Routine Proceedings
With regard to government action towards addressing the opioid epidemic: (a) what concrete steps has the government taken to (i) increase the number and accessibility of supervised consumption sites, (ii) decriminalize simple drug possession, (iii) increase access to diversion programs and alternative justice strategies for people accused and convicted of drug crimes, especially for First Nations,…
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Madam Speaker, as this may be the last time I rise before the holidays, I wish you and all my colleagues happy holidays. One group that has been left out throughout the whole pandemic is start-ups. I think of Wildflower bakery in my riding of Port Alberni. It has had limited seating and has had the challenge of staying up with the times. This new variant now is going to impact that business. Its c…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf citizens in my riding of Courtenay—Alberni. The petitioners cite that farmers' markets are an important tool for COVID-19 recovery and, specifically, how important the farmers market nutrition coupon programs are in helping create food security and resiliency by giving vulnerable people access to healthy, locally grown foods and dietary…
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the Conservatives, and certainly the New Democrats, have talked a lot about travel agents and those who have been left behind by the government, abandoned when the government shut down the Canada emergency response benefit. There are many Canadians who have not been getting the support they need. Could my colleague speak about what the Conservatives would offer for thos…
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moved for leave to introduce Bill C-216, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and to enact the Expungement of Certain Drug-related Convictions Act and the National Strategy on Substance Use Act. Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to introduce the health-based approach to the substance use act. I would like to thank my colleague, the hon. member for Vancouver Kingsway, for …
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Madam Speaker, my colleague said this bill treats using substances for personal use as a health issue, but it actually does not do that, far from it. It is not even a half measure. We have heard from police chiefs and we have heard from medical health professionals. Our own shared province of British Columbia has been calling for decriminalization and safe supply as first steps to address the opio…
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the question from my colleague and good friend. That was a good question. Right now in the Criminal Code, section 718.2 allows judges to increase or decrease sentencing depending on aggravating circumstances, so it still does give judges the discretion to ensure that they are taking action on these serious offences. In terms of the conversation I have been having a lot ar…
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Mr. Speaker, we have made it absolutely clear that we are not talking about supporting or removing mandatory minimum penalties for the most serious offences. Judicial discretion gives judges the ability to ensure that those who have committed heinous crimes pay the price. The member is very wrong to say that I am delineating away from the bill. The bill is talking about still criminalizing people …
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Mr. Speaker, I had a hard time hearing the question, but I will say that this bill does not even come close to going far enough. Right now they are talking about leaving it in the hands of judges and police. This is not going to prevent people from coming out of the shadows and from using small amounts of drugs. We heard the evidence. The government's own expert panel on substance use from its own…
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Mr. Speaker, we heard a lot of people talk about what is missing in this bill and the shortfalls in this bill, especially when it comes to dealing with the health crisis of the overdose and opioid crisis. We have heard many people calling for decriminalization. As a judge, does the member agree with the police chiefs association, medical health officers, social workers, those in science and those …
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Mr. Speaker, it is a huge privilege and honour to rise today to speak to Bill C-5. I also want to take the opportunity to thank the people of Courtenay—Alberni for re-electing me for the third time. I am deeply honoured. I also want to extend my thanks not just to my supporters but to my family as well, especially my three children, who have been there supporting me on this incredible journey to f…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the international seabed covers 50% of the planet and is considered the common heritage of humankind. The International Seabed Authority is tasked with protecting the seabed in international waters, but Canada has been missing in action as a member until recently by only sending one delegate to International Seabed Authority meetings and missing six opportunities in the last six years…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for talking about the opioid and overdose crisis. Chief James Ramer from the Toronto Police Department wrote in a letter to Dr. de Villa, Toronto's medical health officer, that the force supports a new approach to decriminalization. He said: We agree that the current approach to managing drug use does not support safe communities or advance the health of…
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Madam Speaker, over 25,000 lives have been lost due to a poisoned drug supply since the Liberal government came into power. Liberals have heard from health professionals, police chiefs, addiction specialists and experts. Even their own expert panel from Health Canada on substance use is giving them clear direction and guidance to decriminalize the use of drugs and provide a safe supply as the firs…
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Madam Speaker, we have heard from mayors, provincial governments, including British Columbia, health care professionals, frontline service workers, police chiefs and public health officials. They are calling for the decriminalization of the personal possession of drugs. The opioid crisis is happening. Will my colleague listen to health professionals and police chiefs and not let politics stand in …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to table a petition on behalf of residents from Cumberland, Courtenay and Royston in my riding. They have supported this petition because of their concerns around food security and tackling poverty. The petitioners highlight that farmers markets are really a key, important tool in terms of COVID-19 recovery, and in terms of supporting domestic food system…
