont have for…
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Madam Speaker, the interpreters are saying that there is a phone on vibrate near a microphone, so they are having difficulty doing their job.
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Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I would like to thank the people of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun for placing their trust in Louis-Philippe Sauvé. Mr. Sauvé made just one election promise, specifically to prove himself worthy of that trust. I have known Louis-Philippe for many years, and I am sure he will keep his word. The people sent a clear message by electing someone who staunchly defends…
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Mr. Speaker, qujannamiik to my colleague from Nunavut, with whom I was pleased to work on the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs. I am happy that we are talking a little about the north today. Rural and remote communities, in particular indigenous and Inuit communities, often face difficulties due to their geographical remoteness. My colleague touched on the issue of housing. Ob…
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Madam Speaker, I would just like you to confirm whether we can refer to the presence or absence of other members in the House. I do not think that is allowed.
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Madam Speaker, listening to my colleague's speech made me wonder about something. They are talking about nutrition north Canada and the need for reform. We have actually known that for years. The program did not only just now stop working in the north and other remote regions. In my riding, the boat often fails to arrive, forcing us to transport food by plane. It is getting more and more expensive…
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Mr. Speaker, if I am not mistaken, the member for Ajax voted, but we did not see his photo.
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Mr. Speaker, I have risen three times today because I was so eager to speak. I am pleased to speak today at third reading of Bill C-64. We have been debating this bill for a long time. Clause-by-clause study took place last week, but we do need to wind up the debate at some point. Before continuing with my speech, I would ask my colleagues to respect my right to speak and not talk over me. First, …
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Mr. Speaker, I am not at all surprised by my colleague's question. Perhaps others have answered it, but I will answer again. I have listened to what the coalition of labour unions are saying. I understand that they want improvements to pharmacare in Quebec, but I will repeat that it is up to Quebeckers to do that. Yes, there can be a coalition. I understand that, but the fact remains that we have …
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Mr. Speaker, it is as though my colleague from Montcalm can read my mind. Obviously, I agree with him. It makes perfect sense. I tried to bring up the election issue. I know that people may not always want to talk about it in the House, because everyone wants to be above the fray. However, at a certain point, we feel we need to point out some of the blind spots that others may not see. Sometimes w…
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is actually the voice of the Quebec National Assembly. My colleague repeated his question, and I will repeat the answer. The Quebec National Assembly is made up of people elected from all parties. This is a unanimous motion supported by all parties, including Québec Solidaire. Everyone agrees that the answer is no, that we want to opt out with full compensation. I a…
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals have transformed the Standing Committee on Official Languages into an endless source of reasons to be concerned for the future of French. After the Liberal member for Saint-Laurent said that Bill 96 prevents anglophones from receiving care, and after the Liberal member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell insulted researchers who are worried about the decline of French, yeste…
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Madam Speaker, this is indicative of a culture problem within the Liberal Party. The whole purpose of the Standing Committee on Official Languages is to promote French in Canada. All the Liberals need to do is choose five of their 156 members who speak French and who want to protect the French language. That is all. Those are the only two criteria, but they cannot even do that. Let us get back to …
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Madam Speaker, Bill C-377, introduced by the Conservative member for Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, raises extremely important but sensitive issues. The member is correct in saying that the current situation is not working and needs to be improved. When we talk about parliamentarians' access to classified information, there are two conflicting principles. Both of these principles are important, and so we …
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Madam Speaker, the fuel excise tax is $5.5 billion a year. For three months, it is $1.4 billion. What I would like to know is this. How does my colleague think the Conservative Party would pay for its new federal fossil fuel subsidy? What would it cut?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Mégantic—L'Érable for ascribing such power and importance to the Bloc Québécois. Indeed, we really are a bulwark against the Conservative Party. It seems to me that the Conservative members are doing something they do a lot: making up problems that do not exist and coming up with solutions that certainly do not work. Here is an example. Right now…
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Madam Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North is making it clear that he could never be the Speaker of the House of Commons because he does not understand the impartiality and discernment needed for the job. That is what he just said: He does not understand and it seems unfair to him. We need to look beyond perceptions and really acknowledge what the role of Speaker involves. The person who occupie…
