44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 27, 2023 11:00AM
- Nov/27/23 2:12:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians recently learned that a second Northvolt battery plant, subsidized by the Liberals, will give hundreds of jobs to foreign replacement workers rather than to unionized workers. Those jobs should be for Quebeckers. The government allocated over $7 billion in taxpayer subsidies to this project.
We found this out after hearing that Stellantis will be doing the same thing at its plant in Windsor. At first, the Liberals called that news disinformation. Then they changed their story and said that there was only one foreign worker. Soon after, they changed their story again to just a small number of workers. Stellantis has now confirmed that at least 900 taxpayer-funded foreign replacement workers will be brought to Canada to work in this plant.
Now that we know that foreign replacement workers will be used in the Stellantis and Northvolt plants, are the Liberals going to do the same thing at the Volkswagen plant in London?
The Prime Minister seems to have forgotten that he is supposed to serve Canadians first. The common-sense Conservatives are calling for the Prime Minister to finally be honest and publish the contracts for all taxpayer-funded battery plants.
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- Nov/27/23 2:43:00 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the federal government needs to reimburse Quebec for the $460 million it has spent to take in asylum seekers, which is a federal responsibility.
However, to sidestep the issue, the Minister of Immigration is claiming that this has suddenly become a shared jurisdiction with all the provinces. First of all, it is not shared. It is a federal responsibility. More importantly, it is not shared with the provinces, because Quebec takes in 48% of all asylum seekers in Canada.
Quebec is doing all the work while the federal government twiddles its thumbs. Even worse, Quebeckers will have to foot the bill.
When will the minister reimburse 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 3:08:27 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 3:09:45 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 3:11:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after learning that this government has earmarked $15 billion in public money to fund foreign workers in Windsor, now we learn that Northvolt in Quebec will also need foreign workers. We are talking about another $7 billion in taxpayers' money.
The Liberals said there would be only a small number of employees. We are now talking about several hundred employees. We need to get to the truth.
This Prime Minister has failed to protect jobs for Quebeckers. He must make the battery plants contracts public.
When will he make them public?
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- Nov/27/23 4:58:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the ban on replacement workers to ensure balanced collective agreement negotiations has been part of Quebeckers' DNA for decades.
I know that the Conservatives think they are in the middle of an election campaign, but I feel uneasy. I listened to my colleague's speech and it was interesting. We talked about the carbon tax and battery plants. The Liberal member asked her a clear question about whether the member will support the principle that replacement workers should be banned to ensure balanced collective agreement negotiations. We received a non-answer. The Conservatives are uncomfortable. They do not want to answer to avoid implying that they are not on the workers' side.
I would like a clear answer from the Conservatives. Do they support the principle of the bill to ban replacement workers, yes or no?
It is either yes or no. I would like a real answer.
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