SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Dominique Vien

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • Conservative
  • Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis
  • Quebec
  • Voting Attendance: 66%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $88,640.78

  • Government Page
  • Jun/3/24 3:01:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Montrealers are fed up. They are finding used syringes on the doorsteps to their homes, their day cares and their businesses along with human waste on the ground. The reality of the Bloc-Liberal alliance is $500 billion in reckless spending that has contributed to this homelessness crisis. It is budget chaos and social chaos. Can this Prime Minister, backed by the Bloc Québécois, stop wasting Quebeckers' money so they can have a safe city again?
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  • May/27/24 2:58:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, this Liberal-Bloc Prime Minister is simply not worth the cost. The Bloc Québécois voted in favour of $500 billion in spending because it wants to keep the Liberal government in power. Quebeckers are homeless, starving and sleeping in dumpsters, and the Bloc Québécois supports the Liberals, who are responsible for this suffering. Will this Liberal-Bloc Prime Minister stop his reckless spending and let Quebeckers live in dignity?
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  • May/10/24 11:35:52 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after nine years of this Liberal government, Quebeckers have had nine years of misery: budget chaos, criminals on the loose, unaffordable food and housing. Instead of thinking about fixing the budget, the Bloc Québécois is voting for $500 billion in wacko, inflationary spending. The more this Bloc Québécois-backed government spends, the more Quebeckers suffer. The Bloc Québécois and the Prime Minister are not worth the cost. Can this Prime Minister and the Bloc Québécois start thinking about Quebeckers and stop wasting their money?
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  • May/7/24 2:37:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of this Liberal government, Canadians can no longer make ends meet. The Governor of the Bank of Canada has said that this Prime Minister's reckless spending is making it hard to lower interest rates. Canadians are struggling to put a roof over their heads and food on the table, and the Bloc Québécois is continuing to encourage the Prime Minister by agreeing to let him spend $500 billion. When will this Prime Minister, who is supported by the Bloc Québécois, stop impoverishing Canadians with its inflationary policies and devastating spending?
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  • May/6/24 2:50:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the Bloc Québécois continues to support this Prime Minister in his reckless spending. The Bloc Québécois wants more transfers to the provinces, but it is voting in favour of $500 billion in centralizing and inflationary allocations. It is incomprehensible. Without housing, Quebeckers will become homeless, which has a major impact on the health care system. The Bloc Québécois and the Prime Minister are simply not worth the cost. When will this Prime Minister, with the support of the Bloc Québécois, stop wasting money so that Quebeckers can finally find a dignified place to live?
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  • Jan/29/24 3:02:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this government has been in power for eight years, and in that time, the debt has doubled, inflation has hit a new record and not one single budget has been balanced. The Bloc Québécois has given its full support to all of that. We Conservatives will balance the budget. How? We will get rid of wasteful Liberal spending on things like ArriveCan and the unused $54 million. Will the Prime Minister take responsibility for this fiasco and hand over the reins to people with good sense?
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  • Nov/24/23 11:39:24 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are not enough hours in the day to talk about how wasteful they are. The numbers are undeniable: two million Canadians use food banks every month; a family of four will spend an additional $1,065 on groceries this year; students are sleeping in shelters; and mortgage payments have doubled. The Prime Minister signed off on this mess. He is not worth the cost. Does he at least have the humility and decency to admit that the country is in such a deplorable situation because of his inflationary spending?
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  • Nov/21/23 3:00:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, I have a reality check for my colleague. The economic situation is such that a 30-year-old man from Sherbrooke has to resort to spending the winter in a tent because he does not have access to affordable housing. The costly Bloc-Liberal coalition wants to drastically increase the carbon tax, and that makes everything more expensive. Voting for the Bloc Québécois is costly. Today, we want the government to do three things in the mini-budget: cancel carbon tax increases, balance the budget and build housing without bureaucracy. Will the Minister of Finance surprise us and balance the budget, or will she disappoint us once again?
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  • Nov/21/23 2:59:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Scotiabank has calculated that government overspending has added two percentage points to Canada's interest rates. As a result, Canadians who are struggling to pay their mortgages are still suffering. I remind members that, in eight years, this government has yet to present a balanced budget. Will the government announce a plan to return to balanced budgets in today's mini-budget so that interest rates can come down and Canadians can keep their homes?