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to say that I will be sharing my time with the member for Thornhill. To begin, I would like to convey to the House my respect for my colleague, the member for Hull—Aylmer, who is an affable, warm and cordial person and who also happens to be the Speaker of the House right now. I wanted to make the distinction because it is not the individual, the MP himself,…
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Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart, but with recognition and admiration that I pay tribute to a great Nitassinan, utshimau Alexandre McKenzie, who passed away on May 11. The entire north shore is mourning the loss of this builder who has left a great legacy. We owe him for the founding of the Schefferville Airport Corporation, Tshiuetin Rail Transportation Inc., the first indigenous owned railw…
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Mr. Speaker, can you please tell me if a member's vote counts when they do not have their headset on. It is also for the interpreters' sake that I wanted to bring this up.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. It is my understanding that everyone is to wear the headset approved by the House of Commons when rising during the vote. The member for Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook was not wearing his headset when he wanted to check that his vote had been recorded. I just wanted to remind all our colleagues of that.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's comments are off topic.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to make two points. First, I would like to remind the member that we are talking about a question of privilege. I do not think that raising a question of privilege can be considered obstructing Parliament. On the contrary, that is our right as members. We need to settle this issue. That is the first point I wanted to make. Second, the party in power keeps saying that we…
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Madam Speaker, as I said earlier, we need to rise above the fray, because it does not matter where the Speaker is from. What matters to me is that the Speaker has the skills to do his job and that he earns the trust of the entire House. As for the anti-Quebec conspiracy, that is not what this is. Other parties are stuck on this because we are the Bloc Québécois. The fact remains that we need to se…
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Madam Speaker, we are not attacking him. This term is being used by the member because he does not wish to rise above the fray. Once again, I may be a Bloc Québécois member, but I do not care which province or territory members who aspire to become Speaker come from. We have to rise above the fray. To answer my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, as a Bloc Québécois MP, I make sure that I am…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that my colleague opposite sees the glass as half full. If I were on the same side of the House as he is, I would likely try to do the same thing. He also mentioned that the government acted very quickly on Bill C-58. I would like to remind him that the first bill was introduced by my colleague from Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel in 1990 and that 30 bills have been introduced s…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal calvary was out in full force yesterday to save the president of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. In what was basically an unprecedented—
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal calvary was out in full force yesterday to save the president of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. In what was basically—
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal calvary was out in full force yesterday to save the president—
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Mr. Speaker, I have all weekend. The Liberal calvary was out in full force yesterday to save the president of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie, or APF. In what was basically an unprecedented situation, interpreters were needed at the meeting because many of the new members do not understand French. We know the result. The president of the APF kept his position, despite the hurtful, s…
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Mr. Speaker, when the Bloc Québécois defends all francophones against violence, insult and injury, I believe it is working on behalf of all of La Francophonie. Here are some of this morning's headlines: “Confidence vote: [APF president] saved by the Liberal cavalry”; “Full of s***”; “[The member] stays on as APF president”. That is what the Liberals' stunt has led to. Gross insults against witness…
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Madam Speaker, the Liberal member from Glengarry—Prescott—Russell spent his 15 minutes of fame denying the decline of French in Quebec. It is an odd choice at a time when the Commissioner of Official Languages notes that it is from my colleague's region along the Ottawa river that he receives the most complaints, including from federal public servants who are unable to work in French. The commissi…
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Madam Speaker, the unfortunate thing about the insults uttered by the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell is that they overshadowed opportunities for a substantive conversation about the French language. While he was publicly humiliating himself, the report of the Commissioner of Official Languages went almost unnoticed. However, the commissioner harshly criticized the federal government, descri…
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Madam Speaker, I surely mentioned it at some point, perhaps at the end of my speech. I will be sharing my time with the member for Jonquière. I could have shared it with the member for Winnipeg North, but I decided to go with the member for Jonquière. I was talking about something that I have mentioned here in the House on many occasions in recent years: The government's lack of vision, which make…
