Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am listening carefully to the hon. member for Winnipeg North and putting myself in his shoes. There have been procedural delays for months. I picture the hon. member for Winnipeg North a few months ago, demonstrating leadership by making a fuss in the Liberal lobby. I imagine him doing everything in his power to avoid having to impose this kind of last-minute closure motion again, p…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for ruling the amendment in order. The Bloc Québécois used this wording in order to recognize the fact that Quebec is a leader in this area, as proven by the unanimous motion recently adopted by the National Assembly. With this amendment, the Bloc Québécois wants to be able to move things along in Quebec. Does my colleague care abou…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C‑29, an act to provide for the establishment of a national council for reconciliation. This council will monitor progress being made towards reconciliation across all sectors of Canada and support the sustainable implementation of measures to foster long-term reconciliation. I believe these elements are important, particularly in the context of the rulin…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister. I am quite moved by the quality of his French. One of the challenges that comes with this new responsibility is that it seems like many things happen in English, so being able to talk about these issues in French makes me happy and is an acknowledgement that is not insignificant. Obviously, in the context of reconciliation, the issues of the first nations back ho…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for being so thorough and taking an interest in intersectional issues affecting women. The example she gave is an excellent one. I think the government will be judged by its actions, and the council will be a great example of that.
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Mr. Speaker, on December 1, 2022, the Conservatives joined all members of the House in voting in favour of Bill C‑29. Perhaps it is the member for Carleton's appointment as the Leader of the Opposition that has changed the dynamic in the House since then. It is certainly not the amendment that says that we recognize “since time immemorial, First Nations and Inuit peoples — and, post-contact, the M…
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Mr. Speaker, I was just getting to the end of what I was saying. I should not have been interrupted.
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Mr. Speaker, the way I see it is that the first nations feel as though the Conservatives are using them for political purposes on the carbon tax issue.
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Mr. Speaker, the member made some recommendations on behalf of his party that seem rather good in theory. However, the devil is in the details and it is easy, two years before an election, to say that one party would be better than another, particularly when it comes to relations with first nations. I would like the member to talk about the notion of overlap. How will he be able to determine who i…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for his speech and his work. I feel he is sincere. He said something in his speech that bothered me a bit. He mentioned the summit that took place yesterday, which he himself organized. It was about an issue of critical importance: missing and murdered women and how we approach reconciliation and grief. So many indigenous mothers and fathers are intimately familia…
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Mr. Speaker, the bill specifically sought to address calls to action 53 to 56 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report. With this in mind, I would like to focus more closely on call to action 54, which reads as follows: We call upon the Government of Canada to provide multi-year funding for the National Council for Reconciliation to ensure that it has the financial, human, and t…
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Mr. Speaker, I could not have described the consequences of these problems better myself. Indigenous housing is at the heart of self-determination issues. In Quebec and elsewhere in Canada, there are sometimes two, three or four families living in the same space. I have heard horror stories about families who have to take turns sleeping during the night. They wake up every two, three or four hours…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Calgary Shepard for his intervention and for his sensitivity on this issue. I think he made a number of important distinctions. He mentioned a few times that the government was not facing up to its responsibilities and was shirking its duty. I would like to ask him a straightforward question, and I hope he can offer some clarity. First, will the Conservativ…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Nunavut for her comments and question. She was already one of the members of the House I most respected. When I had the chance to get to know her better on the Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs, I grew to admire her and her genuine commitment to the first peoples even more. Obviously, in this context, the government must do something tow…
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Madam Speaker, I want to say a special thank you to my colleague for her leadership with the community of Listuguj. She clearly knows every detail of that community's needs. It is unacceptable that a day care does not have drinking water. What happens as a result of a situation like that? The same entity, be it the municipal or local administration or the day care itself, will have to make choices…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands for her question and her remarks, as well as for her genuine commitment to first nations. I will give an example concerning water quality. She accompanied the Kebaowek First Nation here so that its members could speak at a House of Commons news conference on a fundamental issue, namely the quality of water in the Ottawa Ri…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Winnipeg North for his commitment to first nations and for his question. I will answer it by pointing out that the Minister of Indigenous Services was asked to release a list of the first nations and organizations that were consulted about the bill. That request went nowhere, and instead the minister stated that all first nations had received the bi…
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Madam Speaker, it was an excellent brief question because it leads me to point out the importance of first nations self-governance. Funding is key, but it must be significant, recurring and predictable. Let us talk about Quebec's water policy. Quebec made that policy a fundamental law. Based on my discussions with first nations back home, I would say that if the federal government wants to take me…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Nunavut for her commitment and her speech. I would like to ask the member a question in light of where she is from. What is the drinking water situation in her community? As I understand it, the territorial governments provide safe, clean water in communities, including first nations and Inuit communities. It is my understanding that this is b…
