Jean-François Fortin

[Firearms Registry, December 7th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers know that the gun registry saves lives. Community organizations and police forces want to keep it.

Yesterday, the Quebec government formally reiterated its commitment to introducing a bill to create a Quebec registry. All it needs is the data that the federal government is obstinately refusing to hand over.

Out of stubbornness, the Conservatives would rather wage an ideological and costly legal crusade than co-operate with a government that understands the importance of gun control.

What will convince the minister to put an end to this legal battle and simply hand over the data to the Government of Quebec?

[Violence Against Women, December 6th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege for me to rise in this House to commemorate the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. On December 6, 2012, 23 years to the day after the massacre at the École Polytechnique, we would be remiss if we did not remember the 14 students who were killed solely because they were women. It is a day that gives all of us an opportunity to speak out loud and clear against all forms of violence against women.

December 6 also gives us an opportunity to measure how far we have come since then, and to consider what remains to be done. The year 2012 is particularly significant because it was the year during which the firearms registry was scrapped for ideological reasons and the year during which there was a legal battle to deprive Quebec of the information it had requested.

The Bloc Québécois will never refer to measures that contribute to the safety of women, that prevent tragedies and that save lives as a failure. The Bloc Québécois will never stop opposing violence against women.

[Foreign Affairs, December 5th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, Ottawa's response to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nothing short of immoral. All of the key players, even Israel's allies, have condemned the resumption of settlement activity, but Canada has not said a thing.

What will spur the government to adopt a more balanced position like the one adopted unanimously by the National Assembly yesterday, which urges the Canadian government to acknowledge the UN vote and maintain its financial aid to Palestine?

When will Ottawa support a negotiated settlement that honours both Israel's right to live in peace and the Palestinians' right to create their own state?

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, December 4th, 2012]

moved:

Motion No. 582

That Bill C-45, in Clause 437, be amended by deleting lines 25 to 34 on page 341.

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, December 4th, 2012]

moved:

Motion No. 386

That Bill C-45 be amended by deleting Clause 307.

[Fisheries and Oceans, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the hon. parliamentary secretary's answer. He provided some interesting details that were not made available before, but there are also some facts to be faced.

I am neither an expert in documentation nor a scientist, but this week, more than 40 professionals from the literary community, librarians and library technicians, were up in arms over the decision. I trust these people who took the trouble to say that the time had come to take a stand.

Being able to consult articles online is a good thing and we have nothing against modernization or information technology. However, consulting articles online is one thing, but consulting monographs and more than 61,000 works is quite another. There is a problem. That is why I sent a letter directly to the Prime Minister this week. That letter is from the librarians asking him to intervene directly because it is clear that Fisheries and Oceans is out of control.

[Fisheries and Oceans, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, on November 27, I spoke in the House during question period to ask the government about the planned closing of the library at the Maurice Lamontagne marine research institute, which is located in my riding, in the Lower St. Lawrence.

This reference library is the only Fisheries and Oceans Canada documentation centre in Quebec, and the only one to provide service in French. According to information obtained from the Commissioner of Official Languages, the two libraries that will remain, one in the Maritimes and the other in British Columbia, will have only unilingual English-speaking employees. It is therefore unrealistic for the time being for the government to say, as it has been doing, that service in French will be available to users. I have moreover filed a formal complaint under the Official Languages Act.

The Maurice Lamontagne Institute library houses 61,000 reference works. The government is saying that most of these works will be digitized and made accessible. However, the Copyright Act prohibits digitization of most of the works in the collection. It is therefore impossible to do so, from both a practical and a technical standpoint. Not only that, but the government cut funds available for digitization in its last budget. To give but one example, over 50% of digitization funds are being cut at Library and Archives Canada.

Government representatives are also saying that the documents that cannot be digitized will be moved to the remaining libraries. In practical terms, in view of the cuts that have been announced and the budget restrictions at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, adding thousands of new documents to the collections at the surviving libraries will take years. In the meantime, the scientific works will be unavailable and packed away in boxes, along with the information they contain.

Science is quite literally being shelved. Following the incident of the Quebec artifacts last spring, when the government tried to put our heritage in storage, it now wants to put our knowledge in storage. Are we entering a new dark age? I am very much afraid that this may be the case.

Government representatives have been saying that this is all part of a modernization process and that digitizing documents is a good thing. If the government is that keen on this modernization process, I would suggest that it retain the Maurice Lamontagne Institute library staff and that it give the library a broader mandate and the funds needed to gradually digitize the documents that are free of copyright restrictions, thereby meeting its stated objective while allowing full access throughout the process to documents that are useful to the scientific community, and thus preserving the department’s only French-language library.

I still find it impossible to understand why the government decided to keep only two of the libraries, neither of which operates in French. It is insulting, and the government should put things right. Not only that, but why send documents concerning regional issues to another province, when they are primarily useful to researchers working in Quebec?

When the government representative said in her reply to my November 27 question that the government is eliminating waste and duplication in its activities, did she mean that maintaining access to knowledge and making 61,000 scientific documents available is wasteful?

I would now like to add that the Quebec minister responsible for Canadian intergovernmental affairs, Alexandre Cloutier is joining me today in condemning the closure of the Maurice Lamontagne Institute library and officially requesting that the government go back on its decision. His action is part of a collective movement that is growing in Quebec and which will, I hope, make it possible to reverse the decision.

I will therefore repeat my question. Will the government abandon its plan to close the only francophone library at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, or is it going to deprive Quebec scientists of high-quality resources?

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate my Bloc Québécois colleague, the industry critic, for his thoughtful remarks in the House about the Conservatives' vision as expressed in this omnibus bill.

I would like to focus on the Conservatives' cuts to science and technology. They are planning to close the Maurice Lamontagne Institute's library, which, as I mentioned earlier, has two employees—librarians—and promotes French-language science culture. It is Fisheries and Oceans Canada's only French library. The Conservatives decided to transfer the books elsewhere and put them in storage. The books will no longer be accessible because they cannot be digitized because of the Copyright Act.

What is the Conservatives' vision for scientific progress? I would like my colleague to comment on that. What is his understanding of the Conservatives' proposed vision?

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Saint Boniface for the question.

Yes, tax loopholes need to be closed. It is important that Canada, through its Parliament, bring in increased controls and regulations to ensure that people pay their taxes.

In that regard, the Conservatives are not going far enough and sometimes talk out of both sides of their mouths. For instance, they recently concluded a free trade agreement with Panama, which opens the door to certain tax loopholes.

[Jobs and Growth Act, 2012, November 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Honoré-Mercier for giving me the opportunity to speak again, clarify a few things and answer her question regarding the Conservatives' cuts to tax credits.

When tax credits are decreased, they become less attractive, and that goes for my region as well as the rest of Quebec. This is especially true in Montreal, where high-tech companies are trying to figure out how to succeed in this still fragile economy. The Conservatives are saying that everything is fine, yet we know that these are still tough economic times. And since times are still tough across Quebec, it is dangerous—as I said in my speech—to reduce a tax credit that is very popular and that helps businesses to develop. As these businesses grow, they employ more people. Regardless of the region, this increased economic activity will create secondary jobs, including jobs for subcontractors for instance, and economic benefits for all businesses.

As I said earlier, I urge the government to reassess the situation and maintain the current rate for tax credits in order to avoid harmful consequences across Quebec.