Parliamentary Speeches
523 speeches by Xavier Barsalou-Duval — Page 10 of 11
Routine Proceedings
With regard to the 2018 Canada–Quebec Integrated Bilateral Agreement for the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program: what are the details of all the relevant documents supporting the government’s decision to unilaterally amend the content of the bilateral agreement, including (i) communications such as letters, emails and messages from the ministers’ offices and departments concerned, (ii) the…
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With regard to the Small Craft Harbours program and the status of the Verchères quay since 2015: (a) what are the amounts allocated to this program annually; (b) what is the list of approved projects, including the (i) amount allocated, (ii) year the project was approved, (iii) type of harbour; (c) what are the criteria for the allocation of funds; (d) what is the file status of the Verchères quay…
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government is stealing $350 million that it had promised to the municipalities for their green infrastructure and public transit in an agreement signed with Quebec. The federal government went back on its word and pocketed the cash. The Bloc Québécois has already denounced the situation, and now the Union des municipalités du Québec and the mayor of Montreal are calling fo…
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Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago in committee, the minister said that Quebec would not get one cent of that $350 million. Today, other people are saying that they want that money. Not only did Ottawa steal $350 million by reneging on the deal, it also unilaterally moved up the deadline for submitting infrastructure projects. Consequently, Quebec has just nine months left to hurry up and submit all poten…
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Madam Speaker, I would first like to congratulate my colleague on his speech, which he delivered in French. I think that is very much to his credit. My main take-away from the member's speech was his reference to the infamous representation by population. I could not help but think of the Union Act of 1840. There were two nations at that time. Quebec was forced to unite with Upper Canada following…
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed my colleague's speech, in part because he spoke in French, at least for a bit. I think that is important to acknowledge. I also got a real sense that he is open to this process. He acknowledged that Bill C‑14 does not fix Quebec's problem. I was happy to hear that, because it is hard to get members from the other parties to admit that. He also went as far as to say …
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Madam Speaker, I was listening to my colleague's speech and, this time, it was interesting to see that he actually had something to say. His comments were mainly directed at us and he basically told us how good, nice, and kind they are and how they are being charitable and generous, since Quebec will lose one less seat. That is really something. I am just beside myself. I have some questions. Parl…
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With regard to the Lac-Mégantic rail bypass project: (a) what is the itemized breakdown of the projected expenditures by (i) year, (ii) department, (iii) project, of the $237.2 million over five years, starting in 2022-23, provided to Transport Canada in the 2022 budget; (b) what, specifically, is planned to be done with that amount; and (c) what is Canadian Pacific’s projected financial share of …
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With regard to the High Frequency Rail (HFR) project between Toronto and Quebec City and the funding for this project announced in the 2022 budget: (a) what is the expected breakdown of the $396.8 million over two years, beginning in 2022-23, provided to Transport Canada and Infrastructure Canada for the planning and design phases of the HFR by (i) year, (ii) department, (iii) milestone descriptio…
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Madam Speaker, we are here this evening to debate the supplementary estimates for the 2022-23 fiscal year. As members know, budgets generally go up to March 31. That is usually how they work. My question is about the supplementary estimates or the budget. Since we are talking about the 2022-23 budget, I want to talk more specifically about budget 2022, which was presented in March. I think tonight…
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for her very relevant question. It gives me a chance to add to what I said earlier. I talked about the fact that the government basically stole $342 million from Quebec by deciding not to give it the money it should have received under the agreement. Of that $342 million, $293 million was supposed to be spent on public transit, so Quebec h…
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Madam Speaker, imagine a person has three years left to pay off their mortgage and the bank calls them up one morning to say that they actually have only 10 months. Imagine a person has a three-year contract with their employer, and, one random morning a year later, that person goes to work and their boss says that their contract will end in 10 months. I am not sure anyone would be happy to hear t…
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Madam Speaker, I found it very interesting when my colleague across the way mentioned that he did not have all the information on the decisions the government makes since he is not a member of the Privy Council. In that context, and since he will be in caucus tomorrow, I wonder if he will have the opportunity to ask the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities why the …
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Madam Speaker, the speech my colleague opposite just gave was mainly about the government's management of the pandemic. In any case, that is what I heard. He boasted about doing a very good job. He might think so, but I am not certain that everyone agrees. I certainly do not. I think that seniors were among those who were abandoned during the pandemic. It is important for my colleague opposite to …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his interesting speech. I really liked the part when he said that it is important to be ambitious. I think that is how he started his speech. Maybe my colleague did not notice that in the recent budget, there was a line about infrastructure. For example, regarding infrastructure spending for which the money is often transferred to the provinces, they no long…
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Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my colleague's speech. Earlier, he heard me put a question to one of his colleagues about what I think is a very important topic, a major detail, in the budget implementation bill. The Government of Quebec was allocated $7 billion fund for infrastructure, and it had three years to submit projects. Now it has less than a year left, just 10 months, and $4 billi…
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Madam Speaker, the minister said the exact opposite. On Monday, at committee, he admitted that he had taken $342 million from Quebec and said that the government had not transferred money to Quebec. What will happen to the $4 billion that was promised to Quebec once we reach 2023? The minister stated that any money that is not used by March 31 will be taken back and not transferred. The Liberals a…
