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Results: 1 - 15 of 15
View Michel Boudrias Profile
BQ (QC)
View Michel Boudrias Profile
2019-05-02 15:07 [p.27305]
Mr. Speaker, families in Quebec are working around the clock to save their homes. Some have already lost everything. People who were evacuated are wondering if they still have a home to return to. In the meantime, the Minister of Public Safety is not sure if he will directly compensate the victims of the flood that continues to rage on.
Can the minister commit to compensating homeowners who might potentially be forced to move out of flood-prone areas?
View Ralph Goodale Profile
Lib. (SK)
View Ralph Goodale Profile
2019-05-02 15:08 [p.27305]
Mr. Speaker, in terms of the programming that exists and has existed for many years, called the disaster financial assistance arrangements, the compensation measures to cover losses as a result of flooding are, first and foremost, designed by the provinces. The provinces then submit claims for cost-sharing under the terms of the program.
As the claims get larger, the federal share gets higher. It starts out at 20% and could rise to 95%. The cost-sharing formula already exists.
View Michel Boudrias Profile
BQ (QC)
View Michel Boudrias Profile
2019-05-02 15:09 [p.27305]
Mr. Speaker, I thank the minister for his answer.
So far, the Government of Quebec has given the Canadian Red Cross $1 million to directly help the victims with their basic needs. I am still talking about the floods since that is the issue at hand. The Government of Quebec gave $1 million without delay.
We are calling on the federal government to do the same today. That would directly, tangibly, and immediately help those who are in great need, the people on the ground.
If Ottawa can find $12 million to help Loblaws, then surely it could find $1 million somewhere in the budget.
Can the minister commit to matching Quebec's donation to the Red Cross?
View Ralph Goodale Profile
Lib. (SK)
View Ralph Goodale Profile
2019-05-02 15:09 [p.27306]
Mr. Speaker, the Red Cross performs a very vital function in responding to national disasters. It is a very valuable partner with all levels of government in dealing with the real human needs that come out of these circumstances.
The Government of Canada is in close discussion right now with the Canadian Red Cross about the benefits that could apply, not just in one province but in several provinces, in the current disaster. We will have something further to say on that within the next couple of days.
View Michel Boudrias Profile
BQ (QC)
View Michel Boudrias Profile
2019-05-02 15:10 [p.27306]
Mr. Speaker, at this time, there should be no petty politics when it comes to flood victims.
We have seen the public's generosity on several occasions during different disasters that have occurred in Canada and Quebec.
People need immediate assistance now. There are urgent needs and there is no time to lose.
Will the Minister of Public Safety immediately match the Quebec government's donation to the Red Cross?
View Ralph Goodale Profile
Lib. (SK)
View Ralph Goodale Profile
2019-05-02 15:10 [p.27306]
Mr. Speaker, I think I answered that question very directly in the previous answer. This issue is under active discussion now with the Canadian Red Cross.
From the national perspective, we obviously want to deal with the circumstances in Quebec appropriately, but we also have Ontario and New Brunswick to consider, and there is also flooding in Manitoba. We want to make sure that we have covered all of the bases to treat Canadians everywhere with generosity and compassion, and we will.
View William Amos Profile
Lib. (QC)
View William Amos Profile
2018-04-23 13:39 [p.18594]
Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to speak to Bill C-74 and budget 2018 today. This plan will help increase growth in urban communities in Pontiac and our rural communities, and will make them more prosperous. I feel engaged and inspired by the potential to make our country more equal for Canadian men and women. I am very proud of our government and this bill. This plan is based on the principles of growth, reconciliation, advancement, and equality. I would like to talk about some of budget's many initiatives that are particularly important to Pontiac.
I want to start with the assistance that workers will receive through the Canada workers benefit. There are many low-income workers in the riding of Pontiac, especially in the rural areas, but also in our communities in Gatineau. For example, in 2014, the average salary in the RMC of Pontiac was $32,556 per year. In the RMC of la Vallée-de-la-Gatineau, the average yearly salary was $28,603. Some people in our riding are really struggling. The Gatineau valley has the highest level of low-income families, at 14.4%.
