“I want the House to vote for our motion to support local media. Local news gives people a voice and helps communities talk to each other. These outlets are losing ad money to social media platforms, which push people into echo chambers and divide us.”

“Mr. Speaker, let us talk a little bit about the importance of what we are proposing today, the purpose of our motion. In the Gaspé, we are lucky to have quite a few local media outlets. What do those people do? They connect members of the community. What I mean by that is that they create a space for dialogue where people can have democratic discussions. They give a voice to the voiceless. They let marginalized people, members of civil society and elected officials express themselves. They help foster a collective dialogue. I believe in that. Freedom of expression and dialogue ensure that, in society, discussion leads to identifying promising solutions. This is a traditional media model that we need to support during this revenue crisis. Social media and major platforms are eating into these outlets’ revenue streams because there are too many advertisers paying to advertise on social media. We all use social media, but let us think about how it works. The idea behind social media is to create echo chambers, to make society as individualistic as possible so that those who think alike all end up together in their own little corner. We need to support our local media to counterbalance what social media is doing by making society individualistic. That is why members should support our motion.”

“We want the $600 million paid out as quickly as possible. But regular taxpayers should not have to pay for it. Big tech companies make billions of dollars and pay nothing, so they should pay this cost instead.”

“Mr. Speaker, we want the $600 million to be paid out as quickly as possible. However, we find it shocking that all taxpayers in Canada and Quebec, who do pay their taxes, will be subsidizing our industry, which needs support. Rather, it should be the tech giants’ job, given that they are raking in billions of dollars and paying nothing. That is shocking and makes no sense at all.”

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“Past talks showed that Quebec cannot get what it needs from the other provinces. We want Quebec to be its own country so we can have our freedom. I wish the people in the other provinces well.”

“Mr. Speaker, under the Meech Lake accord, Quebec was presented with a number of proposals, and what we learned from that was that it was not possible to get the support of the other provinces. I wish the very best for people in the other provinces. As far as we in Quebec are concerned, we drew our own conclusions. We are fighting to expand our freedom. What we want is a country, and I wish the same for my colleague from another province.”

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“I want to congratulate Alain Therrien, Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, and the other new cabinet ministers and caucus members in Quebec. My party looks forward to working with them.”

“Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity, following my colleague’s very apt remarks, to acknowledge the appointment of my predecessor and, in many respects, my mentor, Alain Therrien, the king himself. Mr. Therrien left an indelible mark on the Bloc Québécois, and I am sure he will do an outstanding job in Quebec City as treasury board president. I would also like to congratulate my friend Simon‑Pierre Savard‑Tremblay, who served alongside us until this past spring and who will now serve as the minister responsible for relations with the first nations and the Inuit. Finally, I congratulate the entire Parti Québécois caucus and all the newly appointed members of cabinet. We are really looking forward to working with them.”

“Three politicians from my region were just appointed to Quebec's cabinet. I congratulate the new culture minister, Pascal Bérubé. I look forward to working with him to make big American web companies pay their fair share to support Quebec culture.”

“Mr. Speaker, I have a connection I could mention, because Gaspésie—Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine—Listuguj is a huge riding that is home to four members of the National Assembly, and yesterday, three of those four members were appointed to cabinet. I believe that this is the strongest representation that Gaspé and the Magdalen Islands have ever had around the cabinet table. My colleague rightly acknowledged our former Bloc Québécois colleagues. I would also like to extend my congratulations to Pascal Bérubé, who will be able to join our fight to ensure that the U.S. web giants pay their fair share. I am confident that we will be able to count on Mr. Bérubé as minister of culture to join forces with us to finally deliver some tax fairness and ensure that the U.S. web giants contribute to our cherished Quebec culture.”

“If the question is whether the government should quickly release the $600 million the Liberals promised, my answer is yes. They should do it soon.”

“Mr. Speaker, I did not understand what the member was asking, but if the question was whether the government should quickly release the $600 million that the Liberals promised, then the answer is yes, they should do it soon.”

