Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have been in the House for about one year, and all I hear from the other side is doom and gloom. I would like to talk about some positive stuff that is happening in our area. I too have a forestry sector in my riding. Forestry is a challenge. However, I was lucky enough to go to the opening of a graphite mine that will be the biggest in the G7. There are a lot of mining opportunitie…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honour the heart and soul of music and theatre in Morin-Heights, and that heart is named Penny Rose. Penny came to us in the sixties and opened Rose's Cantina, one of the first live music venues in our community, where people would come from near and far to be entertained. Over the years, music has become a way of life in our town, and Penny has always been leading the…
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Madam Speaker, I think the best example of that is the deal we signed with Quebec for 865 new homes that are going to be happening rapidly. We were able to coordinate with the provincial government to make sure that its priorities became our priorities. That is what we need in these times to get stuff built as quickly as possible because we have to get out of this housing crisis. The best way to d…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the question, and I love having wonderful conversations with her in the House every day. I think Build Canada Homes is the necessary tool at this time to get things done. Accountability to the minister is going to be super important, but I am not worried that there are going to be any problems on that front. Again, the flexibility that Build Canada Home…
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Madam Speaker, to build all these homes that Build Canada Homes is going to build, we need skilled workers. This initiative is 100% complementary, I would say, to Build Canada Homes. It is going to permit the construction of a lot of apartments, homes and everything we need to get these things built.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his question. I think I illustrated this very clearly in my example: the dynamic and flexible nature of Build Canada Homes will make it possible to build more quickly. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation had programs, but it had limited capabilities. Build Canada Homes is much more dynamic and much more flexible, which will facilit…
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Madam Speaker, I rise this morning to support the bill respecting the establishment of Build Canada Homes. This decisive law will make Build Canada Homes a Crown corporation tasked with building and expanding affordable housing for Canadians. As we all know, Canada is going through a housing crisis. To date, federal efforts have been spread out across several departments, agencies and programs, li…
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Madam Speaker, on a more positive note, I am honoured to rise today to commend the perseverance of Éliane Blais, a young athlete from my riding, Les Pays-d'en-Haut. At just 16 years old, she is already a four-time Canadian U17 mountain bike champion, all while continuing her studies. After a serious accident, surgery and rehabilitation, she joined the U19 junior category last fall and won two meda…
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Madam Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to split my time with the member for Mont-Saint-Bruno—L'Acadie.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark National Consulting Engineering Day. This is an opportunity to celebrate a Canadian success story, namely the experts who design and build the infrastructure that is essential to our daily lives. Canada is, without question, an engineering superpower. The sector employs nearly a quarter of a million Canadians and contributes about $35 billion to our economy. As an…
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Mr. Speaker, young Canadians are facing a rising cost of living, global uncertainty and concerns over their future. Can the Secretary of State for Children and Youth explain how our spring economic update addresses current economic challenges while building Canada strong for everyone?
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Mr. Speaker, Les Pays-d'en-Haut has about 1,000 lakes. My riding is home to a great business called Multinautic that manufactures aluminum docks. It was able to take advantage of a tariff response grant. The company's employees are very happy because they export a large part of their production to the United States. I would like my colleague to explain how tariff response strategies work for small…
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Mr. Speaker, I have the chance to sit on the defence committee with my hon. colleague. He is our chair, and he is a wonderful chair. We have been doing historic investments in defence. One of them is the $1.5 billion we announced for L3Harris in Mirabel. I would like to hear the member's comments about how defence investment helps counterbalance tariffs.
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Madam Speaker, this week, the people of Les Pays-d'en-Haut received good news: $755 million to support our skiers, our cyclists, our soccer players and our female hockey players. Can the Parliamentary Secretary to the Secretary of State for Sport tell the House how the economic update will support sports across the country?
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Mr. Speaker, we received some good news this week. The spring economic update could not have come at a better time. Our economy is being affected by global uncertainty and trade tensions. Canadians need a government with a plan for protecting them while defending our economy. Can the Minister of Industry tell us what this update means for Canadians?
