Denis Trudel

[Canada—United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement Implementation Act, January 28th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

[Canada—United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement Implementation Act, January 28th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I am glad to see that our work is drawing so much attention. I feel as though I am in the George Orwell novel 1984. We know the government is here somewhere, but it is not here in Parliament.

I would argue that anything having to do with international relations and borders is complicated. With all the international flights, the government simply cannot close the borders. We saw Brexit coming four or five years ago. It was not a surprise. It was made official in January 2020. The government finally reached a deal on November 21 and tabled it on December 9, yet it prorogued the House in September.

My question is simple: Why does the government take so long to introduce its bills when it comes to international issues?

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, January 26th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I found the part of my colleague’s speech on the fight against racism very interesting. It bothered me because two weeks ago, in Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, two Black communities submitted a project under the supporting Black Canadian communities initiative and were told by the government that they had not proven they were Black. I can assure you that they are Black. It caused quite a commotion. People felt insulted and rejected by the government, which is promoting anti-racism while at the same time insulting communities by claiming that they are not actually Black. It makes no sense.

Could my colleague explain to me how Black communities could have gotten such a response from the government?

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, January 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I would like to wish you and all my colleagues a happy 2021.

I want to talk about two seemingly unrelated events that happened last week that are actually more related than people think. At a time when the government is spending billions of dollars to meet people's needs during the pandemic, an indigenous homeless man was found frozen to death in a chemical toilet at 3 a.m. in Montreal. That same week, we learned that the Governor General had been terrorizing her employees for three years while earning $300,000 a year. She will now receive a lifetime pension of $150,000 a year.

The government has not signed a housing agreement with Quebec for three years. Such an agreement would have made it possible to build social housing for indigenous people in Montreal and could have saved the life of the man who died last week. Meanwhile, the government is going to give a woman who is completely useless and who held a costly position $150,000 a year for life.

Does my colleague not think that it is high time Canada abolished the monarchy?

[Broadcasting Act, December 11th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his comments.

There is one rather important aspect that is not addressed in Bill C-10.

The current crisis has been particularly hard on artists. Quebec has a fairly large dubbing industry that provides a living for artists, and I spoke with someone from that sector. She was telling me that if all the taxpayer-funded, English-language productions, like the ones produced in Toronto and Vancouver, were dubbed in Quebec, that would provide artists with work for years to come, and we would not even need American films. It is incredible.

However, that is not happening. Films and TV series that we pay for ourselves are dubbed in France. That makes absolutely no sense.

Does my colleague not think that, any time Canadian taxpayers' money is being invested, films should be dubbed in Quebec to provide work for our own people?

[Broadcasting Act, December 10th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

I do agree with some of the things he said, including the fact that this bill relies too heavily on the CRTC. It is not that the people working for the CRTC are bad people, but I had some bad experiences with the CRTC a few years ago when I was the spokesperson for the Mouvement Montréal français. We had complained to the CRTC about some private radio stations in Quebec because they were not complying with quotas for French music, especially at peak listening hours. They were finding ways around the rules.

For example, they would edit English songs into one 10- to 15-minute-long track. Since the songs played consecutively without interruption, for quota purposes, that counted as a single song. Private radio stations were effectively playing a 15-minute English song at peak listening hours. It was ridiculous.

Does my colleague not think that, as legislators, we should give the CRTC much clearer rules, especially to protect French-language content?

[Business of Supply, December 7th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague a question.

Instead of the deregulation this motion proposes, why not ask the government to do sector-based investing? For example, it could invest in the aerospace sector, which provides 40,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs in Quebec. We are still waiting. The Americans have already invested in aerospace. The French invested $15 billion euros in it. Why not ask the Government of Canada to invest in aerospace? My riding, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, is home to two companies, Héroux-Devtek and Pratt & Whitney, both of which are waiting for a signal from the government to move their projects forward.

I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.

[Business of Supply, December 3rd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

Again, the speech is long on good intentions but short on concrete facts about what Canadians want to know: When will we be vaccinated?

I heard a public health representative say that, once 70% of the population is vaccinated, we can start thinking about lifting restrictions. That is what everyone is looking forward to.

The Prime Minister told us vaccination would be complete by September. How can the Prime Minister tell us when it will be done when he cannot even tell us when it will start?

[Business of Supply, December 3rd, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I thank the Minister of Health for her speech.

We understand that the vaccine is going to arrive in dribs and drabs and that certain target groups, such as seniors and health care workers, will be vaccinated first.

If a large number of doses of the vaccine become available as of a certain date, for example, January 15, what is the capacity of the system and how many people could be vaccinated per week or per month once things really ramp up?

[Business of Supply, December 1st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of empathy for my colleague representing seniors who has to go to bat for his government and deliver an empty speech.

The government repeated the same number three or four times, namely, the $300 sent in July, but that was a long time ago. Now it is talking about investments during the pandemic.

Indeed the federal government invested in health care during the pandemic, but it had to do so because no investment was made before that. If health transfers had been increased before, investments would not be needed during the pandemic. What we are asking is that the government invests now so we do not have to go through the same thing again. That is the problem and that is what we are asking this morning.

My hon. colleague keeps saying that people know and that the Bloc is spreading disinformation, that it acts in a partisan way. Last night I received an email from one of my constituents who seemingly had not read the same newspapers as my hon. colleague across the way. My constituent writes that many political columnists and politicians talk about extra money for older people, but he is wondering where that extra money is after being mentioned many times over a long period of time. It was supposed to be for older and low-income people. He concludes by thanking me for my involvement and my interest in helping the cause. A citizen from my riding wrote that to me yesterday, after the speech by the hon. Deputy Prime Minister.