“The government pretends to support culture and the French language, but its actions say otherwise. It announced $600 million for the arts, but took away over $2 billion by reversing a ruling that made online giants pay for French content. It also cancelled the digital services tax just to please the United States, getting nothing in return. On top of that, it plans to cut 25% from federal translation services and rely on artificial intelligence. The government must stand up to the United States and make web giants pay their fair share.”

“Mr. Speaker, I begin my speech in good spirits, thanks to the wonderfully quick wit of the member who spoke before me. I am also going to follow in my colleagues’ footsteps, because I too have prepared some brief remarks about our representatives in Quebec City that I want to give before starting my speech. We found out who will be in cabinet yesterday. The riding of Berthier—Maskinongé is a little smaller than my colleague’s riding in the Gaspé; we did not get four ministers, but we did get three, which is not bad at all. I am very proud that Elsie Lefebvre was elected in Berthier. She is my own MNA, because that is where I live. Maxime Laporte is the MNA for L’Assomption, and Isabelle Blais is the MNA for Maskinongé. I would like to welcome them. We are going to have a great working relationship over the next few years. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Élodie Murphy‑Gauthier and Jean Pellerin, who were elected in the Mauricie region. I endorsed several candidates in the Mauricie region. I want to send a shout-out to René Branchaud. We came very close. I would like to tell my friend that we will meet again next time. I am certain that he will be there and that it will work out. I would be remiss if I did not mention my former colleagues as well. Simon‑Pierre Savard‑Tremblay was my comrade-in-arms for several years on our supply management bill. I really enjoyed working with him. I have no doubt that he will do an excellent job as a minister in Quebec City. Of course, I must mention our former House leader, Alain Therrien, who is an inspiration to all of us. If there is one person who really helped me manage the unmanageable and deal with the frustrations and the lack of control over our environment that we sometimes feel as new members, it is him, so I tip my hat to him. We are very proud of him, and we are sure that he will do a bang-up job. I will now address the crux of today’s issue. It is simply outrageous. The government really needs to stop pretending. I have not been in such a good mood lately. I will tell the House what happens when I am not in a good mood. This is a very personal part of my life that I did not expect to talk about in the House, but I cannot pretend. That is not in my nature. When something is bothering me, the people around me immediately ask what is wrong. They ask me what is going on. In life, I do not pretend. I simply cannot do that. I think it stinks when people pretend. That is polite enough language for me to say in the House. It really grinds my gears. I am tired of watching the Liberal government pretend that it thinks culture is important. Amid artful gestures and eloquent speeches, they will roll out a dreamy outdoor backdrop complete with just enough breeze to tousle the hair, and they will announce how generous they are for giving $600 million to the desperately needy cultural sector. Meanwhile, just a day earlier, they will have robbed that same sector of more than $2 billion because they lacked courage, bowed down and surrendered. That expression of the Prime Minister’s, “elbows up”, also applies to someone lying prostrate on the ground with only their elbows sticking up. That will not stop the United States from using us as a doormat. I have quoted Pierre Falardeau several times in the House, but I really like this quote. Falardeau used to say that someone who stands up will be hated but respected, while someone who prostrates themselves on the ground will just be used as a doormat. That is not the exact wording, but my colleagues get the idea. I would rather stand up and have people hate me but call me “sir”. I think that Quebeckers prefer that, as Canadians do. Maybe we should stop taking everything lying down. This is what we have been seeing from the very beginning. What is more, the Liberals have the nerve to stand up and ask what the Bloc Québécois is complaining about. They did it earlier during oral question period. They say they have made a major $600-million announcement. The whole bunch of them are patting themselves on the back and looking all proud. This will seem like a sound bite, but it is important to know the backstory. Where will that $600 million come from? It will come out of our pockets. The levy stemmed from a decision made by the CRTC. By the way, people may not know