Maxime Blanchette-Joncas

Mr. Speaker, in her speech, my colleague talked about the importance of affordability in the economic update. The economic update talks about the new initiative announced by the government, specifically Build Canada Homes. The government plans to build 26,000 new homes over the next few years, but the need is much greater. The Parliamentary Budget Officer reported that 690,000 homes need to be [more]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague spoke to us about the importance of Toronto, which receives a large number of visitors. She mentioned $28 million per year. However, the problem in Toronto, aside from the housing crisis, is the mobility crisis. People can no longer even afford to buy houses right downtown. They have to move to the suburbs, yet the federal government cut $5 billion from the Canada [more]

Mr. Speaker, the finance minister mentioned affordability. Let us talk about that. We are in the midst of a housing crisis. The Liberal government, which has been in office for a whopping 10 years, launched a national housing strategy in 2017 that never dealt with the crisis. Now, the government has come up with a new gimmick to lull us into complacency: Build Canada Homes. Build Canada Homes [more]

Mr. Speaker, in the last budget and economic update, the Minister of Finance boasted about wanting to make Canada a global leader in innovation. However, in his last budget, he cut $40 million from the college and community innovation program. We reminded him of that and pointed out the inconsistency. The Liberals say they want to be leaders, but then they turn around and make cuts. The minister [more]

Thank you. Should a portion of new investments be set aside for concrete initiatives led by your members? I'm thinking of colleges, CCTTs, small and medium-sized businesses with goals of prototyping, testing and even actual adoption.

By weakening regional applied research and technology transfer infrastructure, are we increasing our dependence on foreign technologies and suppliers?

Mr. Doyle, what specifically is missing from the defence industrial strategy, in your view, for your members, for all the members we have talked about—such as CCTTs and SMEs—and for the applied research sector?

Thank you. Can you just confirm that this was the full amount that was missing for the program? After all, we were talking about cuts of about 30% to the college and community innovation program.

Mr. Doyle, centres like SEREX, in Amqui, in my riding, and Innovation maritime, affiliated with the Cégep de Rimouski, directly support small and medium-sized businesses and innovation in the region. Do you think we are underestimating the strategic role of this infrastructure in our industrial and technological sovereignty?

Minister Joly Mr. Doyle, I think we have here compelling evidence that the opposition's work is playing off, as I was the one who askedabout this, right here at this committee.

I'd like us to talk specifically about the small and medium-sized businesses you support. Do they actually have access to federal public contracts or do they too often get stuck at the prototype stage?

Thank you. In a crisis or a supply chain breakdown, do you think the local capacity to quickly produce, test, adapt and repair technologies becomes as important as basic research itself?