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Madam Speaker, I have one petition to table today, and it is to support volunteer firefighters, who account for 83% of Canada's total firefighting essential first responders. In honour of these incredible volunteer firefighters, the people of Beaver Creek, Cherry Creek and Port Alberni are calling on the Government of Canada to support the private member's bill, Bill C-201, and increase the tax ex…
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Madam Speaker, throughout COVID-19 we have provided supports to business. As New Democrats we have talked about the concerns about big corporations paying dividends to shareholders and CEOs taking bonuses off the backs of everyday Canadians when they apply for benefits. One thing that is missing as they divide this bill is that I do not hear Conservatives talking about the GIS clawback. We see the…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for this motion today and for talking about housing. We talked a lot about housing for all people. One thing I am worried about is the homeless people in my riding. When the government rolled out its rapid housing initiative, it housed fewer than 5,000 people in its first round. It was the same thing in the second round. There are over 200,000 people who a…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour to table this petition on behalf of volunteer firefighters in my riding from Hilliers, Dashwood, Coombs, Cumberland, Bowser, Tofino and Ucluelet. They are stating that 83% of Canada's total firefighting essential response is from volunteer firefighters, and 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents every year. The petition outli…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour today to rise to request an emergency debate in the House at the earliest convenience because of the urgent need for the federal government to address the overdose epidemic that is destroying communities and families across the country. This crisis has only become worse with the emergence of COVID-19 and the pandemic. Health experts and coroners' reports are now reveal…
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Madam Speaker, it is a good question. There are a number of improvements. We want to ensure that workers do not have to wait 11 months to access 10 paid sick days. As I said, this would disproportionately impact women, for sure, and workers who have been outsourced. With regard to ensuring that workers have access to their first day of sick leave after a continuous period of employment of at least…
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Madam Speaker, the reality is that we need people to get vaccinated, and not just to protect each other. For example, in this place I am thinking about all the staff: the security, the pages and the clerks who are here. It is our duty to protect each other. One part I really like in the legislation is about protecting health care workers at their workplaces so that people are not protesting outsid…
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Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to speak to this important bill, Bill C-3. It is great to see both the Liberal Party and, it seems, the Conservative Party coming around to see the importance of paid sick leave. I have talked about this in the House quite significantly and so has my party. In fact, the leader of my party raised this 22 times throughout the pandemic. Here we are, 20 month…
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition today on behalf of residents from Cumberland, Courtenay, Parksville and Port Alberni. They are calling on the government to address the preventable opioid overdose crisis resulting from fentanyl-poisoned sources. They cite that regulating to ensure safe sources with proper measures and bylaws will reduce the criminal element associated with stree…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the Public Health Agency of Canada reported an 88% increase in opioid-related deaths last year. The Prime Minister has repeatedly said we need to listen to public health officials to get through the pandemic. However, when it comes to the overdose crisis, he is ignoring those same health officials who are clearly saying that decriminalizing personal possession of illicit drugs and pro…
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Mr. Speaker, I certainly agree with the part of the legislation that protects our health care workers, and I appreciate the member speaking about it. We know that the government has been guilty of outsourcing at a rapid rate, especially at Veterans Affairs, for which I used to be the critic. The Liberal government promised to restore the jobs cut by the Conservatives in the previous government, ye…
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for talking about the importance of protecting workers. I have asked other parties this same question. Throughout the health crisis, medical health professionals said the top two things that could be done to stop the spread of COVID were for people to get vaccinated and for governments to implement paid sick days. The government chose to drag this leg…
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Mr. Speaker, throughout the health crisis we heard from health professionals who said two really critical things. The first was that people should get vaccinated. The second was that governments should bring in paid sick days, so that people were not making the difficult choice of not paying their bills or going to work sick and spreading sickness to their colleagues. As a result of this, people a…
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Mr. Speaker, during the pandemic, medical health professionals were really clear that they wanted us to social distance and wash our hands, but they also wanted politicians to implement paid sick days and people to get vaccinated. Here we are, 20 months later, and finally we have Conservatives and Liberals implementing paid sick days. I think about the other health crisis that was happening previo…
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for recognizing his own family. It is really important to recognize the service of people serving the public. My colleague talked about urgency, and he talked about people's lives being lost. Medical health professionals, again, have decided that people need to get vaccinated and governments need to implement paid sick leave. We have not heard from the C…
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Madam Speaker, I want to congratulate my colleague, as I have not had a chance to do that in the House. I have articulated fairly clearly that women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Again, women are disproportionately more likely to do temp work and to be outsourced. That being said, they are going to be recycled through this and will miss the opportunity to get 10 paid sick days…
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Madam Speaker, at the beginning of the pandemic and throughout the pandemic, we heard very clearly from medical health professionals. They said that there are two things that are of top priority to protect the health of people in our communities: to get vaccinated and to have governments bring forward paid sick days, so that employees are not infecting colleagues when they go to work or having to …
