SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Member of Parliament

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 - 186 - Apr/27/23
Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie (Joliette, BQ)
  • Apr/27/23 7:52:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech and especially for the answer he gave the government member who suggested that all sides of the House supported the Liberal austerity of the 1990s. Not only did the Liberals completely disengage from social housing, which devastated all of Quebec and Canada, but they also made cuts to health care funding. Since them, health care systems across the country have been struggling, including in Quebec. The same goes for the financing of social services. Since that time, things have been going badly. I suggest that my colleague read the excellent book Combatting Poverty, which shows that that austerity significantly widened the wealth gap, created huge inequalities and made Canadians much poorer. Quebec picked up the slack for a lot of things, but with half the resources. As a result, there is less poverty and a smaller wealth gap. Here is my question. Can members imagine what would happen if we had all the necessary means at our disposal?
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Context: House Hansard - 90 - Jun/16/22
Mr. Gabriel Ste-Marie
  • Jun/16/22 7:39:38 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, that is a very good question. In the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, international institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, recommended that developing countries that were struggling—the ones with subsistence agriculture that were struggling to feed their people—specialize in growing cotton, for example. They were telling these countries that they would be able to export it, generate revenue and then import their food. At the same time, the rich countries that properly support their agricultural industries set up aid programs for these countries. When the harvest was good, the rich countries helped them by giving them their surplus crops or selling those crops to them at a low cost. All of this led to the collapse of local agriculture in developing countries, because they were obviously not able to compete with the rich countries' donations in good years. International institutions encouraged countries to move away from this sector and specialize in export sectors. As a result, these countries have had their subsistence agriculture dismantled. When the harvest was bad, they did not receive any aid from rich countries. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank told everyone to grow cotton, so many countries grew cotton. Large corporations were the ones leading it, and the price of cotton collapsed. The do-gooders in rich countries and international institutions thought they were fighting poverty, but they actually made it worse. Who are we to tell those countries what to do? They knew how to go about it. In order to receive international aid, they had to listen to the rich countries, and this made the situation worse. We have to think about that.
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