this, but the CRTC is supposed to be independent. It can receive general guidelines coming from the political sphere, but then its members, who are all thoughtful individuals, sit down and analyze the situation. The CRTC came to a conclusion. It saw that the media landscape was changing. A lot has changed in the last 10 or 15 years. We know that. Very few people now subscribe to traditional television. Traditional media outlets are forced to contribute to the system. Online media outlets contribute nothing but get most of the advertising revenue. That is the situation. I do not always applaud the CRTC’s decisions, but that one made a lot of sense. It said that they had to pay a minimum percentage. It was increased from 5% to 15%, but that was not enough. Web giants would have to invest in the creation of French-language content to the tune of 30%. We certainly applauded that. How did the Prime Minister respond? He said that it had to be scrapped or else Donald Trump would get angry and not give us anything. I challenge the parliamentary secretary, who is listening to me, to rise later and tell me what they got from the United States in return. Since the 2025 election, when our saviour, Mr. Canada, the man who was supposed to get us out of this mess, was elected, we have not gotten anything. I have no objection to grand speeches being given on the international stage. The case for the role of middle powers can be a compelling one, particularly when it comes to bilateral and especially multilateral relations in international forums. That is why we look forward to the day when Quebec can take its place among them and bring its own voice, political clout and vision to the world. Some ideas make sense, such as strengthening ties with Europe. We have been advocating that for a long time. It would be particularly worthwhile when it comes to environmental and trade standards, as the proposals that we put forward in committee are often blocked by members from the other Canadian provinces. I served for many years on the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food, and I believe that we could learn a great deal from European policies. That would be quite interesting. Ultimately, however, what matters is action. Governments are not judged by what they say. They are judged by what they do and by what they have done. The government announced $600 million in funding taken from taxpayers’ pockets. I want to point out what happened just before that. By overturning the CRTC’s policy, it deprived the media sector of more than $2 billion. Let us dig just a little deeper. I know that may be difficult for some members here, but let us try. Let us go back to the day before yesterday. The Liberals scrapped the digital services tax to please the orange man. We got nothing in return. This time, it was worth more than $7 billion over five years. Now they have the nerve to stand up, look at us and smugly say that they are being generous to the cultural sector. That is rich. This week, I took part in a press conference with the House of Commons interpreters, translators and terminologists. They are in contract talks. The same government that says culture, the French language and official bilingualism are important wants to cut 25% of the Translation Bureau’s resources over the next five years. The thing is, the Translation Bureau’s budget is a tiny fraction of the total federal budget. It is $160 million. This is a joke. Francophone elected officials like us know that working in the Parliament of Canada is a huge daily challenge, because 90% of everything that happens here is done in English. That is fine; it is their language and their right. We have a right to work in our language, too. We have a right to quality interpretation. These are qualified professionals who are currently being treated with disdain. They are being told that artificial intelligence will replace them. I hope everyone saw this morning’s article about how AI translated TB, the abbreviation for the Translation Bureau, as “tuberculosis” in French. That is the big joke of the day. The worst part is that the English terms “should” and “must” both get translated into French by the same word: “doit ”. Imagine what the courts would do with those two words in a piece of legislation. I hope that the judge would not say what I have heard before from a clerk at the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, namely that the English version takes precedence. I hope that does not happen, because that is not supposed to be true. The two official languages are supposed to be equal, truly equal. The government needs to stop messing around when it comes to culture. Everyone needs to stop messing around. Let us find a way, stand up to the United States and accept the fact that we need these giants that make profits here to pay their fair share.”

