Official Report  Mr. Speaker, I am asking for the unanimous consent of the House to table the impact study prepared for the Comité deux villes/deux alumineries and the Société de la Vallée de l'aluminium entitled “Impacts économiques 2020-2029 sur l'économie du Québec des projets compromis par la non-inclusion de l'industrie de l'aluminium à l'amendement de l'ACEUM”.

Municipality of Saint-Philippe  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to pay tribute to the city of Saint-Philippe, which just wrapped up its 275th anniversary celebrations. On Saturday, December 7, the people of Saint-Philippe joined together for a massive Christmas party, which was the culmination of a very successful year-long celebration.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the leader of the NDP, for the question. I will tell him the truth. I just started sitting in the House. I have worked on the single tax return file, and I am quite familiar with it. Did I talk to those people? At the time, it was not my responsibility, because it was not my job.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question and congratulations. What will I do for Canadian unity? That is a good question. I will not answer it, but instead, I will tell her what I will do for Quebec. Quebeckers elected 32 Bloc Québécois members. From the outset, we made it clear that our job is to serve Quebec alone.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, thank you for your comment. I apologize for breaking the rules of the House. Indeed, I have crossed paths with my colleague in other circles. He said that the Conservatives attached a sum of money to the trade agreement. I hope he does a better job attaching his toque to his head when it is windy outside, because if not, he will surely lose it.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for his fine words because he is saying good things about farmers. We will always agree on that. He said that he is prepared to work together. I have no problem with that, on the contrary. The Bloc Québécois is prepared to collaborate.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  I was the member for Sanguinet.

Resumption of debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I was talking about health transfer payments. I explained in detail that the provinces are dependent on funds from Ottawa, and they have been since the beginning of Confederation. Federal government transfers flow to the provinces so that they can do their job. Over time, however, transfers have continued to diminish so that the government can download the deficits to the provinces, as we saw in the nineties, or overload them with standards and conditions to go back to the basic notion that centralizing power was what the Fathers of Confederation intended and that the goal of federal spending is precisely to accomplish that almost-solemn mission.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, this being my first formal speech in the House, I would like to take the opportunity to thank my campaign volunteers, who worked so hard to get one more Bloc Québécois MP in this place. I am so grateful to them. I am also very pleased to thank the members of my hard-working election committee, without whom it would have been hard to win this election, because the Liberal candidate was a tough opponent, I have to say.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, this being my first speech in the House, I would like to acknowledge my constituents in La Prairie and thank them for putting their trust in me in the last election. My colleague from P.E.I. spoke about divisions. He pointed out that Canada is currently divided, as very different views clash with each other.