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Jean-Denis Garon

Replying to Luc Berthold (Conservative)
“Mr. Speaker, I would first like to congratulate my colleague from Mirabel on his speech. His knack for dazzling us with unusual imagery was on full display again today, so I congratulate him. I want to direct my remarks specifically to the member for Mirabel, who is a fellow member from Quebec. People need to know that a budget contains legislative measures. It is basically an omnibus bill that slips all kinds of changes in through the back door. Here is what it says about the Alto project on page 367: In Budget 2026, the government proposes to introduce new legislation that will support accelerating the construction of Alto High-Speed Rail. How are they going to do that? Legislation will streamline expropriation activities and enable early preconstruction work. I am very interested in hearing what my colleague from Mirabel has to say about that.”

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Mr. Speaker, I have a message for the people of Mirabel today. I will not do like the Minister of Transport, who had to hide when he visited the area. I will do it out in the open. What the government is doing today is accelerating the expropriation of the land in Mirabel, steamrolling over the people of Mirabel and moving its project forward more quickly, a project that has no social licence and no cost-benefit analysis. When cabinet picked the high-speed train option, the consortium submitted a different option without level crossings. Now, I can accept that they acted in good faith and were misled. With a proper cost-benefit analysis and proper assessments, this project could be re-evaluated. The government decided to forge ahead and infringe on people’s rights. It chose to reopen an old wound that is among the most painful ever inflicted in the history of Canada and Quebec. Allow me to point out that the House adopted a unanimous motion calling for the government to apologize to the people of Mirabel. In spite of this unanimous support, the apology has yet to come.