Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is a privilege and honour to rise to speak to Bill C-290, an act to amend the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, at third reading. First, I want to give a huge shout-out to my colleague from Mirabel for tabling this bill and taking leadership on this. I also want to thank my colleague and friend from Beauport—Limoilou, who worked really closely with me and our team of New…
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Madam Chair, the member kept on talking about all the doubling of this and doubling of that, but key, critical investments from Indigenous Services Canada to tribal councils did not double. In fact, it did not double under the Conservatives' watch when the Harper government was in power. The Conservatives cut that funding dramatically. Between the Liberals and the Conservatives, the governments cu…
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Madam Chair, my colleague talked about infrastructure. ISC set a goal of 2030 to catch up on the infrastructure gap, but it has not provided the money to do that. However, the government did provide a lot of hope when it got elected. It gave hope to people that it was going to meet the 2030 goal, but it has not put aside the funds to do that. I have so much respect for my hon. colleague, and I kno…
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Madam Chair, I want to thank my colleague. The member talked about consultation and right now, Indigenous Services Canada, or ISC, has been changing funding formulas for education without even talking to the nations that are impacted, so it is hard for them to continue doing their programming with new formulas. It has a huge impact on children, of course. On ISC engagement with indigenous communit…
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Mr. Chair, over the last 20 years, Indigenous Services Canada has cut tribal council funding in half. This is under both the Harper Conservative government and the current government. These severe cutbacks have had a huge impact on critical services to the nations in my riding. The Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council and AFN have been asking for increases in funding via motions, letters and meetings. Th…
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Mr. Speaker, for the 148th time, I will stand in this House and talk about the importance of wild salmon, and as I do, I will ask all members to join me in a recorded vote to support wild Pacific salmon.
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Mr. Speaker, I rose earlier on a point of order to remind my colleague that indigenous people are not ours. My colleague went on to say that indigenous people are part of our history. They are not just part of our history. Indigenous people in my riding fight every day to get through the challenges they face because of government policies that have tried to destroy them. They say every day that th…
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Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, and I have a ton of respect for this member, I want to remind members that indigenous peoples are not ours. I will give her a chance to correct the record.
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Mr. Speaker, let us talk about who is changing their tune. This member ran on a platform putting a price on carbon. Today, here he is saying that we should get rid of the carbon tax. The Conservatives ran on a platform to remove the GST on all home heating, something the NDP just brought forward. What did they do? They voted against it. My colleague before me just talked about how eight out of 10 …
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Mr. Speaker, the Governor of the Bank of Canada cited that the carbon tax is causing about a 0.15% impact on inflation. This was confirmed by the PBO. That is 15¢ on a bag of groceries that is $100. The Conservatives are getting away with this runaway train of a disinformation campaign that the carbon tax is the major factor when it comes to grocery store prices. We know it is corporate greed, bec…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to state some facts. This is not a Liberal policy. The carbon tax was first established in British Columbia by a right-leaning Conservative government under the mask of the B.C. Liberal Party. Therefore, I find it quite interesting when I hear B.C. Conservatives in this place talking about getting rid of the federal carbon tax, which does not apply in British Columbia. I state …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague talked about indigenous people's feeding their kids. I will tell members what it is like in my riding, where the Nuu-chah-nulth went to court to actually exercise their constitutionally protected rights to fish so they could feed their kids. What did the Conservatives do when in power? They fought them; they spent millions of dollars fighting them in court. When the Nuu…
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Madam Speaker, it is a huge honour and privilege to table this petition today on behalf of constituents in my riding. Farmers' markets are a key tool for COVID–19 recovery as small business incubators, domestic system and food security builders and local economy community builders. These coupon programs are a key support for new market development and for existing markets and their provincial asso…
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Mr. Speaker, this summer, Canada relied on volunteer firefighters and search and rescue to risk their lives to keep us safe, but the Liberals have been letting them down. Ninety-five hundred volunteer firefighters quit in 2023. The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, which is here today, says that doing the work and paying for the equipment is unaffordable. The Liberals are in luck. The NDP has a…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to table a petition today on behalf of constituents of mine from Bowser, Dashwood, Deep Bay, Union Bay, Denman and Hornby islands, and the other 20 communities that have volunteer fire departments in my riding and three search and rescue stations. Volunteers get a $3,000 tax credit if 200 hours of volunteer service are completed in a calendar year. The …
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With regard to workplace and work-related injuries in the public sector, broken down by department and fiscal year since 2015-16: (a) what is the total number of public sector workers who experienced (i) physical injuries in the workplace, (ii) injuries to their mental health or mental well-being in the workplace; (b) how many of the workers in (a) experienced injuries that resulted in the worker …
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With regard to the administration of claim expenses, financial losses and damages caused by the Phoenix pay system, broken down by month since its implementation: (a) what directives, policies, or other forms of instruction have been made by the Treasury Board regarding the prioritization of cases; (b) how many employees at the Treasury Board are working to (i) respond to claims created by governm…
