Monique Guay

[National Defence, October 8th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, the four submarines purchased by Canada making the headlines is nothing new. In 1988, the testing of the Upholder , the current HMCS Chicoutimi , revealed construction defects, and the matter was even debated in the British House of Commons in 1989.

Could the Minister of National Defence tell us if this was known to him before the four submarines were purchased?

[2004 Federal Election, October 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, on June 28, Quebeckers spoke as a people, mandating the Bloc Quebecois to act as guardian of their values, defender of their rights and advocate of their difference in the federal political arena.

We are grateful to Quebeckers for placing their trust in us. We are aware of the responsibilities it entails as we reiterate our commitment to making their voices heard. A special thanks to the people of Rivière-du-Nord, who have supported and re-elected me for a fourth term.

With an effervescent yet balanced approach, we will stand in this House for Quebec's distinctiveness. With vigour and renewed faith, we will continue to ensure respect for the powers of the National Assembly and the indefeasible right of our people to develop to their fullest.

[Member for Hamilton East, May 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, today, I would like to pay tribute to the hon. member for Hamilton East, whom I did not know before being elected here, in 1993. For the 10 years that I have known her, she has shown, through her work, that she could face all kinds of challenges.

I remember that when I first came here, I was my party's critic on environmental issues. She must also remember it. She showed me how energetic a person she was. She is a tremendous fighter. I learned a lot from working with her. Even though we do not necessarily share the same vision regarding Canada, colleagues still respect one another.

I want to congratulate her on her work in promoting the cause of women, in ensuring that more women enter politics. I hope that, even if she does not sit in this House, she will continue her work, because there should be more of us women here. I know that she cares a great deal about this issue.

Again, I congratulate her for her work in this area and I wish her good luck and a happy life.

[Health, May 14th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, when he was in Finance, the current Prime Minister claimed health as his priority. Yet in every budget he refused to reinvest in transfer payments for health services.

In his coronation speech as leader of the Liberal Party, and in the throne speech as well, he again referred to health as a priority. After all this fine talk, the government brought down a budget that contained not one red cent for health. Nothing at all.

When he assumed control of the federal coffers in 1994, his government was paying 2.8 cents out of every dollar of federal government revenue in transfer payments to Quebec for health. Ten years later, there has been a 40% drop, down to a mere 1.7 cents. Some priority, that.

Thanks to the sponsorship scandal, the Prime Minister's real priorities have been revealed. Over the years, he has been so untrue to his word that we know if he puts on a left turn signal he is sure to go right instead. That is how those in need of health care got run over. Really, this man is the poster boy for the Liberals' false promises.

[The Prime Minister, May 11th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, since his coronation as head of the Liberal Party of Canada, the Prime Minister claims to be change incarnate. Yet, he was finance minister in the Liberal government for nine years. He signed the cheques in the sponsorship scandal. He signed the cheques in connection with the firearms registry. He cut funding for health and education. He pirated $45 billion from the EI fund. He personally saved $100 million in taxes by registering his shipping company in a tax haven and amending legislation in his favour. He made off with $3.2 billion from the poorest seniors. He took $1 billion from Quebec families who use the reasonably priced child care centres. He refused to recognize the nation of Quebec.

The Prime Minister is not change incarnate, he embodies the usual traits of the Liberal Party of Canada: patronage, waste of public funds, demagoguery and anti-Quebec policy.

[Supply, May 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, while I recognize the social conscience of my colleague over the way, it is too little, too late.

As the hon. member is aware, women are still discriminated against when they return to the work force. Things still need changing. Not one of the 17 recommendations made to the committee in 2001 is to be found; not a single one has been implemented. I said too little, too late, because it is not enough.

There are still so many things that have to be improved, and my speech has listed them. The member was there and heard the list. It is true that some minor measures have been implemented, but they are not sufficient.

When we see the surplus in the EI fund and what could be done with it, we see that action could be taken quickly. Several of these measures could be applied immediately, and I am sure the hon. member is as aware of that as I am.

We on this side would like to see the matter settled, would like to see action taken, the recommendations implemented. The purpose of our motion was to initiate a debate, have the recommendations re-examined, and an attempt made to implement them.

It is not true that it cannot be done. It can be done, but it must not be done to win votes. It must not become part of anyone's campaign platform.

