Pierre Paul-Hus

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I said it before and I will say it again. I can repeat it 100,000 times. We are not planning to touch women's rights. We have no plans to touch the right to abortion. We have been clear about that. The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has been clear. He has said this publicly on many occasions.

The Liberals, the NDP, the Bloc Québécois and everyone can relax. We are not planning to touch those rights.

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, we did support Bill C-319, but at the end of the day, the ball is in the government's court. We no longer have confidence in this government. We do not have confidence in the Prime Minister for a litany of reasons that I could have expanded on for 30 minutes.

I encourage my colleague to support our motion to defeat the government. Afterwards, we will sit down and figure out Quebec and Canada's future together.

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, my colleague from Abbotsford who sits behind me was the minister of international trade at the time, and he negotiated the free trade agreements. It was Conservative governments that negotiated most, if not nearly all, of the free trade agreements. What the Liberal government did was renew agreements that were originally negotiated by strong Conservative prime ministers who knew what they were talking about.

With regard to the economy, can my colleague explain why it is that we have to take all the GST Canadians pay, that is, $50 billion a year, and send it to New York and London for interest payments because the country's debt has doubled under the current government?

[Business of Supply, September 24th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I would like to start by mentioning that I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston. I am here today to speak about our non-confidence motion regarding this Prime Minister and this government. It is often said that memory is not infallible. What we know today, thanks to our short-term memory, is that this government, with the help of the Bloc Québécois, has doubled the country's debt, doubled the cost of housing, caused the worst inflation in 40 years, sent two million people to food banks, and unleashed a wave of crime and chaos in our communities. That is today's reality.

I think we need a reminder, a refresher on this government's legacy over the past nine years. There are reasons why we say “nine years with this Prime Minister” or “nine years with this government”. I want to talk about the current legacy of scandals surrounding the Prime Minister. The list is long. I hope I will have enough time to get through it all.

For starters, we remember the infamous trip to the Aga Khan's island; that was a controversial trip. There was even a report from the Ethics Commissioner, who found the Prime Minister guilty of ethical breaches. Then there is the former justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, a woman of integrity who wanted to do her job but was sidelined because she would not help SNC-Lavalin circumvent the law.

There was the WE Charity scandal. Everyone remembers WE, and if they do not, that is exactly why we need to talk about it again. Some $900 million was spent via this company for gatherings of some kind. Money was also paid out to relatives. I am talking about the Prime Minister's mother and brother. I could go on and on about that scandal, but today I simply want to refresh everyone's memory.

Let us talk about management of the pandemic. What did Canada do? In a truly baffling decision, we took our stockpile of masks and personal protective equipment and sent it to China. What happened a few weeks later? The virus entered Canada, and we were out of equipment because it had all been sent to China. That is the kind of utterly ridiculous decision that was made. Meanwhile, contracts were being signed. Because there was a pandemic, things had to be done. Party insiders close to the regime were rubbing their hands in glee, including former MP Frank Baylis, who owned a company and announced that he could provide 10,000 ventilators for $230 million. Someone looked at that, scratched their head and thought that 10,000 ventilators seemed like a lot, that maybe we did not need that many and that it would have cost $130 million on the market. Overpaying by $100 million is not insignificant. He was a party insider, however. We dug a little deeper and tried to figure things out at committee, but we were not able to truly get to the bottom of this. In hindsight, we know that it made no sense whatsoever. To make matters worse, I was recently told that these 10,000 machines have been thrown in the garbage.

Last spring, there was the McKinsey affair. Dominic Barton and friends of the Prime Minister and the Liberal regime were suddenly awarded contracts worth over $120 million. Contracts were awarded to McKinsey for consulting. Once again, in committee, we dug a little deeper to get the information. We all know that those contracts did not make any sense, but it is difficult to press charges. However, Canadians should remember that these things happened and that there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

With respect to the Governor General issue, the appointment of Ms. Payette was a total fiasco. Everyone knows that things went completely off the rails there. She spent money frivolously. Victims had to be compensated. In our opinion, that appointment and that mindset are representative of the Prime Minister's legacy. In 2021, the current Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs admitted that the “Payette fiasco shows the need for a stronger GG vetting process”. What did the Prime Minister immediately do to replace Ms. Payette? He appointed a Governor General who does not speak French, one of the official languages. I think that we need to repeat that often: Our official languages are English and French.

That was another really stupid decision on the part of this government. The Liberals had the opportunity to appoint a new governor general and they chose a unilingual anglophone. Let us also remember our Prime Minister's much-talked-about trip to India in 2018. What a fiasco that was. It was totally ridiculous. He was wearing costumes. He made us the laughingstock of the country, but things got even worse from there.

When he attended an official protocol activity in India, there was a terrorist in his group. That terrorist had been invited by a former MP who is no longer here today, fortunately. That terrorist was a guest of Canada. That is quite something.

We know that the Prime Minister likes to dress up. Even before he became Prime Minister, he often wore racist costumes. He did it so often that he does not even remember how many times he did it.

I want to come back to the financial scandals. Recently, there was the ArriveCAN scandal, the famous app that should have cost $80,000. Experts said they could develop that app in a weekend. In the end, it cost us taxpayers $60 million and counting. That is another scandal. As I was saying at the start, it has been nine years of scandals. Some apparently end up being forgotten. That is why today, when we talk about how this is the situation after nine years, we add this all up.

