House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2025, with 40% of the vote.
Privilege May 28th, 2024
Madam Speaker, since we are on the subject of ethics, I would like to ask a question that is not entirely related to the debate we are having today but is nevertheless important.
I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on the Speaker's decision to eject the Leader of the Opposition for calling the Prime Minister wacko and extremist. Did he agree that the Speaker should have ejected his leader?
Privilege May 28th, 2024
Madam Speaker, I essentially agree with my colleague. I do not think that we need to provide further evidence that the Speaker has shown poor judgment multiple times in the past few months and is no longer worthy of his current office.
More generally, however, I wonder what an observer watching our debates in the House over the past few months would think about the increase in gag orders and the lack of debate on substantive issues. Our job is to help Canadians right now. I am not sure that we are doing our job properly, considering the government's many gag orders and the Conservatives' systematic filibustering. Once, we voted for 36 hours straight and, another time, for several hours. On one occasion, we voted in the House to pick which Conservative MP was going to speak instead of another. These kinds of things make absolutely no sense. This country has serious problems right now and we are not fixing them.
Does my colleague think that the average citizen watching our debates over the past few months still has confidence in Canadian democracy?
Fall Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2023 May 27th, 2024
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I really enjoy working with him. We often see each other in committee meetings. I thank him for his work.
He said some different things, but I agree with him on the fact that carbon capture is not really a way to fight climate change.
Canada has a bad track record, as members have mentioned today. One member referred to a study by Carbon Brief that shows that Canada has been the worst polluter in the world per capita since 1850. That is a big deal. The Liberals continue to make investments. According to an International Monetary Fund study, the government has directly and indirectly invested $38 billion U.S. in support to the oil industry.
I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that. Carbon capture is not effective. The government needs to stop investing in the oil industry. That is for certain. The carbon tax is one worthwhile measure. What are two or three other measures that a Green Party government would put in place to fight climate change?
Loisirs St‑Vincent‑de‑Paul/Champlain-Gamache Community Organization May 27th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, it is with great sadness that we learned of the closure of the community organization Loisirs St-Vincent-de-Paul/Champlain-Gamache, which has played a key role in the lives of hundreds of families in Longueuil since 1995.
I would like to especially thank Dolorès Vaudeville, who ran the organization with passion and dedication for 17 years, and Sophie Hébert, who greatly contributed to the organization's development thanks to her unfailing commitment and dedication.
Loisirs St-Vincent-de-Paul/Champlain-Gamache was located in a neighbourhood where people face daily challenges, but each action taken by the organization made a difference in the lives of many people in the community.
I would like to express my gratitude to all the volunteers, partners and community members who supported this cause over the years. We hope that the legacy of St-Vincent-de-Paul/Champlain-Gamache will continue to inspire other community initiatives in the future to help the least fortunate among us live with dignity.
Business of Supply May 23rd, 2024
Mr. Speaker, the member says that the government is going to build four million homes by 2031.
It built 200,000 last year, which was practically a record, and only 39,000 of them were in Quebec. Building four million homes by 2031 would mean building close to 600,000 a year, which is about three times more than the most Canada has ever built.
Can my colleague help me make sense of that?
Business of Supply May 23rd, 2024
Mr. Speaker, what we are hearing here is shocking. Earlier, the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie said that the Bloc Québécois is the party that cares the most about the Constitution. I almost died laughing. It is not about caring about the Constitution; it is about efficiency.
My colleague just talked about housing. She said things are going well with Quebec. People are talking and listening to each other. When the big, important national housing strategy was launched in 2017, it took three years for the government to release those funds and start building housing in Quebec.
The housing accelerator fund came along in 2022. The $1.8‑billion agreement with Quebec—$900 million from Quebec and $900 million from Ottawa—took two years to negotiate. In the meantime, money was being spent all over Quebec.
Yesterday, the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the national housing strategy was supposed to cut chronic homelessness in half. Well, it has doubled in the past five years. If the government's measures were working, we would know it.
I would like to know what my colleague thinks of what the Parliamentary Budget Officer said yesterday about how it would take an extra $3.5 billion a year to solve Canada's homelessness problem.
Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 May 7th, 2024
Madam Speaker, my colleague just mentioned the federal housing accelerator fund. It is hilarious that the Liberal government had the gall to call it that. It took two years to make an announcement in Quebec under that program. There is not even a mention of anyone who actually moved into those units.
In the past year, I toured Quebec to talk to people about housing. People talked to me about a lot of things. Right now, municipalities are building housing units, managing zoning and issuing permits. Quebec and the federal government both have housing programs. Everyone told me that there are too many people involved in housing. We need to streamline the process.
The federal government has fiscal capacity. It could quickly sign cheques and send them to Quebec for social housing, but no, it continues to interfere and negotiate. With this budget, we will have housing in four, five, even eight years.
Is my colleague not just a little ashamed to call a program the housing accelerator fund when it is the Liberals who are delaying everything?
Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 May 7th, 2024
Madam Speaker, I only heard the last two minutes of my colleague’s speech, but I heard him talking about housing, and that piqued my interest. The Liberals have been investing in housing for the past several years. The problem is that the government is not really investing. It is investing, but in the wrong places. Its plan is not working.
It injected $82 billion into the major national housing strategy in 2017. In 2024, more than halfway through the strategy, we still need to build 5.8 million housing units. We know that the private sector alone will not do the job. Sooner or later, the government will have to invest or intervene in the market, in particular to build social housing.
All the Conservatives do is say that they will be making budget cuts and more budget cuts, but I have not heard them offer even a hint of a solution to the housing crisis since they started talking about the problem in the House.
I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about this.
Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 May 7th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk about homelessness a bit. My colleague spoke of housing, and it is an important issue, but the government approach on homelessness is a bit hard to follow.
The only federal program dealing with homelessness is Reaching Home. Still, the government cut 3% from this program in recent months. The budget proposes a $1-billion investment over four years, and $250 million for encampments. However, encampments are a problem.
Last weekend, I attended a summit on youth homelessness in Quebec. Every group dealing with homelessness in Quebec was there, and all were asking how this $250 million would be spent, since, ultimately, fighting homelessness means building social housing.
Would it not have been better to simply invest money to actually build social housing units to get people off the street?
Does my colleague have any idea how this $250 million will be spent? As it stands, there is quite a bit of uncertainty around that.
Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1 May 7th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. It is always a pleasure to hear him.
In the last minute of his speech, my colleague talked about good jobs. However, something is completely missing from the budget. Once again, we are waiting for an aerospace strategy. As we know, Quebec is one of the world’s three leading aerospace hubs, along with Seattle and Toulouse.
Pratt & Whitney manufactures aircraft engines in my riding and sells them all over the world. My riding is also home to Héroux-Devtek. I like to say that Longueuil set foot on the moon before Neil Armstrong, because that company makes landing gear systems.
We must encourage this industry, which accounted for 37,000 jobs in 2022 and $18 billion in economic activity. We are still waiting for the federal government to take a stance on this and say it will encourage this industry, because it provides good jobs and generates an economic impact. What is the government waiting for?