Economic Development  Mr. Speaker, we have been there since the beginning of the pandemic, and even before, by making sure that we invest in people in northern Ontario, maybe through the RRRF program to protect jobs. We have protected thousands of jobs across Ontario, in particular in northern Ontario

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that our two official languages are extremely important for our government. That is why we took action. We protected and created Ontario's first French-language university. We helped create a historic action plan. What is more, we recently chan

Regional Economic Development  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel for her important question and her excellent work. Here is why the Prime Minister and I announced good news last Friday. It is because we know that our businesses and workers need help in the midst of the lockdown

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that modernizing the Official Languages Act is important. Why? Because we must always work to strengthen language rights for linguistic minorities in Canada and to strengthen French across the country, be it in Quebec or in other regions. I ha

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, I do not want to give my colleague a history lesson, but the Official Languages Act was adopted 51 years ago by a government headed by a certain Mr. Trudeau, following the Laurendeau-Dunton Commission, which advocated for official bilingualism. Furthermore, every bu

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his important question. Of course we sympathize with those affected by the lockdown announced by the Quebec government. Since the beginning, we have been there for our business owners to ensure that they get through the first wave, and we w

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, in recent days, I have had the opportunity to speak a few times with Quebec's minister of the economy. I am well aware of his new program. That is good news for business owners. It complements several measures we have introduced, such as the wage subsidy and small b

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, it goes without saying that we need to support our business owners. We have been there for them from the beginning of the pandemic and we will continue to be. That is also why many of these business owners have been able to keep their employees: because there is a w

Employment  Mr. Speaker, I would agree to disagree with my colleague, because we have been there for people in northern Ontario throughout the pandemic. That is why we nearly doubled the budget of FedNor, and that is why we have been there for tourism operators and for many small business ow

COVID-19 Emergency Response  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question because it is important. We want the business community and the cultural sector and all employees and entrepreneurs who are affected by this new lockdown to know that we are with them. We will be there. We have been there for th

Official Languages  Madam Speaker, you are Franco-Ontarian too, so a happy Franco-Ontarian Day to you. We will always stand by Ontario's 600,000 francophones. We will always stand up for their right to learn, work and live in French in Ontario. Our historic investments, our action plan for official

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague on his new responsibilities on the official languages file. I would be happy to review with him all the damage the Conservatives did to official languages. It has taken us five years to try to fix that damage, specifically in relat

Official Languages  Mr. Speaker, the reality is that we have been cleaning up the mess that the Conservatives made of official languages. This was necessary not only at the federal level, but also at the provincial Conservative government level, including Doug Ford's government. We are now very worr

The Economy  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Laval, the member for Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, for his excellent question. It goes without saying that our economy depends on our talented young people. That is why we marked World Youth Skills Day by investing $3.1 million in 14

Tourism Industry  Mr. Speaker, obviously I agree with my colleague. Many outfitters and tourism operators are deeply impacted by the pandemic and the economic crisis. That is why we decided to come up with a new fund, the regional recovery fund, which is there to help them. We have been supporting