I was so pleased when I saw that the government introduced in the budget the Canada workers benefit, which will take effect in 2019. Thanks to this benefit, low-income workers who earn $15,000 a year will have nearly $500 more in their pockets. That is important for the people in my riding of Pontiac. The Canada Revenue Agency will automatically establish eligibility, which will ensure that 300,000 additional low-income workers receive the Canada workers benefit.
Seasonal workers are another important issue. In Pontiac, many people work in the outfitting, forestry, and ecotourism sectors. Many municipal officials in the Pontiac area approached me about the shortcomings they have seen in the employment insurance system. I am thinking in particular of the mayor of Montcerf-Lytton, Alain Fortin, and the Gatineau Valley council of mayors. Our government listened to what they had to say, and it will invest $230 million over two years to improve the situation of seasonal workers who depend on employment insurance in the off-season. The terms and conditions will be presented in the coming months following discussions with the provinces. Simply put, this measure responds directly to the needs and requests of people in the Pontiac region who work in the forestry, outfitting, and tourism sectors.
Another very important issue in my riding is Phoenix. I am personally very concerned about the Phoenix pay system and so are many people in my riding. It affects far too many residents of Pontiac. No one should have to worry about being paid incorrectly or not at all. As members know, our government inherited the Phoenix pay system, a project that was poorly managed from the outset, before we took office. The previous government demonstrated a lack of governance and oversight, failed to allocate adequate technical and human resources, and used a poor change management strategy, which led to problems with the launch of the Phoenix pay system.
Nevertheless, we understand the urgency and the magnitude of the problem, and we know that it is up to us to fix it. Our government is doing everything in its power to ensure that federal employees are always paid on time. We have already taken a number of measures, such as steadily increasing the number of employees who process pay transactions.
The federal government has hired approximately 561 employees in recent months to make the Phoenix pay system work better. In budget 2018, I was pleased to see that our government is continuing to allocate resources to resolve this problem. Budget 2018 proposes an investment of $431 million to continue to address the problems with Phoenix, including the hiring of additional employees to support the system. The government is also proposing to invest $16 million over two years to work on the next steps of implementing a new pay system with the help of experts, federal public sector unions, and technology providers.
I hope that our government will finally be able to resolve this problem. When I knock on my constituents' doors, they ask me to do something about this. I will be there for them, and I will continue to work to resolve the problems with the Phoenix pay system.
With respect to official languages, as I am sure everyone knows, Pontiac is a very bilingual region. Both the francophone and the anglophone communities have a lot of cultural activities going on. I was pleased to see that the 2018 budget includes $400 million in new funding over five years to support the 2018-23 action plan for official languages. That includes funding for English and French community newspapers and radio stations in minority communities. There will also be money to provide better access to official language services for anglophone communities in Quebec as well as funding for local cultural activities, which are very important in ridings like Pontiac.
On the issue of environment and conservation, earlier this year, as the media reported significantly, 116 of our parliamentary colleagues signed a letter that I had the privilege of drafting, sent it to the finance minister and to the Prime Minister, and urged them to deliver a budget that would allow us to achieve our commitments under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity to protect 17% of our terrestrial land mass and 10% of our ocean by 2020. I was so proud of members opposite, members from our party, and senators.
These are really important commitments. This is one of the issues that most motivated me to run for office. I was so proud of the finance minister, the Prime Minister, and our government for making the decision to invest a historic amount of $1.3 billion over five years to conserve Canada's ecosystems, landscapes, and biodiversity. This budget, on this measure alone, is an incredible victory for all of Canada.
In addition to thanking the Prime Minister, I would like to thank a number of people in our community of Pontiac, in particular Alison Woodley and Éric Hébert-Daly from CPAWS, who worked so hard on this issue. This achievement is theirs as well.
