Joël Godin

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 6th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, we are in the midst of a crisis and we need to respond quickly. To do that, we need real answers.

Even if some people are saying it had no impact, at that time, we were the first country in the G20 to get our heads above water. Now, I do not understand what my colleague is saying because, when we left office and the Liberals took power, we left them a country with no deficit. There were debt arrears, but we balanced the budget in 2015. Why is she saying that there were no long-term benefits?

It is very difficult to turn an economy around. When the Minister of Canadian Heritage came out of the cabinet retreat just before the House resumed sitting, I was concerned to hear him say that it would take another three or four months before the Liberals had an economic recovery plan but that he was not going to lose any sleep over it. That is the issue, right there.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 6th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, before I answer my colleague, the term I was looking for was “address to the nation”, and it was my colleague from Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup who helped me think of it.

Yes, I did read through the Speech from the Throne, and yes, I did watch the address to the nation. My Liberal colleague says that his government collaborated with the provinces and territories. Please excuse me, but I will ask him the question: Did he read the Speech from the Throne? Does collaboration mean interfering in provincial and territorial jurisdictions, talking about a pharmacare program, professional training and a day care program?

Furthermore, in his address to the nation and throne speech, the Prime Minister provoked the provinces by saying that things must change and that he would put things in place to protect seniors in long-term care. What has he done since then? We are in a crisis right now.

That is my answer to my esteemed colleague.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 6th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to be back in the House.

Once again, this is proof that what we said in the spring is feasible. It is realistic to sit in a Parliament that is adapted to COVID-19 conditions. Of course, we need to follow public health guidelines. Once again, the Conservatives were right.

In my riding, much like in Canada's 337 other ridings, things got turned upside down. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier for their solidarity and resilience. Canada responded to this unique, special situation with an outpouring of mutual support. We are writing the manual as we go. As the Premier of Quebec so aptly put it, we are building the plane in flight.

The second session of the 43rd Parliament will be nothing like other sessions. We are in a crisis, and it is important to say that. On March 13, Parliament was prorogued. I think it was to be expected. We have adapted. Faced with the unknown, we reacted. In my opinion, some good things were done.

Parliament reopened two weeks ago. However, the Prime Minister of Canada had decided to prorogue Parliament when Canada was in the midst of a crisis. This meant that the administrative process and committee meetings, among other things, were on hold. Furthermore, parliamentarians' rights were curtailed.

I remind members that the Prime Minister decided to prorogue Parliament six weeks ago to get the Liberals out of a jam. The government served its own interests instead of serving the interests of Canadians. This summer, we were talking about WE Charity. The Prime Minister's wife had received money from WE Charity. It was public money. Recently, the Liberals stated that we cannot do indirectly what we cannot do directly.

The Prime Minister's wife received money, the Prime Minister's brother received money and the Prime Minister's mother received money. Nearly $300,000 made its way into his family's pockets. That is unacceptable. This all happened just before Parliament was prorogued. That organization paid for trips taken by the former finance minister. He has since stepped down. His daughters were part of or associated with WE Charity.

Rumour has it that WE Charity helped draft the framework to ensure that it would be able to participate in the government tendering process. That is just a rumour, but where there is smoke, there is fire. WE Charity was awarded a nearly $1-billion contract without any competition at all. On top of that, they forgot to include rules for francophones in Quebec and across Canada. They were forced to subcontract to a bilingual company, one that was able to serve francophones but could not bid on the whole project. That was the situation.

Remember, this is a time of crisis. Today, Quebec reported the highest number of new cases since the pandemic began. More than 1,360 cases were announced. This is serious. We need to act.

Canadian workers are desperate to work. Support organizations that help people in need are ready on the ground. I met with them in Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier. We need to help people and businesses get through this unique and unforeseen situation.

I must admit that some measures made sense. Some of the measures brought in by the government were logical. A responsible government takes that kind of action. It helps people and businesses. Some programs that were brought in were good. I am not afraid to say it.

However, programs must evolve. The problem with this government is that it was unable and unwilling to advance and improve the programs. I am thinking about the CERB and the CESB, which disincentivized work. As the member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, I get up every morning to make sure that we have a good society that values work. That is the future and potential of a society. We have to value work and hard-working people. We cannot lower our standards.

I would remind hon. members that we are in a crisis and that the Prime Minister decided to shut down Parliament. When Parliament resumed, we were treated to a Speech from the Throne.

Since the government had six weeks to prepare it, I was anticipating a unique Speech from the Throne for a unique situation. I was expecting the Speech from the Throne to announce immediate measures for finding solutions to help workers, businesses, seniors, and persons with disabilities in our country. There is nothing like that, nothing concrete. It announced that money had been given to the provinces for school re-entry. That had already been announced two weeks prior.

