André Bellavance

[Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act, June 12th, 2012]

Madam Speaker, we have here a government that, in the past, has prorogued this House for purely partisan reasons. Again for purely partisan reasons, it also forced an election when, at the time, the election was supposed to be held on a set date. So then, it should come as no surprise that, for purely partisan reasons, the government is proposing an omnibus bill in place of a budget implementation bill. The government has included many measures that it said nothing about before.

Clearly, the government wants to hide all sorts of things in a bill that the public will not have time to thoroughly examine. That much is clear.

I have a very specific question for the minister of state about what has been hidden in the bill. The Public Appointments Commission was created under the Federal Accountability Act, which was passed by his government. Yet, the budget implementation bill does away with this commission.

In the minister's opinion, does the government no longer need an appointments watchdog, even though one was needed when the Federal Accountability Act came into effect? Given that the government has decided to do away with the commission in this bill, does that mean that the government is now going to be able to appoint whomever it wants to whatever position it wants without any oversight? This matter was not discussed, so the minister can hardly say that it was debated.

[Financial Institutions, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the minister made me laugh when he spoke about an isolated case. I gave him more than one example.

Since I have only 35 seconds, I do not have time to list all the other disputes that are going on right now between Quebec City and Ottawa. If he would read the letter that the Minister of Finance sent to the Government of Quebec about banking services, he would understand a lot better.

Clearly, the government did not learn anything from its failure on the Canada-wide securities issue. Yet, the Government of Quebec has been clear: it is unacceptable for the Government of Canada to unilaterally decide that provincial laws do not apply to banks.

Why does the minister want to leave Quebec consumers at the mercy of large banks? What does he stand to gain?

[Financial Institutions, June 8th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, not content to rebuff the Government of Quebec again and again on matters such as the reduction of Quebec's weight in the House of Commons, the firearms registry, health transfers, the administration of justice and Senate reform, the Conservative government is opening a new front, this time with regard to banking services.

Why is the Minister of Finance trying so hard to protect banks by infringing on Quebec's jurisdiction over consumer protection?

[Canada-Panama Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, June 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, this is the 25th gag order that has been imposed on us. At this rate, an unenviable record is going to be set. In 2015, I am convinced that Canadians will remember the way the Conservative government ran this country.

I also have some examples for the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, who is telling us that Panama is fantastic and that we are going to trade with this country. Panama is certainly one of the most prosperous countries in Central America. However, some members gave examples earlier about workers' rights in that country, and I have a few more. In 2010, Panama passed a law against protests. Workers are treated like criminals when they take to the streets to protest, and people have been killed at such demonstrations.

Furthermore, the OECD considers Panama to be one of the world's worst tax havens.

I have a question for the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons. Before signing this type of free trade agreement, why not sit down with the authorities in these countries and urge them to comply with international tax treaties and workers' rights, among other things?

[Public Safety, June 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, 13 days ago the video of a sordid crime was posted on the Internet. It has been 13 days that our children have been able to access this video, which shows the murder and dismemberment of an unfortunate victim. It has been 13 days that this government, which claims to ensure the safety of our streets and communities, has allowed a website to broadcast this horrible video, which serves only to enhance a murderer's notoriety.

My question is simple: what is the government waiting for to enforce the Criminal Code and have the images of this barbaric act removed from our children's sight?

[Governor General, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I request your co-operation to give me a few seconds at the end of my speech to table an amendment.

First, I want to congratulate the hon. member for Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour for presenting this motion to the House.

Earlier, a Conservative member accused the Bloc Québécois of being a separatist and sovereignist party—a fact known by all members in this House—and of having taken advantage of Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee to sneakily propose that the Governor General pay taxes.

In my opinion, the Bloc did not choose to do so this year. An election was held about a year ago and when the time came to introduce bills, the hon. member for Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour felt it would be a good idea if the only Canadian who is not paying taxes did like everyone else and began paying taxes. In fact, many parliamentarians in this House supported the idea.

