André Harvey

[2002 Winter Olympics, February 25th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the road from Chicoutimi to Salt Lake City was not an easy one for gold medal winner Marc Gagnon and for the very promising Marie Ève Drolet.

The results achieved by our two athletes are the outcome of years of sustained efforts and sacrifices, with the support of their parents.

Seeing Marc Gagnon on the podium during our national anthem was an incredibly intense moment and an inspiration for us all. In becoming Canada's greatest winter olympics medal winner, Marc Gagnon is a role model for generations to come.

Congratulations and thanks to the speed skating club Les Comètes de Chicoutimi for training athletes who make us proud.

Allow me to also congratulate Marc's teammates, Jonathan Guilmette, François-Louis Tremblay, Mathieu Turcotte and Éric Bédard, for winning the 5,000 metre men's relay. Finally, I would also like to congratulate Jonathan Guilmette for his silver medal in the 500 metre race.

[Highway Infrastructure, February 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the public has been waiting 25 years for the PQ and the BQ to get their act together. Before I was elected on November 27, not one member of the PQ or the BQ was talking about this issue. It took our victory in Chicoutimi--Le Fjord and the defeat of the PQ in Jonquière to get things moving.

[Highway Infrastructure, February 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I will say what the Government of Canada is now saying here in the House: there will be a $2 billion infrastructure program, which is an initial payment. This fund will provide a steady stream of revenue in the years to come.

In addition, there is no interprovincial cost-sharing. Each project will be judged on its merits.

The member for Jonquière is free to keep sending us postcards, but she might perhaps warn her PQ friends in Quebec City that they should start getting their environmental studies ready.

[Airline Industry, February 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, the new agency will be operational in April. The transition period will begin in April and all the measures will be implemented gradually.

Therefore, it is totally wrong to say that measures will be taken without providing services.

[Airline Industry, February 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to tell the hon. member that anything having to do with the security tax is part of the comprehensive measures in which the government has invested billions of dollars. The imposition of this very marginal tax is, of course, part of the government project for the Department of Finance.

[Carnaval-Souvenir de Chicoutimi, February 22nd, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to inform the House that her Excellency the Governor General of Canada will be visiting Chicoutimi this weekend. Madame Clarkson will be taking part in the Carnaval-Souvenir activities. I wish her a hearty welcome.

Since 1961, Chicoutimi has been taking this trip back in time, revisiting our past through the dress, activities and food of times gone by.

This year, we are commemorating the year 1902, with the theme “Fréquentons-nous, c'est Carnaval”, by going on a date with Laeticia and Hector, two characters typical of people living at the turn of the last century.

I invite everyone to come enjoy the Carnaval with the other merrymakers and Madame Clarkson.

[Supply, February 19th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate my colleague for her speech. Rising is already a sign of goodwill.

As for knowing whether I subscribe to the causes she is promoting, I will say it is rather the reverse. Regarding the issues I am championing in the area of aluminum processing, highway 175, day in and day out she rises in the House to ask questions. Every day, she rises in the House pretending to be doing something about it. While she has been sending post cards, we in the federal Liberal caucus, the Quebec caucus, we have prepared a specific infrastructure program that will allow us to choose projects dear to us.

I want her to know that highway 175 is an extremely important project—

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, February 4th, 2002]

No, not by Quebecers, but also by all Canadians and also by all Quebecers.

I wish to congratulate my colleague for having expressed views in the House that are different from those of the Bloc Quebecois, views that are more balanced. Her speech was so relevant that the member for Berthier—Montcalm can hardly stand it.

This good group moderator succeeded in bringing what appears at first glance to be historical consensus. We had historical consensus in Quebec in the past. We had one in the area of manpower training. And what were the results? Ask the clients in each of the ridings. They all tell us that federal management of manpower training was more efficient.

Allow me to come back to the speech of the hon. member. I would like her to tell us how she explains this consensus in Quebec, which seems to be so strong according to the Bloc member.

[Youth Criminal Justice Act, February 4th, 2002]

Mr. Speaker, first I wish to congratulate my colleague for her courage. It is not easy to take a stand that differs from the one taken by the Bloc, in particular by the member for Berthier—Montcalm.

[Privilege, February 1st, 2002]

Madam Speaker, in our individual lives and as a group, we should not turn debates that are sometimes quite technical into an obsession. In the last few days, we had the impression that we should apologize for taking part in the arrest of terrorists who killed thousands of people, that we should apologize for taking part in an international war against people who killed thousands of victims.

I know very well what this is all about. I know the reference to committee procedure. This issue should indeed be referred to committee quickly. But I have the feeling that the opposition is greatly misusing this situation. There is a war going on. We are a partner in this war against international terrorism, against people who have a base in dozens of countries throughout the world and kill thousands of people each month.

Ask the victims, the parents and the children who lost loved ones in terrorist attacks. They will have no mercy for the terrorists who have been taken by the allied forces and are imprisoned in southern Cuba.This is not Siberia—