House of Commons Hansard #12 of the 40th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was leader.

Topics

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

5:55 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

Resuming debate. The hon. member for Québec.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

5:55 p.m.

Bloc

Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC

Madam Speaker, I think we need to take the debate a little more seriously, particularly on the question of the economic statement.

We know the position the Prime Minister has put this House in. The economic statement is really a statement devoid of democracy and respect for the people who are facing an economic crisis in which jobs will be lost. It was urgent that something be done. When the throne speech was delivered, I rose to speak and gave the Prime Minister an idea of the Bloc's position on the throne speech. The Bloc believed that it was uninspiring and, most importantly, devoid of any long-term vision to help the economy of Canada and Quebec. We urgently needed a stimulus plan. We told the Prime Minister that something urgently needed to be done. Instead, we were presented with an economic statement that contained no concrete plan to help the various sectors that will be or have been affected by the economic crisis.

Instead of laying out a plan to help people get through this difficult crisis, the Prime Minister decided to launch an attack on democracy, lashing out first at unions, women and political party funding.

Madam Speaker, I forgot to say that I will be splitting my time with the member for Laval, who will speak after me.

The Prime Minister instead delivered right-wing ideology, rather than talking about the economy. Not only do we have to deal with an economic crisis, but now we also have to deal with a democratic crisis here in this Parliament. That crisis was quite simply created by the architect in chief, the Prime Minister. We were entitled to expect a detailed, concrete plan so we could know what the Prime Minister's intentions were.

The election cost $300 million. Instead of dealing with the crisis, we wasted time and we are still wasting time. While the other governments around the world are dealing with the economic crisis, the Prime Minister is dragging his feet. He says he wants to wait, when this is the time to act and choose a direction. We need only think of China. China has injected $700 billion to combat the crisis and stimulate the economy. Europe has injected $318 billion. The Americans, $850 billion. Us, what are we doing? Nothing. That is why the Bloc Québécois has made an agreement with the opposition parties. We decided to set aside partisan considerations to get concretely involved and find solutions to combat the economic crisis, unlike this government.

We are acting forcefully to support and stimulate the economy. That is the purpose of the agreement signed barely two days ago. People are aware—although not here in Canada—of the urgent need for action. The government is not taking the lead and is not demonstrating that it is dealing with the economic crisis. In fact, I wonder whether the Prime Minister believes there is an economic crisis. He has refused to prepare an emergency plan. He is stalling for time instead of buckling down to work with the other parties.

Obama has been mentioned. He is said to be very inspiring, but what did Mr. Obama do the day after he was elected? He sat down with the people who were his political adversaries. Why? Because he knows very well that he is taking over the reins of a country and he will have to make agreements with the various parties. It is much more difficult in the United States, because he has to come to agreement with the Senate. We wish him good luck. With all the opposition parties, with all of the opposition there is in the American administration, Mr. Obama has made sure he has a better chance of making it, and not disappointing his constituents.

In Quebec, 73% of the people voted for something other than this Conservative government. What did the Bloc do when it saw how urgent the situation was? It came up with an economic recovery plan. I encourage the voters who are listening to us tonight to go to our website at www.blocquebecois.org. They will see that the Bloc has been working on solutions and something to really help all the sectors affected by the economic downturn. The government, on the other hand, wants to slow its expenditures, in contrast to what the whole rest of the world is doing, which is to stimulate the economy and pump money into the system and into the various sectors.

What is this government doing? It is closing things down. It is afraid of a deficit. We may well run a deficit, but governments everywhere are prepared to run a certain controllable deficit to assist all the sectors that are in trouble.

We did not see any openness or willingness to compromise on the part of the government. We are asked why we did not negotiate with the Conservatives. It did not want to negotiate. It did not want to sit down at the negotiating table.

All the parties met with the Prime Minister and they all emerged disappointed. We, for our part, worked hard to come up with a plan. When we asked questions before the economic statement was released, the Prime Minister said we had some good ideas for countering the crisis. But when we saw the economic statement, there was nothing in it of what the Bloc wanted. How then can we believe in any good faith on the part of the Prime Minister?

He says he loves Quebec, but he wants to impose a federal securities commission contrary to the unanimous desire of the Quebec National Assembly. It is not showing much love for Quebec when he has no respect for what is being done there and wants to turn over a sector that could compete with it.