Even government members—who belong to the party of the member who spoke earlier—included my colleague's suggestion in the budget, after he proposed that the Governor General pay taxes. That recommendation was followed by the government so that the Governor General would do like everyone else, like all workers in Canada and in Quebec, and began paying taxes at last. Not everyone knew that. Again, I congratulate the hon. member for presenting this motion.

At public events taking place on weekends in our ridings, many people were surprised to learn that the Governor General, in addition to holding an honorary position and collecting a good salary and a pension for life, did not pay taxes, which is totally unfair. There is no other way of putting it. That situation will be corrected in the budget.

Of course, the Conservative government did not stop there. After all, we are used to its poison pills. This time, it increased the Governor General's salary. In fact, it doubled that salary, something which a Liberal member justified a little earlier.

The former leader of the Liberal Party of Canada had also suggested increasing the Governor General’s salary because taxes would henceforth have to be paid. I know of no employer who, after having seen an employee's taxes increase even slightly, took pity on the employee and offered a salary increase.

Worse still, the government doubled the Governor General’s salary, which is completely out of line. It can in no way be considered normal to do so. To tell people in the budget that the Governor General’s salary will be taxed and then to increase that salary from $135,000 to $270,000, which few people in Canada or Quebec earn, amounts to laughing at people.

The member criticized the Bloc Québécois for having chosen this particular moment, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, for moving such a motion. I, on the contrary, think that it is a good time to think about the fact that the monarchy is archaic. Although this is 2012, the monarchy still governs the way we live in Canada and Quebec.

The Queen is the Queen of Canada, but in my view, no one today thinks that she serves any purpose whatsoever. However, some may believe that she does. In Quebec, however, the survey was very clear. According to this survey, over 70% of people think that we should simply get rid of the monarchy—with all due respect.

The history is there. My father teaches history. I think it is obvious that at a certain time, the queens and kings had a role to play, but today, with the parliamentary system and democracy, the role performed by these people could very well be replaced—because it seems to be strictly ceremonial—by a role that could be played by Parliament. For example, the Speaker of the House of Commons could very well give assent to bills. If the Senate—which the Bloc could well do without— is still there, then the Speaker of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Commons could give final assent to any bill democratically passed by parliamentarians elected legitimately and democratically by the people.

What useful role does the Governor General in fact perform? At the moment, apart from rubber stamping and making a few appearances, the Governor General costs us a great deal, it has to be said. It is not only the Governor General who is expensive, but everything concerning the monarchy, including of course the lieutenant-governors of each province. In Quebec, we had one who cost us dearly.

It is perhaps being settled in court. It is unfortunate, because she could have had a more honourable career had it not been for the allegations made against her. One thing is certain: our current system of government is absolutely archaic.

Moreover, since winning a majority, the Conservative government has gone practically crazy over the monarchy. The Canadian armed forces are once again the royal forces, and their uniforms and names have had to be changed. A stained glass window has also been made to honour Queen Victoria. There has been frenzied spending to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. For example, money has been spent on medals. CBC took advantage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to give us information on what this is costing taxpayers. We learned a few days ago on a CBC program, that the monarchy costs us more than it actually does the English. Indeed, the monarchy costs approximately $1.50 per person here in Canada, and only $.93 per person in England. That is quite absurd.

In other former colonies, such as Australia, they also decided to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this year, but not with as much pomp, and especially not with the same level of spending as here. I believe that the contradiction between this inappropriate spending and the cutbacks announced by the government was also raised in this House. In the same budget where it was announced that the Governor General would finally be taxed—thanks to my colleague from Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour, who quite fairly raised this relevant issue—it was announced that not only would his salary be doubled, there would be a multitude of cuts, including those to the famous employment insurance system.

The unemployed are being told that their pay will be cut by 30%, that they will have to accept lower-paying jobs and that they will have to spend more on gas to get around. Indeed, they will have to work an hour or more from their homes, and they may even have to relocate from one region to another. At the same time, the government is acting like it has a lot of money, like it is rolling in it, like it can throw parties and continue to live with a system that is now obsolete. I am not ashamed to say that I feel this way, and I am not the only one; many people share this opinion. I hear people say this very often.

