François Choquette

[Petitions, November 7th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, the second petition also has to do with social inequality.

Canadians want a national seniors strategy given the inequalities in this country that affect seniors in particular. The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to adopt a national seniors strategy in order to meet their needs in terms of health, housing and financial security and to improve their quality of life.

[Petitions, November 7th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I also have two petitions to present.

The first has to do with tax havens. Given that the Liberal government supported the NDP motion calling on it to take concrete action to combat tax havens, given that the Government of Canada recently signed two new tax information exchange agreements with notorious tax havens, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda, given that the use of tax havens results in massive revenue losses for the public treasury, the petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to cancel its agreements with tax havens, beginning with the ones it just signed with Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda, in order to reduce social inequality in this country.

[Employment Insurance, November 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, our employment insurance system is unfair to sick people.

Cynthia Lafontaine is a young mom who lives in my riding, Drummond. She was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer. She was able to collect benefits for 15 weeks, and after that, she did not have a penny to her name. By failing to take action, the government has put Cynthia and many other people in this awful situation. People do not recover from cancer in 15 weeks.

Would the Prime Minister show some empathy and give Canadians better sickness benefits?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, November 6th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I think it is a shame that there is nothing in this budget to protect workers' pensions. There is nothing to protect the mothers I named earlier who have just 15 weeks to recover. What would it take to extend the benefits? We have been calling for this for a long time. When are you going to do this? That is what the people of Drummond want to know.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, November 6th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. We had a lot of fun respectfully disagreeing with one another at the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.

He is right about one thing. The Liberal government could have taken actions that would not have cost anything. For instance, it could have fixed the fact that the EI program gives workers only 15 weeks to recover. It could have increased that period, which would not have cost anything. Another thing it could have done is amend bankruptcy legislation to ensure that workers get their pensions. Protecting workers when a company declares bankruptcy would not have cost anything. The government has not taken any of these actions, which are vital to improving the lives of Canadians. I deplore the Liberal government's complete inaction on those two issues, when it would not have cost the public purse anything.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, November 6th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to reply to my colleague. The EI program is independent. It is an independent fund. The government must not dip into it, as the Liberals did and the Conservatives continued to do after them. That money belongs to the workers, to those who saved it.

I would like to refer to Ms. Sabourin from Saint-Félix-de-Kingsey. She said she is at the end of her rope. She has had bladder cancer for two years and is forced to work because her 15 weeks have run out. Of course, she is talking about her 15 weeks of sickness benefits. She has been waiting for eight weeks to find out whether she can convert her unemployment to regular benefits. She currently has no income.

What are the Liberals going to do for Ms. Sabourin? What is happening right now is just wrong.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, November 6th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to rise in the House to speak to Bill C-86, budget implementation act, 2018, no. 2.

As we have heard a few times already, this is a mammoth bill, an 851-page omnibus bill. We have to wonder when this is going to stop. Under the Conservatives we became accustomed to 400-page bills and now the Liberals are introducing an 800-page omnibus bill. It never ends. This is just wrong.

If you combine the two budget implementation bills, they total 1,400 pages. It is just wrong. As MPs who represent our constituents, how can we do our jobs properly and diligently?

That said, the bill does contain a few good points. The government is finally going to move forward on pay equity.

However, it is once again telling women that they will have to wait another four years before they actually get pay equity. This matter is extremely important to the NDP. I personally have presented several petitions on behalf of the people of greater Drummond, who are absolutely beside themselves when I tell them that pay equity does not yet exist at the federal level. They cannot believe it.

This is still a reality. It is a regrettable and preposterous state of affairs. Unfortunately, the Liberal government is still making women in our great country wait for equity. There is no doubt that we must act quickly on this file.

What else is in this bill?

I will talk about what we do not like in this bill.

There is something extremely important that the people of greater Drummond and Canada have been waiting for. For three years they have been waiting for the budget implementation bill to finally amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. It is still not part of the budget. We have long been calling for measures to protect workers whose companies go bankrupt.