There was a way of approaching the securities issue, called the passport system, which gave the provinces that have a securities commission a certain amount of autonomy. Mr. Luc Labelle of the Chambre de la sécurité financière in Quebec said that in any case we will now have to refer to Toronto and not Quebec. This is another hard blow for Quebec's preferred policy direction.

In addition, the equalization ceiling is a threat to the financial stability of Quebec. According to a Toronto-Dominion Bank study, there will be an annual shortfall of $450 million. That is an awful lot of money for Quebec, which will have to be made up.

We know how the federal government offloads its problems. We have seen the same thing with other political parties in power here. When the federal government has a deficit, it is easy to offload the problem onto Quebec and the provinces.

The manufacturing and forestry industries have been completely abandoned, and that did not start just recently. We have not been doing very much for our manufacturers ever since 2005. Many industries have closed down and there have been massive layoffs.

What did the government do with employment insurance? There is supposed to be billions of dollars in the employment insurance fund. The government kept that money in the consolidated revenue fund. Meanwhile, workers were faced with a two-week waiting period after losing their jobs when companies closed. The government did not come up with creative solutions and did not provide adequate support for some manufacturing companies, which could have solved their problems by purchasing better equipment, being more competitive and diversifying.

Canada is currently selling less to the United States. The United States does not need to purchase as much from Canada. There are too many goods on the shelf. Meanwhile, what is the government doing to help? The economic situation is going to get worse in the next two or three years, but the government is doing absolutely nothing.

People are asking why we formed a coalition with the opposition parties. It is because we want to take action on this crisis. We do not want to engage in ideological partisanship. What did the Conservatives do? They took a purely partisan approach to the economic crisis, attacking women, unions and political party financing.

We are proud of what the Bloc Québécois has done. Once, we were asked to work together. That is what everyone else is doing They are working together to come up with concrete proposals so that people get the help they need and the public respects the members who sit in the House of Commons.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:05 p.m.

Conservative

Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the speech from my colleague across the way. I do not agree with the speech, but I appreciate the member taking part in the debate.

Part of the speech was about leadership. The Bloc has made an agreement with the New Democratic Party and, I would say, the leaderless Liberal Party. She talked about leadership at a time of economic instability, and here is a leader of the Liberal Party who got the worst return at the polls, worse than any other Liberal Party leader has gotten not just in this century but in the last century, the worst in the history of that party. There is no leadership.

They signed a deal with a leader who knows he is only going to be there for three months at the maximum. The leader's own party wants to throw him out. The Liberals know that he is leaving.

The member talked about instability. I want to quote what was in the newspaper:

with political instability, especially in these tough economic times, I think people are going to shy away from investing in Canada for a little bit until things get sorted out.

What they are proposing provides more instability in this country. Is that not going to affect the investment in all of Canada, including Quebec?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Bloc

Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC

Madam Speaker, as I said in my speech, the Prime Minister is the architect in chief of this instability.

We would have loved to vote in favour of the Speech from the Throne, we would have loved to vote in favour of the economic update, but the direction that the government has chosen to take to deal with the economic crisis is that of the Conservative ideological right. It was reminiscent of the Reform and Alliance and was supported by some elected members from Quebec. We could not give our support to that.

We have also read in the press about the games being played by the Conservative members and the Prime Minister.

This Prime Minister wants to lead a majority government so that he can do as he wishes and walk all over the opposition. Since the Conservatives came to power, we have seen how they respect the work of parliamentarians.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Madam Speaker, the question before us in the House is about the need for members of Parliament to come together here in a time of economic crisis. The Canadian public sent a very clear message that they wanted us to do this. This is what all the countries in the western world have done.

What we are seeing is the fact that three parties are actually willing to put aside partisan differences and get down to the business of addressing the serious economic uncertainty. It is countered by a party that is doing everything it can to destabilize this Parliament, a destabilization that began Thursday night when the present Prime Minister, who is pretty much a political pyromaniac at times, came forward with a document that was intended to create this instability. The Edmonton Sun--

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I was reprimanded a little while ago for reading something that somebody had said.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

The hon. member is not in his seat to speak.

I will allow the member for Timmins—James Bay to complete his question very quickly.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Madam Speaker, I will correct that and make it a simile by saying that he is like a political pyromaniac, as opposed to a metaphor that he is a political pyromaniac.

