Alexandre Boulerice

[Employment Insurance, June 8th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, today the Conseil national des chômeurs et chômeuses is launching its employment insurance campaign. It highlights this government's monumental failure to deliver on its promise to reform employment insurance.

The pandemic has shown that the current system is not working. For example, self-employed workers, freelancers and women are being forgotten. We need real reform so that workers have access to good benefits to make ends meet.

When will the Liberals finally fix the EI system to help struggling families?

[Business of Supply, June 7th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I very much like the idea of a temporary tax on excess profits. My colleague says that the Bloc Québécois is not the only party to propose that idea. Indeed, the NDP is also proposing it.

What does my colleague think of the idea of taking that money and increasing the GST tax credit and the Canada child benefit, which would actually help the most disadvantaged families and the middle class, who are struggling right now?

[Business of Supply, June 7th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

The leader of the NDP has made some interesting proposals. Banks, insurance companies and oil companies are making record profits, while people are struggling to pay their bills.

Why not impose a temporary tax on excessive profits so that we can take that money and redistribute it to people through the Canada child benefit and by doubling the GST tax credit? That is far more practical and fair.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, June 6th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, oil companies are making record profits on the backs of motorists, and banks are making record profits on the backs of consumers.

What does my colleague think of the idea of imposing a special tax on them, and using that money to increase the goods and services tax credit, which would help the poor and the middle class directly?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, June 6th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I have a question for him about productivity, since we cannot keep producing fossil fuel energy forever. An agreement was signed in Paris on protecting our planet.

Does my colleague agree with me that in order to boost innovation and productivity, the government should invest in workforce training so that people can get jobs in the energy sector of the future?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, June 6th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé.

He spoke about the Quebec model and pharmacare, but Quebec has a hybrid system, one that is both public and private. That means many workers pay a fortune for supplemental coverage.

Does my colleague not agree with the Union des consommateurs du Québec, the FTQ, the CSN and the CSQ that we should have a universal public pharmacare system?

[Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14, June 2nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Drummond for his question.

I am not yet sure if his pass will hit my stick or my skates; it depends on how fast I can get to the puck.

My colleague asked an excellent question. I find it hard to understand the Liberals' stubbornness in refusing to discuss this. I am very proud that we were able to get the government to protect the 78 seats in Quebec. However, that is not the end of the discussion, or the end of the story.

I think we need to be open to this discussion, and I do not understand why the Liberal members from Quebec are not. They probably need to discuss it within their caucus. Why are they not showing more support for this motion so that we can discuss it in committee and determine next steps?

We protected 78 seats, and I think that this first step was absolutely necessary. However, this is not the end of this story or of this historic demand from Quebec.

[Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14, June 2nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, my colleague is absolutely right.

If we look at the number of members that the parties get elected and the number of votes they get nationally, it creates distortions, as I was saying earlier. There was one election where it took an average of 35,000 votes to elect a Liberal member, 40,000 votes to elect a Conservative member, 80,000 votes to elect an NDP member and practically 300,000 votes to elect a Green Party member. It is completely unfair to the voters.

I think that we do indeed need to work together, collaborate on finding a better system that will be fairer for everyone and will likely produce governments that will have to work together. A proportional voting system is not just more respectful of the voters; it also changes the political culture.

I know that my colleague is keen on that notion and that idea. It creates parliaments that are less aggressive and confrontational with a lot more dialogue and consensus building. I think that is best for our democracy and it is also what people want from us.

[Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14, June 2nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. However, I am not sure about how he interpreted the start of my speech. I think that he took the rubber band and stretched it a bit.

I believe that this is a legitimate and reasonable target. That is part of the discussion that we need to have. We need to see what the current situation is. Is what was negotiated in 1992 necessarily applicable today? Maybe so, or maybe not, although I do think that we need to at least have this discussion and see how we can move forward to protect Quebec's political weight in the House.

I am very proud of the work that the NDP did in their negotiations; they at least protected what Quebec has right now and saved the province from losing a seat. I think that the NDP won a great victory for Quebec in its negotiations with the Liberal government.

[Instruction to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs Regarding Bill C-14, June 2nd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for that excellent question. Earlier I said that I was part of the Special Committee on Electoral Reform, which travelled across the country to hear what people had to say. This is an issue that came up many times. I know that in my colleague's riding, people like to know who their MP is, sometimes so that they can congratulate him, sometimes so that they can criticize him, sometimes so that they can hold him to account and sometimes so that they can ask for federal government services. That is entirely appropriate. We could have a big discussion about that, but there is a way to maintain that contact.

Let us look at Germany, which has a mixed member proportional system. Half of the members are elected in local ridings, like in our current system. The other half are elected by a proportional voting system. Proportional representation corrects the major distortions created by a purely local electoral model.

Why is it that Conservative voters have basically no representation in Toronto? Why do Liberal voters have no representation in the Prairies? I think we also need to keep that in mind. There are models that can help us maintain that connection with voters while correcting problems with the system.