Joël Godin

[An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages, May 20th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, right now, the House is debating Bill C‑13. We are not debating procedure.

I do not need a lecture from the NDP—

[An Act for the Substantive Equality of Canada's Official Languages, May 20th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I like what my colleague, the Minister of Official Languages, is saying, but the government is not walking the talk.

In my opinion, Bill C-13 is very important because it establishes rules to ensure that, in 50 years, Canada will still be a bilingual country, where both French and English are spoken.

The minister is from New Brunswick, the only bilingual province in Canada, yet she is supporting her government as it argues against including a requirement in the act stating that the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick must be bilingual. I am having a hard time understanding the logic behind what she is saying.

Furthermore, the minister said that stakeholders were happy with what had been done with Bill C‑13. Indeed, it is a step forward, but when I met with the same stakeholders, they told me that it was not enough.

We do need to work on it, but in a democracy like the Canadian Parliament, all parliamentarians must be respected, be given the right to speak and be allowed to express themselves, because this is a very important bill for the future of bilingualism in Canada.

[Health, May 18th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the pandemic has had a tremendous negative impact. The cost of living is rising, businesses are having real supply chain issues and we are experiencing an unprecedented labour shortage. Another major problem is the huge rise in mental health issues.

This Liberal government must act now. Its 2022 budget is not enough. Will the Prime Minister commit to swiftly presenting a plan to protect our young people, among others, who have suffered a lot as a result of this crisis?

[Passport Canada, May 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell the minister that her solution is not working. This government lacks vision. It is always reacting.

It was to be expected that there would be an unprecedented demand for the renewal of Canadian passports because of the pandemic. My riding office is seeing many cases, lots of Julies, Carls and Marie-Annes. According to the Passport Canada site, people can expect to wait 20 days to get their passports.

Why is this government causing people pointless stress and making them wait? Why is it not honouring its own deadlines?

[Diffuse Brain Stem Glioma, May 17th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, five-year-old Florence Gagné has lost her battle with diffuse brain stem glioma. This cruel form of cancer primarily affects children between the ages of five and seven. It is inoperable and incurable.

This adorable and delightful princess touched the hearts of thousands of people in Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier and elsewhere. This cause became close to everyone's hearts. Her parents, Stéphanie and Sébastien, like many others, want to do something to help our young children heal.

They saw that resources were lacking and that the medical community could not do anything about it. We need to take action and find a way to get results.

I invite everyone to sign the new e-petition 4021 to declare May 17 as the national DIPG day of awareness across Canada. We must draw inspiration from this princess and work together to find treatments to save our little angels.

[Automotive Industry, May 11th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the government promised that by 2035, every car sold in Canada would be zero-emission.

RBC estimates that building the network of charging stations will require an annual investment of $25 billion. Officials have said in committee that the construction of this network has not even been costed yet.

Is the government choosing to stay in the dark or does it just not care that it is sending another bill to Canadians?

[Housing, May 9th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, this government seems to think that everything is going well.

Inflation has not been this high in 30 years, the deficit is huge, immigration is in a terrible state and every young Canadian's dream of owning property is shattered.

What is this government going to do so that our young people can believe in the future and own property? What is it going to do now, not in 10 years or five years?

[André Arthur, May 9th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, back when I was studying communications, I had the privilege of interviewing the king of radio, André Arthur, for a school assignment. He was very generous in answering my questions.

His popularity was impressive, and people had strong feelings about him. He portrayed himself as a defender of widows and orphans. Steeped in culture, he was a master of the French language and excelled at wordplay.

After criticizing politicians, he decided to try his own hand at the job and was elected as the member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier. For almost six years, he represented the people of the wonderful riding I currently represent. He left his mark on the world of communications with his outspokenness. One expression he enjoyed using and that I quite like as well was, “If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”.

I would like to extend my condolences to his children, René and Pascale; his three grandchildren; his partner, Lucy; his brother, Louis; and all his loved ones.

I thank André Arthur for serving, and may he rest in peace.

[An Act respecting the French language, May 9th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, today I am speaking to Bill C-238, an act respecting the French language, which was introduced by the member for Salaberry—Suroît. I thank her for her work on this important piece of legislation.

Bill C‑238 does several things. It amends the Canada Labour Code and certain provisions of the Official Languages Act and the Citizenship Act. It also makes a change to the Canada Business Corporations Act.

