Yves Lessard

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, the remarks of my colleague, the member for Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour, are entirely appropriate. Not only do they remain silent but they scorn the work of the Bloc Québécois, which is continually raising issues both in the House of Commons and in our ridings to move these issues forward. They look down on the work of the Bloc.

They not only belittle the work of the Bloc Québécois, but twice last fall the Bloc presented motions in this House to come to the assistance of the forestry and manufacturing sectors and they voted against them. We tabled a motion dealing with POWA, and they voted against it. It was those people.

The member for Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean, who was elected last year, the member representing forest workers, voted against our motion. They not only do nothing, they work against proper measures to come to the assistance of Quebeckers.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for Louis-Hébert for his question.

I refer him to the mandate the people of Quebec have given us. They are better judges than he is. As for the remarks he made earlier, I will not bother answering.

Nonetheless, two-thirds of the members of Parliament from Quebec are in the Bloc Québécois. Two thirds of Quebeckers in Quebec ridings are satisfied with the work we are doing here and the results we are achieving.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, they are behaving like drunkards. This makes no sense and I would ask you to call them to order.

An appropriate measure with respect to employment insurance would be to ensure that the surplus accumulated by employment insurance over the past year, that is, $1.444 billion, be retained, put into a separate fund and used to support workers, particularly older workers. Thus, $60 billion would go to older workers to establish the POWA.

Let me say to the hon. member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles that the POWA could help the workers from Saint-Émile who lost their jobs in the shoe industry. I would like to see him, instead of clowning around, rise in this House and assure us that the POWA will be established. That is what the workers of Saint-Émile in his riding, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, are asking for. Yet he cannot do that. All Conservative members from Quebec should be able to do so, since all ridings have been affected.

Every time there are massive layoffs, at least 20% of the workers affected are over 55 years old. Establishing a support program for older workers would help workers in all regions.

Since I am getting a signal that my time is up, I will close by affirming that it is very important that the motion moved by my hon. colleague from Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup be unanimously adopted.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Sir, if you are drunk, please leave.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, our Conservative colleagues are showing a very poor attitude today by interrupting me with insults and outrageous comments.

I would point out that employment insurance—

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

There is something odd here. They say that we do nothing here. The Minister of Labour and Minister of the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, a member from the Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean region, said, just yesterday, that it was the Bloc's fault for forcing them to separate the $1 billion trust from the budget.

Instead he should have praised the Bloc, because it was the Bloc Québécois who made them realize just how little help these people were receiving. That illustrates how we move things along every week and every day that we spend in this House.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Let us return to worker assistance.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would ask you to call to order our two Quebec colleagues, the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles and the other member, whose riding I have forgotten because he does not often speak. I did not interrupt his speech earlier. It is quite inappropriate and that is just about all that they want and can do.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, it is the war industry. Last year, the members opposite who are carrying on committed $17.5 billion in a single week, without any debate in this House, the week after the House of Commons adjourned. Since then, the total has climbed to $23 billion to finance the war industry. We are in favour of updating military equipment, but at a reasonable pace, in light of the support the rest of the manufacturing sector needs.

[Committees of the House, February 5th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, they are still making a racket, as you can see.

Their doctrine is to support the war industry. The member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles can tell us later, and his colleague, whose name I forget, because he does not speak very often, and when he does, he does not make much of an impression—