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Madam Speaker, it is with deep humility and a great sense of responsibility that I take up the torch today for indigenous relations and the development of the north and its regions within the Bloc Québécois. First, I would like to salute my hon. colleague from Manicouagan for her outstanding dedication and hard work on behalf of the indigenous nations of Quebec and Canada over the years. I am comm…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to once again thank my colleague from Nunavut for her intervention. Of course, first nations themselves will have to invest considerable sums of money as a result of this bill. We have found that, since 2015, the government has invested about a third or a quarter of the sums needed, so there is a cost to investing. I wonder if my colleague can talk about the cost of not…
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Madam Speaker, I will take the liberty of asking my colleague, the member for Timmins—James Bay, who is also my neighbour, about a climate change issue that directly affects his riding, as well as mine. I am talking about the forest fires we have seen happening. He talked about this when he discussed the impact on farmers. The carbon tax has a very small impact, we agree on that. However, I am won…
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Mr. Speaker, I wish we had started the year the same way you did, with a new look and new priorities. I wish the Conservatives would do the same and let us move on to something other than the carbon tax. That said, it is the topic of the day, and we will respect that. In his speech, my colleague said something about the energy transition that I find very interesting. He talked about the Stellantis…
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Madam Speaker, this economic statement obviously will not make history because it was supposed to address an urgent situation, namely the housing crisis, but the only solutions the Liberals proposed for solving the housing crisis will not apply until 2025 or 2026. We are talking about budgets. They are saying that construction will be pushed back by a year or two or three. Considering the other ag…
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Mr. Speaker, the budget statement was read for the first time last fall. It is now the end of January, and February is just around the corner. We expect a budget to be presented in March or April. At the rate things are going, does the member really expect his government to successfully get bills passed? It seems to me that the Liberals' legislative calendar has been very sparse for the past two o…
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Madam Speaker, it seems holiday magic is not meant for everyone. According to Statistics Canada, more than 98,000 companies are unsure whether they have the liquidity or access to credit available to repay their CEBA loans. With 98,000 businesses in limbo, SMEs are not the only ones in need of reassurance before the holidays. Hundreds of thousands of workers need some too. The January 18 deadline …
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Madam Speaker, the federal government has one last chance before the holidays to prevent a wave of SME bankruptcies. It has to extend the January 18 loan forgiveness repayment deadline for the emergency business account. As inflation chips away at families' budgets this Christmas, the customer base for restaurants shrinks by 20% and bankruptcies increase by 81% compared to last year, the life is d…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Manicouagan for the hard work she does for workers in her riding and the bills she has introduced for them over the years. I would like her thoughts on Bill C‑58, on its urgency and the good news it offers. In the meantime, there are flaws in this bill, including the 18-month requirement. Is that really necessary? Is there no way for this to come into force…
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Mr. Speaker, I am proud to welcome three farmers from my riding to Parliament Hill: Éric Lafontaine, Alexandre Bégin and Mathieu Dumont. I salute the courage of all agricultural entrepreneurs, who just experienced one of the worst years ever from a climate perspective. Abitibi West farmers lived through a crop-damaging winter freeze, historic wildfires that required livestock evacuations and a cat…
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals are abandoning victims of sexual misconduct in sport. They promised an independent public inquiry. The victims want sport organizations to clean house. Yesterday, the Liberals backed down. They proposed a voluntary commission. A voluntary commission has no power to compel sports federations or abusers to appear. A voluntary commission has no power to compel documents. A v…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Winnipeg North mentioned that more than 19,600 amendments had been tabled at the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. I would like him to tell us more about this matter. How is it humanly possible to produce so many amendments in such a short time? Does he think that the Conservatives used artificial intelligence to help with this? If so, and in the circumstanc…
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Madam Speaker, everyone is obviously wondering whether this is a good situation for the Speaker. I would like to mention two values that a Speaker would be wise to demonstrate while in office. There is impartiality, certainly. There is also judgment, because that is what the Speaker has to demonstrate in everyday life, on the throne obviously, but also in everything a Speaker has to embody. In thi…
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Madam Speaker, I do not get the feeling that the Liberal government is inclined to be a responsible government. It is more inclined to be a political government that is scared as it watches the Conservatives rise in the polls and it figures it will create a sort of false austerity. In any case, it will be able to control Parliament for another two years before the next general election, probably, …
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Madam Speaker, I wish I had the same speaking chops as my colleague from Longueuil—Saint-Hubert to properly express how angry I feel over the lack of action. In my riding of Abitibi—Témiscamingue, visible homelessness is increasing steadily as a direct result of the government's inaction. There is one thing that can justify an economic statement. It has to solve a problem that did not exist six mo…
