- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Bloc Québécois
- Drummond
- Quebec
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $108,134.67
- Government Page
- Apr/18/23 12:48:22 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I would like to mention that I was surprised to hear that there is a connection between the glaring problem of drug abuse and the fact that people do not have a door to lock so they need to stay awake and watch over their children. That does not add up to me. I would probably put more blame on mental health issues in general, but I have a different question for my colleague.
I am going to touch on something other than housing, because I thought that part of his speech was pretty interesting. I would like to know what he thinks about the fact that, even though the situation is critical, the government is not proposing EI reform in the 2023 budget.
128 words
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
Madam Speaker, I am quite pleased to rise again to speak to the economic statement and Bill C‑32. Actually, I am getting a little tired of this. Let me explain. It is not because I do not want to do my job, it is just that I would have preferred to discuss something with a little more content and substance.
There were three clear, repeated demands, the same ones that the Bloc Québécois always brings forward. The government knows what they are. It is not a secret. It is not as though we kept them to ourselves just to throw them in the government's face at the last minute. No, these are the demands we have always made. My colleague from Rivière-des-Mille-Îles said it earlier: This is about increasing health transfers; providing better support for seniors starting at age of 65 and stopping this kind of two-tiered plan that favours seniors aged 75 and over; and respecting the commitment to comprehensively reform employment insurance. This commitment dates back several years, and it is especially important in view of the possible recession on the horizon.
We know what a refuge, a comfort and a safety net employment insurance can be when there are fears of a recession. This is true for workers, of course, but it is also true for businesses and for society as a whole. One can only imagine what would happen if people were to suddenly lose their jobs because their firm or business closed and they were left without any recourse or resources in the meantime.
Today, I want to talk a little bit about the stress and anxiety people feel, the real fear of not getting enough to eat, despite the fact that they have worked all their lives and have taken it for granted that their years of good and loyal service to society would be recognized at retirement. In other words, people believe that their government will not let them down at the stage of their lives when they are most vulnerable. Despite what my colleagues opposite will say, that is exactly what the Liberal government is doing now.
Seniors' associations, and even seniors themselves, come knock on our door begging us to help them. These seniors and associations protest against this system, which they say is discriminatory and enables only those 75 and older to get increases and support cheques during the pandemic. The others, those aged 65 to 74, are hung out to dry. That is what seniors tell us. They say they are being hung out to dry, even though they worked their entire lives. They worked on assembly lines in factories, earning low wages, not making enough money to put something aside for their old age. Then, they find themselves struggling and facing hardship. They are the ones who come to see us, these honest, humble people who have the right to fully enjoy their retirement and their well earned quality of life at 65, not just at 75. What is left for these people?
The government changed the rules halfway through the game, so it is too late for them to pivot and talk to their banker about setting aside a little more of their paycheque. Actually, many of them never actually had money to set aside. Now they have a choice. They can go back to work. The government says there is a labour shortage and jobs available all over the place. Another option is to get help from food banks. Hello, dignity.
I want to share one person's story. Mr. Danis is a constituent of mine. He is 72 or 73 years old. I know he is in that age group because he is concerned about the government discriminating against seniors on the basis of age. Mr. Danis is at the forefront of my mind whenever I talk about seniors. I have lost track of how many times he has called me. He has come to my office when I was not even there. He has called outside of office hours, on weekends. He has contacted me through Facebook messenger. He has done everything in his power to talk to me.
When we finally managed to meet up and have a conversation, I cannot even begin to describe the emotion in his voice. We are talking about a man who worked hard, very hard, his whole life for little income. It is exactly the situation I was describing earlier. Mr. Danis lives in the same house. It is his house. He has lived there for 53 years. His roof is leaking and needs to be replaced. He says that he is going to let it leak because he cannot afford to repair or replace it. He also cannot afford to take out a new mortgage. He is struggling to make ends meet on a small government pension. What is more, that pension has not increased, even with inflation being what it is.
Mr. Danis is a proud and dignified man. He has some health problems and must travel 45 kilometres to a nearby city for treatment he cannot receive in Drummondville, where he lives. Due to the cost of gas, he cannot fill up his tank, and his car is not in good condition. What can we do for these seniors who worked all their lives and cannot even meet their basic needs and take care of their health because their pensions are frozen? These seniors are not old enough to be eligible for the pandemic support cheque.
I will draw a parallel to health transfers, the third very important request that the Bloc has made in years. I will give the example of Hôpital Sainte‑Croix, which is in my riding of Drummond. This hospital is the pride of the region. It was a fine hospital at the time, and the services were exceptional. I want to commend the medical staff and all support staff. All the employees at this hospital are personable, professional and competent. There is no arguing about that.
However, last year, the elevators were in terrible shape. One was not working at all, and the other broke down. Had there been a crisis or a fire, had there been any need to evacuate the hospital, patients on the third floor and up could not have been evacuated. This is a hospital we are talking about. We do not have enough money to maintain hospitals adequately.
We are going to build a new hospital. The Liberals think that, if we have enough money to build a new hospital, we must have tons of money, so there must be no need to increase health transfers. I just do not get it.
The health care funding shortage comes at a human cost too. Triage now means dismissing situations that would have been emergencies 20 years ago.
I am going to talk about seniors again. Mr. Rocheleau is a very nice guy, and I really like him. He is 80 years old, and he has been chairing the Remembrance Day poppy campaign for the past 10 years, but he has been involved with the campaign for 53 years. He waited for hip surgery for two years. Two years could be 25%, 50% or 75% of what an 80-year-old has left in their active life. It is inhumane to make elderly people wait for operations that would guarantee their quality of life for the years they have left. It is absolutely mind-boggling to me.
