Orders of the Day
Mr. Speaker, my colleague seems to be skeptical about the idea of seizing the bank accounts and financial resources of certain protesters. He seems to be skeptical about the idea of towing the trucks of some of the protesters. I do not agree with the Emergencies Act at all, because it is like killing a fly with a bazooka. However, my colleague seems to be suggesting that no measures are possible. …
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Madam Speaker, the Minister of Canadian Heritage seems to be a bit agitated this evening. He has been called to order a few times now. Had he been asked to leave, I would have found that to be disproportionate, and I would have defended him because I like him. It would have been disproportionate. Now, I have a question for my colleague. Is it possible that the Emergencies Act is disproportionate? …
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Madam Speaker, we said right away that we would be voting against the motion on the Emergencies Act, but certainly not for the same reasons as my colleague. I am hearing something here that is a little unsettling, and that is the connection being made between freedom and vaccination. In his speech, my colleague told us that his parents cannot go to restaurants because they are not vaccinated. That…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague. I agree with him that it would be more appropriate to study the Liberals' bill in committee. He mentioned the importance of talking about the $750 million in additional expenditures. My biggest concern is figuring out how we can speed up the process. The Bloc Québécois has already proposed moving the date from June to March. These are things we …
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Mr. Speaker, I really like my colleague from Winnipeg North. Unfortunately, he has been known to engage in overblown rhetoric. I think he has a reputation for that in the House. In his speech, he admonished the opposition at length by saying that our Conservative colleagues often engage in political partisanship, and he presented himself as a great defender of seniors. However, since I arrived her…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to point out to my colleague that we also introduced a bill to ensure that retirees are the first creditors in line. We support my colleague. However, I have a question about something else. Earlier, a Liberal colleague asked her a question about national standards for senior care. She responded that the thing that matters most is the health transfers, which need to be made qui…
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Mr. Speaker, today, I have heard a number of Liberals talk about standards for long-term care. If they want to create care standards, they are going to have to put their money where their mouth is at some point. I am not sure if my colleague realizes that the federal government covers just 22% of health care costs. The government wants to set standards, but it never increases funding. On top of al…
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Madam Speaker, I enjoy listening to my colleague, but he is really pushing it when he blames the opposition parties for all of the government's own sins with respect to seniors. He has some nerve. Since 2019, we have been constantly telling the government that it needs to increase OAS and the GIS. We even held opposition days on the topic. We have talked about health transfers. If anyone has been …
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Mr. Speaker, I was listening very closely to my hon. colleague who pointed out that the government has been slow to respond. As everyone knows, because the Bloc Québécois members have repeated it about 12 times today, we warned the government last March of the impact this was going to have on people receiving both GIS and CERB payments. Throughout the day, I have heard the Liberals say that we are…
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Madam Speaker, I hope I am not adding fuel to the fire. God forbid. I can let my colleague know right away that we support the motion. However, the leader of our party asked the Leader of the Opposition a question earlier that she did not answer, and I would like a response. What will the Conservatives do if the protesters do not leave?
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today. I would like to say that I will be sharing my time with the member for Beauport—Limoilou. Let me get one thing straight right out of the gate: We will support the Conservatives’ motion, but with certain reservations, which I would like to discuss today. To begin with, I would like to address the current political climate. This week, there were two events …
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Madam Speaker, that was a fine way to turn it over to me, but I will decline. The minister will understand why. I am pleased that it is the Minister of Health who asked me this question, because what the pandemic has shown us is that our health care system was ill prepared. If we want to be honest and set ideology aside, the best thing to do is to reinvest in our health care system. I am reaching …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. In my opinion, there are two positions that should be avoided. The Conservatives roundly criticized the government for insulting the protesters. I agree with my colleague that we should perhaps avoid that, but we should also avoid flattering them. By using “freedom” as a rallying cry, my Conservative colleagues are trying to flatter certain prote…
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Madam Speaker, I understand what my colleague means. I have some concerns as well. The decision to lift the mandatory measures must be based on the circumstances. If there is a new wave or problems that we did not foresee, unfortunately, we will have to leave the measures in place to limit the spread of the virus. My Conservative colleagues could have been a bit clearer in their motion by saying t…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the enthusiasm and passion of my colleague from Winnipeg North. I am sure that he is a reasoned and reasonable man. In his speech, he spoke at length about the divisions that we are currently seeing. I know that it is always easier to see the divisions caused by others than the ones that we cause ourselves, but let us leave that aside. Something interesting happened today…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberal member for Louis-Hébert understands that the Prime Minister's position on health transfers is untenable. It is imperative that the Prime Minister increase health funding in the long term. This is essential if we are to catch up on all the delayed surgeries, hire nurses and increase the number of beds, so that we never again have to lock down an entire population in order t…
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Mr. Speaker, the phrase “be there” is losing all meaning. The Prime Minister is the only one too stubborn to increase the federal share of health care funding to 35%. Even his member for Louis-Hébert is criticizing him. In doing so, his member is joining every party in the National Assembly, the governments of Quebec and every province and territory, 85% of Canadians and 86% of Quebeckers. When so…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague has clearly shown that it was absurd for Canadian Pacific not to pay its taxes. What I am having difficulty understanding is the ambivalence of our Liberal colleagues. They have seemed very hesitant to support the Conservative motion right from the start of the day. Can my colleague explain why he thinks our Liberal colleagues are being so reserved?
