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Christine Normandin

Member of Parliament
Deputy House leader of the Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois

Saint-Jean
Quebec
Voting Attendance: 64%
Expenses Last Quarter: $109,900.56

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 268 - Dec/14/23

Ms. Christine Normandin (Saint-Jean, BQ)

Dec/14/23 2:16:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, members of Parliament and all of the staff of the House are preparing to finally leave Parliament Hill for the holidays. However, for many Quebeckers, this will not be a time to rest and celebrate. Instead, they will be working hard, far from their families, just because their employer cannot do without them. In addition to these nurses, truckers and service workers, there are also essential volunteers. I am talking about hundreds of designated drivers for Operation Red Nose, people who volunteer at our food banks and soup kitchens, and all those who give of their time so that seniors will have a nice Christmas or so that the most disadvantaged members of our society can at least have a Christmas. It is the dedication of all of these Christmas angels that enables all of us to have a happy holiday season. On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I want to sincerely thank them. I hope that they all have the merriest Christmas possible under the circumstances and a very happy new year filled with good health and prosperity.

185 words

Context: House Hansard - 212 - Jun/13/23

Ms. Christine Normandin

Jun/13/23 7:35:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there were a lot of elements in that question. It makes me think of things I wanted to say, but did not. There are other things that could have been considered for the balance between the work we do in the House and the work we do in our ridings. One example that readily comes to mind is the parliamentary calendar. We sit 26 weeks a year. Is it necessary during this time of year to have a constituency week followed by four weeks in a row in the House, where we sit until midnight to boot? That is no way to achieve work-life balance, and it is not the most efficient formula, either. In the meantime, after the holidays, the House is shut down from mid-December and we do not return until the end of January or early February. Could we not add some of the final weeks in June to this period so as not to have this six-week gap during which we cannot hold the government responsible for things it could have chosen to put in place during the final weeks in December? We would have the same amount of time in the House, but we would make better use of it and we do not even have to think about the hybrid model to get there. Many options could have been considered for improving work-life balance and increasing the amount of time we spend in our ridings. There are currently many activities taking place, but we are missing them. Why? It is because we are in the House. Why are we in the House? Do we really need to be in the House nine out of 10 weeks at present? A simple change to the parliamentary calendar might have been much more beneficial than the creation of a hybrid Parliament to achieve that goal.

314 words

Context: House Hansard - 68 - May/10/22

Ms. Christine Normandin

May/10/22 4:30:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would say that the motion before us today is much more specifically about the separation of state and religion than it is about a holiday that people can celebrate as they wish at home, on a statutory holiday that we have all become accustomed to over time and that may affect people differently depending on how they decide to spend that day, which would have a much broader effect. If we were to really explore this, it would have to be done in a much broader sense, because statutory holidays affect a lot more people than just the 338 members of the House. The separation of state and religion can hardly be more graphically illustrated than by a prayer in the very heart of what represents democracy. This is what our motion today is all about.

139 words

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Deputy House leader of the Bloc Québécois

Christine Normandin