I have about two minutes left. I want to take this opportunity to talk about the infamous EI reform, which we are waiting for. How many demonstrations are held here on the Hill by workers' groups, unions and just about everyone else calling for EI reform?
One woman in particular came to the Hill a few years ago. I am talking about Émilie Sansfaçon. She came to meet the Prime Minister and members of all parties. Everyone was at her feet, everyone wanted a photo with Émilie. What a fighter, people said. Émilie was fighting cancer, and it may have already been terminal at that point. She is no longer with us. She was asking for 50 weeks of EI sickness benefits so that people like her who have to fight a serious illness can do so with dignity, free from financial worries. Is that not the least we could do for them?
A government member will probably stand up in a few minutes to boast about what the government did for health and everything it did to save lives during the pandemic. That is what the government keeps telling us over and over again. If it really wants to look good with its spending, maybe it could spend in the right places.
Everyone agrees that 26 weeks of EI sickness benefits is not enough. It is a good step forward, but when a person is battling cancer or other types of serious illnesses, 26 weeks is not even half of what they need. This measure would not have cost much, and it would have gone a long way.
I commend Louis Sansfaçon, Émilie's father, who continues to fight on behalf of his daughter. I promise him that one day, there will be 50 weeks of sickness benefits, and that the Bloc Québécois will be there to keep fighting for the government to spend taxpayers' money, money that it has been entrusted with, on the things taxpayers need most.
1619 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- Feb/1/22 6:08:41 p.m.
- Watch
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Trois-Rivières for agreeing to share his time with me. I would have listened to him for another half hour because of his eloquence and rich vocabulary, as my colleague from Berthier—Maskinongé mentioned.
I would like to begin this first speech of 2022 by acknowledging the members of my constituency team, who are listening right now because I asked them to prepare this address in reply to the Speech from the Throne. I would therefore like to thank Andrée‑Anne, Marie-Christine, Marika, Jacinthe and Mélissa because they really work hard. I am convinced that is the case in all the ridings represented by my colleagues in the House of Commons. We work very hard to address the very moving and personally difficult requests from our constituents.
Some people find themselves in difficult situations. I have to admit that there is a lot of frustration that builds up when we see the lack of support and organization in the services provided by certain departments.
This evening, we will speak to the Speech from the Throne. Not surprisingly, no one is holding their breath about the result of the vote. We have already announced our intentions. However, I find that this is a good time to point out some troubling issues that the current government should have addressed as a top priority.
I want to start by talking about employment insurance reform. Things have gotten worse now, but in 2021, 300,000 applications were not processed on time. Some of these applications have yet to be processed, and it is now February. The normal processing time is 28 days, but that target is rarely met these days.
People are going without income for several weeks. Dozens of cases were referred to the Drummond food bank. These fathers and mothers who were earning an honest living are now in extremely precarious situations.
We hear heartbreaking stories every week. Not too long ago, when I was first elected in 2019, it was rare to hear such emotional stories. Now it is commonplace. We have almost become accustomed, but we never will, thank God, because we are compassionate, caring people. This type of situation has unfortunately become so common that it is now a regular part of our work day.
Take Mr. Picard, for example. He has five children and has been waiting for EI since the end of November. His file is being processed. When he inquires, he is told that his file is being processed and that they are verifying some information. The system is working, but it is just a matter of speeding up the process and making this department a little more efficient.
Now, let us talk about immigration. I do not know how many times we have talked about it. I do not even know where to begin anymore. Yesterday, according to an article published in La Presse and an English-only press briefing by the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, it was announced that the government should be back on track by the end of the year, after COVID-19 caused a significant backlog in processing applications. In 2019, there was already a significant backlog of immigration applications. COVID-19 is starting to become an excuse for everything.
It might almost be better to tear down the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and rebuild it from scratch. Some delays date back to well before 2019 and long before COVID-19. The government previously announced that it would spend $85 million in 2022–23 to process the backlog, yet there are now 1.8 million pending applications.
I could tell the House about many heartbreaking cases. I would like to talk about Ms. Dupont, a woman in my riding who I have spoken to a few times. She obtained permanent resident status in June 2021, but she never received the documents. It is now February 2022. Ms. Dupont dealt with the pain of losing her father, who became ill in the fall. She was told that she should not travel because there was a good chance she would not be allowed back into the country without her documents. Ms. Dupont was unable to get to her father's bedside, and he passed away without getting to see his daughter and grandchildren in the fall.
Over the holidays, Ms. Dupont found out that her father-in-law had stage 4 cancer. Because she still has not received her permanent resident card, she cannot take her family to France to be with her father-in-law during his final days. The department could maybe do with a little more sensitivity. It might be time to work on that.
From family reunification cases to businesses looking for temporary foreign workers to help them get through the pandemic, there are dozens of cases like these every week, not just in the riding of Drummond but in every riding represented by my colleagues here.
We were hoping for something concrete for culture in the throne speech. Web giants have been stealing ad revenue from our media outlets and content creators for too long. We are expecting the new broadcasting bill to be introduced this week, and I call on all my House of Commons colleagues to get it passed quickly. Our culture, our content creators and our media are at the breaking point. They have been waiting years for an updated Broadcasting Act. We will be getting a look at the new bill this week, and we must pass it quickly to restore balance to Canada's broadcasting system.
953 words
All Topics
- Hear!
- Rabble!
- add
- star_border
- share
- menumenu
- notificationsnotifications
- home
- mailmail
- searchsearch
