Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Godin.
Yes, I was obviously trying to draw a parallel. I agree that Mr. Drouin's comments are unacceptable, but I was trying to put them in context. As Franco-Ontarians, we find the entire debate on Quebec separation frustrating. Some of the witnesses who come before the committee are Bloc supporters, and their comments cause frustration for francophones. I'm not defending Mr. Drouin's comments, but I just wanted to put them in a Franco-Ontarian context. A number of people in my riding have spoken to me about this, and their comments are similar.
I would like to make an aside. My mother told me that she and my father, who was a member of Parliament at the time, lived through the events of the Front de libération du Québec, or FLQ, years. My mother was a strong person, but it still upset her to have the RCMP in northern Ontario for 24 hours during the entire debate on the FLQ and separation. It was quite the experience for Franco-Ontarians.
I want to come back to Mr. Drouin's passionate outburst. He made a mistake and he apologized. I don't understand why the committee is continuing to debate this motion. It calls on the chief government whip and member of the leadership team to remove a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, which is unbelievable. It also calls for Mr. Drouin to resign from his role as chair of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. That's what the debate is about right now. It's really quite odd.
As Mr. Samson said, why are we continuing to debate this motion? There is a lot of other work to do, and I think we could move on to important things.
In fact, the people in my riding of Nickel Belt have clearly told me that we need to continue talking about important issues. A motion involving the whip and a parliamentary association should not be a point of debate. Once again, I am asking the three opposition parties why they want to continue debating this motion.
As we all know, the whips traditionally rejig the membership of parliamentary committees during the summer. In September, will we still have the same Liberal, Conservative, Bloc and NDP members we have today? Maybe not. There may be new members in September. The whips always change parliamentary secretaries and committee members. There is no provision in the Standing Orders for this committee or any other parliamentary committee to remove a member from a committee, let alone remove a member as chair of a parliamentary association such as ParlAmericas.
However, the motion calls on the committee to recommend that Mr. Drouin be removed from the position of chair of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. I certainly hope that it is not the intention of some members of the committee to politicize the issue in order to get votes in Quebec. I would like to remind people that parliamentary associations, traditionally, are non-partisan. I am a member of the Joint Interparliamentary Council and the chair of ParlAmericas. Parliamentary associations represent the country. I wanted to make that clear to committee members and members of the public who may not already know that.
If the committee decides to politicize parliamentary associations, I think it needs to be careful before doing so in public. The decisions an association makes are made internally by the parliamentarians who are members of that association. The Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie is an important association that brings together parliamentarians from a number of countries. I know that my fellow members belong to other associations themselves, so they know that parliamentary associations are responsible for making their own decisions, not parliamentary committees.
Coming back to the motion before us, I don't understand why the three opposition parties keep pushing the committee to recommend that Mr. Drouin resign as chair of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie and that the chief government whip remove him from the committee.
I proposed that the motion be amended to address the committee's outright irresponsible approach, but we didn't even debate my amendment because the three opposition parties voted to have it ruled inadmissible. I wanted us to focus on the committee's responsibilities and the chair to apologize to the witnesses on behalf of the committee. I think my amendment was admissible, but the three opposition parties were quick to reject it.
Members are saying that we don't want to move forward, but the official languages minister and the official languages commissioner appeared before the committee. The committee is able to move forward, given that the opposition put aside all the other motions in order to bring the commissioner before the committee, which is a good sign. Now can we move on to the next step? I'm talking about reviewing the report on economic development and figuring out whether we need to bring the officials back.
I want to remind members that Mr. Godin's motion was the same as Mr. Beaulieu's. The minister, Mr. Boissonnault, was here that day, and so were the department officials, ready to talk about post-secondary institutions during the second hour of our meeting. Unfortunately, we couldn't proceed as planned because of the motions that were put forward.
It's hard to believe that we are in this situation, given that Mr. Drouin apologized, which, frankly, was embarrassing for him. Nevertheless, the committee insists on bringing up the matter.
