SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 95

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 23, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 95 - Jun/23/22
Mr. John Brassard
  • Jun/23/22 12:32:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the fact is that constitutionally Ottawa is the seat of power. It is the seat of Parliament, and this is where people are expected to be. Do I think that going hybrid during COVID served a purpose? I explained very well in my discourse last night that at the height of the pandemic, yes, it did serve a purpose because there were many unknowns at that point. There were agreements among all the parties to move, and I give full credit to the administrative staff. However, in terms of what we are dealing with today, we are normalizing this process of a hybrid Parliament in the fall when no other legislatures around the world or even in this country are doing it. Why are we dealing with this now? If we want to talk about how to modernize Parliament, we can do that, and the procedure and House affairs committee is the proper venue for it.
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Context: House Hansard - 95 - Jun/23/22
Mr. John Brassard
  • Jun/23/22 12:38:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I sat on PROC when we studied this at the beginning of the pandemic. The concern was always that this was going to become more permanent in nature, and I believe it is the goal of not just the Liberal government but its partners in the NDP to make this more permanent. There were other concerns as well. Members may use this not to come here so that in close ridings they can perpetually electioneer. I suspect that this is probably going to be the case for the NDP and the Liberals. As I said last night about somebody who wants to be in their community, this is a transcontinental country, and the expectation is that when we get elected here, we are going to come to Ottawa. If members want to be in their riding, they can run for mayor, run for council or run for public school trustee. They should not run for MP, because the expectation is that they will need to be here.
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Context: House Hansard - 95 - Jun/23/22
Mr. Xavier Barsalou-Duval (Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, BQ)
  • Jun/23/22 2:59:58 p.m.
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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 potential projects in order not to lose the $4 billion to which it is entitled. If it does not, Ottawa will do the same thing: pocket the rest of the money and abandon municipal infrastructure and public transit projects to fight climate change. My question is the following: Will the government give us the money to which municipalities and Quebec are entitled?
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