SoVote

Luc Berthold

Member of Parliament
Deputy House leader of the official opposition
Conservative

Mégantic—L'Érable
Quebec
Voting Attendance: 68%
Expenses Last Quarter: $94,201.00

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 298 - Apr/11/24

Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC)

Apr/11/24 2:36:17 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has spent the last two weeks reminding Canadians of the disasters he has caused over the past eight years, including passports, immigration, EI backlogs, inflation, interest rates, doubling of rents and more. Yesterday, his Liberal MPs voted unanimously against the common-sense Conservative motion that the House adopted, calling on him to convene a first ministers meeting. The last meeting was all the way back in 2016. Will he organize this meeting, or would he rather continue interfering in every domain without meeting with the provinces? What is he afraid of?

96 words

Meeting

Context: House Hansard - 295 - Apr/8/24

Mr. Luc Berthold

Apr/8/24 4:01:45 p.m.
Watch

Madam Speaker, being myself a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, I can tell you that we all tried in good faith to hold a meeting last week to discuss the terms and conditions of the appearance. We wanted to organize a meeting without forcing anyone, based on good faith on both sides. Unfortunately, the Liberal chair of the committee refused to call a meeting so we could analyze the process. If we now have to let the House leaders make the decision, it is because the Liberals did not want us to forge ahead and settle the matter in committee as we should have, with the consent of all parties in the House.

118 words

Context: House Hansard - 156 - Feb/8/23

Mr. Luc Berthold (Mégantic—L'Érable, CPC)

Feb/8/23 4:16:32 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, I too wish to speak to this question of privilege, because I believe that my privileges as a parliamentarian were also breached during this morning's caucus meeting. My francophone colleagues in the Conservative caucus and I unfortunately did not have access to interpretation during the meeting. The current situation on the Hill is no secret. Last October, Linda Ballantyne, president of the International Association of Conference Interpreters for the region of Canada, said the following to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs: Canada did conduct a survey dating back to December 2021, I think it was. Measuring the amount of time spoken in Parliament by different parliamentarians of different languages, indeed we found that English has predominated and French has been snuffed out. That is the reality in Parliament, because most of our colleagues use English as their primary language to communicate, share their opinions and make speeches. Unfortunately, when a group of colleagues get together, the discussions tend to occur mainly in English. Unfortunately, that is what happened this morning in our caucus meeting. I want to commend the interpreters who were there for their offer. They came out of their booth and offered to provide interpretation services at the back of the room for those who wanted them. Unfortunately, that is not ideal. That is not the way to conduct a meeting, hold debates and have normal discussions. We cannot have a caucus meeting and make some of the members go to the back of the room so they can have access to interpretation services. I therefore wholeheartedly support the question of privilege raised by the House leader for the official opposition. I want to raise the same question of privilege because I think that my privilege of being able to communicate with my colleagues was also breached by these technical difficulties. We need to have a plan B. Meetings must take place at the scheduled time and proceed normally with the possibility of access to interpretation services and interpreters and, especially, to the equipment that makes those services possible. Mr. Speaker, I hope you will find that the question of privilege raised by my colleague is fair and you will side with him.

372 words

SoVote

Deputy House leader of the official opposition

Luc Berthold