44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 31, 2024 10:00AM
- May/31/24 10:33:14 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, there are three reasons why the Bloc Québécois cannot vote for this bill. None of them are positive.
The first is that we should not be making accommodations on religious grounds. When it comes to something as important as the democratic process in a G7 country, for us, that simply has no merit.
The second is that we think it is irresponsible to postpone this for a week when we are going to be six days away from municipal elections in 1,109 municipalities across Quebec. We already have trouble mobilizing people for municipal elections.
I do not have time to talk about the third reason. I will let the parliamentary secretary answer.
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- May/31/24 10:45:15 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I know he worked very hard last night to prepare it.
Although many of the measures in this bill are generally aligned with our vision of democracy, there is still one very problematic element.
Pushing back the date of the federal election by a week would mean that it would take place just six days before municipal elections which, in Quebec, are also very important. We are talking about a local democracy that is already struggling to carve out a space, and we absolutely want to protect it.
We want these two elections to be held on very different dates. I would like to hear my colleague's opinion on this.
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- May/31/24 10:46:21 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would also like to congratulate the member for Chatham-Kent—Leamington on his speech.
My colleague just spoke about municipal elections, which are extremely important in Quebec, and about the need to motivate the public to get involved at every level in each election.
However, the sensitive issue of pensions cannot be overlooked. I know that my colleague touched on it earlier. Personally, I am extremely uncomfortable about telling Quebeckers that we are going to push back the date of the election. The only message that people will remember is that a whole bunch of MPs elected in 2019 are going to be eligible for their pensions. I think that sends a very bad message. It encourages and fuels cynicism toward politicians.
I would like to know whether my colleague would agree to a possible proposal to amend this bill and move the election to a different date, two or three weeks earlier if necessary. This would address concerns over the municipal elections scheduled at the same time and quell public cynicism toward politicians, precisely over the pension eligibility issue.
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- May/31/24 11:24:13 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member across the way knows full well that Quebec is not included in the Canada-wide or federal price on pollution because Quebec has its own system.
The member also knows that what he is proposing would help Quebeckers save a penny or two per litre of gas. To actually get the savings they have been told to expect, Quebeckers would have to drive to Mexico and back every summer.
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- May/31/24 11:26:01 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals have transformed the Standing Committee on Official Languages into an endless source of reasons to be concerned for the future of French. After the Liberal member for Saint-Laurent said that Bill 96 prevents anglophones from receiving care, and after the Liberal member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell insulted researchers who are worried about the decline of French, yesterday, the Liberal member for Alfred-Pellan added that Quebec should become bilingual in order to be, and I quote, strong, not just a unilingual francophone province. In his opinion, the French language is limiting us.
Once again, is that the Liberals' position? If not, are they going to set their MPs straight?
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- May/31/24 11:26:42 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, if there is one thing that we could not be any clearer about, it is the dedication within the Liberal Party of Canada and the Government of Canada to respecting this country's two official languages. In every institution and at every moment of life in Canada, we are there to protect francophone minorities outside Quebec. We acknowledge that French is declining across the country, including in Quebec, and yes, we also acknowledge that there is a linguistic minority in Quebec.
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- May/31/24 11:27:22 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is indicative of a culture problem within the Liberal Party. The whole purpose of the Standing Committee on Official Languages is to promote French in Canada. All the Liberals need to do is choose five of their 156 members who speak French and who want to protect the French language. That is all. Those are the only two criteria, but they cannot even do that.
Let us get back to the member for Alfred-Pellan, who is arguing in committee that English should become Quebec's official language. Why is he even there? Why is it so hard for the Liberals to send members who do not want to undermine French?
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- May/31/24 11:27:56 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member for Alfred-Pellan is just as much a Quebecker as my colleague opposite. The Quebec Liberal caucus, with its 35 government members, is here to protect the French fact in Quebec, as well as official languages in general and francophone minorities across the country. In contrast, the Bloc Québécois exists to do just one thing, and that is to pit Quebeckers against one another, to create conflict and divide people.
That is not why we are here. We are in favour of linguistic unity.
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- May/31/24 11:28:33 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, a third of the people who have registered for the NDP dental care program are in Quebec. The need is there, and the NDP delivered results. The Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois do not want dental care for seniors, children and people with disabilities. The Conservatives are spreading disinformation and do not care about the impact that might have on people's health and wallets. We cannot allow this to happen.
Will the government counter the Conservatives' disinformation and ensure that this dental care is available to everyone who needs it?
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- May/31/24 11:29:15 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we heard some shocking news from the Conservative leader. Last week, on Radio‑Canada in Quebec City, he said that the Canadian dental care plan did not exist. He said, on my radio, in Quebec City, that the Canadian dental care plan did not exist.
My colleague is so right to talk about disinformation. The Conservative leader says that the plan does not exist, when two million seniors in Canada have registered for it and 60% of providers in Quebec are already registered. No one could be more out of touch or more adept at spreading disinformation.
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- May/31/24 11:38:52 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Quebec's Groupe d'experts en adaptation aux changements climatiques tabled a disturbing report on Tuesday. Experts expect warming of 4.5 degrees in Montreal and 7.6 degrees in northern Quebec, five times more than the Paris target.
Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, the Liberals and the NPD voted for $30 billion in tax breaks for oil companies; that is another $30 billion to greenwash the increase in oil production.