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Madam Speaker, obviously, I think I am going to make my colleague happier than he sounded when he was asking the question, because we voted against the budget. We voted against the ways and means motion. I think he will be happy to hear that. Obviously, we will respect British Columbia's jurisdictions because the Bloc Québécois is not a party that is against common sense. It is a party that works …
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Madam Speaker, as members know, the Bloc Québécois is not opposed to good ideas. Our party is in favour of equity, if not equality. However, the merits of this measure were not proven to the National Assembly, which overwhelmingly came out against it. I think that the government can make decisions. I am not sure if I should lump the NPD in with the group, because apparently there are all sorts of …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's question is a timely one, since an article published yesterday said that the north shore, where I live, is experiencing the consequences of plastic pollution. I am talking about the north shore, but in fact it is in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and its estuary. Any measure aimed at reducing plastic pollution would be welcome. I cannot say “solving” plastic pollution, beca…
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Madam Speaker, I have the dubious pleasure of addressing Bill C-69 and the implementation of the budget. No one will be surprised to hear that I was quite astonished when I read the budget. I am a member of the Bloc Québécois, a member who believes in Quebec independence, and yet the sheer amount of government interference in provincial areas of jurisdiction managed to exceed even my expectations.…
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Madam Speaker, I agree, the government should just focus on taking care of the things it is responsible for. I think that would be the most efficient way of proceeding. The Quebec government knows what needs to be done. Maybe it needs more resources. Ottawa is spending money in Quebec's areas of jurisdiction because it may have too much money. That is what we call the fiscal imbalance. Ottawa shou…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage is working on a plan. CBC management is working on a plan too. The two are not communicating and have no idea what each other's plans are. What we have here is another example of the federal government's legendary effectiveness. Are these the people we should be relying on to ensure Radio-Canada's independence from the CBC? Are these the people we sho…
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Mr. Speaker, we fully realize that the plan to bring the CBC and Radio-Canada closer together has only one objective, and that is to protect the CBC from a potential Conservative government that plans to make cuts to English-language public television. This has nothing to do with modernization, digital media or efficiency. It is simply management's defence against a potential Conservative governme…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, together, let us celebrate May 1, International Workers' Day. Let us celebrate the day together and united to make our voices heard. This is a time to remember the major workers' rights movements and the gains they made. It is also an opportunity to highlight the rights still left to be won, like the right to EI for everyone who has lost their job or whose work season has ended; the r…
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Madam Speaker, people in Manicouagan have a lot of needs in the fisheries sector. We have been hit hard lately, and I would say that the future looks bleak. Of course, there was the issue of Mexican temporary foreign workers, who could not come over because of government measures. The government does not think there is a fishing industry here, so it forgot that this would be detrimental to the fis…
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Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to a great man from the north shore, Paul Brisson, who died on April 2 at the age of 79. Originally from Les Bergeronnes, Mr. Brisson spent most of his life in Baie-Comeau, where he left his mark. He leaves a considerable legacy in the north shore media community. He began his journey in 1968 as co-founder of the Baie-Comeau newspaper Plein Jour. He w…
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank my colleague for his question and tell him that I hold him in high esteem as well. We have worked a lot together on the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. In a riding like mine, talking about development always means working in partnership. This makes perfect sense to us. For example, we work with the Innu people and the Naskapi nation. We want that econ…
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Madam Chair, indeed, not having a solution to offer the lumber industry and Quebec, I would say, is a failure of all governments. In my mind, it is just one more reason to gain independence.
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Madam Chair, the first thing I would say is, what can we do now? For 10 years now, since this party came to power, something has needed to be done about softwood lumber. The Liberals are talking about state-of-the-art products, but it is already hard enough to offload our two-by-fours. The government needs to do two things. First, it needs to talk about the issue. I am not sure that it has. I have…
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Madam Chair, I am pleased to be here this evening to talk about softwood lumber. I wish to inform you that I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Tobique—Mactaquac. I have had some good discussions with him on the issue of natural resources. Speaking of natural resources, I would also like to thank my colleagues from the Bloc Québécois forestry caucus, including my colleague from Saint-H…
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