44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 27, 2023 11:00AM
Mr. Speaker, if the 800,000 people who used Ontario's food banks last year were their own city, it would be the third-largest city in Ontario. It is clear after eight years that the NDP-Liberal government is just not worth the cost.
Conservative Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax for farmers, making food prices cheaper. The Liberal environment minister has promised to resign. I hope he sticks to that.
Will the Prime Minister tell the senators to put Canadians first and pass Bill C-234, so Canadians can feed themselves?
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- Nov/27/23 2:59:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the premise of her question is false, first of all. We know that this is a pattern of behaviour that we are seeing from these Conservatives where they are not putting forward the actual facts and telling the truth to Canadians about how these things work.
Let us be clear: In the Liberal Party, we have no senators in our caucus. The same cannot be true about the Conservative Party of Canada. What we have heard is that not only are they directing senators, interfering with their independence, but their senators are also threatening independent senators. This is a clear pattern of behaviour, their obstruction of democracy.
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- Nov/27/23 2:59:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, $2 billion is the total amount that the federal government has invested in strengthening English in Quebec since 1995. It spent $2 billion to support the language of the 360 million anglophones that surround us, and enrich groups that are advocating for Quebec's anglicization. We will say it over and over again until the federal government finally gets the message: French is in decline, not English. English does not need help or money.
When will this government realize that it has to stop funding the anglicization of Quebec?
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- Nov/27/23 3:00:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, our government was the one that said it first: French is in decline and it has to be promoted and supported.
We passed a new Official Languages Act that the Bloc Québécois supported. It is very misleading to calculate spending at roughly $70 million over 27 years when in fact we have been giving Quebec $500 million to $700 million a year for the past 30 years to support francization. We assist Radio-Canada and Telefilm Canada because, on this side of the House, we support not only French, but francophone content as well.
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- Nov/27/23 3:01:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa is spending $2 billion to anglicize Quebec, and it does not stop there. In its action plan for official languages, Ottawa has earmarked $800 million for English in Quebec over the next five years, and let the chips fall where they may. This is typical of our Liberals. They say there is a difference between the situations facing francophones and anglophones. They claim to care about the future of French, but they do not walk the talk. Once again, English is being favoured, with $800 million in federal assistance.
Why not redirect that money to French instead of anglicizing Quebec?
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- Nov/27/23 3:02:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as Quebeckers, we must always defend and promote French. That is what we are doing, for example, with record investments in official languages. That is what we are doing for language of work and language of service initiatives in Quebec.
The Bloc Québécois is clearly trying to pick a fight. It is trying to divide Quebeckers.
Will the Bloc Québécois ever understand and accept that a Quebecker is a Quebecker, regardless of their mother tongue?
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- Nov/27/23 3:02:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians are spending billions on taxpayer-funded foreign replacement workers on the new EV battery plant in Windsor.
Windsor officials report that there will be up to 1,600 foreign replacement workers. One Liberal minister said there was only going to be one. Another minister said there would just be a few. A third said of course there will be foreign workers. The company said there would be 1,600, then 900 and then 1,600.
The Liberals cannot get their story straight. Will they come clean, tell the truth and release the contract, so all Canadians can tell what is going on here?
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- Nov/27/23 3:03:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us set the story straight.
Let us listen to Dave Cassidy, the president of Unifor Local 444 in Windsor, Ontario:
We have 900 skilled trades working on the site today — 900. We're gonna go up to about 2,000 trades, they tell me it's going to go up to about 2,000 trades. There's also on top of that going to be 2,500 unionized Local 444 members inside that facility.
We should listen to workers.
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- Nov/27/23 3:04:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we noticed he did not say “Canadian” workers.
On top of that, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry said that he is going to hold a meeting with the company to find out from the company what its plans are for the contract he negotiated and signed. I cannot make this stuff up. He has to ask the company what is in the contract he negotiated. A $15-billion subsidy is going to cost every Canadian family $1,000 in taxes and leave Canadian union workers in the cold.
If they have nothing to hide, will the Liberals come clean and release the contract?
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- Nov/27/23 3:04:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we will take no lessons from the Conservatives, especially from a party whose leader, when he was minister of employment, oversaw the loss of not 3,000, not 30,000 but 300,000 manufacturing jobs. Can we imagine? It is shameful.