I would like to quote the Edmonton Sun for the hon. colleague, which said that what the government did was to deliver a mean-spirited, petty—

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Conservative

Joy Smith Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I rise to object to the unparliamentary language that the member is using. Just a few short minutes ago there was another member in the House who was reprimanded for reading something.

I think what is happening right now is quite unfair, and it certainly is unparliamentary. It does not help the situation here. We are supposed to have a spirit of some sort of collaboration. I call this name calling.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

As I mentioned earlier, I have asked members to refrain from using language that could be unparliamentary. I will allow the member to complete his question.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON

Madam Speaker, I was not sure if the member was opposed to what was said in the Edmonton Sun, that the government delivered “a mean-spirited, petty, dangerous document designed to antagonize the opposition and destabilize the country”. We are now seeing that campaign being carried out by the Reform grassroots.

I would like to ask the hon. member, why is it that members on this side of the House can put aside our partisan differences and work together to--

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

I will ask the member for Québec to respond quickly, in 15 seconds.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:10 p.m.

Bloc

Christiane Gagnon Bloc Québec, QC

Madam Speaker, if we are to work together, we must keep our cool. The parties have decided to put aside their differences to agree on a budget, on a Speech from the Throne. And then the Bloc Québécois and the NDP would be free to vote or not—

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:15 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

Resuming debate, the member for Laval has the floor.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:15 p.m.

Bloc

Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC

Madam Speaker, I have to say I am a little embarrassed and a little ashamed to be in this House this afternoon listening to everything going on and everything being said. I am talking about the Quebec bashing, the disparaging of the Bloc Québécois and francophones. Personally, I find it very difficult to witness everything said today, everything said during and after question period. If find it personally very difficult.

We have had calls from people who live in Quebec and in other provinces of Canada. They are asking what is going on and why the government is displaying this kind of obstinacy, this kind of contempt for francophones in Quebec and Canada. Maybe the government is not aware of what is going on right now, but I can assure it that this may leave deep wounds that will take a long time to heal. People will remember this.

This so-called economic statement is really an ideological statement. It shows us how little respect this government has for the members of this House, and for the people of Canada, whether or not they voted for it. The entire voting population of Canada, in the last election, voted for a government to be serious and pay real attention to the economic and financial crisis we are experiencing.

It there is any doubt remaining in the minds of our Conservative colleagues, I can assure them that Stephen Jarislowsky, at least, a well-known billionaire financier and investor, said today at the Montreal Board of Trade that he supported a coalition government and that this was probably the most important and most useful thing at present in Canadian politics. At this point, a government has to make major investments, and he criticized the Prime Minister for not doing that in a crisis as serious as this. When a man as well versed in finance as Mr. Jarislowsky tells us something, I think we should listen, whether we are sovereignists or not.

When we chose to form an alliance with the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party to create a coalition government, we did it in good faith, as we have acted in good faith for the 15 years that the Bloc Québécois has been in this Parliament. The Bloc Québécois, a sovereignist party, as always shown scrupulous respect for the protocol, rituals and members of this House. The Bloc Québécois has always taken its role seriously and fulfilled it responsibly.

Today, we see members trying to lay their own strategic mistakes at the doorstep of the Bloc Québécois because they are incapable of getting traction for the right-wing ideas we do not want, and nobody in this country wants, either in Quebec or in Canada. They are arguing from weakness and condemning the parties that have done their job properly.

In the past, we have made a number of proposals to the Conservative Party to ensure that the people we represent could get the help they need and would be able to say that their government was genuinely concerned for their welfare. Now, the only thing they can say is that the government is extending its hand and going right for their pocket. It has forgotten about the welfare of the people. When they tell seniors that 25% of their retirement income will not have to be withdrawn this year, that is not very much. This will be a very hard year for seniors who have to live on their retirement income and have to withdraw money from their RRIF. We would have hoped that the government could have shown some compassion and raised the age when they would have to withdraw money from 71 to 73.

We hoped that it would understand that people who have lost their jobs over the past few weeks and those who will be losing their jobs in the coming weeks need immediate access to employment insurance benefits to support their families.

We hoped that the government, despite its incomprehensible right-wing ideology, would understand that women have the right to pay equity, not equal pay for equal work, but equal pay for work of equal value. Women in Quebec have had pay equity for 10 years now, and they do not have to worry about taking pay equity cases to court. It is a de facto right, it is non-negotiable, it belongs to us and we are entitled to it. Pay equity is one of our rights.

