House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 48% of the vote.
Innovation, Science and Industry October 11th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, the House remains paralyzed by yet another Liberal government corruption scandal. This green fund did nothing but create more bureaucracy and line the pockets of Liberal friends.
We are talking about $400 million and 186 conflicts of interest at a time when an unprecedented two million plus Canadians are using food banks every month.
Why will the government not hand the documents over to the police to get back those $400 million in Canadian taxpayer dollars?
Innovation, Science and Industry October 10th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, the House is paralyzed by yet another corruption scandal involving the current Liberal government. This must be in its DNA. We are talking $400 million and 186 conflicts of interest at a time when Canadians are struggling to put food on the table, heat their homes and keep a roof over their heads. Liberal insiders, on the other hand, keep getting richer. The Liberals keep protecting themselves and their friends by hiding documents.
When will the government hand the documents over to the police and get the taxpayers' $400 million back?
The Economy October 7th, 2024
Mr. Speaker, everything is more expensive thanks to the “Liberal Bloc” coalition: housing prices, gas prices but especially food prices, which have spiked by 22% since 2021. Food banks back home in Beauce barely have enough food to meet the needs of families in the region. However, the Bloc Québécois continues to support this government, which has impoverished Quebeckers.
Families are struggling and need help immediately. When will the government listen to Canadians and call an election?
Bloc Québécois October 3rd, 2024
Mr. Speaker, as expected, the Bloc Québécois motion was rejected by the Liberal government yesterday, proving once again that everything they said over the past few weeks was meaningless.
What is the point of the Bloc Québécois? Spending is higher than ever and there are more public servants than ever before, all paid for with Quebeckers' money.
What is the Bloc Québécois's objective today? They voted with the Liberals and the NDP to keep this government in place. This is a government that is always infringing on provincial jurisdictions.
The Bloc Québécois had the chance to work with the future Conservative government to bring down the current government, or at least to negotiate on behalf of Quebeckers on the woodland caribou issue. The Bloc must be the worst negotiator in history. The Bloc Québécois is selling its soul to the Liberals and getting nothing for Quebec. The Bloc Québécois now wants people to believe that it will bring down the government on October 29.
Does the Bloc not realize that all Canadians, including Quebeckers, want an election?
People can rest assured that once the election is called, the Conservatives will be there to stand up for Canadians and bring home common sense.
Committees of the House September 23rd, 2024
Madam Speaker, obviously, agriculture, agri-food and processing are very important sectors in my region. We have a lot of temporary foreign workers in the agri-food processing sector.
I think we need to better define the categories of workers we want to have. My riding was home to an Olymel slaughterhouse, which shut down about a year ago, affecting over 900 workers, including roughly 200 foreign workers. It is not that we do not have a labour supply of our own, but clearly, those folks were willing to come and work in our slaughterhouses.
I think we just need to be careful. We are talking about our food supply. I think that, as Canadians, we need to feed Canada first. If we want to feed our own population properly, we have to be able to process products locally. Because there are not enough Quebec and Canadian workers in our ridings, we still need temporary foreign workers. The categories need to be very clearly defined.
Committees of the House September 23rd, 2024
Madam Speaker, it is simple because I was a farmer my whole life. I left the profession just five years ago. I can say that the important thing for farmers right now is to axe the carbon tax, which is having an impact on their day-to-day work. I think the important thing is to work on developing new technologies to improve that.
Until these new technologies are available to our farmers, let us stop placing the burden on them, saying that food produced in Canada is expensive and importing products from other countries.
Committees of the House September 23rd, 2024
Madam Speaker, I find it rather odd that the member for Winnipeg North is asking this kind of question. He is asking me whether I am comfortable with what I just said. Yes, I am very comfortable.
On Wednesday, Parliament will have the opportunity to tell this government that it disagrees with all of its policies. I listed several of them in my speech. I hope that, on Wednesday, members will be able to vote to trigger an election as quickly as possible.
Committees of the House September 23rd, 2024
Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague from Foothills.
Today, I would like to acknowledge the important work that the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food has done over the past few months. I will quote in particular the 18th report, which is on food price stabilization across the country.
Let me be clear, we agree with majority of the committee's report and its recommendations. However, some aspects of the report need to be highlighted, and Canadians need to be aware of the Liberal government's policies and decisions that are contributing to increasing food prices and jeopardizing Canada's food security.
Unfortunately, this is a report that was done twice, which is a waste of both the House's precious resources and time that Canadians do not have to waste. Two years ago, we finished the same report and tabled our findings, but the government chose not to respond to any of our recommendations. That is a big part of my frustration. At the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri‑Food, we work very hard together, but few of the recommendations have been implemented by the government since I have been a member of that committee, which is nearly four years. I am very disappointed because we gave this a lot of thought. Our work and the recommendations we make reflect the importance that should be given to the agriculture sector and agri-food development.
Last year, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry wrote to the committee asking us to study this very subject as part of what I consider a politically motivated PR stunt. He did not even realize that the initial report already existed. This happened in the space of three months. The Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry said that he would stabilize food prices by Thanksgiving of 2023, but he did not keep his word. In the report, as well as the Conservatives' dissenting opinion, we find many solutions that could be implemented today to help ease the difficulties facing all Canadians.