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Madam Speaker, I want to respond to the question from my colleague from Winnipeg North, who wanted to ensure that this applies only to Saskatchewan. As we know, the feds have an almighty fear of ever talking about the Constitution, especially when it comes to Quebec. I realize that this applies only to Saskatchewan, but would my colleague agree that this could set a pretty strong precedent for re-…
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Mirabel, commonly known as the Jean-René Dufort of the Bloc Québécois. I asked myself this morning how I would deal with this fascinating issue. Something struck me when reading the motion, specifically the following: Whereas the Canadian Pacific Railway was completed on November 6, 1885, with the Last Spike at Craigellachie.... As I am …
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Madam Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague. I may not have focused on that aspect in my speech, but it is unacceptable to allow a company like Canadian Pacific, which according to my research makes $2.8 billion in profit a year, to not pay taxes. That is unacceptable. That is something that I think can be fixed quickly. With the goodwill of the Liberal Party, I am sure that we can quickly…
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Madam Speaker, to be honest, I have to tell my colleague from Winnipeg North that I am not a constitutional expert. However, I very much appreciate the idea that an opposition member can propose amendments to the Constitution by means of a motion. As I said earlier, when I was a bit younger, I was interested in what James Tully had to say about flexible constitutions. Personally, I tend to think t…
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Madam Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague from the NDP. The government is plainly complacent about tax havens and tax loopholes. There is talk of the need for major initiatives once we are out of this crisis, including with regard to health care funding. That money will have to come from somewhere. There needs to be major tax reform. We also need to put an end to tax havens and all the t…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciated the passionate speech given by my colleague from Winnipeg North. There were some real gems in it. For example, he said that he was proud of the fact that Mr. Trudeau had united Canadians and made them proud. I am not too sure about that, since the average Quebecker remembers 1982 as the year the federal government betrayed them. The same is true for the Meech Lake and …
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Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate, but the investments the minister just mentioned are not sustainable investments. They are pandemic-related investments. I issued a challenge to the minister. If he believes that funding 22% of health care costs is enough, he should follow our leader's suggestion and call a summit on health care funding. If everyone agrees that 22% is enough, I swear I will never tal…
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Mr. Speaker, on Friday, all the provincial premiers once again asked the federal government to pay its fair share for health care. They unanimously reiterated that the federal government must increase transfers to cover 35% of health care costs. They are once again reaching out to the Prime Minister in the hopes of coming to an agreement in the next few weeks. My question is a very simple one. Wil…
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government's decision to underfund health care comes at a cost. There is a price to be paid for pushing health care networks to the limit and hoping that nothing unexpected brings it all crashing down. Quebeckers feel as though they are the ones paying the price, what with the offloading of responsibilities and the lockdown measures. We need to rebuild the health care syst…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C-8, even though it is not exactly my favourite subject. I would like to talk about health transfers, and I hope this subject does not get overlooked. To begin my speech, I want to come back to the subject of the emergency funds and programs the government put in place. The wage subsidy and the rent subsidy in particular come to mind, becaus…
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That is true, Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean just said. It has nothing for health up to 2027, and that is a disaster. I would like to look into the origins of the Canadian federation's biggest problem, health care funding. For that, we have to go back to a key concept, which is the fiscal imbalance. I know that federalists do not want to talk about the fiscal imbalance, but we ha…
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Mr. Speaker, I thought I was the one who was supposed to speak for 10 minutes. I am surprised. I would say to my colleague that the federal government does have a role to play, and that is to transfer money to repair a health care system that has been underfunded for the past 20 years. What I would have liked to hear from my colleague from Winnipeg North is his explanation as to why. Instead, he e…
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Mr. Speaker, to be honest with my colleague, I did not talk about inflation because I do not know a lot about it. I always find it funny when people rise in the House to talk about things they know nothing about. I know quite a bit about health transfers. I have done my research. The Conservatives are fixated on inflation, and I get it. It is a major concern when it comes to health transfers. Infl…
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Mr. Speaker, I completely agree with my colleague from Timmins—James Bay. That is what we call an assist. If we want to do something constructive, maybe we should stop sending financial support to the fossil fuel sector year after year and start thinking about those with the greatest needs who will suffer the most from inflation, in other words seniors and the most vulnerable. I agree with my coll…
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Mr. Speaker, everyone is fed up with COVID-19. Those most fed up certainly are not the ones honking their horns outside, but rather the health care workers who have been struggling for two years. Unfortunately, health care workers are not getting any attention or support from the Prime Minister. At a time when health care systems everywhere are crumbling, the Prime Minister needs to do his part to…
