44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 1, 2023 02:00PM
- Nov/1/23 2:20:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have seen successive moratoriums and closures in our vital fishing sector, but since 1992 the federal government has provided no compensation, no valid options to help our fishers face hard times.
To date, fishers of mackerel, herring, yellowtail, winter flounder, turbot and now shrimp have been hard hit or threatened with closure. Add to that the problems with lobster, North Atlantic right whales, the overpopulation of seals, and now clams and seaweed harvesters. Workers in processing plants are also struggling.
There is a real fishing crisis, and new-generation fishers are becoming hard to find. Our fishers' patience and resilience have limits. The good news is that fishers and scientists have solutions to offer, including alternative or sentinel fisheries, communal licenses, integrated ecosystem management and financial compensation. The fishing community knows the ocean and everything living in it, and it wants more than anyone to protect the resource and renew it.
We must act, and quickly. The Bloc Québécois hears them, supports them and will make their voices heard.
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- Nov/1/23 2:21:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, outright incompetence is how senior officials to the Prime Minister describe the scandal around the $1-billion green slush fund, $40 million of which is under investigation for suspicious payments.
Leaked audio has been recently released, and members will not believe what a Liberal government official had to say about it. He called this fund “a sponsorship-scandal level kind of giveaway”. After eight years of the Prime Minister, he is simply not worth the cost.
The unholy alliance of the NDP and the Liberals, with its spending, scandals and corruption, has now caused sponsorship scandal 2.0. The previous Liberal sponsorship scandal began with an Auditor General investigation. Today, we learned that the Auditor General is now investigating the taxpayer abuse at the $1-billion green slush fund.
Liberal corruption must stop. Common-sense Conservatives will finally clean up this mess.
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- Nov/1/23 2:22:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to have sat for 16 years as an MP at both the provincial and federal levels—and as the only member of Haitian origin, I might add. However, the time has come for me to take my leave.
I thank the Prime Minister for this opportunity to serve Canadians.
I thank all members and staff of the House of Commons for their friendship.
I thank the Quebec CPA Order for the Emeritus Certified Accountant award and the title of Fellow. I thank UQAM for the special tribute award for teaching. I am grateful for the Governor of Canada Medal regarding my work at the Canada Revenue Agency. I thank the Hon. Jean Charest for his sincere friendship. I thank all the residents of Viau and Bourassa, my brothers and sisters, my supporters and my employees. From the bottom of my heart, I thank my wife, our children, their spouses and our grandchildren.
Manman, Papa, mèsi anpil pou toute sacrifice nou fè pou mwen.
It was with a lot of emotion that I informed the Prime Minister that I would not be seeking re-election.
AvèwMapMaché.
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- Nov/1/23 2:24:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister flip-flopped and paused his carbon tax on heating oil, it did nothing to help Quebec. Quebeckers will have to pay the second carbon tax, which will drive up the price of both gas and groceries.
Why is the Prime Minister raising taxes for Quebeckers? It is to finance a $1-billion fund. A senior official was caught on tape saying that this is just like the sponsorship scandal and that it is outright incompetence.
Why is the Prime Minister forcing Quebeckers to pay for another Liberal scandal?
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- Nov/1/23 2:25:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have a brief question for the Conservative leader. What is the Conservatives' plan to protect the environment? The answer is simple: They have no plan and no solutions. A real solution would be to develop a plan to fight climate change. A real solution would be to protect our environment for future generations.
The Conservative leader must know that Canadians do not have the memory of a goldfish. They know what the Conservatives do when they are in office. It is chop, chop, chop. The Conservatives are not worth the risk.
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- Nov/1/23 2:26:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister promised that Wednesdays would be Prime Minister's question period. His public itinerary indicates that he is in Ottawa, and he was even spotted in the building.
The question for the Prime Minister is about the carbon tax chaos he has unleashed. He has paused the tax on some heat for some people, leaving the Government of Alberta to threaten a lawsuit, the Government of Saskatchewan to threaten to not collect the tax, NDP provincial parties in the west turning against it and some first nations saying the entire thing is illegal.
Will he reverse all of this chaos and just axe the tax?
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- Nov/1/23 2:26:45 p.m.
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Before I have the hon. minister answer the question, I would like to remind all members that it is important for one to not do indirectly what one cannot do directly.
The hon. minister.
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- Nov/1/23 2:27:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us bring the temperature down and talk about exactly what we have done here.
We have accelerated the replacement of home heating oil with heat pumps. It is a national program. If the Premier of Alberta and the Premier of Saskatchewan want to make sure that people who heat their homes with oil in those provinces have access to the same heat pumps, do members know what they can do? They can join three Atlantic provinces and B.C. and sign up for a plan to help low-income people in their province. Will they do it? Time will tell.
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- Nov/1/23 2:27:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the question was for the Prime Minister. He has unleashed carbon tax chaos across the country.
After saying he would never bend, he backed down because I kept beating him in these debates in the House of Commons. He has put a two-year pause on some heating oil for some people, causing Saskatchewan to threaten not to collect the tax, Alberta to threaten a lawsuit, six provinces to come out against the plan and first nations to say it is illegal.
If he is so proud of himself and what he has done, why will he not stand up now to defend it?
