Parliamentary Speeches
817 speeches by Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay — Page 1 of 17
Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, when I was first elected to the House of Commons in 2019, I came with a deep sense of gratitude toward the people of Saint‑Hyacinthe—Bagot, who had placed their trust in me. That was the name of my riding at the time. I also arrived with a conviction that has been with me for many years, that Quebec is a nation and that this nation must be able to freely choose its future. I became a …
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump is imposing tariffs on countries that are not doing enough to address forced labour in their imports. Although that is an excuse, the fact remains that Canada is like a sieve; it has hardly made any seizures at the border. Last fall, I introduced Bill C‑251, which would require importers to prove that products from certain regions are not made with forced labour or child …
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Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply the vote, and I will be voting against.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply the vote and will be voting against.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I agree to apply the vote and will be voting against.
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, many serious allegations have been made regarding the behaviour and actions of Canadian companies abroad. I have heard accounts from abroad regarding cases of violence against local populations, water pollution and contaminated air. Simply put, the Trudeau government, which is still in office under another name, supposedly created the position of Canadian ombudsperson for responsible …
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Mr. Speaker, I admit that we in Quebec are really accustomed to this. I heard my colleague say that the referendums on independence took place under a Liberal government. I can assure him that the next one will also take place under a Liberal government in the coming years and that we are going to win this time. Then the Liberals can have their country, and they can decide how to govern it. We loo…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be here to speak to this bill introduced by my colleague, with whom I serve on the Standing Committee on International Trade. We work very well together. I was there when the Minister of Industry appeared before the committee. My colleague pressed her on the issue and had a rather intense exchange with her regarding the Stellantis case. I imagine that had an impact on …
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Mr. Speaker, I have been a member of the Standing Committee on International Trade for a long time, and I have been working on this portfolio since I was first elected to the House of Commons. I can give numerous examples. I specifically remember one telling anecdote. The United States had announced new softwood lumber tariffs and, at roughly the same time, it also announced the Inflation Reductio…
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Mr. Speaker, generally speaking, it is clear that there are significant differences between the solutions the Bloc Québécois favours and those the Conservatives favour. That is a fact. We are a democracy. That is just the way it is. Still, there are indeed many criticisms we can level at this government, even if they do not always come from the same perspective. We are currently focusing our criti…
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Mr. Speaker, no. I think that goes without saying. I have always said that we agree with trade agreements in principle, but that our support is not unconditional. In fact, the sovereigntist movement in Quebec was initially a major driving force behind the shift towards free trade and opening up the economy. It was Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry who worked very hard in the 1980s to convince Qu…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not think it is up to me to explain the behaviour of the Liberal government. That is not my function, not my job. That said, I would like to clarify that some regulations may be good and some taxes may be good. It all depends on how they are applied. As for the rest, this sovereign wealth fund is sovereign in name only. In fact, we voted with the Conservatives on this during thei…
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Mr. Speaker, I know that some action has been taken and that is a good thing. We never said otherwise. However, the fact is that the government promised to quickly put an end to tariffs within a few months; yet, today, we have more tariffs than we did when this government first took office. I think that is a sign of failure. Just this morning, I met with furniture manufacturers who said that they …
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Mr. Speaker, we request a recorded division.
