44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 17, 2024 02:00PM
- Apr/17/24 2:21:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to a great man from the north shore, Paul Brisson, who died on April 2 at the age of 79.
Originally from Les Bergeronnes, Mr. Brisson spent most of his life in Baie-Comeau, where he left his mark. He leaves a considerable legacy in the north shore media community. He began his journey in 1968 as co-founder of the Baie-Comeau newspaper Plein Jour. He went on to found or co-found some 15 north shore and Charlevoix weeklies. His tremendous contribution was recognized in 2010, when he received the Ordre des hebdos du Québec.
Paul Brisson was a man who believed in free speech and freedom of expression. He worked his entire life to promote freedom of the press and expand regional media. He spent his life ensuring that our voice was heard throughout the north shore and all of Quebec.
To his loved ones and the Éditions Nordiques extended family, I offer my sincerest condolences.
Thank you, Mr. Brisson.
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- Apr/17/24 2:32:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, child care falls under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. Dental insurance, if applicable, would be a jurisdiction of Quebec or the provinces. The same goes for pharmacare, municipal infrastructure and housing.
The Prime Minister is obsessed with the areas of jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces. I want to ask the Prime Minister if he has ever thought of running for premier of his favourite province, Ontario, to really get into something that interests him.
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- Apr/17/24 2:33:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my friend from the Bloc Québécois that I am a proud Quebecker and I always will be. There is nothing he can say that will take anything away from this proud Quebec identity that has been a part of who I am for 13 generations.
Yes, I am concerned about Quebeckers, as I am about all Canadians. That is why we are working with provinces like Quebec on investing in more child care spaces. We have invested $6 billion in early childhood education to help Quebec run its child care system. It is the result of an agreement with Premier Legault.
We will continue to be there and to be partners with Quebeckers.
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- Apr/17/24 2:33:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am not convinced that the Quebec government is saying the same thing as the Prime Minister. I myself am very proud to be a Quebecker. I am so proud, in fact, that I have confidence in Quebec. I believe it should be a country. I am not sure whether the Prime Minister has the same level of confidence.
Does the Prime Minister recognize that all of his meddling in areas under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces is funded exclusively through the never-ending fiscal imbalance?
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- Apr/17/24 2:34:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to be a Quebecker that I know I have a place in Canada, as do all Quebeckers. We are proud to be Canadian and proud to be Quebeckers. Most of us do not feel we have to choose between the two. We can be very proud to be Quebeckers and Canadians at the same time.
We will continue to be there to invest hand in hand with the Province of Quebec in order to deliver results for Quebeckers, just as we do with partners across the country. In fact, Quebec is often ahead of the curve in investing in social issues and social programs. That is why much of what we do follows Quebec's model.
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- Apr/17/24 2:47:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with his budget, the Prime Minister is recognizing that the issues that are really important to Canadians fall under the jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces.
Therefore, he is shamelessly using the fiscal imbalance, thanks to which he has a lot more money than he should, while Quebec and the provinces have less.
Does he recognize that, to implement his budget at the expense of Quebec's jurisdictions, he is grossly abusing the spending power instituted by former Prime Minister Trudeau?
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- Apr/17/24 2:48:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, while the Bloc Québécois continues to look for a fight, we are working hand in hand with the Government of Quebec.
With our housing accelerator fund, we have invested across the country, including in Quebec. Since Quebec was prepared to work ambitiously with us, we were able to invest $900 million directly in the province, and Quebec matched that amount to invest in housing.
That is the kind of partnership that will deliver results for Quebeckers. It is a model for the other provinces as well, because we will be there to build houses and homes across the country.
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- Apr/17/24 2:48:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Ottawa is working so hand in hand with the Quebec government that the Conservatives are recruiting from the CAQ.
Will the Prime Minister admit that, by failing to meet his obligations, he is responsible for a $6-billion deficit in Quebec City, that he is responsible for making Quebeckers shoulder $8 billion out of his $40-billion deficit, and that he has just put Quebeckers $14 billion in debt in one year?
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- Apr/17/24 2:49:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again, all the Bloc Québécois wants is to pick fights in Ottawa. We are here to work in partnership with the Quebec government. Of course, we will not always agree on everything. That would be a little too boring. We need creative tension, and we have it.
That is exactly what has produced results in terms of investments in housing and in Quebec's manufacturing future, investments that are creating solutions with long-term jobs for Quebeckers. We are here to work in partnership, and we will continue to do so.
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- Apr/17/24 2:50:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we can see the Conservative leader's philosophy very clearly. He sides with those who are better off. He tells everyone else that they are on their own and that he will not be there to support them. That is what he stands for when he pushes austerity and budget cuts.
