Government Orders
Business of Supply
“Quebec has fewer asylum seekers, yes, but I need you to look bad anyway. The share of asylum seekers in Quebec is too high. Your work was bad and you should say so.”
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
Alexis Deschênes
Deschênes focuses on advocating for Quebec's interests, especially around culture, language, and Quebec getting its 'fair share'. He pushes for the government to spend more on remote regions like his riding, as they have higher costs. Deschênes often repeats questions to try to back the government into a corner, and peppers his statements with subtle digs at the Liberals' competence.
“I want the minister to admit her plan to distribute asylum seekers evenly has failed since Quebec still has 39% of them.”
“I want the minister to agree with me that Quebec shouldn't have to bear the cost and French-language burden of too many asylum seekers. I'm asking if the minister will restart an old committee to spread them out more evenly.”
“You say you're working on it. So tell me the concrete steps.”
“You didn't answer the question. I'll ask again and maybe you'll look bad if you don't answer.”
“Just tell me yes or no, should we split up refugees between all the provinces?”
“You're dodging the question. Do you agree the money should be split evenly between provinces?”
“Okay, let's steer this back to a really broad-brush question. Does the minister think in general that refugees should be distributed evenly across different provinces? I'm not getting into details here.”
“Does the minister think all the provinces should take in the same number of asylum seekers?”
“I want Quebec to get less asylum seekers. I think we have too many.”
“I don't like that you won't tax web giants. Traditional media pays taxes and supports culture, so web giants should too. It's only fair.”
“I want to support our producers. The Liberals say they care about culture, but they're not doing enough. They didn't push for the digital services tax. The CRTC raised it because the Liberals didn't do their job. What does my colleague think about this?”
“I don't care about your riding's art scene. I want to tax tech companies and spend more on Quebec culture. Will you help me tax them?”
“I agree with my colleague. The Conservative Party is being pathetic today. They are siding with American companies against our culture and media sectors. Our culture and media sectors are struggling. They need support. American companies will use our cultural products to make profits here. But the Conservative Party doesn't want to tax them. That's not fair.”
“I want to look good by asking the new minister a generic first question. I'm filling time with polite words.”
“You said a lot of things I already agree with. I want to talk about the digital services tax. If you love Quebec culture and media why did your government cancel that tax? The tax would have taken money from web giants and spent it on our culture and media. I want that tax.”
Private Members' Business
Financial Administration Act
“I have no real opinion on this bill. But maybe it will embarrass the government! So the government will give us money to pass it.”
Government Orders
Business of Supply
“I want to make the Conservatives spell out a clear stance on property rights. I don't like how they're attacking this guideline. I think they're wrong.”
“Why are you fighting this in court?”
“I want private property owners to be considered in aboriginal title decisions. I think legitimate concern exists over the Cowichan ruling that aboriginal title can exist on privately owned land.”