House of Commons photoWon her last election, in 2008, with 40% of the vote.
Aerospace Industry February 4th, 2009
Mr. Speaker, this is not at all what we are hearing, because taxpayers have invested a great deal in the success of the aerospace industry. Programs like Technology Partnerships Canada have made it possible to develop high-tech products here. The current crisis demands that we protect these investments.
What are the Conservatives waiting for to safeguard the investment Canadian taxpayers have made in the aerospace industry?
Arts and Culture December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, that does not seem to jibe with reality.
The Conservatives do not realize what a huge impact culture has on job creation and economic growth. Yesterday the Conservative heritage minister decided to throw just a few crumbs at the organizing committee of the 375th anniversary of Trois-Rivières. The event chair thinks that the people of Trois-Rivières deserve a lot more.
How can Quebeckers have confidence in this Conservative government?
Arts and Culture December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, Canadians no longer have confidence in this government. During the last election campaign, the former Conservative heritage minister said that the Conservatives would compensate for their culture cuts with new programs. It took the new Conservative minister only a couple of weeks to go back on these promises and make the cuts permanent.
How can Canadians still have confidence in this government?
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. As I explained in my speech, when the Liberals were in power, they got rid of the deficit and set money aside—I called it a “little cushion”—but now that money has all but disappeared. So when they talk about prudence, I have to wonder what, exactly, they are talking about.
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I do not understand my colleague's question. The leader of the opposition said yesterday in his press conference that things have not progressed that far. At this time, the three opposition parties have decided to work together. The relationship between these three parties was explained and the leaders of the three opposition parties were very clear about the fact that absolutely nothing more had been done and that no more could be done as long as things were like this in the House of Commons.
So, where is this Mr. Drummond getting that $30 billion? It is a figment of his imagination. That certainly did not come from any opposition member.
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I find the language of my colleague opposite to be a gross exaggeration. I am surprised because that is not like him.
That being said, I met with hundreds of citizens in my riding this past weekend, as I already mentioned. No one, not one person, felt that we had handed over the keys, that we had sold out Canada or anything like that. The only ones who believe that are those who sit opposite us here in Parliament.
I would like to repeat that we have a leader who believes in Canada. Not only does he believe, but he has proven it I do not know how many hundreds of times. When the members opposite say that we have sold out Canada, I take it as a personal insult.
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I have not read the article mentioned by the member. I do not make a habit of hurling insults at anyone. I said what I have to say about democracy. It is important to me. In my opinion, the Prime Minister should definitely reconsider his way of doing things within his own caucus, but that is his business. What does concern us in the opposition is what this Conservative government does for Canadian society as a whole and particularly for the Canadian economy.
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I am not quite sure what to add to the statements made by my hon. colleague. I completely agree with what he said.
I would like to add that the Prime Minister and the entire Conservative caucus have shown a general lack of respect for this House. I mentioned one anecdote that demonstrates this point very well. They have shown a lack of respect for this House. By that very fact, they have also shown a lack of respect for our citizens and for democracy. For my colleagues and me, this is a fundamental issue. We are here in this House because our constituents elected us to say what we have to say. The members across the floor, and particularly the Prime Minister, since he is the one who is ultimately responsible, give us the impression that they do not fully appreciate and respect the fact that an opposition exists to have its ideas heard.
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
That question is in bad faith, Mr. Speaker. The leader of my party does not even have to state it. For his whole life, he has worked for a united Canada. When he was a member of a former Liberal government, he showed how important a united Canada, with Quebec in it, was to him. We know a united Canada with Quebec is important to our party.
Therefore, the question is really a false question.
Economic and Fiscal Statement December 2nd, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to congratulate you. I already did so personally yesterday. I congratulate you on your appointment as Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole. I know that it is a great honour and a great responsibility, and I congratulate you. I would also like to say that I hope you will continue trying, as you have already started doing, to maintain a minimum of decorum in this House. God knows we need it.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the voters of Laval—Les Îles who have elected me for the fifth time. And I would like to congratulate the other members of this House on their victories, whatever their party, whether they be in opposition on this side of the House or on the government side opposite.
Today I would like to talk about the economic statement delivered by the Minister of Finance last Thursday. Two things in that statement really shocked me. First, the Minister of Finance refused to accept that there was already a recession in Canada. Second, the Minister of Finance did not see fit to present a solution from the government in his economic statement, despite the number of companies, be they small, medium or large, that were starting to go bankrupt or were at risk of bankruptcy and were laying off their employees, who are now jobless.
It shocked me and it shocked the people in my riding, as it did the entire population of Quebec. I organized an event in my riding, Laval—Les Îles, last Sunday afternoon. Obviously we discussed politics, and people asked me how it could be that the government, as represented by the Minister of Finance, had not brought forward any solution to the problem that exists not only in Laval and in Quebec but everywhere in Canada.
In Laval—Les Îles, a lot of people come from other countries and have recently arrived in Canada. Many of those people have kept ties with their country of origin and do a lot of work in importing and exporting. Those people are afraid that their businesses will go bankrupt. The Minister of Finance was silent about this.
