Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I concur with my colleague. People earning less than $45,000 will get absolutely nothing out of these measures. They will not benefit in any way from the measures in this budget. I believe that there should have been an item, as my colleague just said, covering all income, from no income to very high income, to ensure that people making $45,000 or less, who are very close to the middle class, could also benefit.

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, in its extensive platform, the Bloc Québécois proposed tax measures to help the least advantaged and people with low income. For example, we wanted to enhance the guaranteed income supplement for seniors. We also wanted to improve the basic amount up to a maximum. We wanted to do that to raise the maximum income amount for eligibility to the guaranteed income supplement.

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, I believe that the hon. member just summarized what I said in my speech. He referred to an overall, holistic reform and that is exactly what is missing in this bill. It is just one aspect. The notice of the ways and means motion which led to the actual bill was hastily tabled before Christmas.

Income Tax Act  Mr. Speaker, the Bloc Québécois will be supporting this bill so that we can examine it more thoroughly in committee. My colleague, the member for Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, spoke about the Bloc Québécois's position in the speech he gave on February 1. He clearly explained why we will be supporting this bill.

Air Canada  Mr. Speaker, let us talk about Air Canada. Under the Air Canada act, the company is supposed to maintain its entire fleet here. Many of its 408 planes need heavy maintenance now. By changing the law, the minister is trading those guaranteed jobs for a hypothetical maintenance centre that might take care of 45 planes when they need to be refurbished in 10 years' time.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Transport is so glad that Quebec is dropping its case against Air Canada, thereby sacrificing 1,800 Aveos workers on the pretext that Air Canada may create 1,000 C Series aircraft maintenance jobs within 10 years. What is clear here is the Air Canada Public Participation Act and the conditions governing its privatization, and most of all, the fact that Air Canada is not obeying that law.

Employment  Mr. Speaker, 1,800 jobs have been lost at Aveos alone, because the federal government did not enforce its own law. Does the Minister of Transport want to modernize the Air Canada act to make it legal for the company to send aerospace jobs abroad? Does the minister realize that by not enforcing the law, the federal government was complicit in outsourcing Air Canada airplane maintenance to Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, and Minnesota?

Canada Labour Code  Madam Speaker, I would like to talk about the Bloc Québécois's position on this bill. We would like to congratulate the minister for taking such prompt action and doing the right thing. I believe that this bill should never have been introduced and that her actions will remedy an injustice to unions because the existing bill required accountability only from the unions and not from the major employer organizations.

Infrastructure  Mr. Speaker, the infrastructure program launched in 2014 is not working in Quebec. Since Ottawa is interfering in the selection process and wants to approve each project, even if they fall under Quebec or municipal jurisdiction, nothing is moving forward and the negotiations are never-ending.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Through you, Madam Speaker, I would like to tell the minister something about the many years I have spent here. I began my political career 31 years ago, and after two or three weeks I got into the habit of making statements. I had been on the news three times and my party had not really appreciated it.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, the statistics are about the same in all our ridings. Seniors are getting poorer, and the cost of living has increased substantially. By comparison, their pensions have increased only slightly in relation to the cost of living and now in all our ridings there are problems with income for seniors.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  You are right, sir. I wanted to talk about infrastructure, but I ran out of time. We support the government's infrastructure investment plan. We agree that stimulating the economy through infrastructure is a good thing. However, small municipalities often have a hard time contributing their third.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, thank you for that remark, and through you, I wish to respond to the member. The member first mentioned seniors. Indeed, we agree with the NDP's proposals in terms of improving the guaranteed income supplement, for instance. That was also part of our campaign platform.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to this debate on the Speech from the Throne. On the first day of Parliament, I had the honour of acknowledging and thanking my family, the people who voted for me, and my organizers. Today I would like to take this opportunity to wish them a happy new year; much health and happiness to all these people who mean so much to me and whom I have had the honour of representing for 31 years.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I listened closely to the hon. member's speech. He talked about the environment and the government's intentions, which were very clearly articulated in the throne speech. He also talked about Halifax's success; the government paid attention to that. He specifically mentioned the mayor by name; the government paid attention to him.