Alain Therrien

[Dental Care, October 27th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the answer is that the government did not even try to have talks with Quebec because it is not shopping for dental insurance, but majority insurance.

The sole purpose of this cheque is to shore up its majority. In order for the NDP to support it, the government could not just give money to Quebec, it had to cut a cheque with a great big maple leaf on it. Therefore, it invented a flawed benefit that discriminates against Quebeckers and that will be paid out practically without any oversight, just like the CERB was.

Why should Quebec pay more than its fair share so people in other provinces can go to the dentist, pass go and claim even more money than they actually paid?

[Dental Care, October 27th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, if the government and the NDP wanted to help Quebec families with dental care, they could have come to an agreement with the Quebec government. That way, 100% of the cost for Quebec children would have been covered based on the actual amount paid. Instead, they came up with a cheque that half of Quebec families will not be entitled to, and what is more, the spending will not be monitored. A person can go to the dentist and pay $20, but charge the government up to $650. It is absurd.

Why did the government not just come to an agreement with Quebec? Would that have been too easy?

[Dental Care, October 24th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals like things to be really complicated. If they wanted to help families, they could have increased supports to families, but no, that is too simple. If they wanted to help with dental care, they could have reached an agreement with Quebec and transferred money, but no, that is too simple.

Instead, they came up with this dental cheque scheme. Why is that? It is not because they wanted to do something simple or effective. It was because they wanted to please the NDP to keep their majority in Parliament. They did not really want dental insurance; they wanted majority insurance, paid for by taxpayers. Will the Liberals at least modify their majority insurance to make sure it does not discriminate against Quebeckers?

[Dental Care, October 24th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, if the government wanted to help families with young children cope with inflation, it could simply have increased the Canada child benefit.

That would have been way too easy though, so it decided to write cheques to pay for dental care for kids 12 and under. Today, the Parliamentary Budget Officer confirmed that this benefit discriminates against Quebec families. Children in Quebec will get half as much as children outside Quebec. Quebeckers have 23% of the children, yet they will get only 13% of the promised $700 million.

Will the government fix this so that its dental care benefit does not discriminate against families in Quebec?

[Government Business No. 20, October 18th, 2022]

This is another slap in the face of parliamentarism, Mr. Speaker. It is a two-handed slap, one hand being Liberal and the other New Democrat. Again, it seems as though we are in a bad movie.

Bill C‑31 is ill-conceived. We should have worked on this bill because it was scribbled on the back of a napkin. Then, we can see there is a desire to expedite debate. There is talk of dental insurance, but there is no clear indication in the bill that it was dental insurance, quite the contrary. What we are seeing now is a government that drafted bad legislation because it was in a too big a hurry to consummate its marriage to the NDP to really put any work into it.

My question is simple. Is the minister embarrassed to introduce this closure motion?

[Public Services and Procurement, October 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the government is withholding information about the Roxham Road contracts on the grounds of “national security”. What nonsense.

In order to offer untendered contracts under the pretext of national security, the law states that there must be a disaster or a threat to life. Roxham Road is neither of those.

Yesterday, the fine Liberal donor who got $28 million in contracts disclosed in committee that it was the government itself that insisted that these clauses in the contracts remain confidential. That is very suspicious.

Is the Liberal donor who got the $28 million just the tip of the iceberg?

[Public Services and Procurement, October 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, we finally learned that the lucrative Roxham Road contracts awarded to a Liberal donor were worth $28 million. I say “finally” because we have been asking about this for a year. The government has been dodging questions and denying access to information requests for a year. Under pressure, the government finally disclosed how much the contracts known to the media were worth, but it did not disclose the contracts themselves.

We know that there are other contracts, namely for hotels. If the government has nothing to hide, why is it refusing to disclose all of the Roxham Road contracts?

[Climate Change, October 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Natural Resources is answering my question, and that really says it all.

The policy that the Deputy Prime Minister announced in Washington reveals that Canada was basically just looking for a pretext to sell even more oil and gas. It found one. So much for fighting climate change. Canada is back to exploiting fossil fuels in a big way. The Liberals are going full steam ahead. The government is trying to use the war in Ukraine to sell more oil despite the climate crisis.

Who wrote the Deputy Prime Minister's speech? Was it the leader of the Conservative Party?

[Climate Change, October 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, last week in Washington, the Deputy Prime Minister announced Canada's new foreign policy on energy to the world.

What is Canada's new policy? Well, it is the same as the old one: sell more oil and gas. Sorry, planet, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that Canada will fast-track energy projects to export more fossil fuel. Drill, baby, drill. This confirms what many already thought.

In essence, what Canada did in Washington was drive the final nail into the coffin of its fight against climate change. Is that accurate?

[Gravité Média, October 6th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, last week, I had the opportunity to take part in Gravité Média's fifth anniversary celebration.

Five years ago, Julie Voyer and her business associates founded Gravité Média and acquired five weekly newspapers in the Montérégie region, including our riding's local paper, Le Reflet.

These weeklies are a source of invaluable information and a genuine forum for cities, businesses, organizations, elected officials and the public. In addition to securing the future of local media, Gravité Média has grown its marketing department, which has really made a name for itself in my part of the world over the past five years. Many organizations, businesses and cities have benefited from Gravité Média's considerable expertise.

I would like to applaud the Gravité Média team for their exceptional work. Not only are they dedicated professionals, but they are also involved in our local organizations and foundations.

I am grateful to Ms. Voyer and the Gravité Média crew for being such a valuable partner in our community.