Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for her speech, although, with so much about House goings-on, it shifted away from early childhood education. This is concerning to me as a former early childhood educator who spent many years working hard for wages that were not livable. We know the facts are on the table. Early childhood organizations are very clear. If we do not have a work…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I found it very shocking that the member, when referring to women who stay home with their children, said they are not working. In fact, that is probably, as a mother, one of the hardest jobs I have had. I just want to remind the member that most unpaid care work is done by women. Getting back to respecting women, I would also like to remind the member that 98% of early childhood ed…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I am happy we have a $10-a-day national child care strategy being put into place, but it will not be a successful program. It will not be rolled out properly without a comprehensive workforce strategy, which includes ensuring that early childhood educators are paid livable wages and benefits and have some sort of income security in retirement. If we do not respect the workers who ar…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my hon. colleague brought up the study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. She is absolutely right. It is called “Child Care Deserts in Canada”. I agree with her. We have a child care crisis. One of its key recommendations in the report to address this kind of child care desert was to guarantee decent wages and benefits for child care workers. It did not recommend crea…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it was a pleasure working with the minister on the bill, and with other members of the House trying to improve the bill. One of the concerns I brought forward, and continue to bring forward, is about workers. I was an early childhood educator, as I have indicated in the past. Workers are fighting the same fight. We are not going to have a national child care strategy unless we have …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one of the benefits of the Quebec child care system is that more women are able to participate in the workforce. Does the member agree that access to affordable, quality child care is a gender equity issue?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about Bill C-35, the Canada Early Learning and Child Care Act. Let me take this opportunity to first of all thank all of the advocates, experts, parents, child care providers, workers, unions and others who took the time to make presentations or write submissions to the committee. Their passion and their knowledge about quality, affordable and accessible child …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it goes back to legislation. We need to negotiate a piece of legislation to enshrine it into law. This is about law. I was very happy to see support from the Conservatives, the Bloc and members of the Liberal Party, in fact, for my amendment to include “free, prior and informed consent” on all matters relating to the children of indigenous peoples, something we know historically has…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I think it is very simple. It is very clear. Certainly the sector leaders like Child Care Now and all the major child care organizations have been very clear that if we want a successful national child care strategy, we need to ensure that we have a strategy for workers. That includes ensuring that early childhood educators are provided with livable wages and benefits and have incom…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, it has been nice working with the member across the way. I know I am insistent on this, but we do not have a workforce strategy in this plan. Early childhood educators deserve respect. I remember how much I loved being an early childhood educator but how disrespected I felt. I was only making eight dollars an hour, yet I was with kids from morning until night. I was doing noble work, …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I enjoyed working with my colleague on the HUMA committee, as a visitor. I agree that we have a child care desert, but I have been asking the same question over and over again tonight. We have what the CCPA called a worker shortage, caused by poor wages, no benefits and no pension plan. We are not going to have a national child care strategy if we do not have a worker strategy that en…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I congratulate my hon. colleague on her new family addition. I have been talking a lot about workers. We are talking about a crisis, a child care desert, which came from the CCPA. It was very clear about what this was about. It did not say to privatize day care and put more money into private spaces. It said that we have a worker shortage, and the way to deal with it is to pay fair …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the member for Winnipeg North has had a track record, since this issue has come up, of minimizing it. Today we hear him competing on who has been worse on foreign interference, the Liberal Party or the Conservative Party. I think they are in clear competition. That was followed up by what I just heard, which was an award-winning mansplaining to the Bloc member. The NDP is offering sol…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the federal watchdog for housing rights has called for an investigation into the government's failure to prevent and eliminate homelessness among women and gender-diverse people across Canada. Those who are especially at risk are indigenous women and two-spirit people. Instead of addressing it, the Liberals refuse to reverse their cut of $150 million to women's shelters, while barely …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, actually, the government does not care about gender-based violence. In fact, it is planning to cut $150 million from shelters. Is the government willing to revoke the $150-million cut to shelters in September?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I wish I was a fridge at Loblaws because it got $12 million. What was given to housing in Winnipeg Centre in the last round when people are dying on the streets? I am going to ask the minister again: Is he planning to invest in housing for kids aging out of care, or is the government going to continue to watch kids aging out onto the streets, something that has been called a pipeline …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I can tell the minister what is a shame: All of my neighbours who are living in tents right by where I live. I am going to ask him again: Does his government plan on building housing for kids aging out of care? It is something that has been called a pipeline for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls, and gender-diverse people, or is he going to continue to watch kids age out…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I find it funny that the Women's National Housing and Homelessness Network has called this crisis so severe that it is calling it one of the great, most severe human rights crises in the country. Are we supposed to be thankful, in Winnipeg Centre, when women and girls are dying on the street, for a little tuppence that the Liberals are giving, when they are giving billions of dollars …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I do recognize that the Liberals have only spent 5% of the $724.1 million and have reannounced money from that funding from 2020. He is talking about credibility when I come from a riding where we are literally searching for women who have died from violence in landfills. That is pretty bold and really demonstrates the arrogance of the government. Going to the Winnipeg street census t…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, they are clearly unwilling to answer my question. It is going to cost lives when the government cuts that $150 million from shelters across the country. Again, last week, the government reannounced funding for shelters, because I think that the government thinks the Canadian public is really stupid. When is it going to announce actual new funding for shelters for indigenous women, gir…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, clearly he does not want to answer the question, because the minister has spent only 1% of the $438 million of the CMHC portion of the violence prevention strategy that has been in place since 2020. People are dying. Why is it taking so long?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, does the minister acknowledge that housing is a major human rights crisis?
