Paul Crête

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, in order to boost the economy, would it not have been much wiser to invest some of the $10 billion surplus—which was confirmed on March 31, 2008—that is, perhaps $7 billion to help the industry instead of using the entire surplus to pay down the debt, which does nothing to help businesses in need?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with the member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain.

I would like this to be a peaceful debate. Today we learned that Quebec exports were down 6% in the first three months of 2008, compared to the first three months of 2007. The 20 groups that have gone down include newsprint, ore, iron ore concentrates, trucks, road tractors, petroleum products, coal products and wood pulp.

Could the Minister of Finance tell me what message of hope the current budget can offer when these sectors are not generating a profit and will not benefit from the tax cuts? Would it not have been better to offer refundable tax credits to enable these businesses to invest in their productivity and their equipment, and to give them a chance to retain their share of the market?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, they say they have helped older workers but there is no new program for older workers who cannot find jobs. Since February, the government has had a report in hand and has not acted on it. People who do not find jobs wind up applying for social assistance. Will he immediately correct this situation to give justice to these people who worked for companies for 30 years and who, after a year of unemployment, find themselves living on social assistance?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, the problem is that where I come from, people do not eat on a long-term basis. They eat every day and they need their jobs now, this year. When they are told after losing their jobs that they are entitled to unemployment benefits for 45 weeks and social assistance benefits for a year, and that if they get training perhaps they will have a job after that, those people do not find that situation acceptable.

In addition, the owners of companies in sectors that are not making much profit and who could have benefited from refundable tax credits to get through the manufacturing crisis are feeling abandoned.

Can the minister tell me, on behalf of the Department of Finance, what portion of the $14.1 billion in income tax reductions announced in the economic statement will go to the big oil companies? The manufacturing sector, which is not making any profits, has no access to assistance tools. Canadian manufacturers and exporters, as well as the unions, say the same thing on that topic: this is not the right kind of budget.

They should have used part of last year’s $10 billion surplus to stimulate the economy. In my opinion, that would have been a very desirable choice.

I would like the minister to give me that information. How much of the $14.1 billion will go to the oil companies?

[Business of Supply, May 28th, 2008]

Mr. Chair, I listened to the speech given by the minister a few minutes ago. I find that he is out of touch with the current state of the economy.

China has replaced Canada as the leading exporter to the United States. This has resulted in a very significant loss of manufacturing jobs, particularly in Quebec and Ontario.

Under the Conservatives, 35,000 jobs were lost in 2006 and 43,000 in 2007 because the minister ignored the unanimous report of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. He spoke earlier about the member for Edmonton—Leduc. I was a member of the industry committee. We presented a unanimous report containing 22 recommendations to help the manufacturing sector and he only implemented half of one of them.

Does the minister realize that because of his laissez-faire approach forestry workers in my riding—I am thinking of Saint-Pamphile, Saint-Just-de-Bretenières, Montmagny and l'Islet—and throughout Quebec and Ontario, feel that they have no government? I will not ask for an apology this evening but I would like to know if he is prepared to change his approach and his focus. He is presently allowing the economies of Quebec, Ontario and Canada to be completely subordinate to China's exports.

Yesterday, it was announced that Canada, for the first time, now has as many jobs in retail sales as in the manufacturing sector. That means that high paying jobs have been replaced by lower paying jobs. Are those the results he wants? I am asking for an answer from the minister. I will be sharing my time with the member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain

[Inter-Parliamentary Union, May 27th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the Inter-Parliamentary Union assembly, which is supposed to take place in Quebec City in 2010, is in jeopardy because of the Conservative government's intransigence. The Inter-Parliamentary Union proposed a solution to the impasse: the government could issue ministerial residence permits while maintaining the principle of security.

Will the government commit to easing its rules to allow the event to be held in Quebec City as the Canadian section of the Inter-Parliamentary Union has asked?

[Price of Petroleum Products, May 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would first like to mention that I will be sharing my time with the member from Terrebonne—Blainville.