There is no need to be disloyal to the Queen of England. We can show her respect, and that is what we are doing. For example, this week, we chose not to block or interrupt MPs' messages on the occasion of her diamond jubilee, but at the same time, we told everyone that we are not jubilant and that we do not need a monarchy in Canada.

My colleague's motion was moved before the budget was tabled. That is why it was straightforward. All he wanted was for the only non-taxable salary in Canada to be taxed. The government took his advice and included the member for Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour's proposal to tax the Governor General's salary in the budget, but it also included the following poison pill: the Governor General's salary will go up from $135,000 to $270,000, a two-fold increase.

I would therefore like to propose an amendment, seconded by my colleague from Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia.

I propose adding the following words to the end of the my colleague's motion concerning the Governor General's salary:

without increasing his salary

I think that would deal with the government's attempts to thumb its nose at the people.

[“MP for a Day” Competition, June 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, the sixth winner of the “MP for a Day” competition, Samuel Daigle, experienced a memorable day on Parliament Hill last week. The student at the Cégep de Victoriaville attended the Bloc Québécois caucus, met the Minister of Foreign Affairs and members of Parliament from the other parties, and participated in an interview on CPAC, among other things.

This competition, organized with the political science and geography teacher, Jean-François Léonard, helps demystify the job of a politician, gives a behind-the-scenes look and helps the student become more familiar with our democratic mechanisms.

I would like to thank my colleagues and everyone else who took time to explain their jobs to Samuel and who welcomed him warmly. Although he maintains a necessary critical eye, I think he now has a much different perspective of the job we do.

I would also like to thank the partners who make this competition possible: Équipe Sévégny-Baril from Via Capitale, the UPA Centre-du-Québec and the Association générale des étudiants et étudiantes du cégep de Victoriaville.

[Petitions, May 31st, 2012]

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to present a petition on behalf of residents of my riding who support international co-operation, and in particular an organization called Development and Peace.

They have signed this petition denouncing the cuts affecting non-governmental organizations whose reputation is beyond reproach and which have been involved in international co-operation for very many years.

In the case of Development and Peace, $35 million will be eliminated over five years, and this is completely unacceptable. This organization supports over 250 partners in 40 countries.

In essence, this petition calls for the funding to Development and Peace to be restored and for Canada to increase its international aid.

[Agriculture and Agri-food, May 30th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, nearly 300 people have just lost their jobs with the closing of the Levinoff-Colbex slaughterhouse in Saint-Cyrille-de-Wendover.

The federal government has never wanted to admit that it is harming slaughterhouses by imposing slaughtering standards that are more stringent and more costly than those in place south of the border. The Conservatives' inaction is now having consequences that are devastating for these hundreds of employees. Beef producers and the Quebec government are currently working on setting up a co-op.

Will the Minister of Agriculture commit to meeting with the Fédération des producteurs de bovins du Québec in order to explore all possible avenues to save the slaughterhouse and the jobs it provides?

[Restoring Rail Service Act, May 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague must think, as I do, that workers do not enjoy a strike. Striking is a last resort. The same is true of employers, although some enjoy strikes: a lockout ought to be a measure of last resort.

Special legislation forcing people back to work ought also to be a last resort. This government can be seen, and it has even said as much, in connection with Canada Post, Air Canada, and now Canadian Pacific, to have been using it as a first resort, which is unacceptable and appalling.

The minister did not answer my colleague’s question earlier when he asked her whether she simply wanted to abolish the right to strike. I think that this government is not only taking away people’s right to strike, the right of workers to strike, but even denying them ordinary pressure tactics. It amounts to killing a fly with a bazooka. That is what this government is doing. In terms of labour relations, this attitude is sending out a horrible message.

I would like to hear my colleague’s comments about this.