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Madam Speaker, Quebec has already had $342 million stolen from the infrastructure agreement, and it stands to lose up to $4 billion more because Ottawa is unilaterally changing the terms of the agreement it signed with Quebec. It is changing the deadline for submitting projects from 2025 to March 31, 2023. What happens if Quebec does not manage to submit in 10 months all the projects that it had t…
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Mr. Speaker, an agreement is something to be honoured. Not only is Ottawa taking away $342 million from Quebec, but it is threatening to take away another $4 billion by unilaterally changing the deadline for infrastructure projects. The signed agreement gave Quebec until 2025 to submit projects. Ottawa is shortening that to 2023. This means that if Quebec does not submit all of its projects in the…
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government literally just stole $342 million from Quebec. It promised to give Quebec leftover money from the public transit infrastructure fund and the clean water and wastewater fund. It is right there in black and white in the Canada-Quebec infrastructure agreement the feds signed in 2018. On Monday, however, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and …
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Mr. Speaker, in 1672, Intendant Talon granted the seigneury of Verchères to François Jarret, an officer with the Carignan‑Salières regiment. This little village along the St. Lawrence River saw history being made when 14-year-old Madeleine heroically protected the village from Iroquois attacks. Some even say she saved New France. Years later, patriot Ludger Duvernay, who was also born in Verchères…
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Madam Speaker, I am a little discouraged to see the tenor of the current debate on procedures and the reason for the motion. We have the opportunity to discuss a matter, the infamous WE Charity scandal, which we could not discuss before because the government prorogued Parliament. We could not discuss it when we returned to the House because the government threatened to call an election if we ever…
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Madam Speaker, earlier my colleague rose on a point of order about the fact that the speech of the hon. member opposite did not deal with the motion at hand. I understand that it is important to be open and try to see when the hon. member will get to the motion, but I still do not hear the hon. member opposite talking about the motion. I think it is a matter of respect for people—
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Madam Speaker, my colleague across the way talked a lot about the impact of inflation on people and what needs to be done to limit that impact. People have been hit hard by this. She and I are roughly the same age and therefore probably from the same generation. I am concerned about the people who came before us, those who built our country and Quebec, including seniors who have been hit hard. Yea…
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Madam Speaker, in his speech earlier on Bill C‑19, the member across the way did not mention anything about a topic I very much wanted to hear him talk about. That may be because it is not in the budget either. I am talking about the word “health”. Almost every province, including Quebec, asked for health transfers. I have been a member of Parliament since 2015, while the Bloc Québécois has been i…
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Madam Speaker, I listened to my Conservative colleague's passionate speech. I found it interesting and stirring, so to speak. When we talk about Bill C-19, we are also talking about the budget that the government tabled not too long ago. What I really did not like about that budget was the lack of action on climate change. With the approval of the Bay du Nord project, we see that the government is…
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Madam Speaker, listening to my colleague's speech, which was essentially on foreign affairs, led me to ask myself a personal question that my colleague across the way may be able to answer. Currently, when we talk about foreign affairs, we talk about ties to other countries, but also about travel. In our offices, we are completely overwhelmed with calls from tearful constituents saying they submit…
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Madam Speaker, in his speech, my colleague expressed his disappointment with the government's investments in the armed forces. I would have liked to hear more on this topic. As members know, a lot of the equipment available to our armed forces is positively ancient, and the Canadian Armed Forces are chronically under-funded. For example, our soldiers are using handguns from around the time of the …
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Madam Speaker, in 1672, Jean Talon, the intendant of New France, granted the seigneury of Varennes to René Gaultier, an officer in the Carignan-Salières regiment and governor of Trois-Rivières. Many people do not realize that Varennes also included four more seigneuries: Cap de la Trinité, Cap Saint-Michel, La Guillaudière and Île Sainte-Thérèse. New France was the birthplace of none other than St…
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Lac-Saint-Jean, who gave an excellent speech on Bill C-8. I thank him for sharing his time with me. It was wonderful to listen to him, and I might have been very happy just to continue listening to him. I do have a few things to say about Bill C-8. One of the first things we can talk about is how this bill was presented. When the government provides an econ…
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Madam Speaker, that is a very good question from my colleague opposite. Correct me if I am wrong, but I did not see much about climate change in Bill C‑8. In fact, I do not think those words are even in it. I might have missed a page or skipped a sentence somewhere, but climate change does not seem to matter much to the government. It clearly is not focusing on it. What could the government have d…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's proposals are quite interesting. In my opinion, not enough has been done on the housing file. However, we cannot forget that the federal government should not be getting involved at all. Much like the infamous tax that was discussed earlier, this is coming, but it makes no sense. If the federal government is going to hand out money for housing, we will take it because…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague on his French. He is working on improving his French, which is very laudable. I like practising my English, but outside the House, of course. I did not quite understand the premise of his question. He spoke about workers. I can assure him that we support workers 100% and that this is a fundamental value of ours. We have a bias towards worker…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague's speech is really interesting, really passionate and deals with a very important subject, but I am not sure it relates to the content of Bill C-8. Have I misunderstood my colleague's speech and remarks?
