Joël Godin

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, November 29th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, according to signs posted at the industrial parks in Portneuf—Jacques‑Cartier, they are at capacity and are now hiring. Businesses are having to cut back on production, cancel orders or, at worst, close their doors.

One solution to the labour shortage is to hire foreign workers. A quick and simple solution would be to set up dedicated teams to clear the backlog and hire more staff in the department.

Will the minister commit to immediately reducing processing times to protect our businesses and enable them to participate in the economic recovery?

[Election of Speaker, November 22nd, 2021]

I am thankful for the opportunity to address my colleagues this afternoon.

I want to begin by congratulating all members of the House who were elected on September 20. You won, so congratulations.

To all the new members, I wish to offer my full co-operation and assure them that they can count on me to help them any way I can with their new duties.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier for electing me a third time. I thank them for the trust they have placed in me.

I would also like to point out, Mr. Chair and member for Bécancour—Nicolet—Saurel, that you are the longest continually serving member of this House with this twelfth consecutive term. This is noteworthy, and I must congratulate you on it.

I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the Speaker of the 43rd Parliament. He did an excellent job managing the pandemic, despite its unpredictable nature. He successfully met the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 health crisis.

We will soon be voting to choose the Speaker of the House. For our new colleagues, today will be their first vote. We must select someone we can trust to accompany us over the course of our mandate. It is important to choose someone who is committed every day to having our rights and parliamentary privileges respected as they should be, and someone who will let us do our work to improve the lives of all Canadian citizens.

Considering the experience we have gained in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, our institution must now ensure that it has the resources, and especially the technology, needed to adapt quickly. We must secure the resources needed to continue our work and maintain our effectiveness. We must ensure that our institution maintains good practices, while bearing in mind that there is always room for improvement.

We can and we should become better.

Deciding on the Speaker of the House of Commons must not be driven by our political affiliations. It must focus on the ability to plan, manage and develop a plan with a functional vision for Parliament.

Our Speaker needs to be someone who has a sense of fairness and respect and such qualities as the integrity and ability to be adaptable so as to interpret the rules in a way that respects the rights of all parliamentarians. He or she must protect current good practices and draw inspiration from what is done elsewhere in order to make them even better.

I believe I am the right person to fulfill this role.

I would like to become your Speaker here in the House of Commons. I do not do this on a whim. I have given this a lot of thought and have made my intentions known for several years.

As Speaker of the House of Commons, I will work with each of you to maintain the decorum of our institution.

I will lead by example by listening to the discussions in this chamber, and I will invite you to do the same to ensure that each member of this House can be heard.

I will take responsibility for making decisions based on the existing rules and will be inspired by jurisprudence while respecting the rights of each member.

As Speaker of the House of Commons, I will have a zero tolerance policy for any show of disrespect between colleagues, employees or any other person associated with this Parliament.

I would like to note that we must have the best technological tools to make our work more efficient and effective.

We must plan so we can be ready to face the next crisis. We must implement mechanisms that respect and protect our members of Parliament.

Finally, we must reinforce respect for our country's two official languages, English and French. That must start here in the House of Commons.

In closing, I would like to thank you in advance for your support.

I look forward to working with each and every one of you.

[Labour, June 22nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, as Parliament is about to rise, allow me to thank the Chair, all the staff of the House and all my colleagues. It has been impressive to see how adaptable and resilient we are.

This government must now find solutions so that our businesses can emerge from this crisis and share in the economic recovery. The labour shortage is alarming, and this government needs to stop making excuses and put tools in place, such as speeding up and relaxing immigration of workers. Businesses are the backbone of our economy; it would be a shame if they were hit by another crisis in the form of a labour shortage.

The inefficiency of this government can be seen in its inability to find solutions. We must value work, not encourage passivity. I am urging this government to give a boost to Canadian businesses, which are threatened with bankruptcy. We simply need to give them access to labour; it is not complicated. Let us not forget that our businesses are what create economic prosperity, not this ethically deficient, centralizing Liberal government. This government needs to act now.

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 15th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, in Portneuf—Jacques‑Cartier, many agri-food, construction, agriculture and landscaping businesses are reaching out to me because they are short of employees.

