44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 25, 2021 10:00AM
- Nov/25/21 6:45:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I respectfully want to point out it is not a gray area. It is black and white that a member logged in virtually or a member present in the House is a member is full, is a member with all the rights and privileges afforded a member of Parliament. I humbly submit, sir, it is not a gray area at all. Whether members are logged in or whether they are in person, they are in fact participating in the deliberations of Parliament. In any event, it should not and cannot be the subject of discussion in the House whether a member is present or not.
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- Nov/25/21 7:14:11 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would first like to let you know that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Elmwood—Transcona. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your new position. By the way, it is nice to see an Acadian in the chair.
Since this is the first time I am speaking in the House in this 44th Parliament, I would like to begin by thanking the citizens of Gatineau for once again placing their trust in me. It is the honour of my life to serve them and to represent them here in this chamber. I want them to know that I will do my best. My colleagues and I will work together to fulfill the commitments we have made over the years and during the election campaign.
I would also like to thank my family, who have been supporting me in this political adventure for quite some time. They have been a tremendous support. I would also like to thank my supporters, the people around me. All of my colleagues and I have people in our ridings who volunteer to support us. I would also like to thank our staff who do so much for us. I want to thank all of those good people as well.
As chief government whip, I am happy to work with my colleagues. I see my role as helping to make Parliament work and ensuring we can stand up for our interests and ideas and achieve our goals and objectives for Canada, our regions and our ridings. As whip, I am committed to making sure my colleagues on this side of the House and I take a collaborative, constructive approach to achieving our shared goals as we strive to create a better Canada.
That brings me to the motion we are debating today. The pandemic rocked our country and the whole world. It has been a trying time for all our fellow citizens. To survive, we have had to follow code red, yellow and green rules that changed from day to day. The member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles talked about that. We were not sure our kids would be able to go to school, and we did not know if we had to follow a given rule from one day to the next.
People had to adapt. It was difficult. We saw the consequences of that. People are eager to get back to some semblance of normal life, but they also want their government to set the example and for their institutions to reflect their primary interest, which, in my opinion, is to keep everyone safe. We need to keep our children, constituents, seniors and the people around us safe.
That is the crux of what we are debating today. Like any organization, social club, sports association, educational institution or business, we had to take rather extraordinary and exceptional measures for a set period of time. The measure that we are discussing today is also for a set period of time. We had to take extraordinary measures to meet the sole objective of keeping everyone safe.
There are a lot of people who depend on us, and I want to thank them. I am talking about the people in Parliament, the clerks, support staff, IT team, pages and interpreters.
All of those people also had to take special measures and work twice as hard without infringing on our rights and responsibilities or undermining our ability to do our job, so that we, as parliamentarians, can enjoy our privileges, be present, talk and give speeches safely. I repeat that these measures are for a set period of time.
The return is happening quite slowly. In my region, there is obviously a lot of talk about the public service, mandatory vaccination and the mandate given to deputy ministers and heads of federal agencies to decide when employees will return. Some are eager to get back to the office. Others want and need to continue working remotely, virtually. That is the case here as well.
We do not know what the pandemic has in store for us. We hope it will end some day, but it is clear that we also need to take the necessary precautions and lay the foundations for a virtual system, without debating it every two weeks, that ensures that we can continue our work.
My colleagues are eager to get back to work in this Parliament. They are looking forward to being here in this place and to participating in the debates, interacting with colleagues from all parties in the House and adding their voices to the great debates that occur in this place. However, they want to make sure that it is done safely.
As for the government team, the Liberal government caucus, we will ensure that our members can participate in the work of the House here in person, but also in virtual mode and via teleworking, in order to continue that work. Our only goal is to ensure the safety of everyone, including our colleagues, the staff I mentioned, all parliamentarians and everyone around us.
Today, I am listening to the speeches and I hope to be able to bring the debate back to the main issue. We are not undermining the democracy cherished on this side of the House and by all the other political parties. We are not trying to indirectly change something that has nothing to do with the pandemic.
We are trying to make a slight change to our democracy with the tools provided by the people who work very hard to support us so that we can continue the great work of building our magnificent country while ensuring the safety of all those participating in this work. I tip my hat to them.
I implore all our colleagues to vote for this measure that seeks to protect us and ensure the continued functioning of democracy in a safe manner.
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- Nov/25/21 7:24:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, apparently my hon. colleague did not listen to the very last part of my speech, where I said not to make this into more than what it is. We are living in an extreme and unique pandemic. The last one happened over 100 years ago, and I think part of the problem of the debate we have had today is to try to impute grand principle into what is basically a simple calculation: ensuring the pursuit of our ancient parliamentary democracy, which is so dear to us, while ensuring the personal safety and security of all of us in this chamber and all of those thousands of people who surround us daily.
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- Nov/25/21 7:27:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her intervention.
Again, I think that we need to move away from these arguments and come back to the motion we are debating today, which seeks to bring in a temporary measure to adapt to our reality.
The member is talking about health conditions that can change at any time. I invite her to look at how the number of cases is soaring right now in Europe and around the world. It is very sad.
This is about bringing in a temporary measure to adapt to the pandemic reality we are in.
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- Nov/25/21 7:28:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have always sought to be guided by the science. What do we know? We know this is a spreadable disease. We know that this is a highly contagious disease. We know that it is an incredibly dangerous threat to our public health and, indeed, I do not think anyone is served by obscuring any of those essential facts with more extraneous facts. We have tried to be guided by that science. We have tried to be guided by those measures. Like every other organization in the world, we have taken measures to adapt our day-to-day reality to the unfortunate reality of this pandemic, and tried to terminate those measures at an appropriate time. We will continue to do that.
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