Karine Trudel

[Jonquière Community Centre, November 23rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, 2016 will have been yet another fantastic year for Patro de Jonquière, an organization that reaches out to over 15,000 youth every year thanks to the energy and dedication of its entire team. What a great success story.

The organization is able to have this huge impact on the community thanks to the efforts of 200 volunteers and dozens of young people who work as assistants and facilitators every year. As it is constantly evolving, Patro now needs a new gymnasium in order to continue offering quality services to youth in the entire Jonquière region.

With the help of its inspiring team and the community, we sincerely hope to see Patro inaugurate a new gymnasium in time for its 70th anniversary.

I am proud to support Patro de Jonquière and wish them many years of success.

[Softwood Lumber, November 14th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, let us make no mistake; the American election results bring many uncertainties.

In my riding and across the country, workers and families are worried about the fact that we still do not have a softwood lumber agreement with the United States. This could mean job losses and plant closures. This government has not reached a deal and has no plan B, nor has it proposed any loan guarantees for the industry.

In these even more uncertain times, with a new American administration, can we expect this government to take concrete action before surtaxes are imposed, yes or no?

[Canada Post, November 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, last winter, thousands of Canadians were unable to get their mail because their mailboxes were frozen shut. Rather than buying mailboxes made in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Canada Post chose to buy mailboxes made in Kansas.

It is funny. The Liberals promised to bring back home mail delivery, but I have not heard the members opposite talk about this issue lately.

The government wants to spend billions of dollars to privatize our infrastructure, so why does it not require crown corporations to buy products that are made in Canada?

[Dairy Industry, November 1st, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, now that the free trade agreement with Europe has been signed, our dairy and cheese producers are worried.

The opening of the Canadian market undermines supply management. Producers are going to lose millions of dollars because of the arrival of European products on the market. We are still waiting to find out more about the assistance the government promised producers, particularly since producers in Quebec are not getting the same benefits and subsidies as those in Europe.

How much money is the government going to put on the table to compensate producers so that they are not negatively affected by this agreement?

[International Trade, October 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, this weekend, the minister walked out of negotiations with Wallonia and since then her government has refused to budge on the deadline.

Millions of Europeans and Canadians are concerned about this agreement. Yesterday, the Prime Minister expressed his support for yet another agreement, the trans-Pacific partnership.

I have two questions for the government.

Is the minister committed to fixing the free trade agreement with Europe?

Will she finally admit that her government supports the TPP, which will cause us to lose thousands of jobs?

[Arvida, October 20th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, last spring I was very proud to be appointed to the Club des ambassadeurs d'Arvida, an exceptional heritage district in my riding of Jonquière.

I want to acknowledge the significance of this unique industrial heritage. Built in 1926, Arvida is the birthplace of Canada's aluminium industry. The old working-class neighbourhood stands out for the architectural quality of its housing. This is why Arvida won two prestigious awards in architecture, in addition to being designated a national historic site in 2012.

A committee seeking heritage recognition for Arvida is currently working on having Arvida included in the list of UNESCO world heritage sites. Now that the tentative list for Canada's world heritage sites has been reopened, we are convinced that Arvida has what it takes to be included.

[Labour, October 19th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party presented themselves as strong supporters of our workers, but in the first year of their term of office, they voted against increasing the minimum wage to $15 and rejected the NDP's anti-scab bill.

By voting against my bill, the Prime Minister refused to guarantee and respect workers' right to collective bargaining. This simple amendment to the Canada Labour Code would have made a big difference for workers.

What happened to the fair and balanced approach promised to Canadian workers?

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am going to make a comment.

I do not believe that paying the Americans $1 billion, at the expense of the Canadian industry, is indicative of a good Canada-U.S. relationship. We are not necessarily getting a better agreement if we have to pay money to the Americans. It is really the Canadian industry that had to pay for that. All the players, the workers, and the forestry industry agree that we are better off going before independent tribunals than ending up with a bad agreement. We know that they won and were recognized on three occasions. Accordingly, it is better to go before the courts than to have a bad agreement that will be detrimental to our industry and will cause job losses that will be disastrous to our economy.

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. I would simply like to remind him that when the Conservative government was in power, it cost the forestry industry $1 billion.

We want a deal to be signed, but at what price? I hope it will not be on the backs of our workers or at the industry's expense.

In his speech, my colleague mentioned that they have formed a task force to meet with workers and representatives from the forest industry. Since the beginning of June, this industry has known that the government would not be able to negotiate a deal. What is the industry asking for now? It wants the government to work on a plan B, which could be a loan guarantee program, for example.

What are my colleague's thoughts on a loan guarantee program? Are they going to listen to the forest industry, given that this is what the industry now wants?

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her speech.

We are running out of time here today. What worries me most are jobs. Time is also running out on the negotiations. The more time passes, the more our jobs are at risk. We are afraid that come January, February, or March, the Americans are going to impose another surtax on our industry.

I would like my colleague to tell us whether the government has planned any sort of mechanism to support the forestry industry so that it can overcome those challenges and prevent job losses.