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Gabriel Ste-Marie

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
Bloc Québécois

Joliette
Quebec
Voting Attendance: 68%
Expenses Last Quarter: $132,165.46

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 254 - Nov/23/23

Nov/23/23 10:55:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to first point out that my hon. colleague did a tour of Quebec to talk about housing. He stopped in Joliette. We had a full house. Everything he is contributing is wonderful and informative. My colleague spoke about the financialization of housing and how to put an end to that. For example, that is what we are seeing in Montreal, and it is mainly the Bronfman family's company that is doing it. It is hard to get any closer to the Liberal Party than that. These people are taking affordable housing off the market, and not enough housing is being built to counter that. What we suggested is to offer an acquisition fund interest rate, which is something that the Union des municipalités du Québec has been calling for. This would involve implementing a measure to fund the purchase of these buildings at an interest rate that is lower than the market rate, to get them out of the financialization spiral that is causing people to be evicted and rents to go up. The current market rate is very high. However, with the borrowing authority of the government or the CMHC, we could simply pass the better rate on or even subsidize it to make this acquisition possible. Let me give an example. The government borrows at 3.6%. Suppose we want to give a non-profit organization an interest rate of 2% for one billion housing units that we want to get out of the financialization trap and that we are going to make truly affordable in the long term. That would cost $16 million. The difference between 3.6% and 2% is almost nothing for the government. By using its leverage, the non-profit would have an advantage. That would prevent financialization, which is what happens when big conglomerates like the Bronfmans get their hands on housing that is affordable and make it so that it is no longer affordable. This is one possible solution we are proposing to the government.

343 words

Context: House Hansard - 163 - Feb/17/23

Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Feb/17/23 10:12:04 a.m.
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Re: Bill C-34

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his very good speech and all of the constructive work that he does on the Standing Committee on Finance. He is a really valuable member of the House. The Bloc Québécois applauds this bill, but we do not think that it goes far enough. National security is important, but we are asking the government to go further and to address the issue of economic security so that we have better control over foreign investments in general and so that we can keep our head offices, our economic levers and control over our resources. Last year, only 24 or 2% of the 1,255 foreign investment projects totalling $87 billion were considered to have national security implications. In our opinion, that is not enough. We need better oversight to preserve our economic interests. What are my hon. colleague's thoughts on that?

154 words

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Context: House Hansard - 153 - Feb/3/23

Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Feb/3/23 1:29:53 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-34

Madam Speaker, we in the Bloc Québécois are still reeling from the sale of Rona to the American company Lowe's and all the negative consequences that followed. In my hon. colleague's opinion, if Bill C-34 passes as is, will the interests of our economy be better protected with respect to potential transactions?

59 words

Context: House Hansard - 40 - Mar/3/22

Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)

Mar/3/22 12:13:36 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague for his very good and very heartfelt speech. In his opinion, why is the government refusing to sanction Russian oligarchs who have direct or indirect interests in western Canada's oil sands?

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Member of Parliament

Gabriel Ste-Marie