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure for me to rise in the House on behalf of the people of Pays‑d'en‑Haut. Today, in the House, we are debating a bill that is very important for the military community and the Canadian Armed Forces. I would like to begin by thanking Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans and their families for their service to our country. This bill seeks to modernize the militar…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like my colleague to talk a bit about the importance of people's trust in the justice system when they are victims of sexual trauma.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her work with the military. Coming from a military family, I appreciate the service of her two sons. We did indeed listen to witnesses, and we are aware that the majority of them do not want their cases made public. They do not want to disclose their assault in public. I think it is important to take their opinions into account, along with everything that was …
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Mr. Speaker, I am happy to correct my colleague. I have sat on the Standing Committee on National Defence since I was elected, and I am happy to do so. I sat in on all the testimony that was given in connection with the study of Bill C‑11. Some witnesses did say that they would rather have a choice, but the vast majority of witnesses said that they did not trust the military justice system, that t…
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Mr. Speaker, to answer my colleague, Justice Arbour interviewed 14,000 people and most of them did not want these cases to remain in the military system. The trust is not there. A change in culture is happening slowly. We hear that things are improving at the Department of National Defence, but they have not yet improved enough. Victims still fear retaliation. They fear being reprimanded, and they…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on workplace safety. Does he know anywhere in the world where someone who reports a sexual crime gets investigated, prosecuted and judged by his peers? Does that make any sense to him?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague, who sits on the Standing Committee on National Defence with me. I think that today we are talking about victims. We are talking about the issue of victims' trust in a justice system. I would like my colleague to talk about the 14,000 victims who testified before Justice Arbour that they did not trust the military system. Since 2022, all sexual abuse cases un…
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Mr. Speaker, I, too, sit on the defence committee. I would like to know what the member across the aisle thinks about all the victims who were heard by Madam Justice Louise Arbour, the hundreds of victims who were interviewed and said they did not want their sexual assault to be investigated by their boss. They wanted a separate system. What does the member say to them?
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Mr. Speaker, today is Earth Day, a day when we celebrate the beauty of Canada's natural heritage and our shared responsibility to protect it for future generations. To deliver on this commitment, our government has launched “A Force of Nature: Canada's Strategy to Protect Nature”, backed by a $3.8-billion investment to conserve our rich biodiversity and protect our ecosystems. Can the Secretary of…
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her excellent speech. I am very pleased to learn that this bill will not change my riding's name because, subjectively speaking, I believe Les Pays-d'en-Haut is the most beautiful riding name in Canada. Having said that, I would like my colleague to expand on the challenges of having the “longest ballot” and how the bill would address the challenges we experie…
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Mr. Speaker, being an engineer and formerly the mayor of a small town, I think the more engineers we have in this place, the better off we are going to be. I would like to have the member's comments on how Build Canada Homes would use prefab housing and modular housing to lower the costs for young families in all of the country.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of Club Fondeurs Laurentides. In 1975, physical education teacher Marc Desjardins decided that cross-country skiing was an excellent way to get our young people moving. Over time, the club grew and now has 650 members from municipalities throughout the Lower Laurentians. Club Fondeurs Laurentides organizes nothing less than Canada's lar…
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Mr. Speaker, the world is changing rapidly. The world order has been disrupted, and fast-paced technological advances are changing the way that Canada has to respond to threats. The new Government of Canada has to respond by reinvesting in the Canadian Armed Forces, by rearming them and by rebuilding them. We are already seeing results. There has been a 13% increase in CAF enlistment, and Canada i…
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Madam Speaker, I must confess that my family also owns an EV. We bought our vehicle in 2022, in large part because of federal and provincial subsidies. I think that is a responsible choice. What we see from the Conservatives is that they never think about climate change. I would like my colleague across the way to tell us about the importance of electrifying transportation as a way to deal with cl…
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Madam Speaker, when he addressed the world at Davos last month, the Prime Minister talked about the gap between rhetoric and reality. That gap is alive and well on the Conservative side of the aisle. The rhetoric is encouraging, with lots of talk of collaboration and working together, but the reality does not always match Conservative words. Canadians want to know if the Conservatives will put cou…
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Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise today for the second time in 2026 on behalf of the people of Les Pays-d'en-Haut. We are studying Bill C-227, an act to establish a national strategy on housing for young Canadians. The bill speaks to me personally. I have two children, aged 20 and 23, who are in university. They have to pay exorbitant amounts of money for housing in Montreal. In the coming year…
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Mr. Speaker, in Les Pays-d'en-Haut, everyone I talk to about the high-speed rail project is very much in favour of it. We have been talking about it for far too long. The current government has decided to move forward. I think this is a big step forward in getting cars off the roads. It is a big step forward in creating jobs. It is a big step forward for public transportation.
