Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay

[Air Canada, June 3rd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, there have been discussions among the parties, and if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent for the following motion: That the House recognize that U.S. economic policy, specifically with respect to the trade embargo against the Republic of Cuba, must in no way restrict the right of Canadian and Quebec companies operating in accordance with Canadian law to do business with their international partners.

[Business of Supply, June 3rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I know how committed my colleague from Repentigny is to the environment. Often, this type of project is equally bad for the environment, the visual environment and the memorial environment. There may be connections between all of these issues. There are many infrastructure projects that could desecrate sites unnecessarily.

I would like the first nations to know that we are their allies when it comes to preserving their legacy and memory.

[Business of Supply, June 3rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question.

Of course, the will of indigenous peoples must be taken into account when determining exactly what that autonomy should look like. We cannot assume that we know what is best for their well-being. We must engage in dialogue and support first nations for a new kind of sharing. I am sure we can find a way to move forward that is eminently better than the current structure.

My colleague touched on the act in question, and I do think the problem lies with that notorious legislation, which can only be described as racist. It is an unacceptable piece of legislation that needs to be completely overhauled.

[Business of Supply, June 3rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, what frustrates me is to witness so much denial. Also being a member of the Huron-Wendat nation, and having dug deeper and deeper into this issue, I must say that it is a legacy that has become important to me over the years.

However, the more I dig, the more I realize that there have been historic injustices and iniquities. We have a duty to remember. I am hearing denial and I am hearing about $40,000 that could have been put toward this discovery. I beg the House's forgiveness, but I want to address the comparison between $33.8 million budgeted over three years, and $40,000.

[Business of Supply, June 3rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. In examining this file, it becomes evident that it contains a rather large contradiction. In fact, the amounts spent on litigation almost equal the amounts that were truly invested in reconciliation, which is quite troubling. I agree with the statement of the member for Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie.

[Business of Supply, June 3rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Joliette.

It is with a great deal of emotion that I address the House today. I first want to extend my deepest and most sincere condolences to all first nations on the discovery of the remains of 215 children buried behind the Kamloops residential school. It believe that is appropriate. As a member of the Huron-Wendat nation, my thoughts are with the people who suffered too much neglect and mistreatment and whose pain I share.

This tragedy is a direct result of the violence of colonialism. In addition to defending many interests that are often self-serving, especially economic interests, the intent of colonialism, at least in the official line, is to civilize those perceived to belong to an inferior race. We can all agree that this is just plain repugnant, and that it is called cultural genocide.

Such atrocities must never happen again. As politicians, we need to offer our condolences, but that is not enough. We need to take action. Unfortunately, it is likely that this discovery is only the first of many. Other bodies may be found, not only at the site of the residential school, where not all areas have been investigated, but also in other Canadian cities. This may be just the tip of the iceberg, and we may find many other mass graves.

In fact, while the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation lists 4,118 deaths, former senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Murray Sinclair estimated that as many as 15,000 children may have died in the residential school system. This is an approximate number, and we need to investigate, because we have a duty to remember. According to an article in The Globe and Mail, however, we do not know the names of about one third of the deceased children, and the cause of death in more than half of all cases was not recorded by the government or the school. This is serious.

The report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended erecting commemorative monuments in Ottawa and other capital cities to honour the memory of residential school survivors, as well as that of children lost to their families and communities. These monuments would honour both those who were lucky enough to survive and those who were not, and yet the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage said in December 2020 that no subsidies had yet been awarded for the construction of a national monument in the national capital region.

There has been just as little follow through on the other recommendations. That is why we support the NDP's motion before us today. It is urgent and absolutely necessary that we accelerate the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action, in particular by providing immediate funding for more in-depth investigations into the deaths and disappearance of children in residential schools.

The commission's report clearly indicates that “assisting families to learn the fate of children who died in residential schools; locating unmarked graves; and maintaining, protecting, and commemorating residential school cemeteries are vital to healing and reconciliation.” In other words, first we must know, understand, verify and investigate.

The issue is becoming increasingly urgent, since cemeteries are disappearing bit by bit, and many survivors still have no idea what happened to their loved ones. Since no one lives forever and we all eventually die, these people could pass away without ever learning the truth.

This investigation, which is absolutely necessary if we are to finally salve the open wound, requires funding. The discovery in Kamloops was financed mainly by British Columbia and not by the federal fund specifically earmarked for the purpose. The 2019 budget set aside $33.8 million over three years to fund the various actions recommended by the commission. That was a promising announcement, to be sure.

According to Global News, $27.1 million of the $33.8 million that was allocated was never spent. That is practically the whole amount. Since 2013, Ottawa has spent $3.2 million fighting a group of survivors from the St. Anne's residential school in Northern Ontario in court, which is almost as much money as it has spent on reconciliation efforts.

As members know, setting aside funds in the budget is only a statement of intent, as the allocation must also be included in a budget implementation act. The current government's 2019 budget, tabled during the last Parliament, set aside $33.8 million over three years. If we look at the Public Accounts of Canada for 2019-20, however, we can see that, although $5 million was spent on the national day for truth and reconciliation, there is not a single trace of any spending to implement the calls for action. There is nothing in the main estimates for 2019-20, 2020-21 or 2021-22. The amounts promised in 2019 were not even budgeted. What happened to that money? Why was it not released? We need an explanation. Was it an oversight? A stealth budget cut? I think that our first nations brothers and sisters have a right to know.

