44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 10, 2021 10:00AM
- Dec/10/21 11:54:08 a.m.
- Watch
Mr. Speaker, for Quebeckers to be able to eat local food, we need the essential contribution of temporary foreign workers. That is why agricultural producers pay thousands of dollars every year for the right to bring them here.
This year, at least 243 workers breached their contract and left their job. Some left our country for the United States, while others were illegally recruited in Canada. Our farmers woke up the next morning to find their employees gone.
What is the government doing to combat this poaching?
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- Dec/10/21 11:55:05 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we agree on fairness, but that is not what we are talking about.
We know that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is swamped and that something is clearly dysfunctional. However, the government must ensure that foreign workers go through the proper channels when they get here. People who illegally recruit temporary foreign workers off our farms are hurting farmers and Quebec's food self-sufficiency and taking advantage of people who simply want to improve their conditions. These matters are connected, and this poaching is unacceptable.
What is the government doing to combat the poaching that is harming Quebec's food self-sufficiency?
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- Dec/10/21 1:03:46 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Madam Speaker, I pretty much agree with my colleague from Winnipeg North. That does not happen very often, so I thought I would point it out.
My colleague raised an important question when he asked why the Conservatives want to split the bill in two and what the next steps would be. I would like him to hypothesize. Where are the Conservatives going with this request and why?
We want to pass this bill quickly. What do the Conservatives have up their sleeves?
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- Dec/10/21 1:24:58 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Madam Speaker, my esteemed colleague, who is so brilliant, not to mention extremely kind, always sets the bar high, so I am going to seem a little less clever than I usually am.
What are we doing here at 1:30 p.m. on a Friday afternoon? We have work to do, but we are considering a motion that came out of left field and seeks to split a bill in two, meaning that it will take longer to pass. What is more, this motion comes from a political party that spends at least half of its time denouncing the government opposite for being too slow.
I am trying to understand, but I must be missing something. What is the strategy here? We are accustomed to seeing attempts to buy time, score political points and annoy the government, but what is the objective here? I would like my Conservative friends to least tell me that much, because I do not understand what is going on. Is the goal to slow down the work so they can then accuse the government of dragging its feet? Sometimes I wonder.
People are waiting for that support. Well meaning people here who were elected by the public want to do good work on bills and make proposals in committee. However, here we are, in the process of losing an afternoon to entertain the idea of splitting this bill in two, holding two separate votes, doubling the amount of time to do the parliamentary work and doubling how long it will take to get the support to those who need it.
Sometimes it is hard not to throw a fit. I am going to have stay calm. This is not the first time that has happened to me in the House.
My colleague from Saint-Jean did a good job describing our party's perspective, so I will focus on common sense and address my Conservative colleagues. People at home are watching them.
One week they see the Conservatives making grandiose speeches about the urgent need to help our businesses, but the next week they see them actively trying to slow down the passage of a bill.
I am not saying that this bill is perfect, and I am certainly not saying that this government is perfect. However, the bill before us is a good starting point, and we need to pass it quickly.
Earlier, my colleague said that we are not experiencing two different pandemics. We are all going through the same crisis at the same time. Can we take our work seriously for the common good and quickly pass a bill that will help everyone in the meantime?
If we split this bill in two, who are we going to help first and which part are we going to vote on first? What are the Conservatives trying to accomplish? Are they trying to deny help to businesses or do they want to deny help to individuals? Would either option be justified?
I believe that the Conservatives are not against either one. When they put their questions to me, they can tell me if I am mistaken. I would ask them to do that for me.
I hope their questions will do me good, because I do not feel great right now. When I am in this place, I am supposed to be working on behalf of the people, but that is not what I am doing right now. Instead, I am trying to prevent members from slowing down the work that we do for people. That is not what we usually do, and furthermore it is a little appalling. Yes, I am not my usual pleasant self. Could we get down to work for the people, who are watching?
As was mentioned earlier, we are already way behind. I said that the government is not perfect, and a good example of that was that it was in a hurry to call an election in the midst of the Afghanistan crisis and COVID-19, which was not over yet. However, Parliament was working just fine. I cannot speak for the other parliamentary groups, but there is always one that is hard at work in this place, and that is my team.
Even though some people in English Canada might think that we are here to cause problems, for the most part, the Bloc Québécois is here to find solutions. We respectfully make suggestions because we are here to improve the lives of our constituents. We work for everyone. I am not working against the Liberals, Conservatives or New Democrats. I am working for the people of Quebec.
