Official Languages committee  In the 1970s, when I started kindergarten, I went to an English school. I was supposed to go to a French school, but the Quebeckers, the old-stock francophones, wanted nothing to do with Italians because they felt threatened. So I continued my education in English. However, when the time came to do my law training, I didn't do it in English.

Official Languages committee  You answered the question by asking it. That's exactly right. Old‑stock French‑speaking communities across the country are in rural areas that are losing ground, usually in favour of large urban centres. For example, in Nova Scotia, the largest pool of francophones is now in Halifax.

Canada-China Relations committee  Yes, there are commitments under way to add to the strength of our navy, or at least to replace old stock, but we have yet to, shall we say, really put any of that new capital into the water. I think there's a lot of positive rhetoric in the Indo-Pacific strategy around boosting our defence capabilities, but at the end of the day, one has to ask, “Where's the beef?”

National Defence committee  Canada has delivered 20,000 155-millimetre rounds from our old stock. That's just a matter of a few days' supply. We've heard at this committee, though, that industry says it's waiting for orders, while procurement officials have been frustrated by industry's lack of capacity.

Finance committee  In the last 20 years, the schools have become more diverse; they really need to be connected and they need inclusion. Alberta's francophonie, the old-stock francophones, represents about one quarter of our population. Second is Canadian migration, people like me, who came from Quebec or elsewhere. There is also international migration, which really represents the vitality of the francophonie.

Human Resources committee  Like I mentioned earlier, access to more funding through the CMHC for reducing the threshold through MLI Select or any development of any new tools in the tool box for what can be used to incentivize new housing development would be great. From the affordability perspective, a fund to target acquiring old-stock buildings and moving them from the for-profit to non-profit realm would also help shore up the community housing element in the overall mix of housing supply. In part, to combat Nimbyism through making available—

Business of Supply  The people who will come will work and ensure that our communities are vibrant. We will be able to populate and use our land. We talk about old-stock Quebeckers and I am one of them. Newcomers have never prevented us from continuing to speak French. I have never been afraid of that. I have not lost my culture. That is what the Bloc Québécois is trying to make us believe.

Business of Supply  We grew up in a house where the first language was not French, and yet we all chose independence. This is our project. We will build this country together, newcomers to Quebec with old stock Quebeckers, as well as with our brothers and sisters from the first peoples—because anyone who wants to be a Quebecker is a Quebecker. Canada wants to reach a population of 100 million people and invite immigrants to come and contribute to its economic growth.

Business of Supply  That is why the debate on immigration levels to Quebec has become a bit toxic and unhealthy, because there is a lot of vocabulary being used to divide people, namely, us, the old-stock Quebeckers, the historical majority, versus them, the newcomers who are being singled out. That is really unfortunate. There is not a lot of that kind of rhetoric in today's motion, but that is why I am saying that we need to pay attention to the context, which has been ongoing for many years.

An Act Respecting Regulatory Modernization  We understand the spirit of the bill because the Standards Council of Canada conducted an analysis of 19 Natural Resources Canada regulations. It became apparent that there were artefacts and old stock, that 167 of the 367 standards were removed, replaced, were no longer managed or no longer served any purpose. What we are saying here is that we are going to facilitate the process of regulatory changes.

Government Operations committee  Johns raised about culture. When I think of that word in this sense, I think of terms like “old stock”, “good old boys”, “this is the way things are done” and “we protect our own”. Can you speak to how we can foster a healthier culture? This seems to have been going on for a long, long time.

Government Business No. 22  When there are debates and members of the opposition ask the government questions, they get either the same old stock answers repeated over and over again or answers that have nothing to do with the question. That is the purpose of debate. If the government would give proper answers to the questions the opposition parties ask, then we likely would not need to extend the sitting hours because the work would get done efficiently.

Business of Supply  With the oil and gas sector, of course we have seen the rampant profiteering, with the price going up on old stock as soon as there is any sort of crisis, as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has pointed out so many times. Both at the beginning and at the end of every crisis, the oil and gas sector reaps record profits.

Business of Supply  As the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed in a study it did about oil and gas price gouging in this country, the reality is that oil and gas companies increase the price on old stock whenever there is an international event. We have certainly seen this with the deplorable Russian invasion of Ukraine. The oil and gas companies profiteered and benefited by raising the price on old stock.

Human Resources committee  Thank you to the witnesses for their very informative remarks. I'm from the Vancouver area, and one of the challenges there is that we have a lot of old-stock rental apartments. Actually, very little has been built since the 1970s. They are purpose-built rentals. In the private sector it seems as though there has been a real tension among those who have invested, who have made the buildings, with rent controls, so they're not willing to do maintenance or improvements.