44th Parl. 1st Sess.
February 26, 2024 11:00AM
- Feb/26/24 1:20:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in the last election, Canadians clearly indicated that they wanted a minority government like the one they had between 2019 and 2021. They wanted to keep an eye on the government. That is the message they sent. That was the will of the Canadian and Quebec electorate. Unfortunately, that is not what happened. The government thumbed its nose at the will of Quebeckers and Canadians and chose to disregard its minority status and form a majority with another party. The result was the marriage of the Liberal Party with the New Democratic Party.
This marriage comes at a huge cost, both financially and democratically. Usually, when people get married, they pay for their own wedding. Sometimes their parents pay. It depends on the culture. In any case, we expect the happy couple to pay for the wedding. However, that is not what is happening here: Canadians and Quebeckers are paying for the huge cost of the wedding. That is what we are seeing now. We are paying for the two lovebirds. At some point the government needs to explain itself, and the Liberals claim that they need the NDP with them, that it is important. Earlier, the government leader said that there was obstruction, that this was chaos. It does not take much to throw him off if he thinks this is chaos.
I have been the opposition House leader for over four years. I can say that I have seen many things, but I have never seen chaos. I am concerned for the government leader. It does not take much to throw him off. I do not know if he watched The Walking Dead but, if he did, it must have given him a heart attack.
On top of that, he says it is chaos because the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois ask too many questions. Of course, the NDP does not do that. The Conservatives and the Bloc take too much time debating issues in the House.
If we were spending 50 days debating a bill, I might agree, but representatives of the government would sometimes come to me to say they were imposing a gag order because they were tired and we had been debating a bill for too long. I answered that we had been debating the bill for five hours. They said they could not take it any more. Oh, brother.
The bills we were debating were not small bills. They were big bills, some of them economic updates, and the government quickly put a stop to the debate because they knew very well that there was no chance of my agreeing with them. Yet they knew that the New Democrats eat at the same trough. They knew that the NDP would be there for them. So it often happens that, after three, four or five hours of debate, the discussion is closed. Is that good for democracy? Is that good for members of Parliament? The only weapon we have to defend our constituents, our fellow citizens, is time. It is the time we take to explain our position, propose changes, solutions, amendments, discuss better ways of improving life in our communities. That is what the government is always stopping us from doing here in the House.
Since 2021 alone, the NDP has supported 14 closure motions and eight super closure motions. They have also supported 23 time allocation motions. Never in the history of Canada have members of the opposition been subjected to so many gag orders. It is as if we had nothing important to say and they decided to gag us. That is what it looks like.
Today we are discussing motion No. 35 aimed at extending sitting hours. We usually work by consensus. When we change parliamentary rules, we seek consensus. All four parties have to agree and give their reasoning. That is not, however, what is happening here. With a majority, the government is constantly changing parliamentary rules.
Earlier, the government leader even boasted about it. He said that the Liberals had done so three times in two years, and boasted about it. I want to circle back to something terrible. The two parties did something terrible when they decided on the hybrid Parliament rules. That was unprecedented. They changed the parliamentary rules, knowing full well that some parties did not agree. It is not because we were freaks. The Bloc Québécois never said that it was a ludicrous idea, but we were not even consulted.
Those parties just came along and said that, from now on, this is how the hybrid Parliament works.
The leader of the official opposition correctly said earlier that, if that is how they change the rules, that means that any majority government will be able to change the rules of Parliament.
I do not know if my colleagues have seen the polls, but I have. There is a small chance that a Conservative government will be elected, and there is a small chance that it will be a majority government. Let us say Canadians elect a majority Conservative government. That means that the Conservatives will be able to say, “These are the rules from now on”. When that happens, the NDP will get up and say that that is not right, yet they did it themselves in 2022. The Liberals will also get up and say that that is not right, yet they and the NDP did it themselves. The only party that will be able to stand up in the House and credibly tell the Conservatives that what they are doing is not right is our party, the Bloc Québécois.
There is now a problem with the way we operate, because the government has created a fake majority. That is what we are faced with again: procedural changes that reduce the opposition parties' speaking time and steamroll discussions, because they are going to limit the opposition's ability to stand up and defend their position. That is unacceptable.
They want to change the rules, but I think we have a perfect example here of a government that is incapable of respecting Parliament. It seems unwilling to discuss its own bills. The bills are not always good, of course, but discussion is the way to improve them.
That has always been the Bloc Québécois's goal. Our goal is to be a constructive opposition and to tell the House that we are always thinking of Quebec and only Quebec. Oftentimes, Canada feels the same way Quebec does, so everyone is happy. Other times, we may disagree on a bill for whatever reason, so then we work to amend it in good faith. The only two tools we have for convincing the government are time and the parliamentary process. If our only tools are damaged, it diminishes the power of democracy in Parliament. It is a little strange that Parliament is working to reduce the power of democracy within its own walls.
I always feel a bit uneasy when it comes to the NDP. When members of the NDP rise in the House after question period, they wag their fingers and talk about how appalling ArriveCAN is. They rant and rave. It is not a pretty sight. They also say that this government is focused on oil production and that it is the worst government in history when it comes to Canadian oil production. They claim to be environmentalists and so on. When there are Liberal scandals and when the Prime Minister is caught red-handed, they rise to express their outrage. However, when the lights go out, what we see is that the NDP always supports the Liberal Party. In all honesty, I would feel really uncomfortable with that, if I were a member of the NDP.
The Bloc Québécois will therefore vote against the motion. We are simply going to do what it takes to defend the interests of Quebeckers, even though our right to speak is being undermined.
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- Feb/26/24 1:38:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague. Her French is excellent. I tip my hat to her.