With an investment of $3.4 billion by Stellantis, we will be creating 2,500 jobs at the plant. We are going to continue to invest in Windsor. We will invest in our workers. We will invest in our industries.
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- Nov/27/23 3:05:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister gave billions of tax dollars to subsidize a single battery plant. Now we learn that hundreds of the jobs linked to the plant will not be filled by qualified, local, unionized Canadian workers but by taxpayer-funded foreign replacement workers.
If that is not bad enough, now the Liberals are desperately fighting to keep the details of the contract hidden. Why are they doing so? If it is such a good deal, what does the government have to worry about? Did Liberals actually sign off on giving billions of tax dollars without securing guarantees that Canadians would get the jobs?
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- Nov/27/23 3:05:58 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am fairly certain that Dave Cassidy, the president of Unifor Local 444, speaks for his membership, which are Canadian workers.
He said, “This is nothing new”, that they go through launches like this all the time. He said that this “is nothing more than political hay.” He cannot believe our politicians are playing this game and riling up thousands of people; this is the circus around politics. If Pierre had his way, these factories would not even be built.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Nov/27/23 3:06:28 p.m.
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I would like to remind all members that, even if they are reading a quotation, they cannot refer to a member of the actual House aside from their riding name.
The hon. minister.
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- Nov/27/23 3:06:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will end the same way I ended before: We should listen to workers.
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- Nov/27/23 3:07:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently recognized Canada as a world leader for its national action plan to end gender-based violence. One important component of that plan is a better justice system.
It was not so long ago that a judge presiding over a rape trial asked the victim why she could not just keep her knees together. The Conservatives at the time gave that judge a promotion.
Can the Minister of Justice share the progress that has been made since that Stone-Age response?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her question and her commitment.
Gender-based violence is an epidemic in Canada. We recently passed Bill S‑12 to improve the national sex offender registry and give victims more power in the criminal justice process. We also passed a bill that guarantees that judges will receive sexual assault training.
We will continue to fight against gender-based violence so that all Canadians, both men and women, can be safe and feel safe.
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- Nov/27/23 3:08:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, nearly $50 billion of taxpayers' money is subsidizing three battery plants. That is nearly $3,000 for every Canadian family. We have learned that hundreds of workers who will receive this money will be foreign replacement workers. We expected Canadians' money to be used to fund unionized, well-paying jobs for Canadians and Quebeckers. Instead, this money will be used to hire 900 foreign replacement workers in Windsor and hundreds more in Saint‑Basile‑le‑Grand and McMasterville.
After eight years, why has the Prime Minister failed to secure Quebec jobs in Montérégie?
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- Nov/27/23 3:09:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians watching at home must be wondering what is going on.
One thing they see is that the Conservatives were against Volkswagen's investment. They were against Stellantis' investment. They were against GM's investment. They were against Ford's investment. Now we have just learned that they are against Northvolt's investment in Quebec.
With Stellantis' record $3.4‑billion investment in Windsor, we will create 2,500 jobs. Up to 2,300 Canadian workers will build the plant.
We believe in the automotive industry. We believe in our workers. We believe in Canada's prosperity.
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- Nov/27/23 3:09:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to tell the Quebeckers watching us on television right now that the Liberals are doing everything in their power to keep Quebeckers from finding out the truth about contracts.
First, a Liberal minister said that there would be just one foreign replacement worker in Windsor. That changed to a handful. Then the chief of police said there would be 1,600 foreign workers. Radio-Canada added to the story when it reported that hundreds of foreign workers would be replacing Quebeckers in jobs subsidized by Quebec taxpayers in Montérégie.
This Prime Minister is not worth the cost. I challenge him to make the contracts public. Will he do it?
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- Nov/27/23 3:10:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people watching at home are realizing what a risky bet the Conservatives are.
When the leader of the Conservative Party was the minister of employment, Canada lost not 3,000, not 30,000, but 300,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector.
One thing Canadians know without a doubt is that we are with them. With Stellantis' record $3.4‑billion investment, we are going to build one of the largest battery industries around. There will be 2,500 workers working at the plant and up to 2,300 building it.
We believe in workers and we believe in Canada.
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