Just recently, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous Services and the Prime Minister reiterated that they were committed to implementing all of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action. They brought up the $33.8 million announced in the 2019 budget. Now, though, they have to actually budget that money. Reminding us that they announced it is fine, but now they must follow through and get things done.

The proposal to accelerate the implementation of the calls for action that was included in the motion tabled by our NDP colleagues has our support. My colleagues in the Bloc Québécois and I urge the government to act quickly. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently declared that it is essential that Canada do this work. Now we need to take the necessary steps. It is crucial.

[Business of Supply, June 1st, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for introducing his motion and I will say at the outset that the Bloc Québécois will vote in favour of it.

That being said, one small part of it bothers us a bit. This motion would give a lot of power to the committee, including the power to make public information that would have been redacted and would not necessarily be of interest to the public. We are obviously not against disseminating information that is of interest to the public, far from it, because it is important in terms of transparency, but giving this power to committee members to act solely on their good judgment, is that not going a bit too far?

I would like to hear my colleague's thoughts on that.

[Standing Orders of the House, May 25th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to speak to Motion No. 38, which proposes to split the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology in two after the next election. The Bloc Québécois welcomes this proposal. We need to recognize that the current committee's mandate is very broad, perhaps too broad, and that its responsibilities are numerous and disparate. The innovation, science and economic development portfolio for which the committee is responsible includes 17 federal departments and agencies, and it is responsible for the administration of 36 acts and a large number of regulations.

Creating a committee devoted exclusively to the subject would therefore ensure that science and research are given all the attention they deserve, in order to develop a truly comprehensive vision, which is sorely lacking at this time. In addition, it goes without saying that political decisions must be made based on evidence and critical analysis. That is precisely what is known as the power of science.

One need only recall the Stephen Harper government, under which government scientists were muzzled and ignored, especially on environmental and climate change issues. To this day, certain analyses by government researchers remain unavailable, including the Department of Industry's economic analyses of net benefit under the Investment Canada Act.

This new science committee would also free up the industry committee to focus on other issues that deserve more time and consideration than it is currently able to offer. I am thinking about support for SMEs and regional development, which are issues that are truly very important to the Bloc Québécois.

As we gradually emerge from the health crisis, fingers crossed, it is urgent and essential that we focus on the economic recovery, which must be green and based on innovation. This should be a priority file for the industry committee, whose work on the economic aspects of this recovery has not yet started and therefore could not be considered during the drafting of the 2021-22 budget, even though it was touted as the recovery budget.

Once it is freed from some of its current responsibilities, the industry committee could also study one blatant injustice toward Quebec and hopefully address it too. The government cannot claim to want a recovery based on innovation without acknowledging that Quebec accounts for roughly 40% of Canada's research and development intensive exports. Meanwhile, Canada has some of the lowest levels of research and development activity in the OECD.

Quebec is a leader and a trailblazer in artificial intelligence, information technology and transportation electrification, which are all fields of the future. The same goes for aerospace, of course, which is very important to me and which I often talk about in the House, as I am the critic for this file. Quebec is the third-largest aerospace hub in the world, after Toulouse and Seattle.

However, of the 100 National Research Council of Canada research centres, 50 are in Ontario compared to only nine in Quebec. This means that Quebec accounts for 40% of Canada's technology exports but only 9% of the federal research centres.

This does not add up. This lopsided distribution demonstrates that our strengths and ingenuity are being sidelined in favour of a federal strategy whose main purpose is to let Canada play catch-up, rather than allow Quebec to expand as it could if it had full decision-making power, as a nation should.

Despite the undeniable advantages of the changes proposed by Motion No. 38, we must ensure that the creation of two separate committees does not separate science from issues related to industry and innovation. It is good to have a new structure that will make it possible to conduct more in-depth studies on specific issues, but that does not mean that we should now say that science is not equal to industry, since there is a very fundamental connection between these two areas. The whole issue of developing COVID-19 vaccines showed us how basic research, applied research and bringing an innovation to market are all links in the same chain.

That is why the Bloc Québécois is proposing a change to the motion, and we hope that the mover of the motion is open to the idea.

We are proposing the creation of a subcommittee on science and research that would study the scientific aspects and then report to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. That would make it possible to obtain much the same benefits while avoiding the risk of negative effects.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1, May 25th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question, which she kind of answered herself.

I was not here 13 years ago, but as she pointed out, an intrusion is an intrusion, and any intrusion must be rejected unequivocally.

In many, many ways, Quebec's laws are extremely advanced, much more so than those in the rest of Canada. Quebec is a leader on environmental matters, although there is always room for improvement.

That is why all new programs and legislation must include the right to opt out. Since Quebec is already ahead on most of these issues, it must be able to get its fair share so it can use that money to make even more progress on other fronts instead of paying for something that is not as good as what it already has.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1, May 25th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I certainly cannot be against the idea of the federal government working with other levels of government, far from it.

The problem is that we are talking about a plethora of centralizing programs that are structural in nature. The government is laying the groundwork to majorly encroach on provincial jurisdictions, but its refusal to increase health transfers will soon make things quite frankly unworkable for Quebec and other provinces.

I do not call that working with other levels of government.