House of Commons photo

Crucial Fact

  • His favourite word was quebec.

Last in Parliament March 2011, as Bloc MP for Saint-Maurice—Champlain (Québec)

Lost his last election, in 2011, with 29% of the vote.

Statements in the House

Option Canada May 29th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that the government also promised that there would be greater transparency.

In addition to the $11 million identified by Justice Grenier, we must remember that Chuck Guité admitted to reserving billboards, at a cost of $8 million, during the Quebec referendum campaign and that, according to information from the Canadian Unity Council, almost $25 million was spent by the federal government in 1995 to promote Canadian unity.

Does the Prime Minister's promise to clean house also apply to Canadian unity? If so, what is he waiting for to set up a commission of public inquiry?

Option Canada May 29th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, Option Canada and the Canadian Unity Council spent $11 million and not $5.2 million, as was believed, to support the federalist camp at the time of the Quebec referendum. Justice Grenier has reported that this small fortune came from one source: the federal Department of Canadian Heritage.

Does the involvement of the federal government, which spent at least twice as much as the limit imposed on the yes camp, not warrant that a commission of public inquiry get to the bottom of the matter?

Option Canada May 29th, 2007

Mr. Speaker—

Settlement of International Investment Disputes Act May 15th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Papineau on her excellent presentation. She mentioned moreover that numerous international treaties have been signed in recent years without Parliament being apprised of them. To my mind, when the member tells us about things as disturbing as these, we have before us a rather significant distortion of the democratic process. I hope that this bill will correct the situation.

I would like to know a little more about her opinion on the following situation. When the House cannot itself give its consent to the signing of an international treaty, it is actually the elected representatives who are being thwarted. I would like to know her opinion about this.

Settlement of International Investment Disputes Act May 15th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, earlier I heard the member for Mississauga South say that if Bill C-53 is passed, it will enable Canada to become a member of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID. He added that to become a member, all Canadian provinces and territories must commit.

What does he think the impact of becoming a member will be for Quebec and the other provinces?

Sales Tax Amendments Act, 2006 May 15th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, first I would like to congratulate my colleague for his excellent speech on Bill C-40.

At the very beginning of his address, he mentioned the tax relief for speech language pathology services in order to help our young people and seniors, for example.

He drew the quite obvious connection between increasing poverty in certain areas and the use of various services, especially social services, speech language pathology services, and certain other ones. He also said that Bill C-40 would correct certain deficiencies in these regards because the poorest people often cannot pay for these services. That is what I understood him to say, and I would appreciate it if he could explain a bit more for us. What would he think of exempting even more services or professions?

Sales Tax Amendments Act, 2006 May 14th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question, which will allow me to clarify.

I worked for 32 years in child psychiatry in the public sector. It is very difficult for public services to provide everything people need. Absurd situations are more and more commonplace. There is so much poverty in some areas that child psychiatrists find that many young people will present with psychological disorders connected with the level of poverty and social development in their environment. Many children suffer from problems related to the psychology and overall development of their personality.

These problems can be solved using speech-language pathology, psychoeducation, psychology and psychomotility services. But public services have difficulty responding fast enough to solve problems expeditiously. Sometimes young people are put on waiting lists for such problems. When a young person is on a waiting list, his or her parents will be tempted to turn to the private sector for services.

This is where the bill can really make a difference. It will remove the tax from services that some parents will want to provide for their children to help them in their development. When parents provide these services for their children and then have to pay tax on them, it is very discouraging for these people, who need support and encouragement. It is very hard when, on top of everything else, the government has a hand in their pockets.

So in response to my colleague's question, yes, we have to consider that other professions or other—

Sales Tax Amendments Act, 2006 May 14th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I am extremely pleased to present today the results of my consideration and analysis of Bill C-40, which I have studied closely.

This bill is divided into three parts. The first part aims to institute corrective steps to improve and specify certain measures having to do with the collection of the GST. The second part amends the act in order to zero-rate particular products and services. It then turns to the excise tax, laying out certain measures related to the taxation of wine, beer and spirits. The third part amends the rules on the air travellers security charge collected at various airports.

Let us take a closer look at each of these three parts. First of all, the measures concerning the GST and the HST, which applies in some provinces, are divided into five distinct categories. Also—and I find this quite interesting—this bill modifies rules that apply to health services, charities, business arrangements, governments and the process by which the GST is administered.

With respect to health, this bill amends the act to confirm—and this is very important to me—the exemption for speech-language pathology services. This important amendment confirms the tax-exempt status of these services and makes it easier for young people struggling with language difficulties to access them. As I said, this is a personal issue for me. I spent many years working in health care, specifically, in child psychiatry. I know that this measure will be very beneficial to children struggling with this difficulty and to their parents, because they are the ones who pay for therapy. Parents of children with such difficulties really appreciate this kind of tax relief. They need support, both financial and moral.

