44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 30, 2023 11:00AM
- Oct/30/23 2:15:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I remember the story of my father, a Holocaust survivor. After arriving in Canada, he and my grandmother would hide under the table when they heard a plane because were they worried about being bombed. My grandmother and father were riddled with trauma. For my grandmother, it was because she was a survivor of the concentration camps, and for my father, it was because he was a child in hiding during the war.
My father became a peace activist. In fact, he lost a teaching job in the sixties after he refused to take off his peace button. I think of the families and children in Gaza right now, who will lose their whole family as a result of war, and of the Israeli children being held hostage, who will live with similar trauma as my grandmother and father.
I know, if my dad and grandmother were alive, they would be calling for an immediate ceasefire. They would not want anyone to endure what they had to in life. In honour of my father, Albert Gazan, and my grandmother, Gina Gazan, I call for a ceasefire now and the release of all hostages. I ask to not disrespect their legacies as Holocaust survivors to justify ethnic cleansing, not in their names.
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- Oct/30/23 2:16:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, October 30 to November 3 is national unemployed workers week, organized by the Mouvement autonome et solidaire des sans-emploi.
I commend this initiative, which rallies unemployed workers' rights groups from several regions of Quebec to remind the Liberal government of its many broken promises to reform the employment insurance system.
The new Minister of Employment recently said that he wants a resilient program. If so, there is only option: a complete overhaul of the unfair employment insurance system as it currently exists.
The Bloc Québécois has been calling for such a reform, and its tireless efforts in this direction will continue. In these uncertain economic times, the need for reform is clearer than ever. Reform is not just necessary, it is urgent.
In a spirit of solidarity, I wish everyone a good national unemployed workers week.
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- Oct/30/23 2:17:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as the saying goes, desperate people do desperate things, and after eight years, this is exactly what we saw from the Prime Minister last week with his last-minute, desperate announcement on the carbon tax. In a typical Liberal fashion, his own minister admitted the exemption was not granted to all Canadians across the country because they did not vote Liberal. It begs the question of just how ineffective and out of touch the Liberal MPs are in Nickel Belt, Sudbury, North Bay and Thunder Bay that they could not get the same deal back home. Winters are pretty cold in northern Ontario too, and they should be treated the same way as everybody else.
Here is our common-sense Conservative plan: Take the carbon tax off all home heating for all Canadians. Let us be clear that the Prime Minister did not try this because Canadians are hurting. He only did this because he is hurting. After eight years, Canadians know he is just not worth the cost, and now with his latest plan, even he knows it too.
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- Oct/30/23 2:19:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our price on pollution incentivizes greener choices and puts more money back in families' pockets. We have heard from many on home heating oil. While they wanted to switch, they needed more time and support, and we listened. Now, home heating oil will be exempt from the price on pollution for two years.
We are giving free heat pumps to those earning below the medium income, plus $250 to sign up. We are helping to get rid of the upfront costs of heat pumps for everyone else, and we are doubling the rural top-up to 20%. The plan saves people energy, and it saves them money.
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- Oct/30/23 2:20:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years, the Prime Minister has finally admitted that he is not worth the cost. How many years have I been saying that the carbon tax will do nothing for the environment and will hurt families?
I was just moments away from holding a massive rally in a Liberal riding to axe the carbon tax when the Prime Minister did a complete 180. However, he did not eliminate the second carbon tax, which applies in Quebec with the Bloc Québécois's support. Will the Prime Minister be consistent and eliminate the second carbon tax for Quebeckers and all Canadians?
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- Oct/30/23 2:20:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I believe the Leader of the Opposition is getting his words confused in French.
I would like to remind him that, today, at a time when climate change is affecting everyone around the world, in order to be responsible, a party that wants to form the government must have a plan to fight climate change and to help with affordability issues. Unfortunately, the Conservatives do not have a plan to address either of those issues.
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- Oct/30/23 2:21:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we all knew the Prime Minister was not worth the cost. We just did not realize he would admit it himself, but here is what it took. I was moments away from holding a massive thousand-person rally of common-sense Nova Scotians to axe the tax. The Prime Minister heard the news. He was huddled up in a ball in the fetal position sweating bullets as Liberal MPs pounded on his office door asking for some relief, but only some relief came, not for everyone everywhere.
Will I need to hold massive axe the tax rallies in every Liberal riding to finally do away with the—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Oct/30/23 2:22:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this government has developed, and will be rolling out, a plan to deploy free heat pumps in Atlantic Canada and across the country. It will address the affordability issues, put more money back in the pockets of Canadians and actually help us to address climate change, which is something the opposition members seem to ignore on an ongoing basis.