During these 10 minutes, I would like to speak in this House about this emergency debate that was obtained by the Bloc Québécois thanks to the efforts of the member for Trois-Rivières. It is very important to tackle the issue of the price of gasoline and to find solutions. In our society, every problem has a solution. We need only make the effort and, in this case, have the political will to correct the situation. That is what we are hoping to do.

The Bloc Québécois proposed this debate because people from all segments of society have told us that we must deal with the issue, that it is important and that it is affecting consumers' lives, businesses' finances and the most disadvantaged in our society, such as seniors who, in rural and urban areas, are experiencing difficulties. Today, our public transit systems in urban and rural areas are inadequate and we have to find solutions to these problems.

I have found it very discouraging this evening that the government has no proposals and no plan. Its sole intervention is to state that market forces prevail. It says that we must live with very high prices and that we cannot solve the problem. Yet, the Bloc made some very constructive suggestions.

Barely two weeks ago, Bill C-454 was adopted in this House at second reading in order to send the bill to committee as quickly as possible and to give the Commissioner of Competition the authority to conduct an inquiry without having to prove that there is collusion. The current legislation has serious limitations that require proof of collusion in order to proceed with an inquiry. We believe that if the Commissioner of Competition were given the right to inquire in this area, we could make recommendations or suggestions to change the market organization and to find ways of dealing with the matter before us. This bill would give us a chance. This evening's debate will also give us an opportunity to talk about difficulties experienced and to encourage the government to propose solutions.

Last week I invited Frédéric Quintal, a specialist on gasoline issues, to come and give a talk in my riding. I invited the public, and about 50 people came. We had an excellent discussion. The title of his talk was “Faire le plein ou dormir au gaz”. In other words, do we stay deluded, decide to do nothing and believe that there is no way to change anything, or do we take the steps to bring about change? During this talk, I also invited a representative from ACEF, an organization that helps people with financial troubles. They run the Éconologis program, which gives residents concrete ways to reduce their heating costs in apartments and private homes.

They provide concrete measures and actions that can be implemented. They also dispel myths. It is often said that we should lower taxes in order to solve the problem of gasoline prices. In the past seven years, taxes have risen by about 55%, while gasoline itself, without taxes, has risen by 550%. There is a problem. Either we find a way to control how the market works so that there is healthy competition with useful results, or we find another way to tax oil companies who are making record profits. We have helped them out in recent years. In the last budget, their taxation rate was lowered again. This year is the ultimate year for oil companies. They are selling gasoline at record prices and, at the same time, their taxes are being reduced. Once again we are left out in the cold, and are expected to accept and tolerate the situation, without taking any action.

In my opinion, the Bloc is making a heartfelt appeal today. It is saying that the petroleum monitoring agency that was recommended by the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, and the bill the Liberal government introduced before the Conservatives took office, have to be implemented. There also needs to be the will to decrease our dependence on oil. The profits made by oil companies have to result in the development of new renewable energies in order to decrease this dependence on oil. We have the means, we just need the will. The government needs to get the message and take appropriate action.

I hope that in the coming days many people in Quebec and Canada will call their MPs and say that they listened to part of the emergency debate the Bloc Québécois requested and that they will ask their MPs to take appropriate action.

I put out this call to create a broad coalition to resolve this issue last week and I have already received some responses. I will read one quickly: “In the local papers on the weekend I read of your intention to create a coalition against the rising price of gasoline. As a representative of the Parti Démocratie Chrétienne du Québec, riding of Kamouraska-Témiscouata, at the provincial level, I would like to join your cause. Are you taking action against the government or the oil companies? In any case, we have to look for solutions. Thank you for your cooperation.”

That is the kind of spirit I would like to see in this House. We saw it in the opposition parties today. Not everyone had the same solutions necessarily, but at least they had ideas. We did not see this in the Conservatives, not even those from Quebec who know all about this dependence on oil. They instead tried to tell us that nothing could be done about this.

