44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 30, 2023 10:00AM
- Nov/30/23 3:18:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, let us be serious. To offer $9 billion to Boeing without an open competition is to abandon our aerospace industry. The Liberals are abandoning our primary export sector.
It was not enough for them to abandon our major corporations. Last week, there was nothing in the economic statement to help SMEs that are on the verge of bankruptcy if the CEBA repayment is not deferred. They are also abandoning our local businesses. That is the Liberal record over the past two weeks. They are hurting Quebec's businesses, large and small.
How can we not conclude that they are hurting Quebec's economy?
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- Nov/30/23 3:19:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, benefiting Quebec's economy and the aerospace sector across Canada is precisely one of the objectives of this morning's announcement. That is why we are moving forward over the next few months with the procurement announced today, which will be good for 3,000 jobs, or 3,000 workers, over the coming years.
The spinoffs in Canada, including in Quebec, will be roughly $400 million a year, which will help even more of our workers in the aerospace sector in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada.
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- Nov/30/23 3:19:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this morning, the Chiefs of Ontario joined the chorus of Canadians decrying the failure of the Liberal carbon tax. This burden inflicted upon first nations, allegedly the most important relationship for this Prime Minister, has forced 133 chiefs to take the government to court in order to get relief.
It is clear indigenous communities are not better off after eight long years of this government, nor is more money being put back in the pockets of the people who pay this tax.
After yet another failure, will the Prime Minister realize that the carbon tax has failed indigenous peoples and finally axe the tax?
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- Nov/30/23 3:20:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this summer we saw a record wildfire season raging across the country. I, as Minister of Indigenous Services Canada, worked with first nation leaders all across the country as they did the most unimaginable to protect their communities, with evacuations, people displaced for weeks if not months, and land, property and infrastructure destroyed.
We will continue to work on fighting climate change and protecting people as we see this astronomical threat bearing down. I look forward to doing that with first nations leaders.
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- Nov/30/23 3:21:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, actually, the Auditor General had a plan for that. It was to approve the 112 infrastructure projects sitting on that minister's desk that would deal with the effects of climate change, adaptation and mitigation. In fact, it was indigenous projects that talked about dikes, dams and culverts, things that would give indigenous communities a fighting chance to stay on their land in the event of an extreme weather event. However, the minister would rather waste money instead of investing one dollar to save six, and rather than the current plan of evacuation, relocation and rebuilding.
When will the minister get serious about helping indigenous communities, listen to the Chiefs of Ontario and axe the tax?
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- Nov/30/23 3:21:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is too bad that the former leader of the opposition did not listen to the Chiefs of Ontario for over a decade as the infrastructure gap grew and grew, as children suffered with discriminatory first nations child welfare, as education rates and levels were underfunded per capita—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Nov/30/23 3:22:10 p.m.
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I am having trouble, once again, hearing the hon. member. There are a number of voices close to the Speaker.
I will ask the hon. minister to please start again, because I would like to hear the answer.
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- Nov/30/23 3:22:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have to ask ourselves how that infrastructure gap got so big, and it was a decade of neglect. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition, on the day of the apology from Prime Minister Harper, said that what people really needed to do was actually get to work and show work values. These are the kinds of ethics that these Conservatives hold in terms of first nations.
We will continue to work with first nations on rights and in respectful ways in closing gaps. That is what responsible governments do.
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Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the costly Bloc-Liberal coalition proved once again that it is not worth the cost.
As usual, the Bloc members joined forces with the Liberals to defeat our motion calling on the Senate to pass our common-sense bill, Bill C‑234, to remove the carbon tax on farmers. Eight years in, our food banks are overwhelmed, yet those two parties want to increase the tax even more radically.
Will the Prime Minister tell his senators to stop obstructing Bill C‑234?
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- Nov/30/23 3:24:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what Conservative senators should be telling Conservative MPs is that the price on pollution does three things. One, it reduces pollution. Two, it puts more money in the pockets of eight out of 10 families. Three, it creates jobs we need for the economy of the future.
Everyone knows that the Conservative elite's official policy is that climate change does not exist, but this is 2023, and we are counting on Conservative senators and MPs to reconsider their position.
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- Nov/30/23 3:24:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am a proud Canadian. I am proud of this nation's bilingualism, and I am proud of the federal government's role in promoting both official languages. In the House of Commons, it is a privilege for me to hear both official languages being used. Therefore, I was both shocked and disappointed at the Canadian heritage committee this morning when a Conservative MP asked a francophone minister from Quebec to answer her question in English.
Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage tell the House about the long-standing importance of official language use in the government?
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- Nov/30/23 3:25:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.
I want to start by saying that I am a proud Quebecker who is proud to be a francophone and to be able to speak in French. I want to remind the House that we have the right to express ourselves in the language of our choice, regardless of the language in which the questions are asked. Today, I was in committee to talk about our government's success stories, including the Google agreement. Unfortunately, a member of the Conservative caucus hijacked that opportunity and chose to challenge my right to speak in my mother tongue.
Our government was the first to recognize the decline of French. Bilingualism is a fundamental principle of our country, one that we will continue to defend and promote, even if it displeases the Conservatives.
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- Nov/30/23 3:26:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister said that he would drop $15 billion on Stellantis to create new jobs. What he did not say is that those jobs would not be located in Windsor, in Ontario or even in Canada. He is shipping taxpayer money to a Dutch company that is going to employ Korean foreign workers. This is another slap in the face to hard-working Canadians who are struggling after eight years of the current government.
The Liberals cannot get their story straight on how many foreign jobs the $15 billion is buying, so why not release the contracts for Canadians to see for themselves?
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- Nov/30/23 3:26:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am afraid I will have to say that we will take no lessons from a party with a leader who, when he was employment minister, oversaw the loss of not 3,000 manufacturing jobs, not the loss of 30,000 of them, but the loss of 300,000 manufacturing jobs in this country. Would this man like to tell us what to do? Canadians know better.
We will continue to invest in Windsor. We will invest in the auto sector. We will invest in our workers. We will invest in a prosperous Canada.
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- Nov/30/23 3:27:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister should take some lessons from this side.
The story changes every single time he is asked. He should admit that Canadians got robbed blind with the deal. The Prime Minister even told his backbench members to keep all of this a secret and talk out the clock so the Liberals do not have to release documents. There is no reason to do that unless they are hiding something.
We want to know what is in this deal, why he spent $15 billion to ship Canadian jobs overseas and why they pretend that, after eight years, they care about labour in this country. Why is it so secret? What are they hiding?
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- Nov/30/23 3:28:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 2,500 workers building batteries in Windsor are going to be Canadian, local and unionized, There are an additional 2,300 construction jobs, Canadian and local. That message was delivered on Parliament Hill yesterday by Dave Cassidy, the president of Unifor local 444. He represents 5,000 Stellantis workers. He will represent the 2,500 Windsor workers who will build the batteries.
Whom do people trust: the guy who has spent his whole life fighting for workers, or the guy who has spent his whole political career fighting workers?
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- Nov/30/23 3:28:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers have learned that the Northvolt battery manufacturing plant in Quebec is going to hire hundreds of foreign replacement workers. This means that $7 billion of taxpayers' money will be used to fund these jobs, which should have gone to Quebeckers. This Prime Minister is definitely not worth the cost.
After eight years in power, this Prime Minister is not protecting jobs for Quebeckers. One moment; let me put on my glasses. He needs to make public the contracts awarded to battery manufacturing plants. When will he do that?
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- Nov/30/23 3:29:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague is right to put on his glasses and he should start writing down some numbers.
The Conservatives have not supported a single investment in the battery industry. They opposed the GM investment, they oppose the Ford investment and they opposed the Northvolt investment. They opposed the Volkswagen investment and now they oppose the Stellantis investment, which will create 2,500 jobs at the plant and up to 2,300 jobs to build the plant. That is outrageous.
Canadians can see which side the Conservatives are on. They are definitely against workers.
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- Nov/30/23 3:30:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the loss of innocent lives in the Middle East as a result of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas has been tragic. There is an increasingly dire need to ensure that aid gets into Gaza, where civilians are suffering. Canadians want to know how the government is helping bring relief to the region.
Can the Minister of International Development please update the House and Canadians on what the government is doing to provide help to those people desperately in need?
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- Nov/30/23 3:30:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canada was the first western government to take action, by providing $60 million in aid for civilians affected by the conflict in Gaza. This included a matching fund that brought in 12 Canadian humanitarian organizations. I am pleased to share with the House that Canadians from coast to coast to coast donated almost $14 million to this campaign, and we will double this amount to nearly $28 million. The funding will go to providing much-needed water, food and medicines to all civilians affected by the conflict.
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