Alain Therrien

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is rather disheartening. Take, for example, the Prime Minister's visit to see Donald Trump.

What did other world leaders think when the Prime Minister had no comeback to being called the governor of the 51st state?

Do members really believe that this is the kind of international representation that Quebeckers and Canadians deserve?

The answer is simple: We deserve better.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, they are mad because they know that I am right. They should listen to me and let me speak.

I challenge him to pick any Bloc Québécois vote from any time, look at the bill we were voting on, and think about Quebec's interests. He will see that the Bloc Québécois always voted in the interest of Quebec and only in the interest of Quebec. We are always on the right track. I will never be ashamed of my decisions. Take any bill that I have voted on. I can say that I will not be embarrassed about how I voted on it. I can talk to my constituents without blushing. I can look anyone in the eye and tell them that they can be sure the Bloc Québécois is there for them.

We make no compromises. We have a clear conscience, and we are proud of what we are accomplishing here.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, listening to the beginning of my colleague's intervention, even I was convinced that he was ready to come knock on doors in my riding so that I could win. I like my colleague a lot, and I could picture what a fun time we would have together.

I have a very simple challenge for the member. Every time the Bloc Québécois voted, it voted in the interest of Quebec and only in the interest of Quebec.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I must commend the Liberal member for his courage. He rises quite often to speak. I think he holds the record for the number of speeches given, and I sincerely commend him for that.

Eliminating the GST on certain products cannot be done willy-nilly like that. It does not sit well with people. In Quebec, almost everyone feels that way. People do not like that, and businesses are tearing their hair out over this two-month measure. Taxes are going to be taken off some products, but we are still not entirely sure which products the measure covers. Two months later, the government is going to reapply the tax. I think it cost the public treasury $1.6 billion. They say that people will benefit from this measure, but we need to know who is going to benefit. Who is going to benefit the most from these one-time exemptions? It will not be the people in greatest need, the people who need more help from the government. They are not the ones who stand to benefit. In economics, this is called a regressive measure. It is not a good measure.

At some point, the government has to take the public money contributed by taxpaying Quebeckers and Canadians. Before that money even reaches their pockets the government takes it away. We need a more serious approach. The Liberals are managing things haphazardly and they could have done better. We have a few suggestions for them. All they have to do is listen.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, as I was saying, the government chose the patron saint of hopeless causes, or perhaps I should say the patron saint of desperate causes, as the new Minister of Finance. Today, the government was supposed to table the economic update and present it to the House. One does not need a PhD to know that the government has to make a speech when it tables such a document and that the opposition must have the right to reply. However, the government has muzzled MPs. I watched all of this play out. The Liberals are as confused as a chameleon in a bag of Skittles. They are completely lost. We are all wondering whether we are going to have a right of reply. We found a way to reply, and we are very happy about that.

We were on pins and needles as we waited for the economic update. We thought that it might contain something extraordinary, but there was nothing there except one very important thing. The only essential information is this. In April, the former finance minister promised, hand on heart, that the deficit would not exceed $40 billion. I am certain she was sincere. However, since then, all we have seen is problem after problem.

In October, the Parliamentary Budget Officer forecast a deficit of $46.8 billion. That was worrying. Then the election goodies started, with the Prime Minister handing them out left and right. People had to calm him down a bit, but the Prime Minister was not done yet. He is a bit over the top when it comes to spending. We now find ourselves staring down a $48.3‑billion deficit, and that is not the end of it either. There are three and a half months to go before the end of the fiscal year. It is worrying. That is what the economic update offered. My colleague will talk about that in more detail.

In reading this document, it is clear that there is nothing exceptional about it, except for one thing: the Minister of Finance resigned. The person who was supposed to table this document stepped down. She chose not to table it because she has principles. Perhaps the Prime Minister can learn something from his former finance minister. She had promised not to exceed $40 billion, but she did not agree with the Prime Minister.

At one point, the Prime Minister had Mr. Morneau resign because he was not spending enough. Some people are saying that the Prime Minister provoked the finance minister's resignation because he did not think she was spending enough. That is disturbing. It is always easy to spend other people's money, and the Prime Minister knows a thing or two about that.

Today, the Deputy Prime Minister resigned. This is like if Spock, from Star Trek, threw himself out a porthole to escape the Enterprise after losing all trust in Captain Kirk. It is unheard of. People are saying that the Deputy Prime Minister resigned, but keep in mind that she was the second-in-command of the government. She took a few swipes at the Prime Minister on her way out the door, too. Obviously, I mean figurative swipes.

We had a government that was not working well. Everything it touched turned to mud. It had the opposite of the Midas touch. As soon as something that was working well landed on the Prime Minister's desk, it turned to mud, with lots of smoke pouring out from everywhere.

There were 20 Liberal mutineers who were popular this summer. Then that number climbed to 40. It was not clear what was going on. Finally, the mutineers calmed down. Now there are eight ministers who are not running in the next election, but it does not end there. There are eight ministers that we know of who are saying they are not interested in running in the next election. They did not exactly put it that way. They came up with excuses. They see the polls and they have to turn the poll upside down to see if they are in first place. At some point, they looked at the polls and realized that things were not going their way. They started talking amongst themselves. It seems like the Prime Minister is the only one who thinks he still has a chance, but he has never been good with numbers. That might explain some things.

The Liberal Deputy Prime Minister has decided to jump ship. I feel for those folks. I saw their faces during question period. They are going through a tough time. I look at the Prime Minister and wonder whether the guy still has the confidence of his members. I think not. Does he have the confidence of his ministers? Except for a few of them, I think it is safe to say the answer is no. Does he have the confidence of the people? I think it is safe to say the answer there is also no.

