Denis Trudel

[The Budget, April 26th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, last year in committee I had the opportunity to interview the president and CEO of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, who came to talk about the housing crisis. When I asked her what we should do now to resolve the crisis, she had one answer: increase supply.

There are in fact a few measures in the budget aimed at increasing supply. However, there are long-term measures focusing on demand that we are having trouble understanding. For example, the tax-free savings account for the purchase of a first property is not a bad measure, but why will it take effect only next year? People will be able to contribute up to $8,000 a year for five years. We will not be seeing any results for a while. In addition, to invest $8,000 a year in a house, you need some income. These measures will not help the most disadvantaged.

Why are we not focusing on real investments? Consider the rapid housing initiative. It is a good, $1.5-billion program that will actually create social housing. We could have invested a lot more money into it to really help the most disadvantaged, but the budget falls short in that regard.

[The Budget, April 26th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague.

She has just made a remarkable speech. It was so very touching and inspiring. We do not hear enough speeches like this. I would like to commend her and sincerely thank her.

I would like to get back to something she mentioned that is a major concern, namely women who are victims of intimate partner violence.

Thanks to the funds allocated to housing, a frontline shelter for women who are victims of intimate partner violence was built in my riding. It will be able to take in nine women and their children. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of resources. Every day in Quebec, a woman experiencing intimate partner violence gets turned away from a resource and has to return home to a toxic relationship because of a lack of resources.

Does my colleague not think that we should work even harder to get the government to provide more funding for resources for families and women who are victims of intimate partner violence?

[The Budget, April 26th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I tend to agree with my colleague's criticism of the government's inconsistent housing figures.

The government admits defeat on the housing crisis right in the budget. The government admits that its proposal will not be enough. The Liberals claim that 3.5 million homes need to be built by 2031. I do not know where they got that figure of 3.5 million, but that is what they said.

The government said that Canada currently constructs 100,000 homes and that it will double this number. This 100,000 figure is not real. It does not exist. The National Housing Council said that 35,000 homes have been built since 2017. Say it were true that 100,000 homes have been built. This government is suggesting that 200,000 be built, but 200,000 a year for the next 10 years is just two million homes.

The government says that we need 3.5 million homes, but this will not happen. It is basically admitting that it will fail.

What are my colleague's thoughts on that?

[The Budget, April 26th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about housing.

With this budget the government claims to want to help cities accelerate housing construction and address zoning issues. Cities are a provincial jurisdiction, so the federal government will have to negotiate with Quebec. That is a problem.

Following the 2017 launch of the national housing strategy, which was negotiated with Quebec, it took three years for the money to flow to housing in Quebec. Meanwhile, billions of dollars were being spent in Toronto and Vancouver. Everything was going very well for them.

My biggest fear is that it will take that long again.

Would it not have been simpler to send a cheque directly to the Quebec government, so that those who actually know the needs on the ground could manage municipal issues?

[Official Languages, April 25th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, let us recap.

CN appoints a unilingual anglophone board of directors. The CEO of Air Canada is a unilingual anglophone. The Prime Minister appoints a unilingual anglophone lieutenant governor in New Brunswick. The Prime Minister appoints a governor general who does not speak French. The Prime Minister even considered taking British Colombian francophones to court last month for demanding services in French.

It is clear that the federal government is incapable of protecting the French language. Why will it not let Quebec take action with its Charter of the French Language?

[Mike Bossy, April 25th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the hockey world is mourning the loss of two of the most spectacular players to ever come out of Quebec.

Mike Bossy passed away far too soon on April 15. He was no doubt the best goal-scorer Quebec has ever seen. He scored more than 60 goals a season in five seasons and over 50 goals a season for nine consecutive seasons. That is a record that may never be beaten. He was an absolutely incredible player and a very engaging fellow.

This hockey player left his mark on the history of the New York Islanders and the National Hockey League overall. He then worked as an analyst for TVA Sports. His good-humoured and clever commentary was always relevant and interesting. Charming, funny and always on point, Mike Bossy knew how to make us love his sport. His opponents all feared him, his fans all admired him, and everyone loved him.

On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

I thank Mike Bossy for everything.

[The Budget, April 25th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, my Liberal colleagues never cease to amaze me.

The government is talking about making massive investments in the green transition, producing batteries and increasing investments so that Canada becomes an important player in that area. At the same time, it has just announced a project to produce one billion barrels of oil over the next 30 years, the Bay du Nord development project. On one hand, the government is setting targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% to 45% by 2030 and on the other, it has approved a one-billion barrel project.

How can my colleague reconcile those two things?

[The Budget, April 25th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, there is a lot of talk about housing in the budget. I think that is to be commended, because there are some significant investments in there. The government is talking about doubling the number of housing units built in Canada from 100,000 to 200,000. However, it is not clear where they got this 100,000 figure from, since the National Housing Council said in a study two months ago that only 35,000 units had been built since 2017, the year the national housing strategy was launched.

In this budget, the government is revamping two housing construction programs: the rental construction financing initiative and the national housing co-investment fund. These are not bad programs, but they are known for producing housing that is not particularly affordable. The government may say that it is going to build housing, but unfortunately, what is in the budget will not make it any more affordable. What does my colleague think?

[Preserving Provincial Representation in the House of Commons Act, April 7th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, we often hear the argument that Quebec is well represented because we have the Prime Minister and ministers.

I would simply like to point out to my colleague that the Island of Montreal is experiencing a serious housing crisis, with 25,000 people waiting for low-income housing. However, the Island of Montreal is represented by the Prime Minister and six senior ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Canadian Heritage. This is significant, but despite this, the crisis has continued for seven years, so having ministers is not the answer to everything.

I want to talk about the French language. My colleague must be sensitive to this in Nova Scotia. According to the numbers, the status of French in Quebec is so precarious that the percentage of people whose mother tongue is French may drop to just 69% by 2036, which might as well be tomorrow. If we do not use this bill as an opportunity to protect our political weight, if we do not stand up for ourselves, we will never be able to protect the French language. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on this.

[Preserving Provincial Representation in the House of Commons Act, April 7th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, last spring, my colleague, who is a member from Quebec, voted in favour of the Bloc motion recognizing Quebec as a nation with French as its only official language.

The Bloc Québécois believes that if Quebec is a nation, it should have special political weight to protect its specificity. Under this bill, Quebec will be allowed to keep 78 seats but, unfortunately, that will be out of a total of 343. Its political weight in this federation will therefore drop from 23.7% to 22.74%.

As a Quebecker, how can my colleague accept this drop in Quebec's political weight?