Pierre Paul-Hus

[Finance, May 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the minister has been repeating the same childish line for two weeks now, but does he know that, when the Leader of the Opposition was the minister responsible for housing, rent in Canada cost half as much?

Right now, July 1 is shaping up to be a disaster for those who are looking for housing. The housing director for Vivre en ville, Adam Mongrain, has said that “the current numbers from the municipalities and the Tribunal administratif du logement show that we are currently headed for the worst July 1 of our lives”.

The government, with the support of the Bloc Québécois, has created catastrophic economic conditions for people who are looking for housing.

Will the Prime Minister get his act together and stop his inflationary spending that is just putting pressure on the economy and Canadians?

[Finance, May 10th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the Governor of the Bank of Canada has repeatedly confirmed that the Prime Minister's spending is keeping interest rates high.

Many mortgage holders will face large increases in their payments as their loans come up for renewal over the next two years. That is the direct result of this Prime Minister's $500 billion in centralizing, inflationary spending, backed by the Bloc Québécois.

When will the Prime Minister and the Bloc Québécois stop their out-of-control spending and give Quebeckers a break?

[Public Services and Procurement, May 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the point of my question. We have 109,000 new people who were hired; congratulations to them. Why, then, are we continuing to pay consultants to the tune of $21 billion a year?

The question is simple: Will the government cancel the consultants' contracts totalling $21 billion and use the professional services of its new public servants, yes or no?

[Public Services and Procurement, May 9th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, an additional 109,000 federal employees have been hired since 2015. What is more, the government awards $21 billion a year to outside consultants. It is outrageous. We are paying double.

Hiring consultants in Ottawa is not done through voting for the budget, it is done through voting for appropriations. The Bloc Québécois supported those appropriations to the tune of $500 billion.

Will the Prime Minister commit to firing all those consultants and relying on the expertise of his thousands of new public servants?

[Mental Health and Addictions, May 7th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the use of hard drugs has become a common occurrence on the Montreal metro. Assaults, drug use and homelessness are a scourge. Metro riders do not feel safe. It is as though everything happening up above, the housing crisis, inflation and the opioid crisis, is having an impact underground in Montreal.

Can the Prime Minister assure us that he will ignore the calls from the Bloc Québécois and not legalize hard drugs in Quebec?

[Petitions, May 6th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to present a petition today on behalf of Canadians who are concerned about what has been tabled by the Liberal Party regarding natural health products. It is clear that citizens believe the new rules will undermine access to natural health products, resulting in higher costs and fewer products available on store shelves, to name but a few issues.

In addition to this petition, our offices have received a tremendous amount of correspondence about this. I think it is very important for the House to receive this petition from concerned citizens, who want us to maintain access to natural products.

[Finance, May 6th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative Party has a great vision, a common-sense vision. This government left all that behind nine years ago. On the other side, we have the Bloc Québécois, which is no better than the Liberals. The Bloc Québécois supported $500 billion in additional spending. It always says it is going to vote against the budget, yet it always votes for specific budget allocations, which has led to the struggle that Quebeckers and Canadians face today.

Can the government ask the Bloc Québécois why it always goes along with the government's schemes, that lack all common sense?

[Finance, May 6th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, Quebeckers are struggling. They are being hit hard by mortgage renewals. Mortgage rates are high, mainly because of the Prime Minister's chaotic management of the public purse, with the support of the Bloc Québécois.

Over the past nine years, the Bloc Québécois has supported and voted in favour of additional spending of over $500 billion. That includes a June 2022 vote on $115 billion to be used in part for pipelines. People should take note that the Bloc Québécois voted in favour of pipelines. Will the Liberals and the Bloc Québécois take responsibility for the sharp rise in mortgage rates and the cost of living?

[Committees of the House, May 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. As I said in my speech, military personnel are in a controlled environment. The government has complete control over the environment. Then why is it that this government decided not to increase spending on military housing for its defence team?

At some point, if rents increase, salaries have to increase. If we can maintain the environment by keeping rents the same and providing normal salary increases, it creates less pressure for everyone. That could easily have been done.

[Committees of the House, May 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, we understand what our job as the opposition in this place is all about. We vote against the estimates or the overall budgets when they generally make no sense.

Obviously, I am always going to support helping the Canadian Forces. As I said before, I hope that can be done responsibly and, above all, effectively, to restore the pride of Canadian Forces members and, above all, to encourage young people to enlist and become proud members of the Canadian Forces.