This Liberal government is blaming a lot on COVID‑19. The reality is that it has done nothing in the past six years about accessing foreign workers. Is it normal for certain applications to drag on for more than a year? It is unacceptable. The process urgently needs to be sped up to allow our businesses to stay above water and participate in the economic recovery. When will this government take action?

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, June 7th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, the end of the pandemic is in sight, and thousands of businesses want to participate in the economic recovery. Unfortunately, the Liberal government is unable to find solutions to help these men and women who want to save their businesses by hiring foreign workers.

Setting aside the statistics and the many months of waiting, can the government take measures to give these businesses quick access to labour and thus support hard-working individuals and business owners in Canada?

[High School Graduates in Portneuf, June 3rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, ever since 2016, it has been my pleasure to give high school graduates certificates to mark this important milestone in their lives.

This year, graduation ceremonies are being modified or cancelled, but we still need to recognize our young people's achievement. I am particularly pleased to be able to continue this initiative this year by signing 810 certificates that bear the following message:

Graduation is an important milestone. This year in particular, you have developed unique skills that will serve you for the rest of your lives. I want to congratulate you on your resilience, your adaptability and your perseverance. Follow your dreams. The future is yours.

These certificates will be handed out to graduates of all high schools in Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier: Dollard-des-Ormeaux School, École secondaire Louis-Jobin, École secondaire de Saint-Marc, École secondaire Mont-Saint-Sacrement, the Séminaire Saint-François, École secondaire de Donnacona and the Pavillon Laure-Gaudreault at École Des Pionniers.

I want to sincerely congratulate all of the graduates and wish them a good summer.

[Canadian Environment Week, June 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, this week is Canadian Environment Week, which seeks to encourage us to help protect our environment. That is a subject that my Conservative Party colleagues and I care a lot about. The health and safety of our planet are at stake. We are talking about what we will leave our children and future generations. This is my responsibility as a father.

I would have liked to be able to tell the House that a lot of progress has been made under this government, but unfortunately, the Liberals' broken promise to plant more than two billion trees and their failure to respond to the urgent need to act now to help our environment are just a few examples of this government's lack of commitment and incompetence. Even Greenpeace is criticizing this government.

Tomorrow is Clean Air Day in Canada. Let us work together to keep our air clean. We cannot celebrate the government's achievements this year, but next year's Canadian Environment Week will be an opportunity to see that, with a new Conservative government and its environmental plan, greenhouse gas emissions will have been reduced with the help—

[Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, May 31st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, many businesses need help getting foreign workers. Some have been waiting a very long time, since spring 2020. The answers they get are “it is because of COVID-19” or “we are taking care of critical files”. The pandemic has been going on for a year, but the problem has been around much longer than the health crisis.

Worse yet, Quebec has unreasonable delays compared to other provinces. Can the immigration minister tell us what he intends to do to resolve the issue quickly and respect our Quebec entrepreneurs?

[U18 World Championship, May 10th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday night, Canada won its first gold medal since 2013 at the under-18 world hockey championship in the United States, in Texas to be precise. I want to highlight the Canadian team's strong performance, as it did not lose any of the seven games it played throughout the tournament. This is a testament to both its strong offence and its seasoned defence.

This team included only one Quebecker, a young hockey player from Cap-Santé, a village in my riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier. I would like to congratulate Guillaume Richard on his outstanding contribution. This young defenceman's remarkable talent and potential were showcased throughout the tournament. Finishing the tournament with a plus-14, Guillaume was a defensive pillar for his team.

Guillaume is a role model for young athletes in our region and is doing a great job of representing Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier and Quebec as a whole on our national team. I hope he is as proud of himself as we all are. Congratulations, Guillaume.

[Public Services and Procurement, May 6th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, COVID-19 certainly is a convenient excuse for a lot of things. Did this government take advantage of the pandemic to hand out contracts and millions of dollars to its friends? Businesses in the Quebec region that have been operating for years and are accredited by Health Canada were ignored in the procurement of PPE.

Can this Liberal government, which was involved in the sponsorship scandal, assure us that this time patronage was not a factor when contracts were awarded during the pandemic?