What is disturbing just now is the prospect of all those fine promises and then nothing coming of them. I do not know when the election will be held, but if it is June 28, then from that time on no one will remember the fine promises made. What I would like to see is concrete action and fast action, not just promises of pie in the sky.

We have heard empty promises in three election campaigns in a row now. This time the actions ought perhaps to come before the election, so as to make sure that what was promised to people during the last campaign at least gets accomplished during this mandate. As a result, the jobless could at least keep their pride, and when they are unemployed will have access to the protection of real insurance.

[Supply, May 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I know there are self-employed workers and seasonal industries in his riding. We share the same concerns.

It is very simple. Workers have to sit down together. We have to be able to create a committee that will study their situation. I am convinced of that.

There already is such a committee in Quebec. We should find out if other provinces have similar committees. In Quebec, this committee could expand in order to allow self-employed workers to sit and try to find solutions about their employment insurance premiums, since this is what is missing. They should be covered by some rules, like other unemployed workers, in order to eventually claim benefits if they become unemployed.

It must be explained that a self-employed worker is his own employer. He does his work alone. Self-employed workers are often contractual workers who may at times find themselves without contracts. When that happens, they have nothing ahead of them.

When business is slow or when they go through difficulties, if they have been contributing to an employment insurance plan and they meet the eligibility criteria, as anyone else has to, they could claim benefits.

I am convinced that those people are ready to sit together to deal with that. This industry is diverse. We should get together and try to find a solution for them. The solution could be establishing small groups. Considering the fact that the industry is diverse, each group might have its own rules. Nevertheless, it is possible to find a solution.

What is missing here is the will to act. In this case it is not important. In our case, however, self-employed workers represent 17% of the population and it is increasing. We are very concerned about that. It is high time we looked at the situation of self-employed workers and found solutions for them.

[Supply, May 6th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate all my hon. colleagues who have spoken today. This is an issue that has already rallied unanimous support from all political parties in this House. I get the feeling today that the tide has turned, and that the will expressed in 2001, when the committee sat and presented 17 unanimous recommendations, is no longer there.

I have been in this place since 1993. I too was sent here by my constituents in 1993, and again in 1997 and 2000. That must mean that we are doing a good job. I have colleagues here whose path has been similar to mine and who are seeking a fourth term because our constituents want us to do so to represent them in this House of Commons. It think that is because the Bloc Quebecois is doing a fine job.

In committee, it is not easy to achieve unanimity on a report. I know because I have been sitting on committees for ten years. It is difficult for all the parties to come to an agreement on recommendations. That is why I believe that the work of this committee and its 17 recommendations—I will come back later to specific recommendations—deserve respect and consideration.

The report was tabled three years ago. As is often the case, reports tabled in this Parliament are simply shelved. My impression is that this one has been gathering dust for three years. We have been waiting three years and no response has come.

Earlier, I heard the minister talk about self-employed workers. If we take no initiatives, nothing will ever happen. There does exist an association of self-employed workers in Quebec. Of course, self-employed people do not all work in the same field. There are some in fisheries and some in other industries. They would be ready to have a plan. But it could not be an across the board plan. Their jobs vary widely in nature and origin. Therefore, any plan would need to be somewhat flexible.

Bear in mind that 17% of Quebeckers are self-employed. That is quite a large number of people. They enjoy no protection whatsoever. If we bothered to set up a committee, to sit down and try to find solutions, I am sure we could help them and include them in the plan.

We have a surplus in the billions of dollars. That is where we have a problem because these billions of dollars are not being used to help self-employed workers.

I am looking at the figures. In 2001, only 39% of unemployed people received benefits compared to 60% in 1993. For women, it is 33%. Do you know why? Often women work part time and earn low wages. It is difficult for them to accumulate enough hours to get employment insurance. They are penalized.

For young people under the age of 25 it is even worse, it is 16%. Do you know why? Again, they need 920 hours of employment in order to qualify for employment insurance. Quite often it is impossible for them to accumulate enough hours at their first job. These young people end up on the street without work. They will take any other job they can get in order to live. If they do not find work, they end up on welfare. Imagine the situation. You are young, under 25 and on welfare. That is a nice start in life. Yet, while that young person is in between jobs, employment insurance could provide him with transitional income, but no, that idea gets ignored.

