Madam Speaker, I am pleased to see you in the chair, but I am not so pleased to speak to Bill C-15. It will come as no surprise to anyone when I say that, unfortunately, the Bloc Québécois will not be supporting Bill C‑15. We are making an effort to ask for changes, compromises and things for Quebec, but we are getting very few answers.
Our key demands were left out of the budget entirely. I will get back to that at the end of my speech if I have any time left. I will just remind members that we asked the government to reimburse Quebeckers for the money that was given to the other provinces for the carbon tax, and we also asked for an increase in old age security starting at age 65. The government could have made an effort to address these two demands at least. There is also the issue of transfers. Perhaps I will get back to that later.
Bill C‑15 is a colossal bill. It is 650 pages long, contains 80 measures and amends 49 acts in a whole host of areas. I read it again yesterday evening, point by point. It is fortunate that there was a great football match on, because some sections of the bill were putting me to sleep.
This is a big bill. The problem with big bills is that we often have to sift through the document to find out if the government has slipped something in. The big surprise this year comes around page 300 or so. I will get back to that later. I hope there are people tuning in who will hear this and realize what the government is doing. The government is giving just about any minister the authority to exempt projects from the application of just about any legislation for as long as the minister wishes. All the minister has to say is that doing so will encourage innovation.
We do want to be productive and efficient, but the government needs to be careful. The only act that the minister cannot grant an exemption for is the Criminal Code. However, there are many other acts. We are concerned about the environment, among other things. It will come as no surprise when I say that we are now pretty much alone on that. Fortunately, our member from Repentigny has taken over from Ms. Pauzé, whose name I can mention in the House today because she is no longer here. She proudly carried the torch high for many years. I wish to send her my regards.
In terms of the environment, things really are not heading in the right direction. The government is extending the tax credits for carbon capture. It is giving more money to the oil and gas industry. Carbon capture is an unproven technology. It has been tried in other places and it does not work. This will be a fiasco. The government knows this but it is plowing ahead anyway, because this is a government that is all about image. The government members give nice speeches. They know it will not work, but it is no big deal. They announce they are going to do it because it is good for the environment. In two, three, four or five years, people are going to realize that it does not work, but that is okay, because the government can score political points with it right now. That is the sad state of politics today.
Small nuclear power plants are now included in the clean energy tax credit. That is unbelievable. The government has decided that nuclear energy is clean energy. We understand that some countries rely on it, because they do not have enough land or do not have other sources of energy. However, it cannot be said that nuclear energy does not produce waste. The cherry on top is that the waste from these small nuclear power plants will be dumped at Chalk River, on the banks of the Ottawa River, which provides drinking water for the vast majority of Quebeckers. This worries us.
In fact, my colleague from Repentigny is meeting with local residents today about this issue. We are trying to wake up the government and the Conservative opposition regarding this issue. If an incident occurs someday and Quebeckers' drinking water becomes contaminated, who is going to pay, and who is going to live with the consequences for decades? It will be us. This is very serious.
The government decided to have more nuclear energy, because it decided that it is clean energy. That is absurd. Furthermore, the tax credits initially intended for the manufacturing sector now include liquefied natural gas conversion. To put it briefly, the goal is production. “Drill, baby, drill” is a well-known phrase that is being repeated more and more in Parliament. It is appalling.
The government is also going to make the media crisis worse by getting rid of the digital services tax for good. That is another serious negative consideration. I will get back to that in more detail if I have more time, but it is quite surreal to see the current government capitulating to the U.S. government on everything. It capitulated on every issue and got nothing in return. It gave and gave and gave because well, we are nice and polite and so we give. However, there comes a time when we must stand firm, no matter how big our neighbour is. By getting rid of the digital services tax, the government is forgoing $7.2 billion over five years. That is a lot of money for our newsrooms. It is a lot of money for media companies like TVA, which laid off a lot of workers recently.
We asked about this issue here in the House. I was there, so I can attest to that. The former minister, who has now left, was answering our questions. That former minister quit because he is also outraged by what this government is doing in terms of the environment. At least we are starting to attract followers from other political parties.
However, when we ask questions about the media, the government says CBC/Radio-Canada got money. The government is telling us the media model it wants in Quebec and Canada is a state monopoly. There is no support for private and independent media.
What can I say about regional news? It is crazy that it is not getting any help. The government needs to do something to support these people. We are living in an era when technology is evolving, artificial intelligence is moving at lightning speed, and fake news is becoming easier to produce and is circulating more and more quickly. While all this is happening, the government is telling private media they must sort out their own problems and that if they are not profitable, they should just close down.
Perhaps it suits the government to have an uninformed population. That way, no one will go digging through this enormous bill to find page 300. Hiding somewhere near the middle of the bill is a measure which, as I mentioned a bit earlier, allows any minister to suspend any law for any period of time he or she chooses. The text of the bill even states that it is the minister who decides on the period of time. I was quite surprised to see this in the bill, and I had to read this passage a second time to be sure I had read it correctly.
That is not all. The stated goal is to encourage innovation. If an experiment is under way, the application of a law can be suspended. However, when the experiment is finished, the exemption can be maintained. It is no big deal. Any excuse can be made to cancel laws, and no one knows when they will be reinstated. That is outrageous. I would even use the word “dangerous” to describe this government. I think that in five or 10 years, people are going to look at the outcomes of this government's policies and they are going to realize that democracy has taken a big step backwards. Bills C‑5 and C‑15 are perfect examples. Democracy will have declined and we will be stuck with these changes.
The people most in need have been completely left out. Yesterday, I spoke about tax cuts. Everyone is making nice speeches about this. They say they are cutting taxes, it is going to be good and it is going to be great, when in reality we are talking about $4 a month. The least well off, including disability benefit recipients, are going to see an increase in their tax burden. We are supposed to applaud this and be happy about it.
Here is a scoop for everyone: We are not going to applaud. In a 650-page document, there might be a few worthwhile measures. I hope the Liberals found one or two that might be good, such as the eligible credits for critical minerals, which could be beneficial for Quebec, or things like that. We are going to watch to see what might be good. As for the rest and what comes next, we are going to work conscientiously. However, I can say that when the time comes to vote, we are going to vote against Bill C‑15.