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, that is not true. I was not asking about the minister. I was asking about an actual senior, Gerald Brown. Maybe the minister needs to look at his emails. The Women’s National Housing and Homelessness Network has called the crisis “so severe for women and gender-diverse people that the advocate will be addressing it as one of the top human rights issues in Canada.” Will the minister ac…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam. The minister sat and watched Manitoba's largest lowest-income seniors housing complex, Lions Place, be sold off to a for-profit company. Gerald Brown, chair of the Lions Place residence council senior action committee, wrote two letters to the minister, but he has never responded. Is the minister planning to respond…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I am not pleased to have to rise today to speak on Bill C-311, another attack on a woman's right to choose, another attack on abortion as health care, another attack on abortion rights as human rights, which is something that women, in particular, led the way to have so that we would not go back to the dark times of what has been mentioned so many times today: back-alley abortions w…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, anti-choice organizations, on the other hand, are cheering on the introduction of the bill. They see it as a step forward in establishing legal protection for fetuses, which would pave the way for legal restrictions on abortion. If the bill passes, it would be a victory for those who want to limit abortion rights and would not do anything to meaningfully address gender-based violenc…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, the member for Carleton has a history of supporting anti-choice legislation that impacts a woman's right to choose, including, now, his support of Bill C-311. He also has a history of backing up and holding up folks such as Jordan Peterson, who has spoken out aggressively against the trans community and its members' right to bodily autonomy. This is about bodily autonomy and the rig…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I know my hon. colleague is very passionate about the issue, but I do not think it is the issue at hand. In fact, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada opposes this bill and is urging MPs to oppose the bill. At the same time, anti-choice organizations, including the pro-life coalition, are cheering on the introduction of the bill because they see it as a step toward establishing l…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the government announced some funding for indigenous shelters and transitional homes that it first promised two years ago. No shovels are in the ground yet, and it could take years before the money is spent. MPs declared the crisis of MMIWG2S an emergency, yet the Liberals have only spent 5% of the violence prevention strategy funding since 2020, plus they are cutting $150 million fro…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, we are having a very important debate tonight. We have been discussing the topic of foreign interference for a couple of days and the importance of protecting democracy. During these days, I have heard heckling across the floor and name-calling. At a time when we see threats to our democracy, now is not a time for that. Now is a time for all of us to come together to protect democra…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
With regard to the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Plan, broken down by province and territory since their respective agreements were announced: (a) how many new childcare spaces have been created, broken down by non-profit, public and for-profit child care spaces; (b) of the non-profit spaces created, how many are in family-based care; (c) how many early childhood educator (ECE) jobs ha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order. I know it is the end of the season, but calling people “clowns” across the way and things like that, there needs to be limits here. There is nobody in the House pretty much right now. We are on duty and in the middle of debate. What we are debating right now is really serious. We are talking about threats to democracy. When we behave like this in the Hous…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I am rising to ask a question, but I just want to point out that I appreciate the quiet in here. I am really worried about the state of our democracy. The NDP first put forward the need for an independent public inquiry. The member for Vancouver East urged all parliamentarians not to be partisan and to bring the leaders to the table to pick somebody independent, chosen by all party le…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this is the second time I have risen in the House today. We are talking about the state of democracy. My colleague just spoke about how what is going on is impacting her as a Chinese woman in this country and the importance of working together in a non-partisan way across party lines to deal with it. In the midst of this, I have to listen to members across the way name-call each other…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I have the pleasure of serving with my hon. colleague on the status of women committee. I am really proud of our status of women committee. We come from different parties, but tonight we showed up in full force, fighting to end gender-based violence in all forms. I am very moved by my colleague from the Bloc on a regular basis, by her allyship with indigenous women and her genuine des…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I cannot say how touched I am tonight, because this is about being seen as human beings. I am sorry; I am emotional. It is a non-partisan issue. It is a human issue. Talking about funding announcements detaches the government from us, as indigenous women, girls, transwomen and non-binary people, as loving human beings. I want to thank my colleague for being such a marvellous chair on th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I have the pleasure to work