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With regard to policies, directives, standards and guidelines enforced by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat concerning people management, broken down by department or agency: (a) on what date was the last staffing review completed and presented to the deputy minister and senior managers; (b) what were the conclusions of the last staffing review, including the (i) number of vacancies, (ii) f…
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Mr. Speaker, with the cost of living crisis, Canadians cannot afford the therapy they need. If they try for public care, wait-lists are months to years long. There is no postpandemic recovery plan to help people with their mental health. So many people are suffering in silence. This is not acceptable, especially when the Liberals have yet to deliver on the $4.5-billion mental health transfer. For …
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Mr. Speaker, tomorrow the world will observe the second International Day for Biosphere Reserves, designated by UNESCO in collaboration with the world network of biosphere reserves. On Tuesday, we had an early start, as the all-party climate caucus, in partnership with the Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association, gathered for the third annual biosphere regions day on the Hill. We celebrated the im…
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Madam Speaker, we also believe that there should be a price on carbon and that we need to take climate action seriously, to take real action and to move rapidly. The Liberals decided to do a carve-out that is only going to take pressure off Canadians in terms of home heating. We hear the Conservatives say they are bringing forward a motion to help all Canadians. In B.C., that motion the Conservati…
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Madam Speaker, let us talk about the facts. One fact is that the motion the Conservatives have put forward today would help four provinces and three territories; it would not help people who live in British Columbia. Another fact is that removing the GST on all home heating would help all Canadians in all 10 provinces and three territories. Could my colleague talk about the fact that the Conservat…
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Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, there was in fact a motion that the Conservatives teamed up with the Liberals to defeat—
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Mr. Speaker, with respect to a “one Canada” approach, this motion would apply to only four provinces and three territories. It would not help people in British Columbia. However, New Democrats, a year ago, brought forward a motion to remove the GST on home heating, which would have applied to all Canadians, in all 10 provinces and three territories. While I am getting heckled by the Conservatives,…
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With regard to the President of the Treasury Board's directive to find specific cuts within departments by October 2, 2023, broken down by department: (a) were any third-party management firms contracted to assist with identifying spending cuts; and (b) what are the details of all contracts in (a), including the (i) name of the firm contracted, (ii) value of the contract, (iii) deadline to submit …
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to bring forward this petition on behalf of constituents of mine from Cumberland, Courtenay, Parksville, Qualicum Beach and Port Alberni. The petitioners are calling on the government to take action on the toxic drug crisis. They cite that the war on drugs has failed miserably, and this is from family members and community members, people who are connected to people wh…
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Madam Speaker, I am urging this government to act. My colleague and I did work together. I really appreciate the fact that, when we kicked and screamed as New Democrats to support small businesses, to fix technicalities at an urgent time for small businesses, we were able to fix some of those problems. However, right now, we are not done yet. A lot of these small businesses are just starting to re…
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Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today on a really important issue that is impacting small businesses throughout Canada. Throughout the pandemic, small businesses closed their doors to protect public health and the people in our communities. They are the unsung heroes that are not talked about enough in the House or in this country. Obviously, many of them took a major hit financially. I h…
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Madam Speaker, nowhere in the world has the free market solved an affordable housing crisis. We know that under the Conservative watch, we lost 800,000 units. We saw REITs and corporate ownership of residential housing go through the roof. We saw housing prices double. Today, we still hear of no plan from the Conservatives. All we see are things like what happened in Ontario with the Greenbelt. I …
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Madam Speaker, I am looking for what the plan is. If the plan is to put pressure on local governments to create density, what are the Conservatives going to do to ensure that a large part of that housing is going to be non-market housing? Right now in this country, there is 3.5% non-market housing and 30% corporate ownership of housing, something I am sure the Conservatives are very supportive of.…
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Madam Speaker, I find it quite ironic when Conservatives rise in this House and blame the NDP when they are responsible for losing 800,000 units when they were in government. Also, they have not negotiated or gained any housing in the whole eight years I have sat in this place. New Democrats have been trying to get getting housing built. If we were in government, there would be much more. We would…
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals try to pat themselves on the back and say that everything is great, but all we have to do is go outside and we will find homeless people everywhere. It is not working. We lost 800,000 units under the Conservatives. They failed to deliver. In fact, they said that they were going to commit to making sure there was housing for 50% of homeless people within a decade. That i…
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Madam Speaker, I grew up in co-op housing, so I know how important it is. Back when I grew up in the era of non-market housing, we were actually building non-market housing, at about 25,000 units a year. This was before the Liberals pulled out of the national housing strategy and then the Conservatives carried on with building nothing. Right now, we are at 3.5% non-market housing. Europe is at 30%…