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, a few years ago, we were talking about the medium or long term. Now, we can start talking about the short term, or at least I hope so. I will let my colleague guess what solution I recommend. I know that he recommends the same one. I will simply remind him that Pierre Falardeau said that, while there is certainly a cost to independence, there is also a cost to dependence, and it is im…
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Mr. Speaker, what is happening today goes way beyond a temporary trade spat. Since the U.S. administration's April 6 executive order, we have been seeing a methodical, systematic and deeply harmful hardening of the rules that our businesses were required to follow. Up until yesterday, there was a logical rationale behind the already excessive steel and aluminum tariffs. Today, Washington chose to …
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Mr. Speaker, in her speech, my colleague spoke about the work we managed to achieve in committee. This showed that, given that this is a minority government—since it was elected a year ago as a minority rather than a majority government—we were able to get things done. I am the Bloc Québécois MP who sits on this committee. I worked extensively with my Conservative colleagues on this issue, as well…
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Mr. Speaker, I heard my colleague talk about intentions. We agreed on the intentions behind the bill. I would remind everyone that we voted to refer the bill to committee. That meant we were also listening to the victims. I agree with what my colleague said in support of the civilian courts. He praised their expertise, and I agree 100%. That said, it is possible that, in light of that very experti…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak to the question of privilege raised in the House on Wednesday by the member for Peace River—Westlock concerning the Canadian ombudsperson for responsible enterprise's failure to file annual reports. Let me say at the outset that my intervention is in support of the fundamental principle at stake, which is the right of members of the House to be adequately informe…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, who provided a very good outline of the situation, describing a government that was not supposed to have a majority, but that has managed to build one anyway, a government that is demonstrating its utter arrogance, particularly by reversing amendments that were adopted by a majority of committee members. The composition in place at the time was a majority of oppo…
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Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the committee that conducted the study for weeks and that succeeded, with our Conservative colleagues, in getting a majority to adopt amendments. These amendments were informed by witness testimony and greatly improved the bill. We worked patiently for weeks. We heard from witnesses who told us where we needed to go. I believe that we managed to move this bill in the …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, who is doing some excellent work on these issues at the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs and who is studying a number of topics related to the ones I am studying at the Standing Committee on National Defence. Naturally, we often have overlapping areas of focus, and this is one of them. In committee, many victims came to plead in favour of freedom of choice.…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, last Friday, to her loved ones' shock, Guylaine Barré breathed her last. This morning's Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe got it right: She was a “merchant of happiness”. Guylaine was a fixture in our region's business community. It gave me great joy to interact with her regularly because my offices were located downtown near her shop, Rita Fleuriste, which she ran so passionately for 40 ye…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague was once part of the Government of Quebec. He was a member of the Quebec National Assembly. He was even the finance minister, so he is very familiar with Quebec's financial structure and the relationship with Canada in this respect. He was also part of a government that, like every government since the 1990s, fought to ensure that Quebec got its fair share of health trans…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague described the sovereign wealth fund as something major, a major step, a major event. That is how the government presented it to us as well. When there is a major event like this, it seems to me that the least the government could have done was to consult the opposition parties. We might have had things to say or suggestions to make. That would have been constructive, espe…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know if my colleague can comment on the fact that this sovereign wealth fund is in no way sovereign, nor is it in any way independent of government. Its purpose will be nothing more than to advance projects this very government already selected in the economic update.
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Mr. Speaker, there are many stories in this whole sad affair. Some of them involve tragic misconduct and victims left with the aftereffects. There is the story, which spanned many years, of continued impunity, as people were protected by successive governments. Then came the bungling and the never-ending delays. Finally, our very democracy plays a part in all this, as well. First and foremost, it …
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Mr. Speaker, it never ceases to amaze me how my colleague opposite never listens. He gets up, walks around, talks and then asks a question that I already answered in my speech. We have come to expect it. As I said, this is not about complete freedom of choice. The amendment known as BQ‑2 did not involve complete freedom of choice. What the amendment said is that not every case needs to be automati…
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Mr. Speaker, it shows that the government understands perfectly well how things work, but that it could not care less. In other words, it knows exactly what tactics to use to trample on the rights of members of Parliament, and in this particular case, to show utter contempt for the victims who appeared in order to have their say. That is what all this tells us.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague a question. By the way, I hold her in high regard, but my question has nothing to do with that. How does she feel about the fact that, for weeks, we have been doing our committee work and now, when the majority of committee members have worked to get amendments adopted, the government is doing everything it can to undo what has been done? Is this not a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank my colleague. We worked very well together on this. I think this just goes to show that the Liberals' majority has gone to their heads. They are going to be extremely arrogant in the coming years. The next three and a half years are going to feel very long and drawn out, but the public will judge for themselves. The proof will be in the pudding. This shows t…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. That did not answer my question.