I would also like to thank all the parks and wildlife officials working in the federal civil service, who, for so many years, desperately needed this kind of investment. It really is a big boost, and I would like to thank them for working so hard on this issue for so many years. We all know that conserving our environmental heritage is an issue that transcends partisan politics. Canadians believe in it, and we have stepped up to do it.
On infrastructure, I was so pleased when the federal government announced that it would increase its portion of financial support for rural infrastructure projects up to 60%. This would allow communities of fewer than 5,000 people to tap into an extra percentage of funding from the federal government so that we can move beyond the formula of one-third, one-third, one-third, where municipalities have to pay one third of the cost. For small municipalities in the Pontiac, that kind of contribution is crucially important.
I want to give credit where it is due, to our infrastructure minister, who made that decision and is now working with the provinces so that our small municipalities do not get left behind in terms of infrastructure investments.
Regarding the Internet, when I knock on doors in the Pontiac, this is the number one topic. This is what people want fixed. It is an infrastructure issue for sure, but it is also an issue of democracy and socio-economic development. I am absolutely convinced that we are going in the right direction.
I would like to highlight the fact that we have doubled down on our $500 million over five years. The connect to innovate program has already delivered results in the Pontiac, but this budget brought forward something more: $100 million over five years to update to the next generation of broadband Internet services in rural regions, using new satellite technologies. This is good news, and I am looking forward to making more announcements like the $6.7 million that was just announced in the Gatineau valley. There is more good news to come about the Internet in Pontiac, and I look forward to working hard.
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
BQ (QC)
View Gabriel Ste-Marie Profile
2016-10-20 15:06 [p.5924]
Mr. Speaker, the Liberal members from Quebec are working very hard to ensure that Quebec either goes into deficit or is unable to maintain its services.
After cutting health transfers, now Ottawa has decided to reduce its share of infrastructure spending from 50% to 40%. Once again, Quebec and the municipalities will end up footing the bill. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars less for Quebec.
We realize that it is the Liberal Party's favourite colour, but can someone from the government explain why their party is so determined to put Quebec in the red?
View Amarjeet Sohi Profile
Lib. (AB)
Mr. Speaker, we are proud to work with the Province of Quebec to deliver on the historic commitments that we made to build and rebuild Canadian communities from coast to coast to coast.
In the case of Quebec, I have approved 17 projects with a total value of $1.4 billion. We are working very closely to deliver on the commitments we have made.
View Brigitte Sansoucy Profile
NDP (QC)
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech.
He talked about his tour across Canada. He must have heard the same comments I hear in my riding, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot. Before becoming an MP, I was a municipal councillor for many years, and the municipalities have long been saying that in programs funded equally by the three levels of government, they get the short end of the stick because some of the money goes back to the higher level of government whether in terms of labour costs or equipment. I would like to know whether a different breakdown is being considered.
The hon. member talked about the importance of helping our rural communities. I represent a riding where the largest city has a population of 53,000, and the municipalities are telling me that they think that once the big cities get their share, there will be nothing left for them. Is that true?
View François-Philippe Champagne Profile
Lib. (QC)
Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague, who has vast experience in municipal politics.
I thank her for her comments because she truly understands the needs of the municipalities, not just in urban areas, but also in rural areas, as I do. I can tell her, and I think that the House has taken note, that the minister said that we would go up to 50% during phase one of the historic infrastructure investment program. That is quite significant compared to the position of the previous Conservative government, which was not prepared to go this far. We have taken this step because we are aware of the tax pressure our municipalities are under.
I would very much like to continue answering my colleague but I see that my time is up. I will have the opportunity to answer her in private.
View Adam Vaughan Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Adam Vaughan Profile
2016-05-05 13:30 [p.2937]
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise in the House to speak to this bill today and, in particular, to follow my colleague, the member for Humber River—Black Creek, who laid the groundwork for a new urban agenda in Ottawa, after all those years, before the lost 10 years of the last decade, where as a city councillor, support for cities disappeared.