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Madam Speaker, I listened to my colleague's speech, and I must say that four words caught my attention, specifically “francophone minority in Quebec”. I wonder whether my colleague said that deliberately or unconsciously. Sometimes people say one thing when they actually mean the opposite. I wanted to confirm that, because it would be quite hurtful if he said that deliberately. Even if he did not …
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my Conservative colleague for his speech. I found it very interesting and well structured. In his critique of the budget, there is one thing he did not talk about that I would have liked to hear. It may be something that does not concern him, but maybe it does. He can let me know. In the budget that was tabled, we see the government, or the NDP‑Liberal coalition, intruding sig…
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Mr. Speaker, I must say that I found the speech made by the hon. member across the aisle incredibly difficult to listen to. I would even go so far as to say that I was insulted by the cheery tone he used when speaking about the bill. If I understand the bill properly, it is business as usual, comparing francophones in Quebec to minority francophones in the rest of Canada. We get peanuts, and then …
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague for her fine speech in French, and for the answers she was able to give in French. It is great to see people from other places who have this sensitivity for our language. I am delighted to see that. I would like to move to another matter. I see that this is an issue that is dear to her. That is the impression that I get. I would like to know i…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to give my colleague the opportunity to correct the remarks he made earlier when he said that people have never had a problem getting services in French in Montreal. Perhaps that is his personal experience, but it is far from a fact. Our ridings are only a few kilometres apart. I get the impression that the member opposite is on a different planet, at least linguistically…
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Mr. Speaker, in light of what my colleague opposite said in his speech, I would like to know if he thinks there is a problem with French declining in Quebec and if there is anything we can do to avoid that. I get the sense the answer is no. I would like to know if my colleague thinks this bill will help.
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Mr. Speaker, despite this government legislation, history has shown that French has been declining in Canada since 1867. History has unfortunately taught us that we cannot trust the Liberals or the Conservatives when it comes to the French language. Even the Government of Quebec has criticized some parts of the bill. This shows that Canada is incapable of meeting the existential aspirations of Que…
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Madam Speaker, I really appreciated the quality of my Conservative colleague's French and her cheerfulness. I found her speech to be interesting. However, the figures speak for themselves. What the figures show us is that French in Canada is declining every year and with every census. They also show us that if there is an increase in bilingualism in Canada, it is because bilingualism is increasing…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I will have the opportunity to comment further on my colleague's bill later on, but when I listened to her speech and when we look at what the CIB really is and what my colleague wants to do with it, I have to wonder whether it is even possible. It is hard to believe that it is, and I wonder if this bill is not somewhat naive. We will see where the adventure takes us, but it seems t…
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Madam Speaker, today we are debating Bill C-245, introduced by my NDP colleague. To begin with, this bill deserves to be debated at the very least. Bill C‑245 amends the Canada Infrastructure Bank Act. Before explaining why we might want to amend that piece of legislation, we should perhaps start by understanding what the Canada Infrastructure Bank is and where it came from. The Canada Infrastruct…
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Madam Speaker, for many years, when I have heard the Conservatives asking questions in the House, I have noticed that they are always concerned about the Liberal government's spending sprees. Knowing its past and how it manages money, we can agree that these concerns are sometimes justified. Does my colleague believe that if we increased the Canadian Forces' budget, for example, since everyone agr…
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Madam Speaker, I have a question for my colleague across the aisle. Earlier I asked the Minister of Justice about the relevance of imposing a gag order. If he ever gets a chance to speak with me about it, I would be pleased to do so, but I would like to come back to the issue that has also been raised by some of my Bloc colleagues. The bill currently before the House deals with mandatory minimum s…
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Mr. Speaker, Bill C‑5, on which the government is moving closure, is an important bill that should be studied in depth. The government seems to have a growing appetite for closure motions all of a sudden. This worries me. In the past, the Liberals decried the Conservative majority governments' abuse of closure. However, once they came to power in 2015, the Liberals moved one closure motion after a…
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Mr. Speaker, I would like a chance to ask the minister the same question I asked him earlier because the Bloc Québécois has a constructive approach. I think we have always had a constructive approach with respect to the bill on the table right now. We have looked at its merits and its flaws, and we have tried to find ways to improve it. The problem we have now is that the government is invoking cl…
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Madam Speaker, Quebec's cultural sector suffered greatly under the Harper Conservatives, who made massive cuts to cultural spending. At the same time, they inexcusably neglected to regulate the web giants, which took in all of the advertising dollars. This bill is designed to ensure the discoverability of Quebec- and Canadian-produced content. If my colleague is against that, I would like to know …
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to the Bloc Québécois's position on Bill C‑241, which was introduced by my colleague from Essex. Let me start by saying that I think this is a very interesting bill. Whenever we debate a bill, people get the impression they have to read through a lengthy tome in an attempt to understand all the clauses and the ins and outs. It scares them. In this case, however…
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