Could the government not take that money and use it to find climate change adaptation solutions?
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- May/31/24 11:44:19 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after nine years of this Prime Minister, the housing crisis has become intolerable for Quebeckers.
While homelessness and hunger spread in Quebec, affordable housing is becoming increasingly scarce. To Canada's shame, it takes almost two years to get a building permit in Montreal. Quebeckers deserve better than this kind of incompetence.
Will this Liberal-Bloc government stop its out-of-control spending and give Canadians what they truly deserve?
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- May/31/24 11:44:51 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, one, two, three, four, five, six: That is the number of affordable housing units that the Conservative leader built across the country during his entire career as housing minister.
Meanwhile, the member talks about insults and the people lobbing insults. What about the way that he insults Quebec municipalities by calling them incompetent when Quebec municipalities are building 8,000 affordable housing units? Who is more incompetent, the ones building 8,000 affordable housing units, or the Conservative leader, who built six?
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- May/31/24 12:00:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Lac-Saint-Louis for his question. I would like to share some surprising news with the House. Last week, the Conservative leader announced on Radio-Canada that the Canadian dental care plan does not exist, when two million seniors have enrolled the program and 120,000 of them have already started receiving care since May 1. About 60% of dental care providers in Quebec have already signed up for the plan.
Rather than spreading misinformation, we are providing encouragement. We are encouraging all seniors in Quebec and elsewhere to enrol in this new plan that will really help them to improve their oral health.
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- May/31/24 12:01:22 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am shocked.
The member for Alfred-Pellan, a member of the Liberal caucus from Quebec, denied the relevance of French as the only official language in Quebec. He told the Standing Committee on Official Languages that Quebec should be bilingual to be stronger and that it should not just be a unilingual francophone province.
That is unacceptable. Not one member of the Liberal caucus from Quebec stood up to condemn his comments, not even the member for Papineau.
When will a Liberal member finally really stand up to defend French in Quebec?
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- May/31/24 12:01:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question because it gives me an opportunity to talk about how the Conservatives failed to take action for nine years on priorities related to the modernization of the Official Languages Act and the action plan.
I would like to remind the House that we have made historic investments by almost doubling the investments in the action plan and that we will continue to be there for the French fact and for minority languages in Quebec and Canada.
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- May/31/24 12:40:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was listening very closely to my friend across the way. He was talking about the consideration for the Province of Quebec and raised a lot of valid points. I wonder if he is aware that the City of Edmonton, the City of Calgary and the municipalities in Alberta have their elections on October 20. That is when the legislation is proposed. If nothing is done, we will have our election on the same date as those municipalities.
When he makes reference to Diwali, I myself appreciate Diwali, which is good over evil. There are all sorts of things that I would talk about with respect to Diwali. Having said that, I share the same concerns the member just talked about for the Province of Quebec. That is why I ask: Would he apply the same principles he just finished talking about with respect to the Province of Quebec for the people in the Province of Alberta? Should that be taken into consideration at all?
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- May/31/24 12:42:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I could answer quickly that the concern for a Bloc Québécois MP like me is primarily for Quebec, the municipalities of Quebec, its jurisdictions and all the rest.
I am not necessarily against what my colleague is proposing, that we should take into consideration the dates of other provincial and municipal elections. In fact, from the point of view of a parliamentarian or a federal government, it should go without saying that efforts should be made to avoid having these elections at the same time. Is it my role, as a member from Quebec, a member of the Bloc Québécois, to check whether there is an election in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba? No, that is my colleague's job. It is his responsibility.
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- May/31/24 12:42:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what a pleasure it is to see you in that chair.
I appreciated my colleague's speech very much. He was elected for the first time in 2015. He mentioned his age. I did not think he was that young. The member raises a very important question regarding the necessary coordination when an election is called. We know that we have three levels of government in Canada: municipal, provincial and federal. We try to avoid creating bottlenecks whenever possible.
On the other hand, we recognize that Canada has 10 provinces and tens of thousands of municipalities, each with their own agenda. We recognize that. However, in this specific case, given the timing of the municipal elections in Quebec, we can plainly see that we are headed for a perfect storm in the name of a theoretically fixed-date federal election.
I believe that the same timing issue happened in the last election, in 2021. Members may recall that the Prime Minister called an election during the fourth wave of the pandemic, after a year and a half of a minority government. The current minority government is now in its third year and he will draw things out for a fourth one.
I want to draw members' attention to what my colleague said. Some members will have reached the six-year mark by the next election. What a coincidence. The government is proposing to have the next election after the supposed fixed date. I wonder if my colleague would be open to examining the proposal to hold the election 10 days before the fixed date. In that case, some members might not get their pension.
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- May/31/24 12:46:17 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague said that the NDP would like to keep the original date with an amendment. What I do not understand is why the NDP needs it and why it is announcing it now.
When the bill was introduced, the NDP was patting itself on the back, saying that they had worked on it together and that it was so proud of the bill's outcome. In the end, they came forward with something else today.
It would be better if the date were moved by a week. It is better to vote a week and a half before a municipal election in Quebec than to vote six days before a municipal election. We agree on that. That said, the dates would still be very close together, and there would still be confusion. What would be even better would be to move the date back a little further, so that the election would be called a little earlier.
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