People need these assistance measures to be extended, and the bill we are studying is not perfect. We have mentioned the topics of self-employed workers, in particular ones working in the cultural sector, but I know others who have not been able to get back to work.
Instead of sitting around this afternoon in an attempt to block a stalling tactic, could we not send this bill to committee so that the committee can study it and make suggestions? Fortunately, based on what I understand, three political parties are against the motion, so it will only have cost us half a day. Nevertheless, time is money and the clock is ticking.
We were called back to the House 62 days after the election. It took a very long time for that to happen. In most of their speeches, the members from a certain party say that the government is not doing anything, that the election was useless, that the Liberals took 62 days to recall Parliament and that we should have just kept working. However, that same political party is preventing us from working this afternoon. I censored the last word of my sentence, which proves that I am not getting too carried away.
The Bloc Québécois spoke about shortages of microprocessors and about individuals who need help. I am now going to talk about something that my Conservative colleagues like to bring up a lot, and that is inflation. I think they are right in bringing it up all the time, and I am not criticizing them for that, quite the contrary. Inflation is a real problem and we need to help our fellow citizens, so let us take action.
Individuals, employees and businesses need benefits, and 58% of SMEs say that they are not back to pre-pandemic levels. That means that nearly six out of 10 businesses do not have enough revenue. Is the government going to wait for those businesses to shut down? Is it simply going to advise people to apply for EI in the hopes that they are among the few who are eligible?
What we need is real employment insurance reform, but nobody seems to be able to do that. We might not have to talk about self-employed workers so much if the EI system were a real EI system, not a disguised federal government funding program. We need to get money out to everyone and deal with seasonal gaps. We need to talk about these things because they affect real people.
We also have to talk about improving access to sick days because of COVID‑19, the wage subsidy, the rent subsidy and so on. We have to protect the social fabric and pay attention to it.
I am really looking forward to answering my Conservative colleagues' questions. I have asked for this at least three or four times, and I hope they will ask me at least one question. I would like the Conservatives to explain to me what is going on this afternoon because I do not understand. There are several sectors we need to talk about urgently, and we need to move forward.
It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Bloc Québécois is going to oppose this motion. It was said earlier. We hope that we will be able to move forward as quickly as possible afterward.
If we do end up wasting even more time on this, the government might move time allocation to limit debate, and that motion might get support from its NDP friends. If that happens, I really hope the Conservative Party members will not complain. A certain political party is responsible for wasting our time. It is backing us into a corner and will force us to adopt the bill quickly. I do not need to say which party that is.
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- Dec/10/21 1:35:43 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Madam Speaker, I sincerely thank my esteemed colleague, whom I respect a lot. I also want to congratulate him publicly on his recent appointment as parliamentary secretary. That is exciting news.
My colleague asked me about our constituents. There is one thing I cannot understand. Members are rising to delay proceedings even though they, I would imagine, are also getting calls to their riding offices. I have a hard time believing that they do not get any, unless they just completely ignore that aspect of their work, let their employees take care of it, and know nothing about what is happening.
I like to go see what is going on from time to time. I call people who are struggling the most and I explain to them what we are doing. I explain that when proceedings in the House are stalled, I rise, I get upset, and I stand up for my constituents. That is what I am doing this afternoon.
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- Dec/10/21 1:38:03 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Madam Speaker, I thank my highly respected colleague for his very pertinent question. He either wanted to turn the matter over to me or he thought I was not upset enough.
He spoke about the guaranteed income supplement, or GIS. I just went through my first re-election campaign. I thought that I was a member until September 20 and had to continue working for my constituents. I am very naive. When people told me about their problems with the GIS, I contacted various ministers' offices. I was told that we were in a transition period, that nothing could be done and that we would talk again after the election.
In the meantime, seniors do not have enough money to buy groceries because they received the CERB after losing their jobs, which is not really their fault. They are considered to have earned too much. It would be easy to change this, however. The Bloc Québécois made some suggestions and so did the ACEF groups. This is very simple to do, we must act quickly and it can be included in the bill. It is one of the Bloc's conditions for supporting the bill. Therefore, we are on the same side.
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- Dec/10/21 2:05:03 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-2
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very pertinent speech.
I would like to give him an opportunity to tell us more. Can he explain what is behind the Conservatives' manoeuver this afternoon? Why have they wasted all this time?
I did not get an answer to the question I asked earlier.
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