Jean-François Fortin

[Health, June 4th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, with support from the Government of Quebec and the mayor of Montreal, the public health authority just submitted an exemption application to Health Canada in order to set up supervised injection sites in the city. This will help addicts, reduce the number of people who inject drugs on the street and reduce the number of syringes that are left in parks where children play. The only thing the project needs now is approval from Health Canada.

Can the Minister of Health guarantee that her government will not derail the project, as it tried to do in the case of InSite in Vancouver?

[Petitions, June 4th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, today I have the honour to present to the House a petition signed by 23,485 people as part of the Tous amis de Radio-Canada campaign. They are reiterating how important it is for their public broadcaster to have stable, multi-year funding and to be able to deliver on its mandate effectively in all parts of Quebec and Canada.

By signing this petition, these people are reiterating their desire for their government and their parliamentarians to support a massive campaign that would give CBC/Radio-Canada all of the tools it needs to deliver quality information completely democratically.

[Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, June 3rd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I was astounded by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's report on residential schools. That dark time in history during which entire generations of aboriginal children were uprooted from their families and communities is a gaping wound in our relationship with aboriginal peoples.

Now that the report has put a fine point on what happened, clearly stating that it was cultural genocide, we have a duty to fundamentally alter our relationship with aboriginal peoples to help heal the wound.

Let us put an end to the federal government's paternalistic attitude. Let us put an end to its condescension toward first nations, Inuit and Métis people. Let us get rid of the Indian Act, an archaic law that upholds a regime that inspired others to create apartheid.

Let us give aboriginal peoples the tools they need to keep their languages and cultures alive and ensure the economic, social and environmental development of their communities. That is the least we can do.

[Official Languages, May 26th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, as a plaintiff, I obtained a copy of the official languages commissioner's preliminary report on the National Energy Board's refusal to translate the documents on the energy east pipeline into French.

Oddly enough, the commissioner indicates that the Official Languages Act does not apply and that the documents submitted by TransCanada are not considered public communications, even though francophones have no other way of knowing where and how the pipeline will be built.

I have no doubt that the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages would think it was unacceptable if a company that was working on a pipeline project in Alberta published its documents only in French. The law needs to be changed. Will she do that?

[Public Works and Government Services, May 4th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, it will be five years next month since the federal government launched its shipbuilding procurement strategy. It has been five years and not a single ship has been built. In fact, the only thing progressing is the number of cost overruns and missed deadlines. Since some of these ships, including the icebreakers, urgently need to be replaced, why does Ottawa not fix the situation, stop turning up its nose at Quebec's shipyards and give them a share of the contracts to speed up the production of ships?

[Forestry Industry, May 4th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, private forests are facing a serious crisis. Over 200 jobs in forest management will be lost in eastern Quebec because the forestry job creation program has been eliminated. The situation is truly disastrous for the small communities that depend on forestry.

The Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec has already received an appeal from the Fédération des producteurs forestiers du Québec. That organization wrote a letter dated March 13, condemning the federal government's decision to no longer fund this key sector. They are asking for a mere $10 million over two years to help Quebec's private forest producers and all the affected local communities.

Will the minister listen to them?

[Employment, April 30th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Employment should look outside and see that summer is just around the corner. It is a crucial time for many businesses that will need many workers, including temporary foreign workers, to operate.

This morning, Quebec minister Kathleen Weil criticized Ottawa's refusal to understand Quebec's needs and to modify the current criteria of the temporary foreign worker program, which will penalize many employers and sectors of activity.

Does the minister realize that his refusal to fix the program will hurt the economy and inevitably the workers he claims he is protecting?

[Eastern Quebec Port Facilities, April 28th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, the government issued a simple press release last Friday evening to announce that it was going to divest itself of 25 ports in eastern Quebec. In most cases, this is fundamental infrastructure that is at the heart of the communities' history and economic activity.

The mayors in my region, who lament the fact that the federal government announced this under the radar, are concerned that they do not have all the details they need to properly prepare themselves. They are wondering how the municipalities are going to cover these expenses, when even the federal government is saying that it does not have the means to do so. The threat of privatization or the complete abandonment of these port facilities is also hanging over their heads.

What the mayors are asking for is simple: the government must upgrade these ports and provide the communities the financial support they need to be able to acquire and operate the facilities instead of making them foot the bill for infrastructure that has been neglected by the federal government.

[Natural Resources, April 27th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, when Ottawa claims that the National Energy Board, which is reviewing the energy east pipeline, is a neutral agency, we have our doubts. The board refuses to get documents translated into French, and its lawyer declared before the courts that: “Pipeline projects are generally advantageous for Canadians and energy east is no exception.”

People are already concerned about what might happen with the pipeline. Now they have to be wary of the board's bias in assessing the project.

Will the government put an end to this sham and amend the legislation in order to prevent the board from becoming the oil companies' puppet?

[Agreement on Land, Rail, Marine and Air Transport Preclearance, April 22nd, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, today, in honour of Earth Day, I am seeking unanimous consent to move the following motion.

That, in the opinion of the House, the government should take the necessary steps to integrate into the calculation of GDP a natural capital accounting system, as recommended by the World Bank's WAVES project:

by recognizing that Canada's natural resources, such as forests, water, earth, air, minerals and other energy sources, are vital to the economy and recognizing the delicate relationship between economic progress, the health of the environment and the well-being of the population;

by recognizing that GDP is not an appropriate indicator for responsible decision-making;

by re-evaluating how the common well-being and the progress of Canada's economy are measured;

and finally, by committing to examine the implementation of a natural capital accounting system in Canada and look into the possibility of integrating such a system into the calculation of GDP to encourage true growth of the green economy and long-term progress in terms of prosperity and common well-being.