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Madam Speaker, under the circumstances, every step taken to improve access to housing and lower costs is positive. The problem is that my colleague says that no government has ever invested as much as the one in power now. Of course costs are increasing in real terms, but the federal government has not invested in social housing in years. That is one of the major problems. The Liberals say they ar…
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to Bill C‑56, which has just passed an important milestone. However, it is with a touch of disappointment that we note that a super closure motion has prevented the Standing Committee on Finance, and perhaps even the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology, from doing the work that needed to be done in terms of competition. I will come back to that later.…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Winnipeg North for his contribution to the debate on Bill C‑56. However, I would like to put myself in his shoes. The member works tirelessly, and the work that he does is vitally important, but is seems to me that he occasionally has to defend the indefensible. Would he not like to have a little help from his colleagues, especially on something like Bill C…
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Madam Speaker, I would like my colleague to elaborate on how this situation will affect our farmers. Are we doing enough for our farmers from a public accounts perspective? It is easy to look at other countries. Indeed, inputs are a major issue. This has changed in the past two years. My colleague reminded us that this report was produced two years ago. Are we doing enough for our farmers? I am th…
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Mr. Speaker, this is the first time I have had the opportunity to speak to the member for Winnipeg North through you. I want to offer him my sympathies for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers' loss to the Montreal Alouettes in the Grey Cup final. That aside, we are having a discussion about protecting Canada's food system. Obviously, the Ukraine issue is important when it comes to inputs. I would like to ta…
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Mr. Speaker, I was listening to my colleague's speech. There is something about agriculture that fascinates me. Why are we not focusing on local distribution channels? Obviously, my Conservative colleague will say that, if we focus on local distribution channels, we will be spending less money on transportation and using less oil, and that is not good for that industry. I think that, when it comes…
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Madam Speaker, the fact that there has been no significant movement toward launching this public inquiry raises concerns about the government's actual desire to ensure access to justice for all the survivors. We can legitimately ask ourselves whether the government is protecting its little friends at the expense of the truth and justice that we, as citizens, deserve. The number of people responsib…
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Madam Speaker, today I rise with a mix of concern and profound disappointment, even a bit of cynicism because of this government's continued inaction toward athletes. I am talking about victims who courageously called out the heinous acts committed against them by their coaches and were received with indifference by the heads of 16 national sports organizations. That is what we have learned over t…
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Madam Speaker, I want to pick up on something intriguing my colleague said. He said that Ottawa, which collects half of our taxes, could reinvest a portion of that money in stimulating regional agricultural development. For example, it could invest in abattoirs, which are few and far between right now. The rules say that abattoirs cannot get more that 50% in public money because they are not money…
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Mr. Speaker, just a week after the Montreal Alouettes, boasting the most Quebec players ever, brought home the Grey Cup, my alma mater's team, the Université de Montréal Carabins, won the Grey Cup, the top prize in Canadian university football. Led by quarterback Jonathan Sénécal and an indomitable defence squad, head coach Marco Iadeluca's Montagnards allowed not a single touchdown during the pos…
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry is very proactive on many files. However, as the saying goes, the longer we wait, the worse things get. That is what happened with the Competition Act. The government could have taken action years ago. If it had, we would not be stuck with these huge monopolies, especially in the grocery sector, that have pushed prices up with margins t…
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Mr. Speaker, the Montreal Alouettes' incredible Grey Cup victory yesterday is a sporting moment that will forever be etched in the fans' memories. This is a story about a team that came back from the brink. After last season, it was doubtful whether the team would survive. However, team manager Danny Maciocia, an unassuming guy from Saint-Léonard, never gave up. He knew it was best to surround him…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for being here, for working with the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and for her empathy. I also want to say that the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and to the Minister of Sport and Physical Activity has a reasonable excuse for his absence today. I want to remind everyone that there is a crisis in sport, and every…
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Mr. Speaker, I am going to be fairly direct with the government about the Ignoble Purpose Award it received a few weeks ago. After hearing testimony from survivors and whistle-blowers, and considering that 98% of the 114 witnesses heard by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage called for a public inquiry into abuse and mistreatment in sports, it is clear to me that any other option is no lon…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rimouski‑Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques for his excellent question. I wish there were a reporter in the House to hear what a staunch defender I am of the interests of my region, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, just like my colleague from Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou. Quebec sovereignty essentially boils down to three things. Obviously, one is the ability to coll…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Rosemont—La Petite‑Patrie for his comments, which are always cordial but sometimes force us to dig a little deeper. I will answer his question by giving him an example. Strategic critical minerals are a key issue. North American Lithium, a Chinese-owned lithium mine in Abitibi—Témiscamingue went bankrupt. Investissement Québec had shares in this company, whic…
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