The Bloc Quebecois has always been extremely close to workers and sensitive to their needs. We are not the only ones. The labour unions are very close to workers and we work together with them. There are groups we work with as well, such as the Sans-Chemise, who also do work in this area. They speak on behalf of all the unemployed. As members of the Bloc Quebecois, we try to offer good solutions, possible solutions, because the government has money and a surplus.

There is a $45.5 billion surplus we could use to help those people.

Let me talk about my riding, Laurentides, which is in the spring gap. I am experiencing that gap right now. The ski season is over and the summer season has not started yet so the people in the tourism industry are in limbo.

People come to see me. I do not know if the minister gets visitors in his Toronto riding but in Laurentides, people come to see me because they are in great distress. They are going through the spring gap and have no income. It is very difficult because in the tourism industry, people are paid minimum salary. They are also trying to accumulate a given number of hours. So they work for very long hours when there is work, in order to make it through the spring gap.

These citizens have no quality of life. The government could easily solve that problem because the solution was there in our recommendations; however there was not the will. That is why we introduced this motion today. We want the government to show the will to change things, but not bit by bit. We do not want a piecemeal approach. We do not want a cosmetic change, but a radical change. We want a real change. We do not want changes made with an election in mind. We do not want to see changes just because we are heading into an election and they have to come up with an announcement quickly to satisfy people, saying, “We are giving you this for now and we will give you more later”. Meanwhile, nothing is happening. Nothing has happened since 2001. And now, the situation is getting worse.

I am willing to pay for insurance. I want to negotiate it and I want to be able to choose a good insurance policy. However, I want something in return. If my house is destroyed by fire, I hope that my insurance is going to reimburse me, because I paid my premiums. Employment insurance is no longer insurance. It is an investment for the Liberal government. It is money that we send to the government, which takes the surplus to invest where it wants, instead of putting it into the employment insurance fund. That is the reason why we asked for an independent fund so that if there is a surplus, it could be reinvested in the fund and we could find solutions for self-employed workers.

I will give an example of a measure that we could take and which is not costly. I introduced in the House a bill to allow the preventive withdrawal of pregnant or nursing female workers. I am speaking about small amounts of money to allow women, in sectors under federal jurisdiction, to avail themselves of a maternity leave equivalent to what is offered in Quebec. This has been offered in Quebec for years. It is not a very costly initiative. We worked out the costs. When we come up with recommendations, do not think that we do not work out the costs. We do not just turn up with any old thing.

In fact, if there is a consensus, you can be certain that people have done the math. If we had a surplus in a independent fund, we could take part of it to help women. Giving birth to a child should be the most beautiful event in the life of a woman.

If people have financial problems, they cannot avail themselves of a preventive withdrawal, even if their own health and the health of their baby is in danger.

I was on board a plane leaving Montreal for France and I spoke to a young flight attendant. She was six months pregnant. I told her, “You are pregnant and as far as I can see, it won't be long before you give birth”. When I asked her how far along she was, she told me that she was six months pregnant. I asked her why she did not avail herself of preventive withdrawal. She answered: “Madam, I cannot do that because I work in a company under federal jurisdiction. If I avail myself of preventive withdrawal, I receive only 50% of my salary. If ever I needed money, it is now”.

This is a very small initiative. It has been talked about in this place for years and I myself have been talking about it for the last 10 years.

This measure is still in limbo somewhere and we are still waiting. We are presented with resounding studies but we are told that such a thing is not possible. With an independent employment insurance fund, any surplus could be reinvested for the benefit of workers, which is not the currently the case.

Fortunately, the Bloc Québécois is here to introduce bills that are in the interest of workers. Otherwise, no one would speak on their behalf in this place. Apart from us, no one else brings up these issues, except for the NDP. There seems to be no interest on the government side for measures designed to benefit workers.

One of my colleagues introduced a bill against psychological harassment. It was rejected out of hand. One time, after a speech I made here on the same subject, as I was walking down the hall, a woman who works here came up to me and told me she had cried as she heard me speak because she herself had been harassed for two years at one point.

There are initiatives that need to be taken in this House. However, the will is lacking. We would like to see these 17 recommendations adopted. They have just been sitting there, gathering dust for three years.

There is a surplus in the EI fund. The government has a surplus. This year it is up to $3.5 billion or $4 billion. With that money, we could do the right things, things which would benefit the unemployed.

As for regions, my colleague from Charlevoix brought forward a motion dealing with certain measures that could be taken to help seasonal workers, among others. But the motion was defeated. If they always vote against such measures, how can they assure those of us who have been fighting for this for ten years that they will make changes because of the upcoming election?