What does this legislation do? They go to the trouble of reopening the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, they protect commercial licence holders and corporations, but they do not protect workers. That is very bad news. We have been advocating for that for a long time. We have long been calling for action on this file. We are really disappointed.

Another thing we have long been calling for is EI sickness benefits. After three years, the Liberal government could have finally implemented EI reform that is worthy of its name. It certainly had the opportunity to do so.

Those notorious EI sickness benefits last just 15 weeks. It is mind-boggling. This policy is from 1971.

Since 1971, recipients have had just 15 weeks to recover. No one thought more time would be needed. Even though no one seems to have noticed, in 50 years, nothing has improved. The government needs to take action.

I want to acknowledge Marie-Hélène Dubé, who has been working very hard to make the public and also the Liberals and members of Parliament aware of this issue. She created the “15 weeks is not enough” campaign.

In 2009, she started a national petition calling on the government to extend EI sickness benefits beyond 15 weeks. She has collected 600,000 signatures so far, which is significant. This is a topic of concern to the people of Quebec and Canada. Marie-Hélène Dubé battled cancer three times in five years. She has had her share of problems. She experienced stress as a result of her illness. She had to deal with all of that on top of being a single mother.

She said:

The majority of people do not have insurance coverage. [Some people have private insurance, but that is not the case for everyone.] Women are often the most vulnerable. They sometimes earn less. And if they are single parents and have responsibilities, they can slip into poverty and never recover.

It makes no sense. The Liberal government needs to wake up. I have been receiving letters about this from the people of the greater Drummond area, such as Ms. Parent. Our EI system has not been reformed in many years. Ms. Parent told me that she underwent surgery on a cancerous brain tumour. She has to travel to Trois-Rivières for radiation treatment and chemotherapy. She has to say in a room that costs $30 a day. She says that she does not have much money. In addition to her treatment expenses, she has a house to pay for. It is impossible for her to recover from brain cancer in 15 weeks.

Could the Liberal government show some empathy and listen to Ms. Parent? Fifteen weeks is not enough to heal. That is why we must listen to people like Ms. Parent and increase benefits.

That is just one example, but I have others. It is shocking. I do not understand why this situation has not yet been resolved. Another constituent, Cynthia from Drummondville, said that, in 2016, her life was turned completely upside down. After a difficult pregnancy, she was diagnosed with spinal cord cancer. She had no choice but to claim EI sickness benefits, and 15 weeks later, she was left without any income. She was in physical therapy to relearn how to walk at the time.

That makes no sense. When will the government do something to help Cynthia from Drummondville get more sickness benefits? Fifteen weeks is not enough time to recover. More sickness benefits are needed.

These are just a few examples that show that the government could have done a lot more in this budget to achieve pay equity and defend workers. How is it that retirement pensions are not protected in the event of bankruptcy? Those contributions are paid by workers. They are the ones who made annual contributions toward their retirement. They forgo some of their wages so that their company will also contribute. Then, if the company goes bankrupt, they are told that they are last on the list. They may get little or none of their retirement savings back. That does not make any sense.

Getting back to the 15 weeks to recover, I can name other organizations, such as the Regroupement de défense des droits sociaux de Drummond, an advocacy group whose director, Joan Salvail, does excellent work defending people with employment insurance and income security issues. She says that nobody really understands employment insurance rules until they need EI. The fact is that 15 weeks of sickness benefits is nowhere near enough. The benefits people get are just a fraction of their usual pay, and those benefits run out before people have recovered. For many, it is the beginning of a long period of financial hardship.

What will the Liberal government do to address the needs Joan Salvail identified? It makes no sense. Fifteen weeks to recover is not enough.

The Liberal government took office almost three and a half years ago. Why has it not yet come up with solutions for this file? I do not understand. An 800-page omnibus bill with no solutions. Unbelievable. This 800-page bill does not even fix simple problems such as upping the number of sickness benefit weeks. We want those 15 weeks to go up to at least 50 weeks. Most serious illnesses take at least 50 weeks, nearly a year, to recover from. Let us hope the government will listen to Canadians and the people of Drummond and fix this problem before the election.

