Xavier Barsalou-Duval

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, June 6th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his interesting speech. I really liked the part when he said that it is important to be ambitious. I think that is how he started his speech.

Maybe my colleague did not notice that in the recent budget, there was a line about infrastructure. For example, regarding infrastructure spending for which the money is often transferred to the provinces, they no longer have until March 31, 2025, to submit their plans. They now have until March 31, 2023. The government took away two years even though it had signed agreements with the provinces. There is Quebec's signature on one side and the federal government's signature on the other side. It is the same thing for the other provinces. Now we find out from a budget that the federal government is not going to honour those agreements.

What does that say about the government's ambition when it comes to the future of our provinces?

[Infrastructure, June 3rd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, the minister said the exact opposite. On Monday, at committee, he admitted that he had taken $342 million from Quebec and said that the government had not transferred money to Quebec.

What will happen to the $4 billion that was promised to Quebec once we reach 2023? The minister stated that any money that is not used by March 31 will be taken back and not transferred.

The Liberals are violating the agreement. They stole $342 million from Quebec and are threatening to steal more. Why are they not abiding by the agreement? What is an agreement signed by such a government worth?

[Infrastructure, June 3rd, 2022]

Madam Speaker, Quebec has already had $342 million stolen from the infrastructure agreement, and it stands to lose up to $4 billion more because Ottawa is unilaterally changing the terms of the agreement it signed with Quebec.

It is changing the deadline for submitting projects from 2025 to March 31, 2023. What happens if Quebec does not manage to submit in 10 months all the projects that it had three years to prepare? The minister stated that the funds would be taken back.

Why not abide by the agreement rather than stealing Quebeckers' money?

[Infrastructure, June 2nd, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, an agreement is something to be honoured. Not only is Ottawa taking away $342 million from Quebec, but it is threatening to take away another $4 billion by unilaterally changing the deadline for infrastructure projects.

The signed agreement gave Quebec until 2025 to submit projects. Ottawa is shortening that to 2023. This means that if Quebec does not submit all of its projects in the next 10 months, when it should have three years to do so, Ottawa could deprive us of $4 billion. This shows a total lack of respect for Quebeckers. It is our money.

Will the government keep its promises and give this money to Quebec?

[Infrastructure, June 2nd, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the federal government literally just stole $342 million from Quebec. It promised to give Quebec leftover money from the public transit infrastructure fund and the clean water and wastewater fund. It is right there in black and white in the Canada-Quebec infrastructure agreement the feds signed in 2018.

On Monday, however, the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities plainly stated he has no intention of honouring the agreement.

Will he backtrack immediately and announce his intention to give Quebec the $342 million he owes us?

[350th Anniversary of Verchères, June 1st, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, in 1672, Intendant Talon granted the seigneury of Verchères to François Jarret, an officer with the Carignan‑Salières regiment.

This little village along the St. Lawrence River saw history being made when 14-year-old Madeleine heroically protected the village from Iroquois attacks. Some even say she saved New France.

Years later, patriot Ludger Duvernay, who was also born in Verchères, founded the Société Saint‑Jean‑Baptiste and organized the first celebration of Quebec's national holiday. We also have another son of Verchères, former premier Bernard Landry, to thank for National Patriots Day.

When we think of Verchères, we also think of its famous rowboats and its dedicated artisans who work hard to keep the knowledge of their predecessors alive.

In 2002, Verchères became a wonderful, idyllic village that people could not help falling in love with. That is why I want to wish everyone from Verchères a happy 350th anniversary.

[Committees of the House, May 30th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I am a little discouraged to see the tenor of the current debate on procedures and the reason for the motion.

We have the opportunity to discuss a matter, the infamous WE Charity scandal, which we could not discuss before because the government prorogued Parliament. We could not discuss it when we returned to the House because the government threatened to call an election if we ever spoke about it again, which led to the NDP blocking the resumption of the study of the WE Charity file.

This leads me to wonder why my colleague opposite is not even able to debate the issue that is currently before the House. Is he so fearful of the collusion of the Prime Minister and WE Charity, and their notorious $1-billion contract, that he is doing everything he can to avoid discussing it?

[Business of Supply, May 10th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, earlier my colleague rose on a point of order about the fact that the speech of the hon. member opposite did not deal with the motion at hand.

I understand that it is important to be open and try to see when the hon. member will get to the motion, but I still do not hear the hon. member opposite talking about the motion.

I think it is a matter of respect for people—

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, May 9th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, in his speech earlier on Bill C‑19, the member across the way did not mention anything about a topic I very much wanted to hear him talk about. That may be because it is not in the budget either. I am talking about the word “health”.

Almost every province, including Quebec, asked for health transfers. I have been a member of Parliament since 2015, while the Bloc Québécois has been in the House for I do not even know how long, and I cannot recall one year or one week when the Bloc did not talk about the fact that health transfers need to be increased. The federal government's response has been insulting, namely that the government will talk about it once we become more efficient.

On the one hand, who is the federal government to tell the provinces how to run their affairs?

On the other hand, since this is a unanimous request that keeps coming up, how are we unable to come to an agreement on this fundamental need?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, May 9th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I listened to my Conservative colleague's passionate speech. I found it interesting and stirring, so to speak.

When we talk about Bill C-19, we are also talking about the budget that the government tabled not too long ago. What I really did not like about that budget was the lack of action on climate change. With the approval of the Bay du Nord project, we see that the government is continuing to get more deeply involved in oil.

Could the member who just gave that wonderful speech tell us more about what the government should do to combat climate change and get away from oil?