This comes back to what I was saying earlier. They created a majority government by combining two parties. Their marriage is so tight, they are not even bickering. They get along very well. It is unheard of.
The government is acting like a majority government because it has a partner that allows it to do that. I think that is a shame because Quebeckers and Canadians did not vote for that.
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- Feb/26/24 2:08:55 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of this government, the Bloc-Liberal coalition is costly for Quebeckers.
The Bloc is in cahoots with this government that is not worth the cost. It pretends to be outraged by the ArriveCAN scandal, yet it voted in favour of cost overruns to fund ArriveCAN eight times. Then, it defended its actions by saying that it was not going to scrutinize everything the government spends. The Bloc told the government to go ahead and hand out the money.
Voting for the Bloc is costly. Even the Premier of Quebec is wondering what is the point of the Bloc Québécois. That is saying something.
The ArriveCAN app cost an arm and a leg, made a company very rich and made things difficult for Canadians. ArriveCAN joins this worn-out government's long list of bad decisions, mismanagement, lack of ethics and lack of transparency.
While the Liberals are mocking Canadians, common-sense Conservatives continue to fight for their interests. We are going to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget and stop the crime.
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- Feb/26/24 2:12:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, amid the ongoing saga of the ArriveCAN scandal, I can tell you that the Bloc Québécois leader has hit a new low.
The Bloc Québécois leader candidly admits that he gave the 2021-22 estimates the green light without even examining them. He said, and I quote, “we are not going to scrutinize everything the government spends. We just tell it to go ahead and hand out the money”.
When the government lacked the votes it needed to fund ArriveCAN, the leader of the Bloc Québécois came to the rescue. Eight times now, the Bloc Québécois has voted to give the government millions of dollars to fund crooks.
As everyone knows, the Bloc Québécois is also spending the hard-earned money of Quebeckers like there is no tomorrow. It is unbelievable that the Bloc thinks it has what it takes to manage a country.
I may not know what is the point of the Bloc Québécois, but I do know that voting for the Bloc Québécois is costly.
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- Feb/26/24 2:26:53 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, anyone worried about the relationship between the NDP and the Liberals can rest assured that this courtship will keep going strong until 2025, even if it is costly. The top priority is making Canadians happy. It is not about Quebec's priorities.
Quebeckers did not ask for day care, they already have it. Quebeckers did not ask for dental insurance, they already have it. Quebeckers did not ask for drug coverage, they already have it.
How much will the “majority insurance” of these two lovebirds cost Quebeckers, even though it ignores our priorities?
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- Feb/26/24 2:28:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is clearly trying to pick a fight. We are seeking solutions. That is why we are having good conversations with Minister Dubé and the Government of Quebec about improving the quality of health care.
It is essential that all Quebeckers have access to dental care and a good health care system. That can be achieved through co-operation, not through bickering or this sort of debate.
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- Feb/26/24 2:45:50 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government already owed Quebec $470 million for services rendered to asylum seekers. Its debt has just climbed to $1 billion. These are not projections, these are the bills incurred for guaranteeing the asylum seekers quick access to social assistance, temporary housing, health care and schooling. Ottawa's refusal to pay Quebec what it owes is sabotaging our capacity to not only integrate these asylum seekers, but also serve the entire population.
When will the government reimburse Quebeckers?
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- Feb/26/24 2:47:01 p.m.
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It is a great relationship, Mr. Speaker.
For months, the minister has been repeating that he is at the negotiating table with Quebec, but there are no negotiations going on. The Quebec immigration minister confirmed that on Thursday, when she said that the federal government has been wasting Quebec's time for two years.
Fortunately, we know that the premiers will be meeting in the coming weeks. I would like to remind the House that Quebec's budget will be tabled on March 12 and that we are talking about $1 billion here.
Will the government announce today that it will pay back Quebeckers?
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- Feb/26/24 2:50:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, can the minister tell me why this Prime Minister, with the support of the leader of the Bloc Québécois, has put the country deeper into debt than all the other prime ministers before him combined?
The leader of the Bloc Québécois chose to vote in favour of spending $24 million on the Prime Minister's arrive scam. I am not the one saying so. It was the leader of the Bloc Québécois who said, “We are not going to scrutinize everything the government spends”. They told the government to go ahead and spend the money.
It is like listening to the Liberal Minister of Finance. Voting for the Bloc Québécois is very, very costly.
Does the Prime Minister realize that he and the Bloc Québécois are costing Quebeckers too much and that they are not worth the cost or the corruption?
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- Feb/26/24 2:51:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when Quebeckers and Canadians across the country watch us on television, they surely realize what the Conservatives are up to. The Conservative attitude is to dismiss the investments that this government has delivered to make Canada the envy of the world.
Just last Friday, I was at the opening of Moderna's first plant in Canada. This plant will manufacture 100 million vaccines to ensure the health and safety of Canadians for generations to come.
Canada is making a name for itself internationally. Our workers are doing an outstanding job, and we will continue to invest in this country.
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- Feb/26/24 3:04:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Liberals seem intent on pointing fingers at public servants, but it is inconceivable that a cost overrun of this magnitude was not flagged. It is inconceivable that no one warned the government of the potential embarrassment. The Prime Minister and cabinet must have been alerted to this situation, yet they continued to spend Quebeckers' and Canadians' money like compulsive shoppers.
Was there no reasonable person in this government who said, “Wait a minute, enough already”, or were they all hoping that no one would notice?
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- Feb/26/24 4:30:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I invite every province in Canada to follow Quebec's example. However, we are sorry that it is going so slowly that I think that Quebeckers are going to make a different choice in a few years so as not to endlessly repeat past battles. It is a fight we have already won in Quebec, and with Quebec's independence, we will consolidate these gains and all the others I mentioned earlier. It is coming soon.
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