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Have a good week for Andrés Fontecilla
For years, the solidarity MP for Laurier-Dorion has had the impression of preaching in the desert when he talks about tenants who are victims of real estate speculators. With the crisis intensifying, his speech becomes more popular. He took the opportunity to bring to the attention of a now more receptive public frankly revolting stories, such as that of four young brothers from Shawinigan threatened with eviction. The statistics were already known, but by putting faces to the crisis, Mr. Fontecilla is putting pressure on finding solutions. He was not the only one. It should be noted that her colleague Alejandra Zaga Mendez was the first in the party to ask a question on the subject.
Paul Journet, The Press
Tough week for Jean-Yves Duclos
It was a very bad week to be Canada’s Minister of Public Services and Procurement. The fiasco ofArriveCAN is even bigger than we thought. The firm GC Strategies received several over-the-counter contracts for several million dollars. The Canadian public service seems to have lost control of spending since the Liberals came to power. To this, Mr. Duclos was unable to offer anything other than the usual contrition followed by promises to do better. True, two officials were suspended. But we have the impression that we are only just beginning to discover the extent of waste in consultancy fees and other forms of budgetary laxity in the public service.
Paul Journet, The Press
The quote of the week
I have been an auditor for several decades. I’ve been the Auditor General for almost four years now and I should tell you that this is probably some of the worst financial record keeping I’ve ever seen.
The Auditor General, Karen Hogan, did not hide her disbelief at the Canada Border Services Agency’s questionable accounting practices in the application file on Monday. ArriveCANthe cost of which has exploded.
Don’t touch my plastic straw
On Monday, in Montreal, a report told us that single-use plastic was on the verge of disappearing. “Its ban was obvious,” argued the mayor of the metropolis, Valérie Plante. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Ottawa River, the Conservative Party tabled a “common sense” bill to “end Trudeau’s radical plastic bans.” Saskatchewan MP Corey Tochor’s private member’s measure C-380 would allow Canadians “to save money at the grocery store, while protecting their freedom to choose the products that suit them best,” the panel said. of press release. Last November, the Federal Court invalidated the decree designating single-use plastic items as “toxic” under the Environmental Protection Law. Justin Trudeau’s government appealed this judgment.
WTF: new definition!
The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, will stop at nothing to capture the imagination by using powerful formulas. He pushed his craft even further this week, in the House of Commons, as he peppered the Prime Minister with questions about the financial fiasco surrounding the app’s design ArriveCAN. “WTF,” he said in English, an acronym that means something that we don’t dare write in this section. Called to order by the Speaker of the Commons, Greg Fergus, Mr. Poilievre quickly got back on his feet. “ Where are the funds “, he said, provoking bursts of laughter in the conservative ranks. Proud of the joke, the party even made sweaters for its supporters. Clearly, the Conservative leader doesn’t miss a single one!
The two best enemies
Are we witnessing the start of a “bromance” between the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, and the potential candidate for the leadership race of the Liberal Party of Quebec Denis Coderre? The former mayor of Montreal made a splash at the National Assembly on February 14 where he confirmed the launch of the “No, thank you!” movement. » against the referendum threat. He also predicted that the 2026 electoral campaign would be a “referendum” campaign with the return of the “federalism-separatism axis”. Piqued, the PQ leader invited himself into Mr. Coderre’s press scrum, which gave rise to an exchange that was comical to say the least. Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon took things with a dose of humor: “For Valentine’s Day, find someone who looks at you the way Denis Coderre looks at me,” he wrote on the X network Having opposing political visions, the two men could well become the best of enemies in the next elections.
See the publication by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon on
For or against 0.05?
Was the secretary drunk with fatigue? Unless it’s mathematics that gets him drunk? Still, he caused general surprise on Thursday by giving the result of the vote of the deputies on the liberal motion which asked the government to impose on drivers “administrative sanctions upon reaching an alcohol level of 0.05”. “For 67, against 31, no abstentions,” he said. Oops ! All the CAQ members present, however, opposed the motion. The secretary corrected himself. “Against 31, for 67, no abstention. » Oops again! “Just a moment, a little silence. This way, we will let the Secretary General concentrate on his figures,” said the Vice-President of the National Assembly, Chantal Soucy. “For 31, against 67, no abstentions,” he finally announced. This is a result that makes more sense… except for those deploring that Quebec is the only Canadian province to tolerate an alcohol level of up to 0.08.
Undress the Saguenay to dress the Outaouais?
The debates surrounding the revision of the electoral map created sparks this week in parliament. We already knew that the deputies from Gaspésie and Bas-Saint-Laurent were going to fight tooth and nail so that the Electoral Representation Commission did not take away a constituency from them. But now the Liberal MP for Pontiac, André Fortin, has in turn jumped into the ring in favor of his region, the Outaouais. Supported by mathematical calculations, he demonstrated that his region was under-represented in the Blue Room, compared to other sectors, which argues for adding a constituency to it. But where could we remove a constituency to do this? In Saguenay, the MP wondered? In conclusion, the President of the Commission took care to tell the MP that the fruit was not yet ripe, so he should not have too many expectations.
Funny substitute
It is a strength to have more than one string to your bow in politics. However, the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Éric Caire, pushed the note a little on Friday. The latter replaced his colleague the Minister responsible for Seniors, Sonia Bélanger, who was to participate on Friday in an interpellation – a parliamentary procedure during which a minister answers questions from the opposition for two hours. Mme Bélanger was unable to be present since she was, along with François Legault, inaugurating a seniors’ home in the Prime Minister’s riding. “It will rather be with the Minister of Cybersecurity, Minister Cairo, with whom we will discuss the aging of the population… so I can’t wait to see what response he can provide,” summarized with a hint of irony the PQ Joël Arseneau.
The sensitive rind
A clash between Pierre Poilievre and a journalist this week gave the Liberals new ammunition to criticize the Conservative leader. “I must say that his skin is quite sensitive,” said the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge. Mr. Poilievre attacked the integrity of a journalist from the English bureau of The Canadian Press who insisted on having an answer to his question, accusing her of being “a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office financed through taxes.” She wanted to know why the Conservatives supported regulatory relief that allowed television broadcasters, including Bell Media, to save $120 million annually. The company announced it was cutting 4,800 positions last week.