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Mr. Speaker, I would answer the question with a question. I am going to do what the Liberals do during question period and answer with a question. Someday it will be their turn to ask questions in the House, because nothing lasts forever. What does my colleague have to say to the victims, the victims' associations, the Barreau du Québec and the experts who told us that they were in favour of allow…
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Mr. Speaker, the parliamentary secretary should stop engaging in demagoguery at the expense of victims, since the Liberals were the ones who showed that they did not care. He should stop pretending to be upset when we know that is not true.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, aside from him saying shame on me. It is okay, I will sleep soundly, better than he will, I suspect. Let us forget the principle of the amendments. In his last response, the member asked our colleague to listen to what was said at the standing committee. I thought that was funny, because I was there but he was not. He was in the House, as usual. He probably spend…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, I will avoid moving the motion again. In any case, I am not the sponsor. The explanation and description of the motion have already been provided, so I will get straight to the point. The Bloc Québécois will not support this motion, and I will explain why. The motion instructs the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates to undertake a study on alternative ways to mak…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, as my colleague just did, I want to get back to the government's challenge regarding the admissibility of amendments BQ‑2 and BQ‑3, which were moved by the Bloc Québécois—me in this case—in the context of the study of Bill C-11 at the Standing Committee on National Defence. We oppose the government's argument that these amendments should be ruled out of order by the Chair at report st…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, with the steel and aluminum tariffs imposed by Washington getting worse, it is hard to know exactly where the negotiations stand. The Prime Minister has little regard for Parliament. He is rarely available for interviews. Now we find out that he is just as tight-lipped about his consultations. On Friday, the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec and the Manufacturiers et Expor…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order concerning the admissibility of amendments BQ‑2 and BQ‑3, which were introduced by the Bloc Québécois during the Standing Committee on National Defence's study of Bill C‑11.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Quebec is already hit hardest by Donald Trump's tariffs. Our industrial sectors are struggling, and Quebec is losing the most jobs. It is only going to get worse with the new tariff calculations that are going to tax our aluminium- and steel-based products on their total value, in addition to the metal itself. This sends the message that there is no longer any advantage to processing …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I still wonder why the bill did not include restoring public funding for political parties, because this would ensure that parties are less controlled by the wealthy, by the donors with the deepest pockets. The Liberal Party pledged to restore this funding when it won in 2015. Now, that is added to the long list of broken promises. Is it because, once in power, the Liberals realized t…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague a question, and I thank her for her excellent grasp of the subject. My question may stray from the subject and be more institutional, given that my colleague herself talked about the power of the opposition parties and the constructive work we can do. I had a similar experience at one of the committees I serve on. We studied Bill C-11 on sexual misco…
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Mr. Speaker, I do not know whether there is enough time, but I would like to put a question back to him. What is the point of having an official policy if it is not followed? My colleague tells us that there is no need for a change in procedure, and yet Canada's official policy made up a substantial part of the legislation that we introduced and that was unfortunately defeated. That policy can be …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking my colleague for her kind words about the work I did on investor-state dispute settlement. I would also like to ask her about that. How does she explain the fact that the two pro-multinational parties in the House, which have been trading power back and forth in Canada since the beginning, are constantly signing agreements with these archaic provision…
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Bill C‑13. I always get these numbers mixed up. We always end up losing track because there are so many bills. However, as the Bloc Québécois critic for international trade, I want to reassure my colleagues that I know what this bill is about. This is an agreement that the committee I serve on was able to study. Although this agreement does not…
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Mr. Speaker, the link between national security and economic security is obvious, especially at a time of grave geopolitical and economic peril like today. I would not call the Davie shipyard a success; it was a long time coming. There were many setbacks. There was a bipartisan consensus to create a lot of problems. Having said that, I do not have a problem with the agreement itself. However, I wo…
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I studied this agreement together at the Standing Committee on International Trade. I was disappointed that he voted against almost all of my amendment proposals, which were nothing more than requests for transparency, for reports on certain elements, on the environment, on human rights and on lawsuits by multinationals against governments. All I was doing was demandi…
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Mr. Speaker, I thought that my colleague's speech was very good. He demonstrated just how much of a failed negotiation this was. He explained that the government's negotiations failed with respect to meat exports from Canada and Quebec to the United Kingdom. It seems to me that when doing a favour for a country by allowing it to become party to an agreement as significant as the trans-Pacific part…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of the conflict, the Prime Minister said he supported the United States and Israel. Since then, he has been reconsidering his position on a daily basis. The lives of Canadian Armed Forces soldiers in Kuwait have been threatened by Iranian missile fire. The Prime Minister knew about it, as did the Minister of National Defence and perhaps the entire cabinet, but parliam…
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Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, when we examine a trade agreement implementation bill in committee, there is not much that we can amend, but this is one of the few things that we can change. Since the implementation bill has to change the legal system to recognize the ISDS, it is a legal clause. However, I am always just about the only committee member to vote against that clause. I vote in favour…
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