The reason I chose to run federally, to leave city council and join Parliament, was for one reason, and one reason only. Beyond the need for a stronger urban agenda, we needed a new national housing program. This budget is the first time in 25 years, the first time in my political life, I have seen a federal government step back in with the strength, the commitment, and the diversity of programs for housing that our country so badly needs, as we watch thousands of people who night after night go homeless.
Compared with the last budget which had $2.7 billion over 10 years, this year's budget provides for $2.3 billion over two. This includes doubling the money flowing to provinces to a total of $500 million to build, subsidize, and repair public housing. It includes $200 million for senior housing. It includes, importantly, $90 million for people escaping family violence. Taken together, this is the most substantive and the most important investment in affordable and public housing we have seen in a generation. It is this budget that delivers it, and it is the most important reason to support the budget.
Cities have also been spoken to. We have moved away from the one-third funding formulas that defined infrastructure programming over the last 20 years. We have moved to a fair system, a flexible system, a system that gets money into the hands of city councils fast.
The fifty-fifty split defines a new relationship that we have established between the federal government and our municipalities, large and small, rural, highly urbanized, in the south, the north, and coast to coast to coast. This is the most important dynamic in our new relationship. We now recognize that cities are where the majority of Canadians live. If we are to improve the lives of the majority of Canadians, we have to invest heavily in the equity, the stability, and the capacity of cities, not only to provide shelter and services to Canadians, but also to generate economic growth.
One of the other critical steps that has been taken in this budget, which has not been present in the last 25 years, is we now recognize that aging infrastructure, not just new infrastructure, needs support. State of good repair and the recapitalizing of urban infrastructure is a fundamental part of the new infrastructure program. Cities have been crying for this for decades. Finally, we have a party and a government in Ottawa that is prepared to listen.
I sat by as a city councillor and watched the province of Prince Edward Island, in particular, see more money spent on billboards about infrastructure than on the actual infrastructure that was advertised on those billboards.
The previous government was very good at putting up the billboards, very good at cutting ribbons for projects that did not exist, but when it came time to cut the cheque, it was missing in action. While it put up the billboards, spending actually went down. That is unacceptable.
Major cities in this country, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Regina, Toronto, Mississauga, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, St. John's, received zero dollars in the new building Canada fund over the last two years, while citizens in those cities cried out for support. If members talk to the mayors in those very cities, they will find out that is exactly what happened.
The other thing I am proud of is the fact that infrastructure programming goes beyond just transit and housing. It reaches into arts and the social infrastructure which builds stronger neighbourhoods—
View Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet Profile
NDP (QC)
View Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet Profile
2016-04-11 17:59 [p.2030]
Mr. Speaker, there is actually money for affordable housing in this budget. However, one thing that concerns us is that most of those investments have to be matched by the provinces and territories.
What will happen to this budget if the provinces and territories do not have the funds to match the federal investments? Will the government simply keep the money in its coffers? What will happen to that money if it is not spent?
View Louis Plamondon Profile
BQ (QC)
You are right, sir. I wanted to talk about infrastructure, but I ran out of time.
We support the government's infrastructure investment plan. We agree that stimulating the economy through infrastructure is a good thing.
However, small municipalities often have a hard time contributing their third. When it comes to infrastructure programs, I would like the government to consider taking on half the cost, the provinces one third, and the municipalities one-sixth. That would give municipalities that are a bit short on funds a chance to participate in this program and ensure that larger municipalities are not the only ones benefiting.
I also hope that green programs will get priority, which is something else the government promised.
View Wayne Stetski Profile
NDP (BC)
View Wayne Stetski Profile
2016-01-27 18:34 [p.514]
Madam Speaker, one of the things the hon. member mentioned was infrastructure, which is very important to municipalities. As a former mayor, I wonder if the hon. member would join with me in encouraging the minister responsible for infrastructure to change the formula, as municipalities struggle economically. The general formula is that municipalities have to come up with the first one-third for infrastructure funding. The province provides one-third and the federal government provides one-third. Coming up with that first one-third is very difficult.
Would the hon. member join with me in encouraging the minister to change the formula and provide more funding directly to municipalities?
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