We must end this inaction and start implementing concrete projects that can produce results. This evening, I am also appealing to all those who are watching us. Join our coalition and express your desire to see the government establish a concerted action plan to deal with the rising cost of gasoline.

Solutions have been sought for many years. Work has been done on this issue and many options have been put forward but a comprehensive solution has yet to be found.

I was spurred into action a few months ago when I met some people at my two constituency offices, in Montmagny and Rivière-du-Loup. It was the end of winter, and the price of heating oil was very high. These people told me that something should be done, that I had to set out on a mission and go ahead and put solutions forward.

That is what is behind tonight's emergency debate requested by the Bloc Québécois. It pervades the entire debate that will go on all through the evening until midnight. But come tomorrow, we will have to carry on the fight, and find ways to move forward and pull away from that dependency.

We have one more reason to act today. It is not just a matter of paying less for gas, but organizing tomorrow's society so as to foster sustainable development. We have to ensure that our children will be dealing with an acceptable energy situation, where there is room for sustainable development and renewable energy sources. We have to put an end to the polluting that is going on right now.

In the past, things like that were accomplished. At the end of the 19th century, London, England, was probably the most polluted city in the world. That pollution was due to the use of coal. Today, the air in London is cleaner than it was 100 years ago. Why? Because actions were taken. There are means to remedy the present situation and we must take them.

It may be possible to do what we want at a reasonable cost. I am all for paying taxes on gasoline if, in the end, we get services. I am in favour of oil companies making reasonable profits but today they are unreasonable. We have not yet devised the tax tools that would return that money to good use for the benefit of society as a whole. We must succeed in doing that.

We could give a lot of scientific explanations, but tonight, the message we must all understand is that we must convince the government to act. It must adopt a carefully planned strategy to get control of the gas price issue. That is necessary for our society. We must do our part for the future. It is also a better way to distribute wealth.

I call on my colleagues to continue the work. Building on the initiative of my colleague from Trois-Rivières, the government must put forward concrete solutions in the days and weeks ahead.

[Price of Petroleum Products, May 26th, 2008]

Gas price, gas price.

[Price of Petroleum Products, May 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, in politics, an undeniable sign that a government or an elected representative is out of touch with reality is when they show contempt and arrogance. In his remarks, the member said that the Bloc Québécois could not have any good reason to call today for a special debate on gasoline prices.

Is there one person in Quebec or Canada who feels that the current situation in terms of gasoline prices is reasonable and acceptable? Is there a willingness to restore Quebec's trade balance through lesser dependency on oil? People are coming to us, saying that because of the price of heating oil, they have been unable to make ends meet this winter and that the government should be able to do something about that. We have volunteers who are not getting reasonable reimbursements for their travel expenses raising these questions. We have representatives from transportation companies coming to us saying that things have gone far enough and that we have to do something.

How can my hon. colleague suggest that we were solely motivated by electioneering in calling for this debate when we took the time to bring before the House this issue of great concern across Quebec and Canada?

Will he correct his statement and put forward truly constructive proposals? He went on and on for 20 minutes about a Liberal proposal that is not on the table at present. Can he, who sits on the government side, come up with at least one practical suggestion and recognize that tonight's debate is fully justified because of all the people who are affected by rising gas prices?

[Price of Petroleum Products, May 26th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, in his speech, the hon. member called for a sustainable development approach. We really hope that the government will have a complete change of attitude and will walk away from the current practice, which allows oil companies to make as much money as possible in the short term. Instead, we could collectively ask ourselves if we can have a plan to reduce our oil dependency and set objectives.

In so doing, we would deal with the primary environmental concern in Quebec and in Canada. At the same time, we would also reduce this dependency on oil companies.

We are a captive market. We have not developed solutions over the years. Prices and sudden increases could reach higher levels in the weeks and months to come.

I believe the time has come to organize a coalition to tackle the issue of price increases. We could all work together to come up with a different way of doing things for a different society. In 15 or 20 years, automobiles running on gas would play a much smaller role among our means of transportation, whether it is in rural or urban areas, and whether we are talking about personal transportation or commercial transportation of goods.