That is not a realistic and honest way to do things. We must put forward real measures and not make promises during an election campaign, and forget all about them after. That is was happened in 2000. Big promises were made, but they were broken. This time around, they should make promises that they can realistically keep. We believe that it is possible.

The program for the elderly is also important. We have discovered what happened with the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and we have worked hard on this issue. Adjustments were made, but it was not enough. They do not want the legislation to be retroactive. That would affect the poorest in our society, and they do not want to give it to them even if they have incredible surpluses.

We keep saying how great a country Canada is, but making the Canadians poorer does not help this country. Poorer Canadians end up with health problems, and health care costs go up. Why is that? We harm our society when we make it poorer. In the meantime, the government is piling up money and setting up megadepartments. This cannot go on forever.

We need to be more realistic and go back to basics. We should make sure our recommendations are implemented quickly. Otherwise, we will be left once more with empty promises.

One thing I can tell you is that the people are fed up with this. Great promises are not funny anymore. When they have a problem with the employment insurance program and come to us, we try to help them, but we cannot always do it. Just 33% of women and 44% of men can get EI benefits. We are their last chance.

When we cannot help them, we tell them that the decisions are not up to us, but to the government. We make suggestions, but they are ignored. We have to explain that.

We tell them they need to make representations to have the rules changed and make sure that, when they contribute, they can get benefits if they need them. Nobody sets out to be unemployed. It just happens. I do not know too many people who lose their job on purpose.

In seasonal industries, people lose their jobs all the time. All of the workers know they will experience what is called the gap. Let us try to help low-income families go through these difficult times.

I know of couples where both spouses work in the tourist industry. They make $7 or $7.50 an hour. They can work 60 hours a week at peak times. However, when things slow down, they have a hard time. Then, people are laid off.

I know some employers who make considerable efforts to keep their employees as long as possible, trying not to harm them and not to condemn them to poverty so that they can keep on feeding their children, paying their rent and making their car payments. In an area like the one I live in, everybody needs a car. Some employers are doing all they can to help. However, it is still difficult.

With just a little bit of goodwill, we could easily solve this problem here. You could have the full support of the Bloc Quebecois. However, it has to be a real solution. Empty promises and half measures introduced as a temporary solution just before election time are not acceptable. We need real and sustainable measures. We can also sit down and look at the way things are done. We have never said that things are cast in stone.

My colleague from Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques sat on this committee and worked on this report. He spent many hours on this. We all saw him at work. He really tried, with all the colleagues here in the House, from all parties, to propose measures to improve the situation of workers with regard to employment insurance. It is a reform in which he believes. He used to believe in it and still does.

I wish that we would really take this into account and move this cause forward. We must put an end to partisanship. This is about the life of workers who, at some point in time, find themselves in a difficult situation and need employment insurance. We do not have the right to penalize these people. We must help them to make it through. I wish that we would be more sensitive. We must get out of Parliament, go in the field to see our people and realize that we have things to change, especially when we know that we have billions of dollars in surpluses in our pockets and that we are putting that money elsewhere instead of helping these people in need.

[Canada Labour Code, April 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, eloquent examples such as Radio-Nord Communications show that the absence of an anti-scab law prolongs the duration of a strike. We have been saying this for a number of years.

Today, on the eve of May 1, international labour day, we ask the Minister of Labour once again: when will there be an anti-scab law for businesses operating under federal jurisdiction? Does she understand that, because of her lack of action, she is taking the side of the employers in their disdain for employees?

[International Labour Day, April 30th, 2004]

Mr. Speaker, May 1 is a day to celebrate workers. Let us take this occasion to pay tribute to the women and men who work every day to build a better world, a fairer world, a world that lives up to our aspirations and ambitions.

Valiant struggles over the years have made it possible to obtain better working conditions, but there is a great deal left to do. We think of the need to add anti-scab measures to the Canada Labour Code or the urgent need to review the regulations covering precautionary cessation of work for pregnant and nursing women, in order to help them have healthy babies.

My thoughts today are with the employees of Bauer Nike, in my riding of Laurentides, who are in a time of uncertainty. Along with the firm's survival committee, I will spare no effort to ensure that these people keep their jobs.

Workers can count on the Bloc Quebecois to make their voices heard and to defend their rights in order to improve their quality of life.