with my colleague on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. She was talking about funding announcements. I want to remind my colleague, with all due respect, of the announcement of cutting $150 million from shelters in September. We know rates of gender-based violence are increasing. Although the reasoning was emergency funding during the pandemic, th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, what a pleasure it is to work with my hon. colleague on the status of women committee. We are in different political parties, yet we strive to find common ground on so many issues to fight for women. Former Prime Minister Harper, at a time when we had to fight for a national inquiry, indicated in this House it was not on his radar when women were coming forward sounding the alarm around…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, I would agree with my hon. colleague that we do need justice reform. I appreciated her mention of the incarceration rate of indigenous women in prisons and its impact on family. I did have the privilege to meet with her and the minister the other day about a red dress alert. Very central to our conversation was the need to centre advocates, women, family members and survivors of violenc…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, my hon. colleague spoke about all this money. I am going to mention some of that money. Of $724.1 million that was issued in the 2020 budget, only 5% has been spent. Meanwhile, women are being murdered and going missing. We are dying on the streets, and they are throwing us in landfills. Although I was very pleased that there was support given for searching, the current government has f…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Chair, one of the criticisms the NDP is talking about is the lack of funding for housing. It is $4 billion over seven years when we know there is a huge housing crisis. My hon. colleague from Nunavut has spoken many times about how women are forced to live in violence because they have nowhere else to go. I am wondering if my colleague would agree that more needs to be invested in housing and …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I just want to start out by saying how much I appreciate working with my hon. colleague on the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. We may be from different parties, but at the end of the day we all have a responsibility to end gender-based violence no matter who it is. In the case of indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and trans women, we know we are disproportionately represen…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, whenever there is violence, it is everybody's problem. Nobody should ever ask permission to do something about violence. We are talking about indigenous people. We are talking about indigenous women and girls, transgender women and young people. Nobody needs to ask permission. It is about political will. Not acting or finding reasons not to act at this point when the Prime Minister ha…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I think I just have to look at what has been going on so far. It has been almost four years since the national inquiry. In 2020, the government released $724.1 million to address the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. The money is there. How much has it spent? Only 5%. No new shelters and no new transitional homes have been built. This system is already in plac…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, as I mentioned, young people are on the front lines of this issue. They need to be supported. They need to be supported in this life-saving work. They need mentorship. They need to work with youth as peers and help each other stay safe. We have so many kids who age out of care onto the streets. Do members know who is stepping up? It is other young people with common experiences. We ne…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, I will be splitting my time with the member for Nunavut. It was a monumental day today having all members of the House recognize the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls and two-spirit transwomen, a Canada-wide crisis, because it is a crisis. How many tragedies do we have to endure before appropriate action is taken? We are seeing constant, unrelenting violence ag…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, there have been consultations, and I hope that if you seek it, you will find consent for the following motion. I move: That, given that: (i) on October 27, 2022, the House unanimously recognized that what happened in residential schools was genocide, (ii) decades of insufficient action from all levels of government have failed to address the effects of this genocide, including the cri…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, the ongoing genocide of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, transwomen, gender non-conforming and two-spirit people is a Canada-wide emergency. Relatives of lost loved ones, human rights advocates and survivors are calling on the government to take action to end this unrelenting violence. We are not disposable. Our lives are precious and we deserve justice. Will the Liberals…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Chair, this has been a very emotional debate, but I will tell members something I have found quite off-putting. At a time when there is a crisis, there is boasting about how well we are doing, with families grieving throughout the country. I have found it more than insensitive. It is detached and not reflective of showing our humanity in this place. This is not a partisan issue. It is a huma…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Madam Speaker, while the Prime Minister is schmoozing with billionaires and bankers and taking selfies with Hollywood stars, 155,000 civil servant workers are on day 10 of their strike. In Winnipeg, 9,000 workers are on the streets, waiting on the Prime Minister to deliver a fair wage to keep up with inflation. The Prime Minister's lack of attention is, quite frankly, disrespectful. When will the …
Read full speech →