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Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' for-profit pet project, the Phoenix pay system, was supposed to save over $80 million. Instead it has cost over $2 billion and does not even work. This has hurt workers like Tina in my riding, a dedicated public servant for 30 years, who has been missing pay for years. The Liberals are prioritizing going after the workers who were overpaid instead of the workers to …
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Mr. Speaker, we have heard from Dream, another REIT that is using public financing through CMHC to build housing because it is cheaper. We now know from the Infrastructure Bank that private investors are looking at this financing because it is cheaper, and they would be making profits off of public money. When we look to Toronto, for example, the mayor of Toronto is looking to build 60,000 units t…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague likes to talk about McKinsey, but under the Conservative government, we saw PricewaterhouseCoopers go from $9.8 million to $45 million in terms of outsourcing. We had Michael Wernick testify at the government operations committee. He cited that there was a direct correlation between the gutting of the public service and, later, the cost of outsourcing. He also highlight…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for talking about my bill, Bill C-310, on the volunteer firefighter tax credit. I hope the government comes to its senses and prioritizes this for the over 100,000 volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers, because inflation is having a huge impact on them. In terms of supporting our volunteers, we need to look at new ways to tackle forest fi…
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Madam Speaker, we are talking about trade agreements today. We have been talking about other trade agreements outside of this one as well. Right now, Canada is negotiating the UK-Canada free trade agreement and my colleague and I have been working together because we know that recipients of British pensions who live here in Canada have had their cost of living indexed and frozen, unlike Canadians …
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Madam Speaker, any time we talk about Ukraine, I want to send my thoughts and love to the people of Ukraine. I want to thank the Comox Valley Ukrainian Cultural Society in my riding that is doing a lot of advocacy for Ukrainians who are here in Canada and helping those who are in war-torn Ukraine now. All treaties limit a nation's freedom to legislate. This free trade agreement includes provisions…
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Madam Speaker, I will follow up on the question of my friend from the Bloc. We are talking about trade. What do the Conservatives want to talk about? The carbon tax. The carbon tax, according to the Governor of the Bank of Canada, is contributing 0.15% of inflation, which was affirmed as well by the PBO last Thursday at the OGGO committee, which I am on. The Conservatives do not want to talk about…
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Madam Speaker, I just want to refer back to oil and gas. In this place, we continue to see the Conservatives try to focus on a diversion. They talk about the carbon tax. Last year, it went up two cents. The oil and gas profits went up 18¢ on every litre of gas; the Conservatives do not talk about that. We do not need oil and gas lobbyists here on Parliament Hill when we have the Conservative Party…
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about doing business with China, but I will go back to FIPA, the agreement the Conservatives signed under Stephen Harper. It is like people have amnesia around here, because before they signed that agreement, they forgot to tell us that they brought 30 executives, CEOs, including oil and gas executives, to China, and guess who paid for it? It was the Canadian taxpa…
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Mr. Speaker, if the member wants to get up on a point of order, he can clarify. While he is heckling me, I will remind him that they signed a trade agreement with secret tribunals, and even Canadians do not know about what is in those secret tribunals when there is an appeal from the Chinese government that wants to override, say, Canadian rights. There was a woman in my riding, Brenda Sayers, a l…
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Mr. Speaker, there is one thing that we have seen in previous trade deals, and I am thinking of the free trade agreement with China that the Harper government signed back in 2014. While I am being heckled by Conservatives, I will just remind them that they signed a trade agreement with China for 31 years. That trade agreement—
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Hornby Island, Denman Island and Deep Bay on Vancouver Island. The petitioners are calling on the government to postpone licensing further shellfish aquaculture facilities located near herring spawning and rearing habitat in Baynes Sound until a full ecosystem-based assessment is completed on the impacts of this indust…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise tonight to talk about a really difficult year that we had in my riding of Courtenay—Alberni. We know that ocean temperatures around the world have been rising rapidly. It is a record year for air temperatures, ocean temperatures and wildfires globally. We watched with horror as we saw wildfires rage across Yellowknife and Hay River and Nova Scot…
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Mr. Speaker, we heard that two years ago the Deputy Prime Minister had informed our finance critic, the member for Elmwood—Transcona, that on all future free trade agreements, the government would give 90 days' notice to this House, that 30 days before the start of negotiations the government would notify the House of the objectives of the free trade agreement and that at the same time as the impl…
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Mr. Speaker, it is not a surprise that I am tabling this petition, given that there were forest fires across my riding, that divided my riding this summer. The petitioners cite that there is a climate emergency crisis in our country and that Canada's temperatures are rising faster than overall global temperatures. Extreme weather events, including unprecedented droughts, hurricanes, floods and for…
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Mr. Speaker, for two years, the Liberal government has let a ship-breaking company in Union Bay break rules in sensitive fish habitats. This could put this important ecosystem, and 50% of the B.C. shellfish industry, at risk, threatening up to 500 jobs and the local economy. Local first nations, governments and residents are asking the Liberals to stop extending the permit that allows Miller Freem…
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