The Bloc Québécois has a proposal for the Prime Minister. He remains convinced that he is the right person for the job. The proof is that he was the first head of state to visit Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He was barely out the door when Trump started insulting him. He called him the governor of the 51st state. If he was trying to show leadership on the international stage, it is fair to say that he missed the mark, so there is that, too.

Every time he does something, it does not work. He reminds me of the donkey that always has a dark cloud over its head in the adventures of Winnie the Pooh. If he were the only one getting wet, it would not matter so much, but he is dragging the public down with him. It is not funny.

The Bloc Québécois has been telling the government that we have a responsibility in the House. The House has been paralyzed for the past three months because the government is refusing to hand over documents. We have been talking to the government and asking it why it does not free up Parliament. The government says that it is because it does not want to hand over the documents, even though it has been ordered by the House to do so. The government does not want to hand over the documents, and Parliament is paralyzed. However, that does not bother the government because it no longer has any vision or ideas.

The only idea that the government had was the GST holiday. I think the government can let that go, calm down, take a shower and have a cup of tea. That is the only decision that the government has made, and it has been condemned by economists, Quebeckers and business owners. Everyone was against that idea. The government spent $1.6 billion on a ridiculous GST holiday.

I could tell all kinds of stories about that. It is completely ridiculous, and nobody can figure out how it works. For example, the GST exemption applies to soft dolls. A woman had a soft doll with a rigid head, so the question was what to do about that and whether the doll was exempt. It took 12 people to talk about it and figure it out. What is that all about? That is what things have come to. This is a government that does not deserve Canadians' confidence and that does not have Canadians' confidence. The Prime Minister believes otherwise.

The Bloc Québécois talks to people. We listen to them, we hear them. What we are hearing is that Quebeckers want this government out of office. The government no longer represents them. Did they ever really feel it represented them? They likely did, since the Liberals were elected. However, their expiry date has passed. What we would like is for this Prime Minister to act like a statesman, like de Gaulle. He should stand up in the House and roll up his sleeves. If he is convinced he is right, he should call an election. It is the only option he has left.

The Bloc Québécois will be there. We are going to criss-cross Quebec, we are going to talk to Liberal members and we are going to take part in debates. We are going to make Quebeckers understand that the only credible option to defend Quebec's interests in the House, the only party that looks them in the eye and only in the eye, the only party that speaks for them without compromise, the only party that knows their values and their needs, is the Bloc Québécois. We will be back in the House with a lot more MPs.

[Privilege, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I will begin by saying that I will be sharing my time with the member for Joliette.

First, this is an unusual situation. Personally, I have 10 years of experience and I have never seen anything like this in Parliament. It is total chaos.

I will come back to the economic update, the story of a horror or a horror story. We have been asking for an economic update for a long time. It is tradition. The government has to face the public and provide an update on its economic record. We have been talking about this document since November. We were insistent. We kept asking when they were going to present it. They did not know. They were not sure.

Finally, someone on that team had the bright idea to do this the day before the end of the session. Taken aback, the others said, “Why not? We have not reached the height of absurdity yet, so let's go”. That is how it was decided to wait until the last minute to present the economic update.

Now things have gotten really crazy. The finance minister and deputy prime minister has resigned. She felt the economic statement was ludicrous and decided not to table it. She got upset and left. She continues to speak out against the Prime Minister, which is very noble, I must admit. Who knows whether there will be an economic update; there is no finance minister.

Then, we eventually found out that there is a new Minister of Finance, someone who has all sorts of roles and who, it seems, always manages to settle matters, one way or another. He is like a firefighter—

[Finance, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the government is preparing to table an economic update without a finance minister. No one, even among the Liberals, wants to take responsibility for it.

That is the ultimate proof that the government should not be racking up a record $60‑billion deficit just to hand out election goodies. It is racking up a deficit for measures that Quebeckers and businesses do not even want, measures that have been criticized by all economists, including those at the Department of Finance. It is not surprising that none of the Liberals want to take responsibility for that.

Will the Prime Minister do the right thing and backtrack?

[Finance, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, in 2020, the Prime Minister fired Bill Morneau because he was not spending enough. He then appointed the Deputy Prime Minister to replace him. Now he has gone and fired her, too, also because she was not spending as much as the Prime Minister wanted her to.

Imagine how much his third finance minister will have to spend in order to keep their job. The Liberals have no choice. They are going to have to look for someone in the NDP who will be willing to spend more and, above all, who will always dutifully obey the Prime Minister.

Seriously, this is a disastrous economic update. Will the Prime Minister back down?

[Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, this is an historic moment. The Deputy Prime Minister has resigned, saying that she is at odds with the Prime Minister about the best path forward for Canada.

The former deputy prime minister no longer has confidence in this Prime Minister to govern. Her lack of confidence comes in addition to the departure of eight other ministers. The Prime Minister cannot claim to have the public's confidence; he does not even have the confidence of his own ministers.

Will he be democratic enough to put his future in the hands of the public and call an election?

[Finance, December 16th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, the deputy prime minister has resigned over election goodies. She said that Canadians “know when we are working for them, and they equally know when we are focused on ourselves.”

People see through their little game. Quebeckers do not want election goodies, and neither do businesses. Even the former finance minister is saying no. The only ones in favour of election goodies are the NPD leader and the Prime Minister.

Will these two finally try to stop sabotaging the economy by handing out election goodies in order to buy votes?