In terms of the economy, we have had no response. The Conservatives tell us there is no problem in Canada and our institutions are very safe. I hope so, but we always have to be prepared. When we, the Liberals, were in government, we got rid of the deficit and tried to set a little aside as a cushion, precisely to be prepared for this kind of disaster. When the Conservatives came to power, the cushion virtually completely disappeared, and the help we had prepared precisely to protect us against this kind of disaster is almost nonexistent now. What we are seeing here is a Conservative government that has both wasted the public funds that could have protected Canadian industries and failed to present any solution to try to help people who are without jobs, not because they did not want to go out and work, but because their businesses are no longer viable. The owners of those businesses, whether in the forestry industry or in the auto industry, can no longer sustain their budgets.
A long time ago, people used to say, “What is good for General Motors is good for the country.” That applied to the United States. Now, though, General Motors is almost completely bankrupt, and that may have a very serious impact on us here in Canada. From an economic standpoint, the statement is shocking and does not meet the needs of Canadians.
I was also extremely disappointed by another social measure, and that is the elimination of the right to strike.
The right to strike has been a fundamental right in our society for decades. It is not socialist or communist, it is simply Canadian. Men and women in Canada fought hard for such protection before, during and especially after the 1920s and 1930s, and they won it. Last Thursday evening, the Conservative government intended to eliminate federal public servants' right to strike.
The Conservatives may reverse their decision, as the President of the Treasury Board said yesterday during question period. They are going back on their decision, but the damage is done. Clearly, if the Conservative government had been elected with a majority, not a minority, in the House of Commons, federal public servants would have lost the right to strike. The Conservatives were forced to back down when all the members of the opposition fought back and said they could not let that happen. Because the Conservative government was afraid of losing the battle, it decided to back down and say it was giving public servants back the right to strike. I am very happy about this, but we need to look at what happened and realize that if the opposition had not reacted so strongly and so quickly, the Conservatives would have taken away federal public servants' right to strike.
Next, I will speak about the issue of women and employment equity. Let us not forget that employment equity is not only employment equity for women, it is for society as a whole. This means that it is for all kinds of minorities, be they people with a physical disability, visible minorities, or Canada's first nations people, who have an important role to play in our Canadian society.
The Conservative government decided, in its economic statement, that these minorities would no longer have the right to take their grievances before the courts. Once again they are being deprived of a right that has been fought for, not just by minorities, but by all Canadians. This right is in the process of being taken away from them. All of the opposition, not just the official opposition, rose up in arms over this. My colleagues in the other two parties spoke about this. The President of the Treasury Board has backed down and says he wants to respect employment equity and will revisit the decision. I am very pleased by that, but what would have happened if there had not been a hue and cry? We would be back with what the Conservatives first presented. This is another warning to be on our guard, because we see what would have happened if the Conservatives had a majority.
This descent toward anti-democracy did not just start last Thursday evening. I have seen it coming for a long time, two and half years at least—nearly three—or in other words ever since the Conservatives have been the government. I will give a little anecdote here if I may.
Two years ago, I was the official languages critic for the official opposition and therefore a member of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. We were discussing the Conservative government's abolition of the court challenges program. For those who may not know exactly what this is, the court challenges program provided funds to language or other minorities so that they might defend their rights before the courts, possibly even against the Government of Canada. Minorities were given the tools to do so. The Conservative government came along and abolished the program entirely. This was at the official languages committee.
We soon found out by calling witnesses that the francophone minorities in Canada were stunned because they realized they had lost the financial muscle to protect their linguistic rights in Canada. It was not just francophones outside Quebec but the anglophone minority in Quebec too.
We fought hard in committee. What happened, then, to finish the story? On the day when we were supposed to put the finishing touches on the report, in which the three opposition parties asked, suggested and recommended that the minister reverse his decision on the court challenges program, what did we find when we arrived at 9 o’clock in the morning? The doors were locked. In other words, the chair of this House committee prevented the committee members from meeting. He slammed the door in our faces.
That was an insult, I think, not just to the members of Parliament but to the people of Canada who elected us. The chair did not have the right to do that. He did not have the right to decide to lock the doors. Why did he do it? I think it was simply because that meant we could no longer table a document in the House recommending that the minister change his mind about the court challenges program.
Why am I telling this story? Simply to explain to the House that the attack on democracy started a long time ago. The governing party across the aisle has long been doing everything it could, cutting here, cutting there. Rather than saying openly what it is doing, it often tries to hide it. There is always a way, though, to review things and find out what is going on.
I want to tell the House, therefore, that the finance minister’s presentation last Thursday night was totally unacceptable. It disappointed not only the opposition members, of course, but the people we represent as well. As I said earlier, I met more than 200 of them on Sunday, and they sure had a lot to say.
We believe that it is important and even absolutely essential to offer the people of Canada another possible kind of government. Why? It is not because we want to make a grab for power but because we think we have solutions to the economic crisis. We also have solutions to the anti-democratic practices of the governing Conservatives.