“The government cancelled a digital services tax that would have brought in $7 billion over five years. It also cancelled over $2 billion in broadcasting fees. Replacing all of that with only $600 million hurts our media and culture sector.”

“Mr. Speaker, we are so looking forward to hearing the parliamentary secretary’s speech. What he just reiterated to the House, and the message he is sending to the media and culture sector, is that they were deprived of $7 billion over five years with the repeal of the digital services tax, that the CRTC’s levies, which would have brought in more than $2 billion, have been cancelled, and that this is being replaced by a nice little $600 million that will come out of their own pockets.”

“I agree with the member. The government needs to pay the money it promised.”

“Mr. Speaker, that is indeed one of our requests. Can they at least pay the money they promised? In short, we do agree.”

“We are debating the digital services levy. When we asked about protecting Quebec's cultural industries, the minister dismissed our concerns and told us to stop whining because the government funded a local food festival. That kind of answer shows the government does not take Quebec and French culture seriously.”

“Mr. Speaker, anything can be debated in the House. Today, we are debating the issue of the digital services levy. We asked questions about this during oral question period. This week, when my colleague, the member for Drummond, asked the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture a question, the minister stood up and literally asked my colleague why he was whining when the minister had funded the poutine festival in his riding. When we brought up our cultural industry, his response was that he had funded the poutine festival and that we should stop whining. I have nothing against poutine, but when a minister speaks to us in that tone and gives us answers like that, what does that tell us about the government’s commitment to francophone culture and Quebec culture?”

“The answer is simple. The minister is showing contempt.”

“Mr. Speaker, the answer is short and simple. The word he is looking for is “contempt”.”

“The government should not have backed down on the digital services tax. The $600 million in compensation is too small. European countries taxed big tech companies without raising subscription prices, and that money supports their culture and media. Why can Canada not do the same?”

“Mr. Speaker, if the parliamentary secretary really meant what he just said, which is that we need to move forward, not backward, then he would not have backed down on the digital services tax. The $600 million is a very small amount of compensation. I would like my colleague to look at what is happening internationally, elsewhere in the world. How did the Europeans find a way to put a tax on digital products without causing subscription prices to go up? These multi-billion dollar corporations are paying their fair share to fund culture and media in those regions. Why is Canada unable to achieve the same result here?”

“We were told that festivals have funding and that we should stop complaining. But organizers and cultural groups are still telling us they need more money. What does my colleague have to say to them?”

“Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. There are major events and festivals. Over the weekend, we were told that we needed to stop complaining and that festivals were being funded. However, we are still getting messages from organizers of major events and various cultural organizations. We in the Bloc Québécois are not the only ones complaining. So too are the organizations on the ground, which need more money. What does my colleague have to say to them?”

“Local organizations need funding. Ministers should stop insulting us and work with us instead.”

“Mr. Speaker, I thank my esteemed colleague very much. That is the reality on the ground. Some ministers respond to us in a contemptuous tone like that. We have talked about the poutine remark, but we could have talked about how we apparently spend most of our time sitting on our rear ends and just come here to collect our pensions. I think we could get rid of the contempt and work constructively. We need the money for our local organizations. Let us talk and work together.”

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“The Liberals say they protect French, but they do the opposite. They spend $120 million a year to support English in Quebec while French is under threat. They also refuse to make American digital platforms pay fees to support Quebec culture, using our tax dollars instead. I want to know what my colleague thinks about this.”

“Mr. Speaker, what really bothers me about this issue is that our Liberal friends say one thing but do the opposite. The Prime Minister has said he wants to defend French in the negotiations with the United States, yet he is spending $120 million a year from the official languages budget for Quebec to support English in Quebec, when it is French that is under threat. The CRTC wanted to require U.S. digital platforms to pay a levy. Instead of enforcing this, however, the Prime Minister is making grand speeches in Europe. Europe requires digital platforms to pay a levy, but here, we just kowtow to them. To support Quebec culture, the culture of the only French-speaking nation in North America, the government will use tax dollars rather than ask U.S. digital platforms to pay their fair share. What does my colleague think about that?”

“The government says it supports culture, but it ignores local and community media. Big internet companies take ad money and do not pay their share, which hurts our local news. Without local media, no one will report on the culture in our regions.”

“Mr. Speaker, my colleague opposite boasts about helping culture by helping Radio-Canada, among others. We have nothing against Radio-Canada. The issue is that, too often, the government’s support completely ignores local and community media, which are part of Quebec’s cultural and media ecosystems. Not enough is set aside for them. However, they are among the first to pay the price for this injustice. On top of not paying their share, the web giants are also collecting all the advertising revenue, which is hurting local media on the ground. On top of that, there is a double loss. Since there are fewer local media outlets, who is going to talk about culture, about what is happening at home, in Granby, if not the local media? Who is going to talk about what is happening in the Gaspé and Abitibi? Local media plays an essential and important role, but it is being completely ignored by the government.”