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- Nov/1/23 2:28:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the hon. Leader of the Opposition seems to be too busy patting himself on the back to do his homework.
At the end of the day, heating oil costs anywhere between two and four times the price of natural gas. It is a particular driver of energy poverty in this country. We have taken steps forward to improve affordability by enabling the implementation of heat pumps, which will save people up to $2,500 a year, but we are doing so in the context of a plan to fight climate change, something he has said nothing about in the year since he became the Leader of the Opposition.
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- Nov/1/23 2:29:30 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I feel bad for the Liberal minister, who has been abandoned by his leader. The leader of the Liberal government will not even stand and defend his own decisions.
We know that on Thursday, after having his door beaten down by terrified Liberals about to lose their seats, he decided to flip-flop and bring in a temporary pause on a tax until after the election, dividing Canadians once again into two different classes.
If the Prime Minister is so proud of how he has divided people, if he is so proud of how he is forcing Canadians to choose between heating and eating, why does he not have the guts to stand up and say so now?
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- Nov/1/23 2:30:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will tell the House who is feeling abandoned by their leader. It is Conservative Albertans, New Democrat Albertans and Liberal Albertans, because Danielle Smith is trying to take Albertans out of the Canada pension plan.
What do we hear from the Leader of the Conservative Party? We hear weak sauce and platitudes. The pretender to the throne can stand here today and give a full-throated defence of the Canada pension plan, while his 30 Alberta MPs stand in silence. Will he or will he not? I know we will. Albertans can count on us defending them every single day, along with their pensions.
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- Nov/1/23 2:31:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that carbon tax question was for the Prime Minister on Prime Minister's question period day. I know I do not have my glasses on, but that guy does not look like the Prime Minister.
I have a very simple motion, which says, “That, given that the government has announced a ‘temporary, three-year pause’ to the federal carbon tax on home heating oil, the House call on the government to extend that pause to all forms of home heating.”
Will the Prime Minister have the courage to stand up and indicate whether the vote on this motion will be a free vote for his members?
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- Nov/1/23 2:32:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, those of us on this side of the House prefer to do good public policy rather than simply playing politics. I know that is an idea that seems to be foreign to the Leader of the Opposition.
Heating oil is two to four times more expensive than natural gas. It is a particularly acute issue for people in a number of provinces, not just in Atlantic Canada. The program that we are putting in place applies across the country. It is to ensure that we are addressing concerns around affordability in a thoughtful way, while also addressing concerns around climate change, which I am sure their children will tell them is a very important issue.
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- Nov/1/23 2:32:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois motion we are voting on shortly calls on the government to review its immigration targets starting in 2024, after consulting with Quebec and the provinces about their integration capacity.
The minister, however, is preparing to unveil his immigration targets even though no one has been consulted. During a scrum today, Quebec's immigration minister confirmed that there had been no consultation.
Instead of doing one thing and voting the opposite, will the minister cancel his press conference and consult Quebec before announcing his immigration targets?
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- Nov/1/23 2:33:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, that is not true. We are constantly consulting with Quebec. There is direct communication between our public services every day.
I would also like to point out that I have spoken directly to the Quebec minister about these targets, the integration target and sponsorship for refugees. I have asked her to make an extra effort.
We are certainly consulting. We disagree sometimes, but I would ask the member to look at the plan that talks about the Canada-Québec accord and says that that is to be determined. The entire determination process remains in the hands of Quebec City. It is perfectly good consultation.
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- Nov/1/23 2:34:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there has to be a limit to spouting nonsense. Quebec was not consulted about the federal government's immigration targets. Quebec has said as much. This means that the targets the federal government is going to announce do not take into account Quebec's integration capacity.
Does the minister know how many additional classrooms will have to be opened to accommodate the children of families immigrating here in 2024? Does he know how many teachers, psychotherapists, speech therapists and special educators will need to be hired?
If the minister does not have those answers, will he at least cancel his press conference and look for the answers with Quebec and the provinces?
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- Nov/1/23 2:34:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in an hour and a bit, people will have a chance to see the plan, and I would ask them to take a look at it. As for Quebec, the Canada-Quebec accord has been in place since 1991. Under this agreement, we send Quebec $700 million a year. Do we demand accountability? No, we do not, because that is the relationship we have with Quebec. Perhaps we should be asking questions, but the fact is that Quebec has complete freedom to use this money to adapt its integration capacity, and we are going to support it.
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- Nov/1/23 2:35:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has made it very clear that only those who vote for Liberals will get relief on their home heating, which has divided Canada and undermined the fight against the climate crisis. Canadians want to do the right thing, but they cannot, for example, navigate the onerous government programs for a heat pump. They end up giving up.
Therefore, instead of dividing Canadians, will the Prime Minister tax the excess profits of oil and gas companies and use that revenue to help all Canadians?
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- Nov/1/23 2:36:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, I would encourage the hon. leader of the New Democratic Party to do his homework. In terms of an onerous program, people who actually are going to be in receipt of a heat pump go in and sign up online; three days later, they get a cheque to ensure that they can do the installation. There is no onerous program. At the end of the day, we have developed a plan to address a key affordability issue in a manner that is consistent with fighting climate change. It is good public policy, and we will carry it out.
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