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  • Oct/18/23 3:20:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years of bad policy, this government continues to fuel inflation with uncontrolled spending. Today, we learned that Quebec has won Canada's inflation game for the fourth month in a row. Groceries, housing, gasoline, everything costs more, courtesy of the Liberals, backed by the Bloc Québécois. Experts are not expecting things to return to normal anytime soon. Can this government finally offer Quebeckers concrete solutions, put an end to out-of-control spending and abolish the carbon tax?
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  • Sep/19/23 3:02:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the finance minister said that she would not pour fuel on the fire of inflation. She added $44 billion in new spending in the 2023 budget, throwing a return to balanced budgets out the window. Now we have the Bloc Québécois trying to convince people that the carbon tax does not apply in Quebec. They should have a word with our farmers, who receive bills on which the words “carbon tax” are right there in black and white. I could table one if they agree. On this side, everyone understands that axing the carbon tax is the right thing to do for our farmers.
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  • Jun/13/23 2:48:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, young adults are living in basements. Students are living in shelters or slums, even. Another heartbreaking example is the couple in Montreal who have to sleep in their car because they cannot find affordable housing. The government is spending lavishly and fuelling inflation. It needs to take action today, now. What is the target date for balancing the budget?
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  • Jun/12/23 2:44:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as everyone knows, the government's reckless spending is causing serious problems across the country. A few days ago, the Bank of Canada had to react to this Prime Minister's inflationary spending by raising interest rates for the ninth time. Canadians are struggling to stay warm, to buy food and to pay their mortgages, which, I would remind members, have doubled. Some Canadians are even in default. Will the Prime Minister immediately put a stop to his inflation-causing deficit spending and table a plan to balance the budget as soon as possible?
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  • May/9/23 2:45:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is more out of touch than ever. Canadians are struggling. Everything costs more: food, housing, heating. Meanwhile, he keeps going on luxury vacations and spending recklessly. He refuses to listen to anyone, not even his own party members, who tried in vain this weekend to convince him to balance the budget. Will the Prime Minister get his act together and put an end to his ill-advised policies that are poisoning Canadians' lives?
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  • Apr/18/23 3:40:40 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I stand today in the House to speak about the budget tabled by the government on March 28, 2023. Just because the government is bragging about it does not make it an excellent budget, quite the contrary. In the political arena, the opposition is expected to find flaws in the budget. That is healthy, and it is part of the game. However, upon closer inspection and careful reading of the budget, it becomes apparent that it has some major shortcomings, indeed. Unfortunately, whoever looks at the broad lines of the budget tabled by the government can see that it is another unbalanced budget. This is really on trend for the government. How can it be that we can still not manage to have a balanced budget? We have not had a balanced budget since 2015. The government clearly stated last November in its economic statement that it intended to have a balanced budget by 2027-28. What they are announcing now is that there will be a $14-billion deficit in 2027-28. We are therefore nowhere near the forecasted balanced budget that would allow us as a country to compete and have a bit of credibility on this planet. The budget also includes $43 billion in new spending. I think that, here as well, in this inflationary environment, we are dealing with a government that has the wind in its sails but not much of a rudder. There is $43 billion in additional spending. I do not think that that is what Canadians expected. They were expecting a balanced budget. Unfortunately, that is not what we are talking about today. As a result, we have an enormous debt, and it is growing at a rapid pace. It is approximately $1.2 trillion. I do not know what everyone else thinks, but I am not even sure how many zeroes that is. The debt is enormous. What that means for Canadians is that they will have to continue to tighten their belts and pay up. We are right in the middle of income tax season, and I am convinced that there are Canadians out there today who are wondering how they are going to manage. In my view, and that of my party, this is a downright irresponsible, unfair and visionless budget. I think we need to consider where this country is today. Need I remind my colleagues that we are going through an inflationary crisis? Inflation is at a 40-year high. I will give members a quick overview, although I could spend a lot of time on the subject. A family of four will spend $1,065 more on groceries in 2023 than in 2022. That is a lot of money. It is more than what the government is promising to give families to lower the bill. House prices have gone up 21% in the Quebec City region alone. The average mortgage payment has doubled since 2015. I will point out that 2015 is the year the Liberals came to power. The average mortgage payment is now $3,000 a month. Food bank use has reached record highs, with around 1.5 million people seeking help each month. Some parents are now skipping meals so their children can eat. This is Canada. We never would have imagined we would get to this point. Also, nine