Mario Simard

Mr. Speaker, Procedure · 25 wordsI will be sharing my time with the member for Mirabel, the one they call “the MP with the golden voice”, just like little Joselito, ProcedureAside · 14 wordsand whom the people of Alto call “le député du petit train de l’amour”.Aside Procedure · 16 wordsIt is a pleasure to speak today to express the Bloc Québécois’s support for Bill C-26.Procedure Claims · 78 wordsThe Bloc Québécois has often advocated for an unconditional transfer of $1.7 billion to the provinces and territories and that is what this bill provides.¹ This money will go directly to the territories to address the major housing crisis we are currently facing, without going through any new structures. That is the best part, that this money is not going through new structures, action plans, or some sort of federal entity as we saw with Build Canada Homes. Procedure · 13 wordsNot long ago, in fact, I rose to speak to Build Canada Homes.Procedure Claims · 177 wordsWe quickly realized that although this initiative had its appeal, with $7.3 billion to invest, it was slowing down social housing construction.² I gave the example, in my riding, of a group called Loge m’entraide, which received funds from the SHQ, or Société d’habitation du Québec, for a major project, and was waiting for an answer about the federal government’s contribution through the affordable housing fund. As often happens with federal initiatives, CMHC’s affordable housing fund was set aside with assurances that a new initiative was on the way. The new initiative never materialized and had to be picked up by Build Canada Homes, with the result that the Loge m’entraide project is now in limbo. However, that is not what we are seeing with Bill C-26. It provides a direct transfer to the provinces, as we have been calling for, rather than, as is often the case with the federal government, a proliferation of top-down structures and criteria imposed by Ottawa, without Ottawa necessarily being familiar with the specific challenges faced by the provinces and municipalities. Reasoning · 21 wordsWe have said many times that the federal government should instead focus on straightforward, unconditional and predictable transfers to the provinces. Claims · 12 wordsThat is what we are seeing with Bill C‑26, I might add. Procedure · 24 wordsHowever, my job is certainly not to sing the government’s praises, so I would like to take this opportunity to address a glaring problem: ProcedureClaims · 7 wordsfederal interference in areas of provincial jurisdiction. Positioning · 11 wordsWhy can I do this in the context of Bill C-26?Positioning Reasoning · 12 wordsBecause it is, in a way, the exception that proves the rule. Positioning · 20 wordsThere is something glaringly obvious when we look at this bill and past legislation in the context of Canadian federalism.PositioningUnearned certainty Claims · 47 wordsI do not need to talk about predatory federalism, which we have often seen and involves an encroachment on areas of jurisdiction, but there is something glaringly obvious in the fact that the federal government has repeatedly acted in an unjust and unfair manner when transferring funds.Partly on pointUnearned certainty Procedure · 16 wordsThis gives me an opportunity to once again address the most glaring injustice in the federation: ProcedureClaims · 3 wordsthe fiscal imbalance.Partly on point Reasoning · 40 wordsWe need to talk about this again because the reason the government can transfer $1.7 billion dollars at this point is that it has the fiscal capacity to do so. It has that fiscal capacity because of the fiscal imbalance. Claims · 6 wordsIt has more revenue than expenses. Procedure · 10 wordsWhat I mean by the fiscal imbalance is quite simple.Procedure Claims · 188 wordsVirtually all of the public services governments are required to provide are delivered by the provinces and Quebec, yet the federal government’s tax base allows it to collect 60% of the total tax revenue. Essentially, the provinces and Quebec provide most of the services, such as education, health care and social programs, to name just a few, but the federal government’s social mandate is typically limited to old age security benefits and family benefits. Note that employment insurance is not included because the employment insurance fund is not financed through taxation.³ It is funded by employers and workers.⁴ The federal government has no social mission and a lot of revenue. The provinces and Quebec have a lot of social missions, a lot of spending and little revenue. That is the fiscal imbalance at work. That is why, year in and year out, over the past 10 to 15 years, the government has had to focus on transfer programs to the provinces. These transfers were often accompanied by the federal government’s involvement in areas of jurisdiction that it knew very little about, through strategies that were not always efficient.Partly on point Procedure · 12 wordsWe have seen examples of that. Like me, we have experienced that.Procedure Claims · 28 wordsWe could talk about the dental insurance program, which was a disaster. However, the worst disaster in the federation is the fiscal imbalance, which mainly affects health care.Partly on point Procedure · 21 wordsI want to emphasize that point because it seems to me that we have not talked about it in a while.Procedure Claims · 72 wordsIf memory serves, 1969 is when the public health care system was put in place.⁵ For every dollar invested in health care, 50¢ came from the provinces and 50¢ came from the federal government.⁶ The Bloc Québécois has fought this battle. We have come back to this issue on numerous occasions over the past few years because barely 22% of today’s funding for our health care systems comes from the federal government.⁷ Reasoning · 20 wordsWhen only 22% of funding comes from the federal government, this implies that the remainder is borne by the provinces. Claims · 95 wordsHealth care is the Quebec government’s most important responsibility and the largest budget item. Looking at the current projections, it quickly becomes clear that between 42% and 45% of the Quebec government’s total budget is devoted to a single responsibility: ⁸health care. This means that there is just over 50% of the budget left to cover all the government’s other responsibilities such as education, the fight against poverty, the needs of local authorities, infrastructure requirements or support for Quebeckers.Partly on point The federal government sometimes implements industrial strategies to support businesses, but they are not always appropriate.Off point Procedure · 8 wordsAllow me to give a rather striking example.Procedure Claims · 97 wordsWe are currently experiencing one of the worst slumps in Canada’s economic history due to our relations with the United States. The two hardest hit sectors are Quebec’s forestry industry and the aluminum sector. The situation in Quebec’s forestry industry is the worst. With the combination of countervailing duties, anti-dumping duties and additional tariffs of 10%, 45% of these companies’ profit margins are going right down the drain.⁹ They have no access to them given the tariff issue with the United States. The other major problem affects the aluminum industry, which is being hit with 50% tariffs.¹⁰ Positioning · 7 wordsWhat was the federal government’s strategic response?Positioning Claims · 9 wordsIt said that we needed to export more energy. Positioning · 4 wordsThat is rather shocking.Positioning Claims · 89 wordsThe strategic response of the level of government with the greatest fiscal capacity was not to look at which sectors were most affected. Instead, the government looked at what opportunities were available to it. The government had an opportunity to advance the energy sector, one of its primary missions. It therefore chose to support the oil and gas industry, even though that industry was not affected by the crisis. It is true. The oil and gas industry is the only one that has not been affected by the crisis.Off point Procedure · 8 wordsHere is what I find even more shocking.Procedure Claims · 48 wordsWhen we look at the ownership structure of the oil and gas industry, we see that most of the companies belong to Americans.¹¹ The federal government has therefore decided to invest Quebeckers’ money in strategies aimed at supporting the only sector of the economy that is harming Quebec.Off point Procedure · 12 wordsThis is an example of one of the federal government’s major investments.Procedure Aside · 20 wordsThis is of direct concern to the member for Lac-Saint-Jean, since he arrived just as I was talking about that.Aside Claims · 16 wordsThe federal government is making this investment using its fiscal capacity, but it is hurting Quebec.Off point Reasoning · 14 wordsWe will therefore take the $1.7 billion, since it is being paid out unconditionally, Claims · 19 wordsbut once again it strikes me as a counter-example that proves that we are in a predatory federalist system. Positioning · 15 wordsI would love to hear the member for Winnipeg North contradict what I just said.Positioning