Jean-François Fortin

[Rail Transportation, September 23rd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, in its August 19 report, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, the TSB, concluded that it is the role of government to implement a balanced audit system to oversee companies that ship hazardous materials. The industry is booming. Trains are carrying, among other things, more and more crude oil in eastern Quebec. People and municipalities have concerns and want the government to protect them.

Since the release of the TSB report, has the Minister of Transport changed her approach in order to oversee the safety management systems of railway companies?

[Fisheries and Oceans, September 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the Maurice Lamontagne Institute library, Fisheries and Oceans Canada's only French-language library, is still in limbo because of the federal government. The books are all in boxes rather than on the shelves. Information is not being shared as effectively as it could be.

Six months ago, the Commissioner of Official Languages gave the minister a short nine-page report for analysis, asking that the library remain open. The minister wanted to read the report, but at the rate she is going, it must take her 20 years to read a novel.

The minister wanted to conduct an in-depth analysis. Will she make an actual decision and allow the Maurice Lamontagne Institute library to remain open? It is important for the region.

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 13th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, on one hand, we have the Liberal and NDP leaders who are hiding under the robes of the Supreme Court justices to avoid having to acknowledge the merits of the Quebec bill that allows those who are suffering and close to death to die with dignity.

On the other hand, we have the Minister of Justice, who is fearmongering and threatening criminal action against Quebec doctors who obey Quebec law.

Quebec does not care about the minister's threats. It clearly stated that Quebec prosecutors would not prosecute doctors who obey Quebec law, which falls under health care.

Will the Minister of Justice stop using scare tactics and misleading Quebec doctors and Quebeckers who are terminally ill?

[Presence in Gallery, June 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I seek the unanimous consent of the House to move the following motion: Given the National Assembly of Quebec's passage of Bill 52, the end-of-life care act, that this House reaffirm Quebec's exclusive right to legislate on health matters, including end-of-life care.

[Transport, June 11th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Conservatives said that federal penitentiaries have the tools to prevent helicopter-assisted escapes. That is true. What they did not say is that Quebec prisons do not have the same tools. That is entirely the Conservatives' fault.

I have a letter dated October 24, 2013, in which the Quebec minister asks Ottawa to regulate airspace over Quebec prisons. Because the government ignored Quebec's request, three dangerous criminals escaped from prison and are now on the run.

How could the Minister of Transport ignore the letter from the Government of Quebec and its request?

[Employment Insurance, June 9th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the workers at the Eastern Quebec Seafoods plant deserve better than platitudes from the minister. They deserve that the government stop treating them with disdain. They have already had to defend themselves once against Service Canada's unreasonable demands, and they won their case before the Employment Insurance Board of Referees. They then had to defend themselves a second time on the same matter, and they just won their case before the Social Security Tribunal.

How many more times will the honest workers of Matane have to defend themselves against Service Canada's bad faith before the minister takes real action and stops Service Canada from harassing them?

[Employment Insurance, June 9th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, for more than a year Service Canada has been picking on the workers at the Eastern Quebec Seafoods plant in Matane.

After abruptly ending an agreement that had been in effect since 1996, a known and approved agreement, Ottawa is now treating these employees like fraudsters and has asked them to repay thousands of dollars in legitimate benefits. In a display of extreme obstinacy, the Employment Insurance Commission wants to appeal the decision of the Social Security Tribunal, which just ruled in favour of the workers.

What is the government waiting for to intervene and ensure that this harassment of workers who have acted in good faith stops once and for all?

[Champlain Bridge, June 6th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, following the election in Quebec, senior Conservatives said that they were eager to work with the new government on major files.

I would like to draw their attention to a new development in a major file. The Quebec National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion confirming the strong regional consensus against a toll on the new Champlain Bridge and specifically calling on the federal government to refrain from imposing a toll. This just happened. Quebec's position could not be more clear.

Was the message about working together heard? Will the Conservatives support the amendments that the Bloc Québécois is going to propose on Monday and remove the clause in the mammoth bill that seeks to impose a toll on the new Champlain Bridge?

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is all well and good to have a new government in Quebec that just tabled a new budget, but the fact remains that Ottawa's unilateral decisions have major repercussions for Quebec's finances. In the section of the budget on transfers, Quebec's new government demonstrates in black and white that, effective this year, the federal government will deprive Quebeckers of more than $1.5 billion. That is just the start. We are in the midst of a full-blown fiscal imbalance.

Does the Minister of Finance, who just a few weeks ago said he was concerned about the state of Quebec's finances, understand that the federal government's unilateral decisions are jeopardizing Quebec's finances?

[Intergovernmental Relations, June 5th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, it is all well and good to have a new government—