We also hoped that the government would understand that families that have to work, single-income families that need two incomes, need more than $100 per month to take care of their children. The government failed to understand that. According to its ideology, a woman's place is in the home. We have seen it do things for the sole purpose of sending women back home. Every woman in this country, like every woman in Quebec, has the right to a job, the right to work, and the right to earn an income that belongs to her, not a virtual income. Under the government's proposed new programs, a woman who stays at home could virtually receive a portion of her husband's income.

As I said earlier, the Bloc Québécois has always stood by its commitments to the people it represents. As I said earlier to the Conservative member, we want to build one country, but that does not mean that we want to destroy another.

Many of my family members live in the western provinces, many of them live in eastern Canada and many of them live in Quebec. Never would anyone in my family think that I bore them any ill will. Never would anyone in my family think that I want to destroy this, the most beautiful country in the world. That is not what we want, but like all people and all nations, we have the right to self-determination.

In closing, I truly hope that we will one day have a government that understands that the members in this House have a duty. They have a duty towards the people who elected them and not towards the government, which claims to have all the answers and to know better than anyone what Canadians want or what Quebeckers want. We must listen to our constituents more closely and we must—I hope the Prime Minister will take this into account in his address tonight—work together and do everything in our power to get through this economic crisis together, growing stronger, in order to really help our citizens pull through this crisis.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:20 p.m.

Conservative

Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON

Madam Speaker, I respect the fact that my colleague is an elected individual and a representative of her riding.

First, the member talked about the economy. Does she agree that the Conservative government has stimulated our economy by 2% as of January, which has been recognized by major economists in the country? Everybody is embracing what that the United States has done. The president-elect is planning on a stimulus of a little over 1%. Nothing has been done to stimulate the economy there.

Second, you talk about our great beautiful country and this great building we are in, yet your sole objective is to separate and break away from Canada. Could you please clarify that?

Third, could you tell me why—

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

Order, please. I would ask the hon. member to direct his questions to the Chair.

The hon. member for Laval.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Bloc

Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC

Madam Speaker, I would remind my honourable Conservative colleague that Mr. Jarisklowsky has painted a depressing picture of the current economic situation. He does not say that the Conservative government has helped the country to recover. He even urges the parties to reach an understanding and establish a crisis government as they would in wartime. This is no trifling matter: he urges the parties to reach an understanding and establish a crisis government, as they would in wartime. This is reality, this is not fiction. This is an economist speaking, a financier highly regarded by his peers, and he knows what he is talking about.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles Québec

Conservative

Daniel Petit ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask a question through you of my colleague from the Bloc Québécois .

I too am part of Quebec. They are not the only ones living there. What did the Liberals do for 25 years? They invoked the War Measures Act, they patriated the Constitution, they engaged in armed operations in which they stole Parti québécois lists. What is more, they arbitrarily arrested 485 people.

What will my colleague have to say to those who were arbitrarily arrested? What will she tell them today about this association?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Bloc

Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC

Madam Speaker, I am constantly in contact with people in my riding, with associations and women's groups, and all without exception have congratulated us on what we have done and on our desire to work together in a coalition government.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Bloc

Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC

Mr. Speaker, almost everyone in Canada recognizes that the government's economic update was bad. Consequently, it was likely that the opposition parties would vote against it. Fine.

We would have voted against it last Monday night. What situation would we have put the Governor General in if there had been no other choice?

If we had not participated in this choice, the only other option would have been an election. Does taking part in this choice mean that we want to destroy the country or, instead, does it mean that we are overcoming our ideological differences in Canada's best economic interest?

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

NDP

The Acting Speaker NDP Denise Savoie

The hon. member for Laval has 40 seconds to respond.

Economic and Fiscal StatementGovernment Orders

6:25 p.m.

Bloc

Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC

Mr. Speaker, I believe that we can put this argument to rest. My hon. colleague for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin has said it well.

This coalition is unprecedented in this chamber. The various parties are putting partisanship aside and joining forces to act on this economic crisis, at last, so that our constituents do not have to take action and so that they can be sure of having a normal Christmas.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.

6:25 p.m.

Bloc

Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC

Madam speaker, I wish to congratulate you on your appointment. This is the first time that I see you occupying the chair.

I am here for the debate on adjournment proceedings because, having asked the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages a question in this House, I have not received a satisfactory answer.