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Mr. Speaker, what reassuring words. The $63 billion the Prime Minister is talking about is for emergency measures. That money will not go to health care. We knew that the health care system was underfunded before the pandemic, and it will be underfunded afterwards. That is why Quebec and all the provinces are calling for an increase in health transfers to rebuild the health care system. I say to t…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to see you again. You are just as radiant in 2022 as you were in 2021. I just want to tell my colleague that the oddest thing I saw in the throne speech was the creation of a department of mental health. That is just as odd as establishing a department of national defence in Quebec City. Health is a provincial jurisdiction. If my colleague wants to address the health fi…
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Mr. Speaker, I was listening carefully to my colleague and, in the introduction to his speech, he talked about divisions in Canada. I agree with him that in a pandemic, what we probably need to avoid most are divisions. He referred to many things, such as the rapid tests that have been slow in coming. I have a simple question for my colleague. In the last few days, they have seemed to offer tacit …
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Mr. Speaker, the elephant in the room is the fact that the federal government has not taken action. Ninety per cent of Quebeckers are vaccinated, and yet they have been locked down again since Christmas. Why is that? It is because the health care system is fragile. This government has consistently refused to increase health transfers to 35%. What will it take for the government to see that the way…
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Mr. Speaker, I have been listening to the debate in the House and I find myself wondering if I am in a bad dream. Omicron is overwhelming our hospitals. Health care workers in Quebec are exhausted, and 63 Quebeckers died from COVID‑19 today, but no one is talking about funding for health care. No one is talking about how our health care system is in urgent need of reinforcements even though we all…
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Mr. Speaker, I am quite fond of my colleague from Carleton, so I will tell him up front that I do not agree with my colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert. I believe that the Conservatives are really good when it comes to oil. Just look at the previous session when they moved a motion that said that oil was irreplaceable and it was better than air and water. I will nevertheless remind my colleague …
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Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech. She started it by saying that her government had procured vaccines. That is absolutely true. What I find strange, though, is how, in the economic update, the government used these vaccine procurements as an excuse for why it would not invest in health care until 2027. My colleague concluded her speech by emphasizing how important the thir…
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Mr. Speaker, I am impressed. No one is questioning the fact that Ottawa spent money during the pandemic. The problem is that the government made cuts to health care funding before the pandemic. The government is now saying that it will not make any investments until 2027. The federal government was not making investments before the pandemic and will not be making any after it. The Liberals confirm…
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Mr. Speaker, recent developments are a stark reminder that we are still in the midst of a health crisis and that our health care system remains overburdened. Nevertheless, this week, despite Quebec announcing new restrictions because of concerns about the variant, despite Ottawa recommending no travel, despite the Liberal Party recommending that people work from home, despite all of that, the gove…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was urging people to get vaccinated and get the third dose. However, if we want to get people vaccinated, we need to hire nurses, and to hire nurses the government needs to provide health transfers. Does my colleague agree with her government's plan to wait until 2027 to provide financial support to the provinces?
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservative motion reminds me of the relationship that I have with my colleague from Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles on Twitter. Let us just say that my intentions are not always the best when we debate on Twitter, and I get the impression that what the Conservatives are trying to do is embarrass the government. I would ask my colleague whether he would agree with me that there …
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Mr. Speaker, I wondered for a few seconds if my colleague was joking and being ironic when he said that the government had declared war on the energy sector. If it has, then it is certainly a gentle war, one that would no doubt leave the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development flabbergasted. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the government invested $14 billion annually in the oil and gas…
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Mr. Speaker, in his speech, our colleague spoke about how important it is to reduce greenhouse gases and about what his government has done. I genuinely wonder if he has read the report from the commissioner of the environment and sustainable development. This report was damning for his government, especially when it comes to the emissions reduction fund, which goes entirely to the oil and gas ind…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague once again demonstrated that she is a moderate parliamentarian, just as she did when she spoke about Quebec artists, but that is another matter. We often hear the same mantra from the Conservatives: “We have a plan. We need a plan.” We do not know what that plan is, but they are constantly telling us about it. I would like to see that plan. The amendment proposed by the L…
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Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague from Timmins—James Bay for his speech. We will be working together on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. He ended his speech by asking what we were going to do for workers in the industry. I would like to tell him that what we can do has a lot to do with secondary and tertiary processing. Unfortunately, industry stakeholders are telling us that the federal…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech. I look forward to working with her on the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. My colleague spoke a lot about the relationship with the United States. This relationship is a big part of the issue we are discussing tonight. However, we cannot ignore one of the major issues for the forestry industry, which is that there is no support for secondar…
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