I was expecting to hear about a test deployment plan. Testing is a problem right now. People do not know whether or not they have COVID-19, and what is more, they cannot get a test. The Prime Minister and his government are supposedly in the process of approving tests that will arrive next week, from what I hear. The tests will arrive in Canada next week, but when will they be distributed?

I was expecting to see a clear plan in the throne speech for rolling out testing. The Prime Minister's friend, the Governor General, was given this pre-election platform to read. Then, since this is a serious crisis, the Prime Minister asked the national networks for air time to address Canadians and deliver a clear public service announcement. I will call it that since I cannot remember the right term. Unfortunately, I learned nothing from it.

I watched the Prime Minister provoke the provinces, his allies, in a time of crisis. He looked into the camera and said that things needed to change and were going to change for long-term care homes and seniors. What has changed since? Nothing. It was all lip service, empty words.

I was expecting to see a plan for economic recovery. France, Germany and South Korea have presented practical plans. I want to be proud to be Canadian. I want to be a leader. I want to emerge from this crisis with my head held high. Yes, it is a crisis, and yes, we need to help people, but we need to find a way through this crisis as quickly as possible. When he was facing an economic crisis, Prime Minister Harper implemented measures to ensure that we would be the first to emerge from it. I am proud of this fact.

I look forward to my colleagues' questions. I expected much more from the Speech from the Throne.

Members will have understood from my speech that I will probably be voting no this evening.

[Public Services and Procurement, October 2nd, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, the second wave of COVID-19 has begun. I would like the Minister of Public Services and Procurement to assure me that the PPE procurement process has been fixed.

My riding is home to a company that has been accredited by Health Canada for 20 years. It supposedly got lost in the system during the first wave.

Could the minister give me a relevant answer and assure me that the Liberals' buddies will not get preferential treatment?

[COVID-19 Pandemic, April 20th, 2020]

Madam Chair, if the government needs ideas, we can help with that.

As far as the Internet is concerned, there are areas in Canada—a large country, as we know—where Internet coverage is inadequate, which we will soon realize when Parliament starts having virtual sittings. In the interest of democracy, I hope this will work, even though our party would have preferred physical sittings here in the House. We will, however, respect the democratic decision that was made earlier today.

Is the government aware of this problem? Internet is currently an essential product for our young people, but especially for our seniors. Back home in Quebec, the long-term care facilities received iPads to make our seniors feel less isolated and allow them to stay in touch with their families. What does the government plan to do to improve Internet access?

[COVID-19 Pandemic, April 20th, 2020]

Madam Chair, I thank my colleague, and I want to tell him to talk to us if he needs ideas.

With regard to SMEs, the Conservative Party suggested a possible tool, and that is the GST rebate for SMEs. This economic sector is very important, and some experts predict that one-third to one-half of small businesses will not survive the crisis. Everyone is listening, and so I want to know when the government will implement the GST rebate for SMEs.

[COVID-19 Pandemic, April 20th, 2020]

Madam Chair, we managed to improve various programs. I want to acknowledge that the government's ministers were listening. I want to thank them for listening to us and for helping to improve the programs in the interests of Canadians and businesses.

My question is about tourism. Canadian hotel chains are now worried about the future, since the economy in their sector is collapsing. This sector has to plan years in advance, and it faces international competition.

How does the government plan to protect the tourism industry, which will be swallowed up by foreign multinationals if it is not protected?

[COVID-19 Pandemic, April 20th, 2020]

Madam Chair, I have other questions, so I will conclude that there are neither more jobs nor more money.

I have a question about the CERB. I know that this program was implemented quickly, because of the circumstances, but that has created some problems, in particular for garages in Quebec, who opened up last Wednesday to change tires. Gardening centres also opened. Construction started back up this morning. The problem is that many workers do not want to go work because of the CERB.

Does the government have a solution to help our businesses, which provide jobs? Unfortunately, low-wage workers are not motivated to work and contribute because of this program.

[COVID-19 Pandemic, April 20th, 2020]

Madam Chair, I appreciate my colleague's response, but it did not answer my question. There are fewer, not more, jobs. It is the same envelope, unless we have last year's information because we are in the opposition.

Can my colleague tell us whether the Canada summer jobs program has more money and more jobs?

[COVID-19 Pandemic, April 20th, 2020]

Madam Chair, this afternoon during question period, the Prime Minister talked about the Canada summer jobs program in which there are apparently 70,000 new jobs.

How does the government explain that more jobs are being created in the Canada summer jobs program when, according to Service Canada documents that included a breakdown of the expenses, 50 jobs were lost?

I will give the government a hint. It is important to realize that they went from 50% to 100% of the jobs paid in the municipalities, but they have the same budget. They are supposedly handing out new money. They claim that many new jobs were created, but that is not so. I would like someone to explain that to me.