Yvon Lévesque

[Lydia Angiyou, March 3rd, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my gratitude and admiration for a woman from Ivujivik, a small village in northern Quebec, who received a Medal of Bravery for risking her life to save the lives of children in her village.

In February 2006, Lydia Angiyou confronted a polar bear to protect her son and his friends. When she saw the bear approaching the children, Ms. Angiyou ran towards it. In an attempt to scare it away, she yelled and kicked at it, but the bear swatted her back in the face. Alerted by one of the children, a neighbour rushed to the scene, armed with a rifle. Seeing Ms. Angiyou wrestling with the bear, he fired a few warning shots. The sound diverted the bear’s attention from Ms. Angiyou just long enough for the man to fire again and neutralize the animal.

Once again, I have nothing but admiration for the courage shown by Lydia Angiyou.

[Joé Juneau, January 29th, 2008]

Mr. Speaker, Joé Juneau, a former Montreal Canadiens player who has always led by example, took an active role in helping to create a program to motivate Inuit youth academically by introducing them to hockey in a sport study program.

Building on his popularity, his position as a role model for these young people, and their love of hockey, he quickly turned this program into a success and a source of motivation for the students, whose academic efforts determine whether or not they will be allowed on the ice.

My Bloc Québécois colleagues and I would like to congratulate Joé Juneau on receiving the well-deserved title of personality of the year from La Presse and Radio-Canada.

[Aboriginal Communities in Quebec, December 10th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on December 10, 1948, the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this 60th anniversary year, poverty is still both the cause and the result of human rights violations.

In Quebec, first nations still live in disgraceful conditions, too often in poverty. That poverty has an impact on the entire aboriginal population, but especially on young people, who make up 50% of that population.

Today, the chiefs of the first nations of Quebec are on the Hill to propose tangible measures to eliminate poverty in their communities. It is an opportunity for the members of this House to meet with them and find out more about the “10,000 possibilities” plan they have for solving their problems.

The Bloc Québécois commends this initiative, which is bringing nations closer together and, we hope, will lead to real solutions to eradicate poverty in Quebec's aboriginal communities.

[Manufacturing and Forestry Industries, December 6th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the ridings of Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou and Abitibi—Témiscamingue are going through an unparalleled crisis in the forestry industry. Bloc members are rising regularly in the House to suggest ways of resolving the situation.

In Chicoutimi—Le Fjord and Jonquière—Alma, sawmills are closing one after the other. In Roberval—Lac-Saint-Jean, where the Conservative member managed to get elected by promising to deal with the crisis, people watch powerlessly as their regional economy collapses.

Joliette, la Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, the Pontiac, and Beauce are also hard hit. Sawmills, paper mills and factories are closing their gates. The Bloc members condemn the government’s inaction and demand that it do something.

But the government just sits there with folded arms, resting on its surpluses which will amount to more than $69 billion in five years, and preaches free enterprise. In short, the Conservatives simply do not care about Quebec. They would rather please their friends out west, generate surpluses, and allow the crisis in manufacturing and forestry to ravage Quebec.

[December 4th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I wonder whether the people in the west understand the language of the people in the east. In any case, the people in the east understand the people in the west. My colleague just said exactly what we are saying, that it is the individual who declares his personal income, not the income of all the workers, but his own income.

In the present case, the Canada Revenue Agency is using the income of one person to tax all the workers at that same level of income. That is illegal under tax law.

We are asking the government to suspend the process of collecting money from all the workers at a given business based on one incorrect fact. If a worker is cheating then I agree he should be investigated, but all the workers should not have to be investigated because, supposedly, there is too much undeclared income. This should be linked to a specific person before an investigation is launched.

[December 4th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, before I begin, I wish to point out that my constituency includes Nunavik, not Nunavut. Nunavut is a territory, while Nunavik is a region of the province of Quebec.

On November 22, I put a question to the Minister of National Revenue. For the benefit of this debate, I will repeat that question:

Mr. Speaker, the Canada Revenue Agency has audited many restaurants in Quebec and sent out notices of assessment based on an average tipping rate of 16% of the bill. That rate was set arbitrarily on the basis of incomplete information.

How can the minister let the agency take such inaccurate shortcuts when setting assessment rates, knowing full well that such methods produce imaginary rates that are completely out of touch with these workers' reality?

Now, here are the words used by the minister to avoid answering my question:

Mr. Speaker, let me assure the House that each tax case is assessed against the particular conditions that apply to it.

However, I cannot talk about a particular tax case in the House because of the Income Tax Act.

The minister ignored the matter by hiding behind the appearance of confidentiality. Nevertheless, it was evident in the question I asked that the method used by the Canada Revenue Agency was the issue. To our knowledge, this practice is applied in a few dozen establishments and definitely affects more than one hundred employees. Therefore, we are not dealing with a specific tax case, as the minister would like to believe, but rather with many similar cases.

I am not questioning the minister about a specific case, but about the legitimacy of the Canada Revenue Agency's use of a particular calculation method. The Agency uses a mathematical formula to prepare notices of assessment based on partial records and established solely with credit card payments, without taking into account bills paid in cash. I would remind you that these records are incomplete and only partial. In addition, they do not reflect the reality.

The House should know that not only does this broadly used mathematical formula produce inaccurate notices of assessment, but it is also violating the spirit of the law, as the Income Tax Act applies to individuals for the purpose of calculating personal income tax. Its title is self-explanatory. In this case, however, the Canada Revenue Agency not only fabricates artificially inflated notices of assessment, but it also applies average tipping per restaurant figures to an entire class of workers. An employee's income should not be calculated based on an average, because we are no longer talking about personal income tax then, but rather about a base tax which, incidentally, has not been changed, which makes this whole approach illegal under the current Income Tax Act.

I want to point out to the House that the only province with taxation legislation concerning tip workers is Quebec. The only province where minimum wage for tip workers is lower than for other workers is Quebec.

Could the minister tell us whether he plans, as a first step, to stay any proceedings underway against all the tip workers who have been issued notices of assessment calculated using incomplete procedures, on the basis of incomplete information, and based on illegal methods?

As a second step, and before moving to ensure fair treatment for vulnerable employees, does the minister intend to legislate to put in place a fair and just taxation system while at the same time taking into account the reality that these workers are facing?

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, December 4th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my colleague that I said that my Bloc Québécois colleagues and I support this bill. Nevertheless, I question what the government would have us believe about having consulted all of the first nations and receiving their support for this bill. They can take as much time—

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, December 4th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this is what I understand from the bill.

A province can choose to participate in a hearing for a particular claim. If the province participates, it commits to abiding by the judge's decision and not appealing it. If it does not participate, it is not obligated to recognize the judge's decision. However, we believe that if the judge finds fault, the first nation will be able to take the province to court.

Our question is about the government's fiduciary responsibility to first nations. Will the province be required to pay 30% of the compensation to be awarded?

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, December 4th, 2007]

I would like the NDP members to be more attentive and less distracting.

If we just look at Bill C-44, there too, the Conservatives said that they had consulted the first nations. But when the bill was published, there was an outcry from aboriginal women from Canada and Quebec, the leader of the Canadian Assembly of First Nations and the leader of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador in protest against this lie.

They have introduced a bill and now they are saying once again that they have consulted. Many people are unsure whether this time that is the truth.

[Specific Claims Tribunal Act, December 4th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if my colleague wants a Conservative-style answer. I will give him a Quebecker's response.

We are not the ones who created smokescreens.