Alain Therrien

[Employment Insurance, April 29th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the minister can read and watch the TVA reports on this subject, which will show her that she is wrong when she says that.

People have been told 1,000 times not to travel. It has been drummed into their heads. Some are deciding to head south on vacation anyway, and Ottawa is telling them that their quarantine will be subsidized by the workers and employers who pay into the EI system. What a joke. Two weeks of EI will at least cover the cost of the plane ticket.

Will the government end this comedy of errors and immediately reverse this irresponsible decision?

[Employment Insurance, April 29th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, TVA reported that vacationers who have to quarantine upon their return will be entitled to EI. This is no joke. This winter, this government gave $1,000 to vacationers who had to quarantine. We told the government that this did not make any sense, and it finally backed down. Now it is at it again, not with its own money, but with EI money. Contributors are the ones paying for it.

The government needs to understand that it cannot reward people who choose to flout the rules in the middle of a pandemic.

Why is this so hard to understand?

[Proceedings on a Bill entitled An Act to Provide for the Resumption and Continuation of Operations at the Port of Montreal, April 28th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the Bloc Québécois is sad to see special legislation being pushed through to put an end to discussions between employers and employees.

Workers are not being allowed to exercise their right to strike. Worse still is the federal government's failure to take action on this issue. It has done nothing for the past eight months. The Prime Minister has been nowhere to be found. He left everyone hanging when this dispute could have easily been resolved if he had shown some leadership. That is unfortunately not what he did, so here we are.

As a member of Parliament, I am sad that the government announced this special legislation in advance, which pushed everyone in this direction.

Are they not a little embarrassed about this situation?

[Privilege, April 28th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois would like to take a day or two to prepare its response and comments on the question of privilege raised by the Conservative Party.

[Community Organizations, April 28th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the pandemic means that members cannot do all the things they would normally do in their ridings.

Nevertheless, thanks to some amazing organizations, I have been able to keep in touch with seniors in my riding. As we know, the pandemic has hit them harder than anyone else. They have been isolated for over a year. The death toll among seniors was the highest, and the federal government did very little to help them.

That is why organizations in the riding of La Prairie that work with seniors deserve proper recognition. Despite the pandemic, they have maintained close connections with their members to ensure their well-being despite isolation.

I want to thank the Maison des aînés, Café Liberté 50, Club Idéal, golden agers' clubs in Delson, La Prairie, Saint-Constant, Saint-Philippe and Sainte-Catherine, and FADOQ clubs in Candiac and Saint-Mathieu.

I very much look forward to seeing you all again during future events.

Long live these organizations and their members.

[Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act, April 27th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, talking about climate change is important.

Personally, I am still wondering why people keep asking for time allocation. I am sure the problem stems from the government House leader's management of the calendar. It is not okay to prevent and circumscribe debate in the House. This is an important bill, and we have talked about it four times.

Why is the government having such a hard time managing its legislative calendar?

[The Budget, April 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, yes, I have read that book.

My colleague is right. Having two levels of government side by side often results in unnecessary expenditures. It is called service duplication. As we saw with the example of a single tax return, eliminating the second tax return would save $425 million. Imagine how much we could save if we eliminated an entire government.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, we completely agree.

The member for Joliette fought tooth and nail to get money back from tax havens and for people who use them to pay their taxes. It is a matter of horizontal and vertical equity. Everyone pays taxes. Why should those people not pay theirs?

Once again, the Canadian government is signing agreements with tax havens, allowing people to avoid paying their fair share. Those are the consequences of the lax attitude adopted by the Liberals and Conservatives, the latter being even worse.

It is hard to imagine that anyone could be worse than the Liberals when it comes to tax havens, but the Conservatives are. Neither party really wants vertical and horizontal equity or for the rich to pay their taxes so that the money can be used to help the public. That is obvious.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, we already have that in Quebec. We are trailblazers. What the rest of Canada wants to do is their problem.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, we might as well unify with the United States and the entire world while we are at it. There are limits. We need to have a country that reflects who we are, with needs that we understand and that we can defend.

Unfortunately, the money we send to Ottawa does not necessarily go to health care. It goes to the oil companies in the west, to shipyards in the rest of Canada and so on, but not back to us. It goes to government policies that apply more to Ontario and the west, not to Quebec. All of that money is our money. It is 22% ours. Ottawa should let us keep it, because we know how to manage it.

I do really like Canada. It is a beautiful place to visit, but we are nothing like Canada. It simply does not reflect who we are. Canada is like a boring party. There just needs to be one guest there, and the rest will follow. Once Quebec up and leaves, we will see what the other guests do—