Jean-François Fortin

[Sports, June 2nd, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, in response to my questions about Athletics Canada's unexplained and incomprehensible decision to hastily back out of the Coupe-Québec des nations 2014, the Minister of Heritage displayed her complete ignorance.

The only thing we learned from the feeble platitudes she delivered is that the Minister of State for Sport is very involved in this matter. That is exactly what we are worried about.

I would like to ask my question again, this time to the Minister of State for Sport. Did his involvement include strong-arming Athletics Canada into dropping the Coupe-Québec des nations 2014 and depriving Quebec athletes of the opportunity to compete as equals with athletes from another nation?

[Sport, May 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think the minister really understands what event we are talking about today.

She did not provide any explanation whatsoever for Athletics Canada's dramatic change in position. One day, the organization was saying that Coupe-Québec des nations 2014 was a wonderful event and that it was committed to promoting it, and then a few weeks later, the organization suddenly tried to derail the event by abruptly withdrawing its support and even pushing the Quebec team not to participate.

Is this, by chance, because the Minister of State for Sport intervened and told Athletics Canada to withdraw its support for Coupe-Québec des nations 2014?

[Sport, May 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the 2014 edition of the Coupe-Québec des nations will take place in Montreal in September.

This event will provide a unique opportunity to showcase the sport of track and field and send Canadian athletes to compete against other countries that have already registered for the competition. Athletics Canada, which said that it fully supported the event, has just backed out. Even worse, without any explanation, the organization is now pushing for the Quebec team to withdraw from the competition as well.

Will the Minister of State for Sport intervene and ask Athletics Canada to keep its commitment to promote and participate in Coupe-Québec des nations 2014?

[Public Works and Government Services, May 30th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, when the federal government awarded the largest shipbuilding contract in its history and abandoned the Davie Shipyard in Quebec, it boasted about how rigorous the process was. It was heralded by the NDP as a big day for Canada.

Now we see the results: the Vancouver shipyard cannot do the work, while the icebreaker promised will cost $1.3 billion—two times higher than projected—and will be eight years late. There is an alternative: the Davie shipyard sent a proposal to the federal government to build an icebreaker at the agreed-upon price and deadline.

Why did the government reject the Davie shipyard's proposal?

[Points of Order, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, today marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, which went down in the St. Lawrence River, off Sainte-Luce-sur-Mer, which is in my riding.

Mr. Speaker, I believe you will find unanimous consent from all parties to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of this tragedy that claimed 1,012 lives, including those of 134 children.

[Wreck of the Empress of Ireland, May 29th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, the big ship had left Pointe-au-Père and had just begun its long journey to Liverpool, England.

The passengers were ordinary people. Of the 1,057 passengers on board, 717 were travelling in third class. There were also 420 crew members.

Fog rose off the St. Lawrence in the middle of the night. There were two large ships: an ocean liner, the Empress of Ireland and a coal ship, the Storstad.

In fog so think you could cut it with a knife, the two ships did all they could to try to avoid a collision, but they finally collided off the coast of Sainte-Luce.

The Storstad rammed into the Empress of Ireland's side. The captain of the coal ship reversed the engines to prevent the worst, but this manoeuvre had the opposite effect. As the Storstad reversed, water quickly poured into the breach.

The Empress of Ireland tipped onto its starboard side and sunk within 14 minutes.

One hundred years ago today, off the coast of Sainte-Luce, 1,102 people lost their lives when the Empress of Ireland sank.

Today, it is with great emotion that we remember the victims of this shipwreck, as well as all those who helped and welcomed the survivors.

[Bloc Québécois Convention, May 28th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, over three days last weekend, some 500 delegates from across Quebec met in the beautiful town of Rimouski, making this Bloc Québécois convention the biggest gathering of its kind in Quebec in 2014.

The delegates demonstrated how important Quebec's regions are to the Bloc Québécois and how much the party values their development and enhancement. Men and women of all ages worked hard to define the 20 basic principles that will guide the Bloc Québécois through to the 2015 election.

Unlike the other parties in the House, the Bloc Québécois reaffirmed that it will never sacrifice Quebec's interests in the hopes of catering to the other Canadian provinces. The delegates were able to attend an important debate between the two leadership candidates, and they used the event as an opportunity to put a spotlight on issues that are of concern to them.

They are calling for a reversal of the decision to eliminate door-to-door mail delivery and demanding that no oil or gas transportation or development projects be approved at the expense of the environment or community safety.

They are saying that the Quebec consensus must be vigorously defended.

We will do it.

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 26th, 2014]

With regard to page 255 of the English version of the Economic Action Plan 2014: what are the specific items and costs totalling $3.1 billion in deferred spending under the National Defence Capital Funding?

[Business of Supply, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, my question for the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister is very simple.

In recent years, funding for the CBC has decreased and the corporation has had to make internal cutbacks. As a result, it has had to make changes to programming and has eliminated jobs in key sectors, such as the news sector. The impact is very real.

The Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada and many other civil society organizations are calling for a special parliamentary committee to look at the role of the CBC, in order to determine its mandate, programming and funding. The committee could reach some conclusions that all parliamentarians could debate, and it could hear from witnesses and use that insight to decide what kind of stable, consistent funding the CBC should receive in relation to its mandate.

[Government Decisions, May 15th, 2014]

Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers are fed up with the Conservatives' schemes to sneak their legislative agenda through the back door and by preventing debate.

The outgoing president of the Barreau du Québec strongly condemns the repeated abuse of mammoth bills aimed at curtailing democratic debate. She is also concerned about the reasons for reforms, including to employment insurance, deliberately buried among other measures that are hard on the most vulnerable Canadians.

When will the government stop using such opaque, partisan and abusive methods to adopt legislation that has this kind of impact on Canadians?