Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Victoria.
It is a true privilege to address the House for the first time as the member for Madawaska—Restigouche. In carrying out my duties, I will strive to always honour the trust that the people of my riding have placed in me. I will make sure that they are effectively represented in this place.
I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers who generously donated their time to support me during my campaign. They helped put me in the seat I hold today. I also want to acknowledge the important support I received from my family. I want to say how much my wife Stéphanie, who unfortunately is no longer with us, was a constant source of inspiration to me since this new chapter of my life started. Finally, I would like to thank my predecessor, René Arsenault, for all the work he accomplished for Madawaska—Restigouche over the past 10 years.
Madawaska—Restigouche has one of the highest proportions of francophones in Canada outside Quebec, at nearly 80%. It is home to dynamic communities of Acadians and Brayons. I myself am from Kedgwick, a rural community where we proudly celebrate our Acadian identity.
It is therefore important to me to remind the House that our official languages and the francophonie are distinctive Canadian features and a powerful symbol of our Canadian identity. Canada is a country where we respect and celebrate our official languages and our indigenous languages.
As the Speech from the Throne rightly points out, during this time of great change, Canadians are uniting behind what makes Canada unique. We must preserve our fundamental conviction that we are stronger together. Our official languages represent this unity. As a powerful symbol of our shared history, they foster cohesion and cultural vitality while enhancing our country's international image.
Key to our identity and culture, French is also a language of knowledge, diversity, creation, business and education. As our government presents an ambitious and bold plan to transform our economy, it is important to point out that one of Canada's greatest strengths is our ability to research, innovate and excel in many fields in French.
Last month, people in my riding and across the country called for a lower cost of living. We heard them, and we are acting on our firm belief that the economy can only thrive if it works for everyone. Our new government is taking concrete action to make life more affordable for the middle class.
We are going to provide a middle-class tax cut that will save families up to $840 a year. We are also going to eliminate the goods and services tax on the purchase of a first home. As we speak, we are expanding eligibility for the Canadian dental care plan. We are also going to ensure the sustainability of existing programs like affordable child care and pharmacare.
During the election campaign, a resident of Tide Head in Restigouche told me how important the Canadian dental care plan is to him. Our announcement to expand the program's eligibility for the first time in over a decade means that he will have access to urgent dental care when he needs it. This example reminds us that the measures we vote on here can be life-changing for the people we represent.
During the election campaign, citizens and municipal officials from across my riding also told me about the housing shortage in their communities. That message has been heard. Our government will introduce a series of measures to help double housing construction and create affordable housing. In my riding, a number of housing units have already been built or are being built thanks to federal funding, including in Edmundston, Campbellton, Saint-Quentin and Eel River Bar. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of Edmundston's mayor, Mr. Marquis, city councillors and members of the city administration. I am pleased to welcome them to Parliament today.
With our new government's ambitious housing plan, we will see an acceleration of housing starts across the country. We will have to make sure that all regions of Canada benefit from this plan, because there is a pressing need, both in urban areas and in rural areas like mine.
We will also thoroughly revitalize the residential construction sector by leveraging Canadian technology, our skilled workers, and Canadian lumber. Promoting the use of our lumber will certainly have economic benefits in regions such as mine, where the forestry industry plays an important role in the local economy.
The Speech from the Throne also highlights our government's commitment to protecting those who give us access to fresh, healthy, and high-quality food, namely our agricultural producers. The Liberal plan to protect and strengthen the Canadian agri-food sector is especially important for regions with many farms and agri-food businesses, such as Grand Falls, Drummond, and Saint-André, in New Brunswick. I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that I got a visit this morning from Mr. Beaulieu, the mayor of Grand Falls Regional Municipality.
We are also determined to keep Canada's commitment to supply management and the sectors governed by it, including dairy products, poultry and eggs. This system helps protect Canadian jobs and ensures the stability of our food supply as production costs fluctuate, while guaranteeing that farmers get a minimum price for their products. The supply management system is especially important to my riding where, for example, poultry farms are at the heart of the Upper Madawaska economy. There is a reason Saint-François-de-Madawaska is known as the chicken capital.
Our government is committed to being a reliable partner for indigenous peoples and upholding its core commitment to advancing reconciliation. I am honoured to represent, here in Ottawa, two indigenous communities from my riding: The Eel River Bar First Nation and the Madawaska Maliseet First Nation. I want to sincerely thank the members of both communities for their strong support in the last election.
I am committed to continuing to strengthen the collaborative relationships we have built over the past few months, and I want to be a true ally in support of their various projects. I am especially pleased with our government's commitment to doubling the funding for the indigenous loan currency program, from $5 billion to $10 billion, so more indigenous communities can become owners of major projects.
The cornerstone of our plan is to transform, strengthen and unify the Canadian economy. Our new government's goal is to build the strongest economy in the G7. To do so, we will remove barriers to internal trade and labour mobility, as well as the duplication that delays the completion of projects. We will take a “one project, one assessment” approach, working closely with provinces and territories. We will also take targeted action to catalyze private investment and boost productivity.
The transformation of our economy will have a significant impact on workers and businesses across the country. During the election campaign, entrepreneurs in Bois-Joli, Baie-des-Hérons, Vallée-des-Rivières and many other municipalities in my riding told me about innovative projects that hold a lot of potential for our region's economic development. I have no doubt that Madawaska—Restigouche will definitely contribute to transforming and strengthening the Canadian economy.
In closing, I would like to mention that, as the representative of a rural riding with a francophone majority, I feel very much at home in our Liberal caucus, which has more Acadian and francophone members from Ontario, western and northern Canada as well as Quebec than any other party in the House of Commons. This is in addition to my many colleagues who have worked hard to learn French as their second official language. We are the party that provides real representation to francophones from coast to coast to coast.