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Madam Speaker, I have to say it is a relief to finally hear that the Conservatives are on side for paid sick leave, because throughout the pandemic I asked the Conservatives repeatedly if they would support paid sick leave, and they flat out would not respond. People were going to work sick, making a choice between paying rent and buying food or going to work and possibly infecting their co-worker…
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Madam Speaker, it is a beautiful place that I come from. Today is a very important day. As my colleagues have noted, we have been calling for this. Our leader has raised it in the House of Commons over 22 times. The NDP knows full well that people are going to work sick and are not getting the coverage they need. My colleague for Hamilton Centre just articulated that changes to the bill are needed…
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Madam Speaker, my colleague and I usually talk about the protection of wild salmon together. It is nice to see him back in the House, and I certainly look forward to working with him on that. I am grateful to the Liberals for finally getting on board when it comes to paid sick leave. Today, the New Democrats have talked a lot about the gaps in leave for workers, and one thing that has come up agai…
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Madam Speaker, we are very glad to see the Conservatives get on board now to support paid sick leave. One thing the member's colleague, the member for Parry Sound—Muskoka, talked about was bereavement. I really appreciate that because most of us cannot imagine the terrible grief of losing a child. It can lead to unresolved grief, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction disor…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I rise to table a petition from constituents from the Comox Valley, Courtenay, Cumberland and Royston. The petitioners cite that farmers' markets are a key tool for a COVID‑19 recovery as small business incubators, domestic food system resilience and security builders, local economy community builders and farmers' market coupon programs are a key support for new and existing market …
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition on behalf of residents from Errington, Hilliers, Parksville and Qualicum Beach in my riding who are calling for support for volunteer firefighters, who account for 83% of Canada's total firefighting essential first responders. In addition, they cite that approximately 8,000 essential search and rescue volunteers respond to thousands of incidents …
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, I first want to congratulate my colleague, and I want to thank him for talking about the cost of public service on our families. I really appreciate that. He talked about wealth leaving rural Canada. Too often, wealth starts in rural Canada and leaves rural Canada. He talked about housing. In the early 1990s, 10% of our housing was non-market housing. Now it is less than 4%. In Euro…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, I keep hearing the Conservatives talk about the runaway housing crisis. I could not agree more that this needs to be addressed. However, the Liberal-Conservative coalition is protecting the big banks and standing together united in protection of the wealthy, doing everything from protecting tax havens that need to be shut down to protecting CEO stock options. We never hear that coal…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, my colleague talked a lot about the government needing to get out of the way. When it comes to merchant fees, Canada's merchants pay some of the highest fees in the world. In the U.K. they pay 0.3%, in France 0.28% and in Australia 0.5%. In Canada, we have a rate of 1.4% on the interchange fees. Liberals, in the last budget, said they were going to do something about that and cap merc…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, we know that the Liberals are all about the rapid housing initiative with a billion dollars in the first round. There were subscriptions of $5 billion in applications, yet only 20% were funded. One of the applications came from my riding in Port Alberni to buy the old Beaufort hotel, and it was supported by the Salvation Army, the Bread of Life, KUU-US Crisis Line, the Canadian Mental…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Mr. Speaker, congratulations on being in the chair. My colleague talked about reconciliation. She is well aware of the shootings of Chantel Moore, who died last year on a wellness check; Julian Jones, who was shot in Opitsaht earlier this year; and another woman in Hitacu. These are three people from the Tla-o-qui-aht nation in my riding. The Speech from the Throne says: The Government will also c…
Read full speech →Speech from the Throne
Madam Speaker, we know that during the COVID-19 crisis and the pandemic, the Liberals listened to the top medical health professionals for guidance on policy and direction, and they responded. When it comes to the overdose crisis, those same top medical health professionals have made it very clear that the government needs to decriminalize and provide a safe supply. However, the Liberal government…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-201, An Act to amend the Income Tax Act (volunteer firefighting and search and rescue volunteer services). Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the member for Windsor West, for seconding the bill. Bill C-201 calls on the Government of Canada to increase the tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and search and rescue responders from $3,000 to $10,000 in …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is a really tough conversation, because I really respect my colleague from Louis-Saint-Laurent. I am concerned about people coming to work with COVID or someone who might have symptoms of COVID being tempted to come to work, when they should be in quarantine and be staying at home, because they feel like their privilege will be violated and they will not have a chance to bring …
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I want to make note in the House that between 2006 and 2011, floods cost Canada about $120 million. Between 2010 and 2015, it was $360 million. Between 2016 and 2018, it grew to $430 million a year. Now we are at over $1 billion. The PBO projected in 2014 that if we kept going the way we were going, floods and fires were going to cost us $43 billion to $50 billion a year. What a def…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I want to thank the people first in my riding, where 100 people were displaced, many of them living in a trailer park. I want to thank the first responders, the community residents who stepped forward, the Arrowsmith Search and Rescue, the people who took risks when the Englishman River breached its bank. There is a lot of fear for the people in our community right now. There is a f…
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