I am sure that this tax exemption will relieve parents who have to seek this kind of care of an enormous burden. During my years in child psychiatry, I saw countless parents struggle helplessly with the cost of these services. People were torn. Sometimes, they said they did not have enough money to ensure proper treatment for their children. I think that this bill will really lend a hand. This is an important part of this bill. It will give hope to these parents who need a lot of support as they try to provide their children with the services they need to develop normally. Now they will have the resources to ensure their children's optimal development. In addition to helping children, this measure will also help seniors access these services.

With the rising incidence of heart disease and stroke, many older people need speech-language pathology services. Often, older people have limited financial resources.

I think this measure will help children struggling with language difficulties, their parents, and various seniors who have unfortunately had accidents and need these services.

The bill also exempts health-related services rendered in the practise of the profession of social work. Earlier I heard one of my colleagues ask whether we should extend this to other professions, in particular psychologists, and potentially remedial teachers. It should really be considered, because these kinds of services most often target people with severe difficulties, and the government could provide additional assistance to these people.

Such measures are important because, among other things, they facilitate access to private social work services. So the people who really need it have quick access to these services without constantly wondering if they can really afford them. This measure in the new bill is very important.

We know that when the legislation takes effect, the government will be able remove taxes from sales and imports of a product that can, in some instances, replace blood, a very important alternative for saving the live of a seriously injured patient.

This bill will also restore the zero-rated status of a group of drugs, with very scientific names, known as benzodiazepines. This is extremely important because they are medicinal derivatives used by individuals suffering from anxiety. We are talking about such drugs as Valium, Ativan and others that relieve the anxiety of those suffering from more or less serious mental illnesses. They are also used to help with drug or alcohol withdrawal. This measure will once again relieve the financial burden for those individuals who require these types of medications. Quite often, the individuals who need these services or medications find themselves in more difficult circumstances. Therefore, we must support any measure that can help reduce expenses for these individuals and that also seeks to improve access to better and more significant health care. That is what we are going to do.

Finally, still in the health care sector, the bill will provide for the reimbursement of the GST for those who use specially equipped motor vehicles. I am thinking mainly of those with severe physical handicaps. When these individuals resell or have to adapt their vehicles, they need the government's help, once again, to make it easier to access services and, at the same time, improve their quality of life. Their everyday life changes considerably when governments provide more readily accessible financial assistance.

Charities will be affected by different measures in this bill. One amendment exempting supplies by charities of real property under short-term leases and licences will be extended to any goods supplied with such property. Hence, the range of services provided by charities is expanded without the rate of taxation necessarily being too high.

This measure represents savings for such organizations, which can improve their service to a clientele that, once again, often consists of the most disadvantaged in our society. This gives them some room to manoeuvre, which is quite often required to maintain their activities. They need government support and that is provided by this bill.

As far as business arrangements are concerned, the bill amends the GST Act. It provides transitional relief on the initial asset transfer by a foreign bank that restructures its Canadian subsidiary into a Canadian branch. This measure will act as an incentive to foreign banks in Canada to restructure their subsidiaries as Canadian branches, which will promote more competition in the Canadian banking sector.

The bill also removes technical impediments that hinder the use of existing group relief provisions under the GST/HST. This amendment simply clarifies the rules for the application of legislation already in effect.

In addition, the bill simplifies compliance by excluding beverage container deposits that are refundable to the consumer from the GST/HST base. This will make it easier for businesses to manage collection and will lighten the regulatory burden associated with deposits, with a view to promoting more recycling and environmental protection. The importance of it all becomes more obvious to me in the light of all the debates that are held on the various measures dealing with the protection of the environment here in the House and elsewhere. I think we should support any measure that can help save the planet. This might not be an impressive measure, but it is by making small adjustments that we will succeed and achieve results.

The fourth category applies to the government. If the bill is passed, it will exempt a supply of a right to file or retrieve a document or information stored in an electronic official registry. This provision will allow municipalities and other government agencies to provide information to individuals at a lesser cost than before. With such a measure, the individual comes out a winner since access to information will be easier.

The bill also ensures that a small supplier division of a municipality is treated in the same manner as a municipality that is a small supplier. Thus, fair treatment will be respected.

Finally, it is important to note that this is a significant change that must be taken into account in the application of the legislation. The bill adds a discretionary power—which is interesting— for the Minister of National Revenue to accept late-filed applications for the GST New Housing Rebate and the Nova Scotia HST New Housing Rebate for owner-built homes, where exceptional circumstances have prevented the applicant from meeting the normal filing deadline.

These are measures that support the ordinary citizen, who is often overwhelmed by all the paperwork involved in applying for an exemption or a rebate. Sometimes people are denied their right because they did not manage to fill out the entire form on time. In that situation, we are helping them in a very tangible way.

The bill adds a discretionary power for the Minister of National Revenue to accept late-filed elections between closely related financial institutions for adjustments that they are required to make for the provincial component of the GST and the provincial sales tax.