I will move on to the partisan judicial appointments. That is a sensitive topic. The fact remains that it is common knowledge that six sitting superior court judges paid to have drinks with the Prime Minister or the Minister of Finance just before being appointed to the bench.

Let us get back to the trips. There was the Prime Minister's vacation at the home of the Aga Khan, and after that, there was his Jamaican holiday. The Prime Minister travelled to Jamaica with his family, and his team told the media that he was paying all of his own expenses. We know that the airplane is a must for security reasons. No one needs to tell me that. I know. As for the rest, however, when people decide to stay at a big villa and all that, they should pay for it themselves, not with taxpayer dollars. The Prime Minister's Office said that he paid for all of his expenses, but we later learned that he had not paid a cent, that he had been invited by another billionaire friend to stay at his home with his family and his entourage. Why not tell Canadians the truth? Why play all the angles all the time?

We agree that the Prime Minister is entitled to take a vacation with his family. There was a time when politicians could not go on vacation without being perceived as people who do no work. We agree that taking two or three weeks of vacation a year is normal. However, when prime ministers Chrétien, Martin, Mulroney and Harper took vacations, why did they not go to billionaires' islands, to the residences of other millionaires or billionaires or to Jamaica? They were happy with reasonable vacations. Why is this not important to the Prime Minister? He hops on the government jet and flies off to island paradises with no regard for Canadians. It is all sorts of things like that that led us to realize that we can no longer have confidence in someone who thinks that way.

More money was spent at Harrington Lake. The government decided to spend up to $11 million to renovate the facilities at Harrington Lake, to move the guest house closer to the lake. The Prime Minister never goes there, though, so why invest $11 million to move a guest house closer to the lake?

I will talk about other contracts and other weird decisions. Once again, these are sensitive issues. I need to point out that public money was used to hire consultants who are frankly racist. For example, Laith Marouf, who was known to be a raging anti-Semite, received $500,000 from the government for work on racism. Why hire someone who is already known as a racist to do work that does not reflect his mandate? Another crazy decision was to hire Amira Elghawaby to build bridges. Before she was hired, we already knew that she was making racist comments about Quebeckers, among others. Now that she has been appointed, she continues to create disruption instead of building bridges. Why did they hire her, and why do they not fire her now?

I mentioned all these scandals to refresh everyone's memory, but let us not forget that, in today's economy, young people cannot even hope to own a home. Construction is at the same level as in the 1970s. An additional $500 billion in budgetary allocations were adopted, unfortunately with the support of the Bloc Québécois. Canada has the worst growth in the G7. The Prime Minister and his government have spent more than all other prime ministers in Canadian history combined.

It is a long list, and I am running out of time, but we are simply reminding members why we no longer have confidence in this government.

[Forestry Industry, September 24th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow we will have an opportunity to end the most costly and centralist government in this country's history. This government is doing Quebec a lot of harm, as François Legault, the Premier of Quebec, rightly pointed out last week.

The “Liberal Bloc” has kept supporting this government, which is going to kill at least 1,400 jobs in Saguenay and on the north shore. It is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Why not call an election and let forestry workers decide their own future?

[Justice, September 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, does the minister recognize that, since they made changes to the Criminal Code, including under Bills C‑5, C‑75 and C‑83, criminals are no longer afraid of anything?

Crime is running rampant in Quebec right now. A 14-year-old boy died in Beauce. Shots are being fired in broad daylight in Quebec City. The same thing is happening in La Baie, Saguenay, and elsewhere.

Will the government, supported by its Bloc Québécois friends, acknowledge its mistake and revert to an earlier version of the Criminal Code?

[Justice, September 23rd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals have weakened the Criminal Code, which means that crime is now spreading beyond Montreal and into all regions of Quebec.

Let us remember that the Bloc Québécois supported the Liberal bill that allows for criminals to be arrested and released several times in the same day.

Will the Liberal government and its Bloc Québécois friends tell us why they made such a mistake?

[Government Accountability, September 19th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, as a representative of the Quebec City region and political lieutenant for Quebec, I am proud to support the citizens of Quebec City who want a third link, while the member for Québec, who is the new acting political lieutenant until the leader of the Bloc Québécois takes his place, is refusing to support a third link in Quebec City.

Today, the Government of Quebec clearly asked the Bloc Québécois to stop supporting this government because it knows that nothing can be done with the Liberal government and that it will not get anywhere with the Liberal government.

That is what we have been seeing for nine years.

[Government Accountability, September 19th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc Québécois showed his true colours yesterday when he promised to support the Liberal government with no benefits at all for Quebec. There is absolutely nothing for forestry workers or seniors. That is the “Liberal Bloc”.

When will the Prime Minister officially announce that the leader of the Bloc Québécois has become his Quebec lieutenant?

[Finance, September 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the “Liberal Bloc” says it stands up for the interests of Quebeckers. Is it in the interest of Quebeckers to support the most costly government in the history of Canada? Is it in the interest of Quebeckers to increase their taxes to reinforce the federal state that keeps encroaching on Quebec's jurisdictions? It is clear that the “Liberal Bloc” does nothing but stand up for the interests of the Prime Minister.

What did the Prime Minister offer the leader of the “Liberal Bloc” to get him to agree to support all his centralist spending?