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- Oct/30/23 2:22:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, so the Prime Minister admitted that he is not worth the cost by announcing that he would pause his carbon tax for some people on some fuels for some period of time. Then his rural affairs minister said that other Canadians could have had the same pause but for the fact that they did not elect Liberals. Apparently we are going to have different tax rates in different constituencies depending on how people vote.
Why is it that the Liberal MPs in Thunder Bay, North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie and other freezing cold communities are not getting the same break? Is it because their local Liberal MP is utterly useless?
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- Oct/30/23 2:23:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, certainly it is very important that we are addressing both affordability concerns and fighting climate change across this country. The heat pump program, the hon. Leader of the Opposition, if he had done his homework, would know, applies across the country. It actually will help to ensure we are reducing the costs of home heating, of oil heating, in every province and territory while continuing to address climate change in a thoughtful way.
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- Oct/30/23 2:24:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that is hot air in cold weather. Just today the snow started falling in cold Ottawa. Edmonton is also cold; it has Liberal MPs. Winnipeg is called Winterpeg for a reason. People there are forced to pay tax on natural gas. All of these cities have Liberal MPs.
The Prime Minister claims that he only backed down on the carbon tax for some Canadians because of the advocacy of terrified Liberal members, so is he really saying that Liberal MPs in the areas where this pause does not apply are totally useless and will never be able to defend Canadians heating their homes?
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- Oct/30/23 2:25:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition knows that Canadians who live in jurisdictions where a price on pollution applies get over $1,000 a year from the Government of Canada to fight climate change. When it comes to the Conservatives, they want to take that $1,000 out of the pockets of Canadians.
Our climate policy has resulted in 53 megatonnes being removed. That is the equivalent of 11 million cars a year. While they keep their heads in the sand and pretend that climate change is not real, we are going to fight climate change and we are going to help Canadians with affordability.
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- Oct/30/23 2:25:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when a Liberal rural affairs minister says that if Canadians want a pause from the carbon tax, then need to elect a local Liberal MP, she has it exactly wrong. What they need to do is elect a common-sense Conservative government that would axe the tax entirely.
This is not only hurting the pocketbook of Canadians or forcing seniors to choose between eating and heating, now Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and Ontario are asking for similar breaks. In fact, the Saskatchewan government is refusing to collect the tax on the utility.
Does the Prime Minister realize that he is not only bankrupting Canadians and leaving them in the cold, he is actually dividing our country?
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- Oct/30/23 2:26:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a resident of Ontario, I remember the last time that our province elected a common-sense Conservative government. Look what it did to education. Look how it gutted health care. Look at what happened with Walkerton.
We know, as Canadians, what happens when we elect common-sense Conservatives. They gut programs, they hurt Canadians, and they are certainly not there when it comes to fighting climate change or supporting Canadians.
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- Oct/30/23 2:27:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, tens of thousands of businesses say that the Canada emergency business account has put them in jeopardy. The pandemic hurt them. Inflation is hurting them. Interest rates are hurting them. Forecast consumption by Quebec and Canadian consumers is hurting them.
We requested an additional one-year extension. We requested some form of accommodation from the banks. We requested a credible point person who would be available for these businesses.
Is the government ready to act?
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- Oct/30/23 2:28:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government is listening to small businesses. The first deadline to qualify for forgiveness was the end of 2022. Small businesses asked for our help. That is why our government extended the forgiveness repayment deadline to January 18, 2024. We also announced a full one-year extension of the term loan repayment date until the end of 2026.
Our government is always there for small businesses.
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- Oct/30/23 2:28:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are talking about real businesses, real entrepreneurs, real jobs. We are talking about a real economic impact on the Canadian and Quebec economies. Everyone, including every single province, is saying that the current extensions and deadlines are insufficient and that businesses are in danger of closing down.
This is serious. It is more serious than the fictions some people here are spouting. These are real jobs, real businesses. This measure is a helping hand that would cost next to nothing.
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- Oct/30/23 2:29:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we set up the Canada emergency business account to help businesses and organizations during the pandemic. We extended the forgivable deadline by one year, postponing it from 2022 to 2023. We postponed it by a few more weeks to give businesses time to make adjustments and continue to benefit from this forgivable portion. Loans will not be called in this January.
Members must not scare organizations and businesses unnecessarily.
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- Oct/30/23 2:30:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last week's announcement on home heating only benefits Canadians who live where Liberals need to save their seats.
All Canadians need some relief when it comes to the cost of home heating. That is why New Democrats proposed taking the GST off all home heating. It would help all Canadians. It is a measure that Liberals and Conservatives have both opposed.
When will the Liberals stop playing games and bring in relief for all Canadians this cold winter?
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- Oct/30/23 2:30:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, again, I would say that folks in the chamber need to do their homework. This program actually applies across the country. The doubling of the rural top-up applies across the country. The heat pump program applies across the country. It applies to all folks who are challenged by the cost of home heating oil.
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