House of Commons photoLost her last election, a byelection in 2026, with 47% of the vote.
An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19 November 29th, 2021
Madam Speaker, we welcome the fact that the tourism and hospitality sectors were included in Bill C-2. However, the bill does not currently cover upstream industries in the supply chains of those sectors, such as aircraft or bus manufacturers, or those that manufacture goods for the tourism and hospitality sectors.
My question is this: Do you think that the list currently included in Bill C‑2 is exhaustive?
An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19 November 26th, 2021
Mr. Speaker, without getting into a heated debate on vaccination, I must say that doing one's part means getting vaccinated, and that is important to point out.
I have a question for my hon. colleague. If I may summarize what he said, in his opinion, the emergency measures are a waste. Does he not believe, as we in the Bloc Québécois do, that this crisis is not over and there are still segments of the population that need this assistance?
An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19 November 26th, 2021
Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear colleague for her intervention.
It is true that the government often sends rather mixed messages, in particular with this bill and with other measures where we see that certain segments of the population are left to fend for themselves. I am thinking in particular of seniors and women who have lost the most in this pandemic, as I mentioned earlier.
I would like to mention one thing. The Bloc Québécois has been calling for the reform of the EI system for a long time. We find ourselves in a situation where we have to pass another bill 20 months after the start of the pandemic because we have not yet brought in the necessary EI reforms. We would not be debating all of this today if we had a system that would allow self-employed workers, among others, to access EI.
An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19 November 26th, 2021
Mr. Speaker, much like my colleague, the Bloc Québécois is concerned about the labour shortage. A number of businesses in Terrebonne have come to tell me that they are having a hard time finding workers.
We are in the middle of a labour shortage, but the shortage has been around since before the crisis. I should point out that this labour shortage could be exacerbated by the CRB, which is why we are calling for more intelligent, targeted measures. This is what the Bloc Québécois is calling for, but that does not mean that we should stop supporting vulnerable populations. Some populations are still vulnerable in this pandemic, in particular self-employed cultural workers. We must continue to support these groups.
An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19 November 26th, 2021
Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague for her question.
The Bloc Québécois is very concerned about seniors. The Bloc Québécois is fighting to put an end to the two age groups being used to determine eligibility for the benefits. As members know, the pandemic hit seniors hard, in terms of both their finances and their health.
That is why we also want to study this bill in committee. We want to look into this type of issue and work on behalf of the seniors we know are suffering because of this pandemic.
An Act to Provide Further Support in Response to COVID-19 November 26th, 2021
Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by thanking my esteemed colleague from Joliette for sharing his time with me, and my other colleagues for allowing him to do so.
I would like to draw everyone's attention to the fact that this is day two of the days of action on violence against women. As we all know, women were the pandemic's first casualties. They suffered psychologically and physically. There were more cases of intimate partner violence during the pandemic. We also know they paid the heaviest economic price. In fact, 68% of those who lost their jobs between October 2019 and October 2020 were women. That is more than two-thirds of the newly unemployed, and it is a huge segment of the population.
In addition, many female entrepreneurs worried they might not be able to make it through the crisis. We know that what women need is financial independence. That is why it is the government's job to protect vulnerable populations and to protect women, and that is why it should offer programs to support that segment of the population.
As my colleague from Joliette mentioned, that is why the Bloc Québécois is in favour of measures to support workers in need and those segments of the population that need the most help. This health crisis has been going on for 20 months, and for 20 months, the government has been proposing measures that we do not feel are targeted enough. One the one hand, business owners are coming to see us and saying that the government needs to do away with benefits for all workers because they are contributing to the labour shortage, but on the other hand, some segments of the population have been left out of Bill C-2, as my esteemed colleague mentioned. I am thinking about cultural workers, mostly. Self-employed cultural workers are not included in this bill, and that is one of its shortcomings. That is why we need to discuss it and work on it. I want to point out that this situation is unacceptable. It is not right that, after 20 months of this pandemic, we are still at this stage and some sectors in need are still being left out. This includes self-employed cultural workers. Currently, they are not covered by the emergency measures. That is because the government called an election, and we are now dealing with a bill that is seeking to speed things up and fails to propose any measures for cultural workers.
We called for a better targeted bill and it took 20 months for the government to introduce one. The government has not done its due diligence for the most vulnerable members of society.
Order Respecting the Business of the House and its Committees November 25th, 2021
Madam Speaker, first, I would like to acknowledge how much I admire my esteemed colleague, who has twins. I just had a baby barely two months ago. I went into politics with my eyes open, knowing that the job would involve a lot of travel and would come at a cost to my family. I also knew that a member's work had to be done in Parliament, because that is what we were elected to do.
I have a question for my colleague. Are we turning an emergency measure into a work-life balance measure, which is a very important issue but one that should be discussed at another time?
Address in Reply November 23rd, 2021
Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to be here today to represent the people of Terrebonne. I wanted to take a moment to thank them for electing me. I was pregnant, very pregnant, when they elected me. In doing so, they chose to send both a mom and female MP to Ottawa.
I am also proud to represent the Bloc Québécois, a party that always makes concrete proposals. That is precisely what was missing from the throne speech: concrete proposals and responses, particularly regarding how to move away from fossil fuels and address the climate crisis and the labour shortage. The throne speech did not provide any answers to those issues.