Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to rise in the House on behalf of Québec, the most beautiful riding, which I am fortunate enough to represent.

As members know, I have brought up a number of topics in the House. Everyone will certainly recall the Quebec City marine rescue sub-centre, which I saved after two and a half years of hard work. I pressed the Conservatives and forced them to take action because it did not make any sense to hang the sword of Damocles over the only officially bilingual centre in the country. That is what we must remember. This was obviously a success for me, and getting the Conservatives to reconsider their decision was a success for the NDP. We can now trust that the Quebec City marine rescue sub-centre will be there to save lives. That is a big deal.

Of course, I have worked on other files. For example, there is the Quebec City armoury, which I am pleased to know will finally be getting off the ground. This is no easy task, since it burned down in April 2008. It is now May 2015 and we are waiting for the backhoe loader to show up. We know it is coming. The tendering process has started. Little by little the Conservatives are starting to budge, but they keep turning this into a campaign issue, saying that they will take care of it. It has been a long time. We really need to push this.

I would also like to comment on the Quebec Bridge. In the Conservatives' latest budget, there is nothing at all about the Quebec Bridge. About 60% of the bridge is covered with rust. Its integrity is compromised. It is Quebec City's trademark. It is an incredible architectural feat and an icon of our heritage, a symbol of our beautiful city. Unfortunately, the government is slow and is hiding behind CN and the courts. It is doing nothing to protect this infrastructure. People in Quebec City are very worried, of course. They hope the government will respond. People were very sad to see that, unfortunately, there is nothing about it in the budget and nothing for the Port of Québec either. As everyone knows, the Port of Québec has some issues related to health concerns. These concerns have not been addressed. There have been several dust incidents. Nobody knows if the port will be able to upgrade its infrastructure given the needs.

Quebec City is a sort of peninsula jutting out into the St. Lawrence River. Windy weather hits Quebec City hard. We have unbelievable winds. We also have very high tides. As a result of all of these factors, the episodes of dust can cause pollution in my colleague's riding of Limoilou, but also in Old Quebec and even Lévis, on the south shore, which is our Conservative opponents' territory. We must do something about this. Unfortunately, once again, there was nothing in this budget regarding the Port of Québec.

The only thing there was in the most recent budget—and I am going to take credit for it—has to do with the Quebec City tall ships. I hounded the Conservatives non-stop and we finally managed to get something in the budget, an investment. Unfortunately, we are still waiting for the details and so I am asking the Conservatives to give us some more information.

Annick Papillon

Transcript

Adjournment Proceedings

Discussions (0)