As I said in a recent speech in this place, the experts tell us that French is becoming increasingly precarious, even across government and this very government's ministerial offices. Action must be taken immediately and judiciously to achieve the desired effects. In deciding which legislative measures to adopt to protect French, we need to build on existing rights and official language modernization statutes and listen to what official language minority community leaders tell us.

As we know, recognizing official languages tops the list of our most fundamental rights in this country. According to subsection 16(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, “English and French are the official languages of Canada and have equality of status and equal rights and privileges as to their use in all institutions of the Parliament and government of Canada”. The charter guarantees that members of the public can communicate with and receive services from the federal government in the official language of their choice. There is no obligation to become bilingual under the charter.

We also need to bear in mind that Quebec has decided to modernize its own legislation to better protect the French language. We must salute the hard work of the members of the Quebec National Assembly who are about vote on and pass Bill 96, an act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec.

Bill C‑238 has been introduced in a context that has not occurred in Canada for decades. Right now, provincial and federal language laws are being reviewed from top to bottom, including in Canada's only bilingual province, New Brunswick.

As I was saying earlier, Bill C‑238 amends the Citizenship Act in order to ensure, among other things, that permanent residents who ordinarily reside in Quebec must have an adequate knowledge of French in order to obtain citizenship. I would remind the House that these changes to the Citizenship Act are the same as the ones proposed in another bill, Bill C‑223, which the Conservatives supported at second reading before the last election.

In addition to the citizenship aspect, Bill C‑238 also proposes amending the Canada Business Corporations Act so that “the name of a corporation that carries on business in the Province of Quebec shall meet the requirements of the Charter of the French Language”. This proposal needs to be analyzed in relation to what the Charter of the French Language already does in Quebec and especially in relation to the scope it will have once Bill 96 is passed.

Bill C‑238 also proposes amending the Canada Labour Code by adding a new provision just after section 4, which stipulates that “any federal work, undertaking or business operating in Quebec is subject to the requirements of the Charter of the French Language”.

If this amendment is applied, will it be consistent with the rest of the federal legislation, including the new Charter of the French Language? That is the question. It is clear to me that federally regulated businesses in Quebec should not aim for the lowest common denominator. We do not want more of what is happening with Air Canada, CN and so on.

Bill C-238 also proposes amendments to the Official Languages Act to add an undertaking that the Official Languages Act will not obstruct the Charter of the French Language. Is the term “obstruct” sufficiently clear and precise? We certainly must ask ourselves how the new version of the Official Languages Act, which could be passed in a few weeks, will work with the Charter of the French Language in Quebec.

I also note that the measures in section 43 must be implemented in a manner that is consistent with the objectives of the Charter of the French Language. How will the courts rule if this provision is adopted?

I agree with several of the underlying principles of this bill, in particular the vital importance of preserving the French language and stopping its decline. I believe that we all share legitimate and common concerns about making the Official Languages Act a modern, effective act that will achieve its objective of ensuring respect for French and English as the official languages of Canada.

Setting aside the objectives themselves, I believe it is important to point out that, as legislators, we must ascertain the optimal way of implementing these objectives to protect the French language and ensure respect for the official languages. I believe that it is important to keep in mind the progress of the work of the House. Bill C‑238 is being introduced while Bill C-13, which seeks to amend many provisions of the Official Languages Act, is in the process of being passed.

Before I vote on this bill that was introduced not long ago, I plan to carefully go through all of the underlying details regarding the proposed measures. There are a number of angles to consider and I encourage all of my colleagues to do the same. Nicolas Poussin, a 17th-century French painter, once said that anything worth doing is worth doing well. As legislators, we must determine the best way to achieve our objectives. To better protect the French language, we need the best bills and therefore the best possible amendments, all working together as one to create an effective body of law that addresses the problems.

After studying Bill C‑238, we will have to determine whether this bill provides all of the tools required to achieve the objectives that I described. I want my colleagues to have enough time to study this bill in depth. I will keep repeating that if we want our country's bilingualism to remain a unique and appealing feature, with English and French as our two official languages, we must act now to stop the decline of French. We must protect and promote French so that it can continue to develop.

[An Act respecting the French language, May 9th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I would like my colleague from Salaberry—Suroît to know that we, Conservatives, will not argue with the Bloc Québécois.

I, too, love the French language. Several elements of Bill C-238 lead me to believe in a future for French in Canada.

In my colleague’s opinion, is this the most effective way to stop the decline of French in Quebec and across Canada?