I could talk at length about how many times committee reports have been debated in the House, wasting time the House would otherwise spend debating pharmacare, the budget, dental care and other legislation. I want committee members and the public to keep in mind that the motion we are currently discussing will go back to the House. What will happen then? We don't have much sitting time left in June to get through our work. We are going to spend time discussing this motion in the House of Commons, instead of talking about bills currently under consideration.
The bills before the House include legislation to implement the fall economic statement, which would double the rural top-up for the carbon rebate to 20%. That measure is important to me, but the bill still hasn't been passed.
I can go on and on about the motion. I hope the three opposition parties don't intend to use this motion to delay consideration of the bills before the House. I hope we can find a way to work together. As Mr. Samson and Mr. Iacono mentioned, we need to resolve this impasse. How can we move past this, so we can talk about things that matter? We've already spent hours and hours debating this motion about Mr. Drouin.
It's clear, however, that the matter is closed. Apologies have been made. We've said this before, and I will say it again: witnesses who come before the committee and express views we don't agree with should not be spoken to that way. I want to point out, though, that Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Godin put words in Mr. Drouin's mouth. He was referring to the witnesses' comments, not the witnesses themselves.
Plenty of insults are being hurled in the House. We could spend hours listening to committee and House debates in which certain members point fingers at others. Members should be careful. The matter is closed. The member made a mistake and apologized. The committee has a job to do, for the francophone community as a whole and all those living in minority communities across the country.
I beseech committee members to find a way to put emotions aside, so we can focus on issues that matter in the few weeks of June we have left. June is always a challenging time, with the opposition putting forward motions for debate and sending committee reports to the House in an effort to delay progress. The motion before us will obviously be sent back to the House of Commons. Why? I don't know. Perhaps the opposition can enlighten me.
I would love for the House to get back to discussing pharmacare, diabetes, housing supports and the things people ask the committee for. The matter is closed. I hope the opposition will consider that and try to move forward.
I have more to say, but since we've already spent at least three weeks talking about Mr. Beaulieu's motion—which is virtually identical to Mr. Godin's—and Mr. Samson's amendment, I think it's time we do some real work.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk about the francophone community in northern Ontario and our passion. As I mentioned, we have to find a way to protect French in Quebec as well as throughout Canada, because our country is richer for having two languages. People like my father who fought for a bilingual country are the reason why I am here today—a member of Parliament representing a riding in northern Ontario. We modernized the bill my father voted on in 1969. It is tremendously important to the francophone community, if we want bilingual people representing us in the public service. That is why we need to get on with it. We need to stop the decline of French in Quebec and across the country.
Motions like this one are not the way to get on with it, considering that the motion will be sent back to the House for further debate, even though it has already been debated and resulted in an apology. I repeat, Mr. Drouin is a champion of the francophone community in his riding, in Ontario, in Canada. He has worked very hard, as you all know. In fulfilling his responsibilities, he has travelled all over the world defending francophones.
We can talk about this shortly, but Minister Roberge commented on social media that a recent report in Quebec identified other factors that were also contributing to the decline of French. Mr. Drouin actually drew a parallel with the report in his comments. Quebec's separation would obviously make Quebec a minority language country in North America. We have a job to do and real measures to put in place.
As far as Mr. Beaulieu's motion is concerned, I will say that the way to do things is not to call on the chief government whip—who isn't in charge of the committee—to remove a member or on the committee to recommend that Mr. Drouin resign as chair of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie. He will be participating in a meeting of the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie this summer, in July.
It's time to get down to business and focus on other issues. It is unacceptable for this to go on. This summer, the whip will be making changes to the membership of committees and parliamentary associations. It's time to focus on the issues that matter to the francophone community and people in minority communities around the country.
I know that others want to speak, so I will leave it there. I hope we can find a way to move on to more important things. Mr. Chair, I will yield the floor to the next speaker.