As far as exchanging information is concerned, it permits the Minister of National Revenue to exchange GST and QST information in Quebec with foreign governments that are signatories to the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. The government will thereby be in a better position to deal with tax evasion. How much money is lost through the entire tax evasion scheme? How many people do not pay taxes when they should? If, through measures that will allow for a better exchange of information, we can limit tax evasion, that is a major bonus for the government.

Finally, the bill gives the Chief Statistician of Canada the discretionary power to provide statistical information concerning business activities to the provinces, similar to an existing provision in the Income Tax Act. This new power will give the provinces better access to income statistics, which will allow them to better focus their public policies.

I would now like to discuss some of the measures that propose an amendment to the excise tax. These measures deal with tobacco and seek to give greater precision to certain provisions contained in the Excise Tax Act in order to better defend against the smuggling of tobacco products and facilitate collection of taxes on tobacco. The bill includes measures to extend the requirement to identify the origin of tobacco products to all products, including those sold at duty-free shops or for export.

It clarifies that cigarettes, tobacco sticks, fine-cut tobacco or cigars, but not packaged raw leaf tobacco, may be supplied to the export market or the domestic duty-free market.

As for alcohol, the bill has two main objectives. First, it allows provincial liquor boards and vintners to possess an equipment similar to a still for the purpose of analyzing substances containing ethyl alcohol without having to hold a spirits licence. I believe that, for the security of citizens, vintners must be better able to ensure the safety of their operations and products.

This measure will help liquor boards, especially in Quebec, and vintners reduce the huge paper burden as well as major costs for these licences. Moreover, to promote the growth of the wine industry, the government, by passing this bill, will allow for the deferring of the payment of duty by small vintners selling wine on consignment in retail stores operated by an association of vintners.

There are also measures to help vintners. My colleague talked about Quebec wine producers earlier. In 2006, there were 42 vineyards in many regions of Quebec, including Lanaudière, the Eastern Townships, Montérégie and the Lower Laurentians. Every year, over 100 hectares of vines are cultivated in Quebec, and the sector has experienced steady growth over the past few years. This measure will help wine producers and will diversify and increase wine production in Quebec. The main products are excellent: white wine, ice wine and fortified wine. This measure will promote the development of this industry, improve marketing of products made in Quebec and support the province's agro-tourism opportunities, which are becoming more and more popular. I am thinking of Quebec's Wine Route and its network of small producers who will appreciate this support for the development of their industry.

The third and final part of the bill includes previously announced relief provisions with respect to the air travellers security charge. It also addresses the Air Travellers Security Charge Act. Basically, the bill relieves, in particular circumstances, the air travellers security charge in respect of air travel sold by resellers or donated by air carriers.

The bill provides authority for the Governor in Council to add, delete or vary by regulation the schedule of listed airports. For example, the bill will immediately change the status of three Quebec airports to ensure that standards are appropriate for the market and market demands.

The bill removes La Grande-3 and La Grande-4 from the list of airports subject to the surcharge under the Air Travellers Security Charge Act. This measure reflects the special nature of these airports where security is not as big an issue as it is in larger airports that have different goals. This corrects a situation that these airports found challenging.

However, the amazing increase in air traffic at the Mont-Tremblant airport, which is somewhat the opposite, has meant that the minister has decided to include it in the list of airports now subject to the air travellers security charge. This is a good thing because there is a lot of international traffic at this airport.

Consequently, it is clear that all these measures, changes and improvements mean that Bill C-40 is evidently in the best interest of Quebeckers. We are convinced that the people as a whole will support us. The Bloc Quebecois will then vote in favour of this bill.

I would like to end by saying that Bill C-40 is designed to correct the technical shortcomings I mentioned earlier pertaining to the GST and the excise tax. The tax would be removed from certain medical services so as to facilitate access to them and lighten the tax burden for charitable organizations. The bill contains measures that will benefit small wine producers. It tightens the rules governing the production and sale of tobacco products in order to fight smuggling and it adapts the air travellers security charge to the present situation in Quebec.

The Bloc Quebecois is in favour of this bill and will support it.

Petitions May 10th, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I would like to table in this House a petition with around 200 names. This is in addition to the petition signed by about 1,000 people from my riding Saint-Maurice—Champlain.

This petition once again criticizes the cancellation of the summer career placement program. More than 1,200 of my constituents denounce this cancellation.

Once again, it is unfortunate that the Conservative government is refusing to reinstate this program. These petitions show that the public is very disappointed.

Criminal Code May 3rd, 2007

Mr. Speaker, I listened carefully to the excellent speech by my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé regarding Bill C-10.

I was struck in particular by certain points that he made earlier. First, the Conservative government failed to consult statistics compiled since 1992 that show that the crime rate is declining. In addition, the member referred to a study published in 1997 that argues that mandatory prison sentences have no effect on the crime rate.

Does the member not feel that this bill is driven strictly by ideology? That is definitely how it comes across. We do not have the impression that the bill is based on an analysis supported by solid arguments and facts. I find the government's position very ambiguous. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on this.