out of 10 Canadians say they do not even dream of owning a house. Becoming a homeowner gives us freedom. Canadians should be able to hope to one day buy a house. Instead, young people are now sleeping in their parents’ basement or, worse yet, moving into shelters because they cannot afford housing. One in five people are skipping meals and, based on what we unfortunately learned today, some 60% of Canadians are considering not taking a vacation this summer. We also learned in a release today that food inflation was still hurting Canadians in February and that, for a seventh consecutive month, the price of groceries rose by 10% or more over the same period last year. This is where we are today. Need I also remind my colleagues that we have a government that spends recklessly? This government alone has increased the debt more than all other previous governments combined. That is something. It now costs $44 billion to service the debt. It is counterintuitive and counterproductive to go on this way. We are spending money on interest rather than on services to the public. We should be outraged about that. However, on the other side of the House, the government keeps spending recklessly and has added $43 billion in new spending in this year’s budget. Another factor we must consider is the collaboration, or coalition, between the Liberal government and the NDP. To remain in power and ensure its stability until 2025, the Liberal Party has agreed to implement the NDP's agenda with great speed and at great cost. I would like to remind the House that Canadians did not vote for that. Only 17% of Canadians voted for the NDP. That is certainly not enough to justify endorsing and implementing the NDP's agenda. One key item on the NDP's agenda is dental care. Dental care was announced only a few months ago, but already its cost has more than doubled. I think that Canadians are entitled to ask questions and to feel outraged, especially since even the Parliamentary Budget Officer, a credible and independent man who plays an important role on Parliament Hill, has questions about this program. First, he said that it is incredibly expensive. Then he said that people only have to say they have an appointment with the dentist to receive a reimbursement. That is a slippery slope. People will want to be reimbursed even before they get to their appointment and before getting the bill, especially since, as we know, many Canadians already have provincial or private dental insurance. This measure is costing almost $13 billion when it should cost only $5 billion, and Canadians are footing the bill. Since my time is almost up, I will wrap up by saying that, on this side of the House, we are hoping for a much more responsible government, a government that, like Canadians and parents, knows how to count. These people know that when they spend five dollars, it is five dollars well spent. If someone earns $10, they should not spend $12.
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  • Feb/14/23 3:43:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that was more of a comment than a question. I am rather surprised to hear the Bloc Québécois criticizing us today for wanting to talk about the cost of living and about how badly Canadians and Quebeckers are suffering because of what is currently happening in Canada, with high costs and families overburdened by tax hikes and increased housing costs. What we are proposing is to make sure that we are spending in a smart and careful way. For every dollar spent, there must be a dollar found in savings.
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  • Feb/14/23 3:41:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just a short while ago, during oral question period, some of my colleagues rightfully and frankly pointed out that this government has been making very bad decisions for the eight years that it has been in office. We are not the only ones to say so. Experts have also been saying that the Liberal government is spending recklessly and that it must turn off the taps. We are proposing a much more rigorous vision for public finances. This will allow the country to be in a more peaceful and balanced situation. What we are saying is that every dollar spent must be accounted for by the public service and government.
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  • Feb/14/23 2:22:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we know that they think it is normal to pay $6,000 for a night at a hotel. After eight years under this Prime Minister, Canadians are worse off. Inflation is eating away at their wallets. Today we are debating a motion calling on the government to cap its spending, stop wasting resources and eliminate the taxes and deficits that are causing the cost-of-living crisis. Will the government take the necessary fiscal and budgetary measures to get the country out of this disastrous inflationary crisis?
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  • Feb/9/23 2:33:51 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after eight years under this Prime Minister, inflation is out of control. Simply put, everything costs a lot more: groceries, heating, and housing. The Prime Minister would like us to believe that he has nothing to do with it, but it is precisely his reckless spending that has put us in this situation. Even his former finance minister Bill Morneau said so recently. Can he face the truth and admit that he is doing immense damage to the Canadian economy?
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  • Feb/7/23 3:04:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, inflation is through the roof. Housing costs have doubled; families will pay $1,065 more for food this year, and 1.5 million Canadians are visiting food banks. That is where eight years of the Prime Minister's government has gotten us. What is his government doing? It is giving over $100 million in contracts to a single firm, ignoring all the expertise of the public service. Can the Prime Minister clearly explain how this spending will help Canadians?
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