Pierre Nantel

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 28th, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. It is obvious how much he cares about his riding, his constituents, and the issues that matter to them. I sincerely congratulate him on the figures he presented, including his cycling statistics. I was recently in Copenhagen, and I saw how incredibly popular cycling is there. He is quite right; we should be trying to bring forward these kinds of measures, rather than spreading ourselves too thin with all kinds of pipe dreams.

He mentioned the child poverty rate in his riding. As the member for Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, I know that 37% of our kids, so over one-third, live in families that are living under the poverty line in Longueuil. The government seems to be turning a blind eye to the problem. I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.

When we see the government investing $5 million in a skating rink on the front lawn of Parliament Hill, we know where its priorities lie. Does my colleague agree?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 28th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from the Green Party for her speech. We do not hear often enough about alternative methods for finding heating, for example, below ground where the temperature is higher in the winter, regardless of where we are in Canada.

Another topic that we do not talk about enough is the Labour Code. I was listening to my colleague speak about the different types of leave and I wondered if she did not find it deplorable how little the government has done. We are finally talking about it and we could have respected the Arthurs report that proposed 10 days of family-related leave, but we stopped at three.

Does my colleague think that that is something that we could have improved?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 28th, 2017]

It has filled my veins.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 28th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I will not lie: it is good to switch off this member's loudspeaker. The truth is that that this man’s speech has nothing to do with the business that is before us today. He spends his life blaming us for our positions. He should talk about the topic at hand, Bill C-63.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, November 28th, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.

Does he not see a strange parallel between our constant feeling that the government is not going after tax havens and the sad spectacle we have been witnessing for weeks now involving the Minister of Finance? Is there not a curious discrepancy between what is being said and what is unfortunately not being done?

[Media Industry, November 28th, 2017]

If I were the hon. member for Orléans, I would not feel very reassured.

Mr. Speaker, if we needed another alarm to alert us to the crisis in the news industry, we heard it yesterday with the announcement that some 30 local newspapers will be shut down, resulting in the loss of almost 300 jobs. This should come as no surprise, since we have been talking about this issue for years, and there have been several reports on it.

Everyone warned the minister about the coming crisis, and she was offered turnkey, tangible solutions. The ship is sinking, yet the Liberal band continues to play as though nothing were wrong. I think I have seen that movie, and it did not end well.

Is the minister ever going to take measures to help this industry, or is she going to wait until there are no newspapers left before she wakes up?

[Interests of Quebec, November 23rd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, every community in Quebec is preparing for the future, and I could not be prouder to represent the people of Longueuil and Saint-Hubert.

Quebec wants to attract the best aerospace and electric transportation companies in the world. In Quebec, there are people who advocate for housing, for active mobility, for accessible bike paths in winter, including the one on the Jacques Cartier Bridge, and for the ability to get out and enjoy the fresh air in summer without the constant drone of airplanes overhead. Quebeckers also dream of being able to once again spend time along the banks of the river, which have been inaccessible for decades because of the highway.

In order to achieve those priorities and ambitions, we need Ottawa to act as a receptive partner, particularly when it comes to housing in a city like ours, where over one-third of children live below the poverty line. Instead, we saw yesterday that the government has chosen to take a paternalistic approach by deciding for Quebeckers what their priorities should be.

People all across Quebec voted for their municipal officials last week. It is now Ottawa's turn to work in partnership with Quebeckers and help them achieve the high ambitions they have for their cities.

[Business of Supply, November 23rd, 2017]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. As a federal MP I like to remind the people of Longueuil—Saint-Hubert that we were elected here to talk about and address important matters.

I want to know whether the hon. member thinks it is sad to see that because of the government's patent lack of transparency we are forced to spend almost an entire day on a point of order. It is a day-long point of order.

Does he not find it sad that it has come to this?

[Business of Supply, November 23rd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I apologize for making what I felt was a harmless comment on the government's lack of interest in today's debate.

It is really sad, because these same people kept saying that they were going to do politics differently. They kept saying that they would be the sunshine to disinfect the wounds of a government that was disconnected from the public.

Today, we can plainly see that the Minister of Finance is not at all concerned about all the public cynicism. That is probably what is doing the most damage. Whether his accounts grew by $2 million or $12 million, the worst thing he did was dampen the public's enthusiasm and feed their cynicism.

I would like my colleague's thoughts on this. I know his work is important to him. We find it demoralizing when people say that they have no use for politics, the Minister of Finance, or the very system itsel.

[Business of Supply, November 23rd, 2017]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Brandon—Souris for his speech.

Knowing him to be a good and sensible man, I wonder if he does not find it sad to see the number of government MPs, or lack thereof, here in the House. We are currently talking about their Minister of Finance and, if I am not mistaken, I see three Liberal MPs. No, there are not even three, there are only two. That is great—