I would like to list a few of the most important solutions.
Witnesses at every meeting brought up the carbon tax. It is wiping out our farmers' revenues and forcing millions of Canadians to use food banks. The cost of farm inputs and transportation is skyrocketing, and the upshot is that more and more Canadian families are going hungry. One in five Canadians is skipping meals just to survive.
However, my “Liberal Bloc” colleagues will say that the carbon tax does not affect Quebec. How out of touch with reality can they be? Just yesterday morning, I met with people who were telling me about the impact that this tax is also having in Quebec. We do not produce everything in Quebec, and most of the products that come from Canada are directly affected. This tax also affects grocery prices. Every time a Quebecker shops at the grocery store, they indirectly pay the carbon tax, which, as I just said, is applied to goods and transportation all along the supply chain. Farmers and homeowners also pay the carbon tax directly when they fill their propane tanks with propane, which is all imported to Quebec from elsewhere in Canada.
The inflationary deficit is another important point. The government has dug us into such a deep hole with inflationary deficits that future generations will have to pay the bill for years to come. Farm succession plans are in ruins, and the next generation does not even know if they will continue farming. They can thank the Liberals, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP for that. Food bank usage has never been higher. Millions of Canadians have to turn to food banks to put food on the table.
In my riding, an organization called Moisson Beauce, which serves over 50 organizations throughout the greater Chaudière-Appalaches region, is struggling to meet demand. I can corroborate that information. I met with people who work at this organization just 10 days ago. It is extremely sad. I have never seen anything like it in my entire life in Beauce. These comments come from the people and the many volunteers who work at the food bank.
Risk management programs need to be improved. As my Bloc Québécois colleague mentioned earlier, I do not know how many of the committee's studies have recommended reviewing all risk management programs and aligning them with the realities of the agricultural sector in 2024.
Considering the changing weather conditions and financial realities, such as rising interest costs, the government must take the lead and make significant changes to further protect farm families. Last year, 44% of fruit and vegetables were sold at a loss. That is an alarming number, and it raises the question as to why the government is not doing something about that. It would rather bring in produce from abroad by truck or plane while taxing farmers and causing unnecessary pollution with all these imports.
Revenues continue to fall. Net farm income in 2023 in Quebec fell by 42.9%, which is quite significant. One in five farms in Quebec have also reported not being able to repay their debts because of rising input costs, transportation costs and, especially, interest costs in recent years. The cost of the Liberal carbon tax is also one of the main reasons, and it needs to be axed now.
An important issue I would like us to look into is the fertilizer tariffs. There was the incoherent Liberal plan to charge a 35% tariff on Russian fertilizer, which is still in place today and is costing farmers a fortune just to run their operations efficiently. The government made that decision at a time when it was extremely difficult to procure fertilizer at a reasonable price around the world. Farmers are being fleeced, paying much higher than market value for the fertilizer they need to grow crops and feed the public.
Our party and many stakeholders have called for this tariff to be removed and the money returned to farmers, but the Liberals refuse. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has even made an exception in recent months so that critical minerals from Russia are exempt from tariffs, yet she still refuses to give farmers a discount on such essential products as fertilizer. All of that to say that the government's ideological pursuit of penalizing greenhouse gas emitters through carbon tariffs and taxes without properly recognizing those who have been mitigating, eliminating and sequestering greenhouse gas emissions for years, if not decades, is short-sighted.
Inflationary taxes and bad policies increase production costs for businesses and farmers, contributing to higher prices. We cannot tax farmers, truckers and grocers without impacting consumers at the grocery store.
A Conservative government will act quickly to remedy the situation. Fortunately, all parties will have the opportunity to make a common-sense decision this Wednesday to bring down the Liberal government. Canadians will be listening, and I hope my colleagues will move in the right direction.
Committees of the House September 23rd, 2024
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his speech. He touched on a number of topics, including the fact that the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food has tabled its 18th report. In the more than four years that I have sat on this committee, we have produced a considerable number of recommendations. The government, however, has implemented very few of them. My colleague mentioned a statistic earlier. He said that 44% of fruit and vegetable producers sold their produce at a loss in 2023. This was not that long ago. The committee made recommendations in this regard.
Does my colleague think that improvements could be made to help our fruit and vegetable producers, since that is also part of our overall food supply system? Could we not help them succeed, rather than import food from other countries because it is cheaper? While greenhouse gas emissions may not enter into the equation, a lot of people feel they are a very important factor.
Finance September 20th, 2024
Madam Speaker, the Bloc-Liberal coalition is costing Quebeckers and Canadians more and more. It voted in favour of $500 billion in inflationary and centralizing spending. Honestly, what is the point of the “Liberal Bloc”?
It leads to more spending than ever, more scandals than ever and an additional 100,000 public servants. It leads to more bureaucracy, paid for with Quebeckers' money. What is the Bloc Québécois good for? It is good for the Prime Minister and his government. Only a Conservative government can fix this disaster.
What is the Prime Minister waiting for? Will he call an election now?