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Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Trois-Rivières . I am pleased to rise in the House for the first time in 2026 on behalf of my constituents in Les Pays-d'en-Haut. Before we talk about the future, we need to acknowledge the past. The Government of Canada recognizes that the expropriations carried out for the construction of the Mirabel airport in the late 1960s left deep s…
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Mr. Speaker, our Bloc Québécois colleagues want Canadians to believe that building a high-speed rail line will harm their communities, that it will be done without consultation and without the measures we have put in place over the past 60 years. They are trying to justify their opposition to high-speed rail and their goal is to kill the project before the legislation is even passed. They have joi…
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Mr. Speaker, we all recognize that what happened 57 years ago in Mirabel is unacceptable. Today is my birthday, and I am 56 years old. That means that what happened in Mirabel happened before I was born, but it is still unacceptable. It must be said that we have evolved over the past 60 years. Laws have changed. Protections are in place, and the government will respect them.
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Mr. Speaker, today I am going to talk about high-speed rail. I will leave pipelines to the experts in that domain. I would just say that everything that has evolved in the last 60 years has brought us to where we are today. Too many people have talked about making a high-speed rail line. We are going ahead with a high-speed rail line, and we are going to do it in record speed. I hope our colleague…
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Mr. Speaker, the width of the corridor initially proposed is intended to prevent land speculation. It was not possible to set a minimum width, because the public has to be consulted. We are going to consult the public to make sure we put the rail line in a location that is completely acceptable to everyone.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I enjoy working with him on the Standing Committee on National Defence. We have a great relationship. I would just like to toss the ball back to him and quickly point out that the French term for “fast track” is voie rapide. I am very pleased that the Bloc Québécois supports high-speed rail. I would like to know whether my colleague thinks tha…
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Madam Speaker, in addition to being an exceptional colleague, the hon. member for Bourassa is an expert in AI. I would like him to explain a little more about how developing AI here in Canada will enable us to have a more sovereign country and what impact it will have on our national defence.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada has a world-class aerospace industry, particularly in Quebec. Our aerospace sector will play an invaluable role in our efforts to build the strongest economy in the G7. It generates $15 billion in GDP and provides more than 40,000 jobs in Quebec. The budget implementation act contains important measures to protect and strengthen our aerospace sector. Quebeckers want these measu…
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Madam Speaker, if I may switch gears, we created the Major Projects Office this year. We have announced three major projects in Quebec. The first is the container terminal in Contrecoeur, which will generate economic spinoffs worth $140 million a year. The second is the Alto high-speed train, which is expected to inject $35 billion into the GDP and create 51,000 jobs between Quebec City and Windso…
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Mr. Chair, I am very pleased to say that the Groupe Crête lumber mill is in my riding, in Chertsey. When we met with the representatives of Groupe Crête, they explained that they were having a lot of problems with forest access. The Quebec forestry regime was introduced some years ago. It was denounced by the industry as unworkable, and then abandoned. I would like to hear what my hon. colleague h…
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Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to honour André Genest's 35 years of community service. Born in Wentworth‑Nord in Les Pays‑d'en‑Haut, André spent his life serving everyone in his community. In addition to his career in municipal government, he worked as an educator in a youth centre and even welcomed into his home children who were homeless and lacked hope. He was elected as a municipal cou…
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Mr. Speaker, I have just returned from a high-level defence gathering at the Halifax International Security Forum. In the budget, the government announced $81 billion in defence spending over the next five years. The member and I know that many businesses in Mirabel will benefit from this spending. I would like to know whether he will stand up for the interests of his constituents and their busine…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, which was as passionate as ever. Bloc Québécois members are still discussing a hypothetical project, whereas we are engaged in hands-on work. Let me give one example of a no-nonsense report we recently received. According to a report by Investissement Québec, Quebec companies have made significant progress in the export field, and have signed agr…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to know why it is important to introduce the elements we are proposing in Bill C‑12 rather than in Bill C‑2, which was introduced initially.
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Mr. Speaker, on September 12, a major fire destroyed the Val‑des‑Monts elementary school in Prévost, which was quite a shock for the children, their families and the community. Despite the fire department's quick response, the school was a total loss. However, Prévost is a tight-knit community and quickly sprang into action. The children were relocated to four other schools in the area and they we…
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Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise on behalf of the citizens of Les Pays-d'en-Haut. It is a pleasure to rise to debate the opposition motion before us, and I will talk particularly about the narrative it tries to present. The motion suggests that the Liberal government proposed criminal justice reform in the last six months and has failed to act. However, the reality tells a very differe…
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Mr. Speaker, I am not saying it is unconstitutional. I am saying that any law brought forth has to be 100% non-challengeable at the Supreme Court level so as to not waste the time of the courts and make victims more vulnerable.
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