SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 194 - May/10/23

Ms. Bonita Zarrillo (Port Moody—Coquitlam, NDP)

May/10/23 2:55:11 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the price for an unfurnished one-bedroom rental home in metro Vancouver has climbed to $3,000 a month. Families, students and seniors in Vancouver cannot afford to live there. The housing crisis has only gotten worse under the Liberal government. The government has allowed greedy corporate landlords to buy up homes, hike rents and make it impossible for Canadians to secure affordable housing. When are the Liberals going to crack down on corporate landlords and make housing truly affordable?

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Context: House Hansard - 194 - May/10/23

Hon. Pierre Poilievre (Leader of the Opposition, CPC)

May/10/23 2:58:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what the Prime Minister is doing is massively increasing the drug overdose crisis in this country. He has been providing taxpayer dollars for high-powered drugs that have flooded our streets and lowered the cost of hydromorphone on the streets by as much as 95% in Vancouver. This has led to the deaths of 30,000 Canadians. Will the Prime Minister back away from his reckless plan to join with the NDP in B.C. and decriminalize crack, heroin and other deadly drugs?

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Context: House Hansard - 194 - May/10/23

Mr. Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, CPC)

May/10/23 4:33:04 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-13

Mr. Speaker, French and English are foundational to our nation. The bilingual nature of our country is in our DNA, and we do not want to lose it. Where I am from in British Columbia, as well as throughout this country, there has been a decline in French spoken at home. The French language and French Canadian culture are part of who we are, our tradition and our heritage. I live in Maple Ridge. Right across from where I live is Fort Langley, which is where the first capital of British Columbia was situated. The French Canadian coureurs de bois, or voyageurs, were very much a part of that. Maillardville in Coquitlam is the hub of francophone culture in the Vancouver area. Every year, thousands come to the annual Festival du Bois, which highlights French Canadian music, dance, art and traditions. I am glad there are hundreds of thousands of students, past and current, who have gone through French immersion programs in British Columbia. It speaks volumes about the interest in the language among the non-francophone population. Francophone minorities in my province of British Columbia, as well as across Canada, have been calling for the modernization of the law on official languages for many years. My mother put a lot of effort into trying to encourage me, or force me, to learn French. She put me with French families and gave me lists of verbs to learn, but I did not really apply myself very well. It was after I graduated from high school and started travelling that I realized there was real value in learning other languages and communication. I went on to take courses in university to study it. I am very appreciative of the effort my mother made. It has enriched my life. I believe there is great merit in strengthening the bilingual nature of our country. I am pleased to have this opportunity today to speak to Bill C-13, which modernizes the Official Languages Act. I have had the pleasure of serving on the Standing Committee on Official Languages for two or three years now, with a few interruptions. During that time, as a committee, we had the opportunity to hear from many individuals and organization representatives who shared their expertise and opinions on official languages in minority communities across Canada. One thing is clear and unanimous. We need to modernize the Official Languages Act, particularly to address the decline of French in the areas of the country where it is a minority language. I would like to talk a little bit about my francophone roots, my family lineage. What happened to my family happened to hundreds of thousands of other French Canadian families in western Canada who were originally from Quebec. My grandfather was Léopold Beaudoin. He married my grandmother, Alice, in the 1920s. At that time Quebec families had a lot of children. My grandparents had 18. Like perhaps most people, my grandfather was a farmer. During this time, the population in Quebec was growing. There was less and less land to support the big families and provide enough food. They decided to move to Opasatika, near Kapuskasing, in Ontario. As we all know, there is a large francophone community in northern Ontario. My mother was born there. However, after 10 years, they decided to start over in the Rivière‑la‑Paix region in northern Alberta. Many small francophone communities were established in the region, such as Falher, Girouxville, Saint‑Paul, Bonnyville and Morinville, and, beforehand, there were already towns such as Saint‑Albert and Leduc.

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