We have chosen to work in partnership with the mayor of Montreal, with the Premier of Quebec and with premiers across the country to build housing to address the pressures we are experiencing in Canada, much like elsewhere in the world.
We are here to create a stronger, fairer future for every generation. That is the job of this budget.
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- Apr/17/24 3:04:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I refuse to believe that the Prime Minister is working hand in hand with Quebec. On the contrary, I believe he has his hand in Quebeckers' pockets. He is blatantly abusing the fiscal imbalance. He is blatantly abusing his spending power. Furthermore, he is racking up an appalling deficit that Quebeckers will be paying off for a long time to come simply to save his government's skin, and his own skin, in the next election.
Does he understand that I am condemning this government and this budget as it concerns Quebeckers?
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- Apr/17/24 3:05:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am shocked, shocked I say, to hear the Bloc Québécois complain about a government in Ottawa. That is its job, after all, and it has been for many decades.
We will continue to invest everywhere in Canada, including Quebec, in partnership with the Government of Quebec, to ensure that more housing is built, to invest in health care systems, and to support Quebec's efforts to provide a health care system. We will continue to be there to fund the creation of child care spaces. We are there to be partners in the well-being of Quebeckers and of all Canadians.
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- Apr/17/24 3:05:42 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if you have 10 minutes, I would ask you to explain to the Prime Minister what purpose the opposition serves in Parliament, especially since it comes so naturally to a Quebecker.
The Prime Minister is interfering in all of Quebec's jurisdictions, and yet the Liberals think it is outrageous for Quebec to want to use a tiny piece of the Constitution, the notwithstanding clause, to protect its own jurisdictions. The Prime Minister is abusing his power at Quebec's expense, and I will continue to speak out against that.
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- Apr/17/24 3:06:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will continue to fulfill my responsibility, both as a member from Quebec and as the Prime Minister of Canada, to invest in helping Canadians across the country. That includes investing to create housing for Quebeckers, jointly investing in health care, and investing to create more opportunities for Quebeckers in the coming years in good careers and good jobs in a green economy. We are there to invest across the country. The Bloc Québécois is the only one that does not like that.
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- Apr/17/24 4:44:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, far be it from me to defend Canada's Parliament, an institution to which I hope one day Quebec will no longer have to answer. Nevertheless, I must defend the principles behind this Parliament, in particular respect for democratic institutions, and therefore of the parliamentary democracy in which Quebec participates.
A few weeks ago, the Office of the Auditor General submitted a report on the management of the ArriveCAN app. To quote the Auditor General, management of the app was the worst she had seen in her career. The ArriveCAN app was supposed to cost $80,000 and ended up costing $60 million. In the same report, we learned that one company composed of two people, the owner of which is here today, pocketed more than $19 million. That company is GC Strategies.
We also learned that the ArriveCAN affair is only the tip of the iceberg. The comptroller general recently revealed that GC Strategies, and its ancestor Coredal Systems Consulting, have obtained contracts totalling $108 million since 2011. Manual searches could reveal other contracts, so it might be even more than $108 million.
We learned in the Auditor General's report and from several witnesses that the witness here today, Mr. Kristian Firth, and public servants participated in whisky tastings, dinners, golf tournaments and dozens of other events. It is normal and healthy in a self-respecting democracy that the parliamentarians responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of the government take a closer look at what may have happened to prevent it from happening again.
That is the reason why the owners of GC Strategies were invited to testify several times in committee. Mr. Kristian Firth refused to answer several questions. He compromised parliamentarians' work by not submitting the requested documents on time. He lied to the committee. In particular, he refused to submit the list of public servants with whom he did business, a list he has just now submitted but that is incomplete based on the testimony we heard in committee.
It is clear that, if that is where we are, there are huge problems with the government's procurement processes. For almost 15 years now, it has been so difficult for companies to pass the preselection stage to do business with the government that small companies that provide no services at all are being paid a commission so that the government can enter into a contract with the company that will actually be doing the work. It is completely absurd.
Here we have a person who took advantage of our broken system and pushed it to the extreme. I will give members an example. When the Canada Border Services Agency identified KPMG as a company with which it could do business and as a company already on the list of pre-approved companies, it contacted KPMG. The contract would be pre-established. That is when a public servant at the CBSA called KPMG to tell them that there would be an intermediary in their contract. The intermediary was GC Strategies. We learned that Mr. Kristian Firth met with KPMG with respect to the contract. That is precisely the problem. Mr. Kristian Firth and his two-person company did not even provide the head-hunting service they claimed to provide. They did absolutely nothing and pocketed $84,000.
My question for Mr. Firth is as follows: Does he think that taxpayers got their money's worth for the $84,000 in this affair?
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