[The Environment, November 1st, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague and his party for putting a price on carbon. That is extremely important.

As he said, there is already a price on carbon in Quebec and British Columbia. However, we need to have carbon pricing across Canada. We also need more meaningful action. We cannot talk about bringing in carbon pricing and then go out and buy a pipeline that conflicts with the measures to fight climate change.

Today, my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona moved a motion calling on the federal government to enact legislation that would establish a legal process to ensure binding measures for greater transparency and accountability in the fight against climate change.

Does my colleague agree that we must enact legislation for greater transparency and accountability? Does he agree with the motion?

[The Environment, November 1st, 2018]

Madam Speaker, it is always a pleasure for me to rise in the House to talk about the environment, the economy, sustainable development, the fight against climate change and renewable energy.

On June 12, I had the opportunity to ask a question about creating good jobs in a sustainable, green economy. Unfortunately, these days, the Liberal government is ignoring the environment and investing in the economy of the past. The government plans to invest $4.5 billion in an old pipeline using taxpayers' money, money belonging to Canadians, Quebeckers, and residents of Drummond. The current Liberal government is still living in the past. The government should not be investing in pipelines, of all things. It should be investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency and those sorts of things.

According to Équiterre, every dollar invested in renewable energy will create six to eight times more jobs than a dollar invested in fossil fuels. That means that investing in renewable energy or fossil fuels is not about jobs or the economy. Investing in renewable energy is even better for the economy than investing in the energies of the past.

Our leader, Jagmeet Singh, criss-crossed Quebec talking about the environment, renewable energy and the green economy, and I had the opportunity to welcome him to Drummond. He visited a number of businesses, shops and attractions in the region. He met with Jean-Denis Lampron, the founder of Rose Drummond, and Carl Binette of Aéronergie. Aéronergie specializes in energy efficiency and heat recovery and also combines its systems with solar walls. That is what the economy of the future looks like, and the company is growing. Our region is very proud of this company.

Mr. Singh also met with Pascal Bouffard of Nakama-thé, who is also working to reduce his company's ecological footprint. His business provides paper straws and reusable metal straws, which are better for the environment and help combat the scourge of ocean plastics.

He also visited Maison d'Herbes, whose owner, Dany Lefebvre, is using more and more techniques to reduce his company's ecological footprint.

Lastly, Mr. Singh visited Soprema, a well-established company we are very proud of. Its North American headquarters is located in Drummond. Soprema's new building was built according to Aéronergie principles and is LEED certified. I can be proud of my region.

Canadians want initiatives like these. They want concrete measures to tackle climate change.

Not long ago, we had an emergency debate in the House of Commons to illustrate the importance of taking action. As shown in the IPCC report, we have the technology. We can be efficient. The only thing missing is the political will.

Where is this government's political will?

[Natural Resources, October 29th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, as I said, in the most recent IPCC report, thousands of scientists indicated that we need to do a lot more and be a lot more ambitious.

I would like to once again quote the Radio-Canada article, which reads:

Patrick Bonin, head of Greenpeace Quebec's climate and energy campaign, believes that [the Prime Minister] lied on Sunday's episode of Tout le monde en parle when he said that Canada will meet the greenhouse gas reduction target it set for 2030. Bonin also believes that the Prime Minister's arguments to justify government support for the oil industry are “practically worthy of a climate change denier”.

I would like to end by quoting Patrick Bonin. He said:

By saying that there needs to be a transition period and that this is going to take time, [the Prime Minister] is denying science. The decision to put off taking action is practically worthy of a climate change denier. This is urgent and scientists are sounding the alarm.

My question is therefore very simple. If this transition is so important, why did the Prime Minister not say that he would put a stop to energy east and never come back to it?