Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her important question. When we talk about the cost of having a national child care program, we need to consider if we can afford this and we need to consider if we can afford not to do this. This is the most important measure that we can implement right across the country to ensure that we can grow our economy, more than anything else. This budget has made in…
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Madam Speaker, for years the Highway of Tears has been an unsafe route for indigenous women and girls. Families of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and survivors have highlighted the connection between these heinous acts and the gaps in cellular service along Canadian highways, especially in rural and remote areas. Can the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic D…
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Madam Speaker, good day and áma sqit. I am speaking to members today from the traditional unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations. My riding also includes the traditional unceded territories of the Líl'wat, the Shishalh and the N’Quat’qua nations. I am very grateful to also call this place my home. Tanúyap. It is…
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Madam Speaker, systemic racism exists in our country. I mentioned a few examples, going back over 100 years, of how that has been present. We just have to look at the lack of access to clean drinking water in way too many areas across our country, and the third world conditions that many first nations live in at this point. I certainly agree that this is here and we need to make sure we are addres…
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Madam Speaker, moving forward with reconciliation is incredibly important for our country. The Prime Minister has said that our relationship with indigenous peoples is the most important relationship we have. There are significant challenges we have in moving forward with this. This is a long process: It is one that is going to require trust-building to make sure we are able to make the progress t…
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Madam Speaker, as I mentioned in my speech, it is high time that we pass this. It is high time that we implement this in Canada. It has been over 14 years since the declaration was passed. There have been many strong efforts to finally move ahead with this in Canada. While this process takes place, important progress has been made on implementing some of the principles, but we need to have this as…
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Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill C-22, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which was introduced a couple months ago and proposes some important reforms to reduce the over-incarceration of indigenous peoples, Black Canadians and members of marginalized communities. As we all know, a fair and effective criminal justice system is critical to ensuri…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to speak to my colleague's bill on the important issue of carbon capture and utilization or storage. He is a fellow member of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. I would like to begin by recognizing the news from a few weeks that the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the challenge of Jason Kenney, Doug Ford and Scott Moe in a clear ruling that …
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Mr. Speaker, today's landmark decision is an important one in the fight against climate change and the most efficient tool in this effort. The Supreme Court affirmed what the Conservative leader's party rejected just this past weekend: Climate change is real, and we have to act. Can the Minister of Environment and Climate Change please update the House on today's decision and our plan to fight cli…
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Madam Speaker, over the course of our nation's history, polluting projects have disproportionately been situated in areas adjacent to indigenous and racialized populations, which has led to increased impacts to human health in those communities. This is a reality that we need to confront, as Canadians, to become a more equitable society. I thank my colleague from Cumberland—Colchester for tabling …
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Madam Speaker, it is a great pleasure to join the debate today on the private member's bill of my hon. colleague from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. It raises some important questions on the role of the Canada pension plan. I believe that the vast majority of Canadians do not want their money invested in companies that do business in a way that is abhorrent to Canadian values. Increasingly, Canadians,…
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Madam Speaker, today I have the honour to virtually present petition e-3054, which was initiated by Scarlet Osborne, a business owner from Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast in my riding. The petitioners request that the government support new hospitality businesses that are currently excluded from the Canada emergency wage subsidy, the Canada emergency business account and the Canada emergency rent su…
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Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his leadership in this as well, both before his time in Parliament and during. I think what is important to show here is that we are on the right track to get to our 2030 targets, and we are going to be on a clear path to get to net-zero emissions by 2050. The target date that the Paris climate accord has is 2030. It is the date countries …
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his question. I think we are both passionate about the importance of taking strong action on climate change in this country, now and always. With respect to his question, as part of this legislation the government would need to bring forward a plan to meet the 2030 targets within six months of it passing. Recently the government has committed to bringin…
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Madam Speaker, I do not know if I will be able to get to all four of my hon. colleague's questions, but I will mention that this net-zero advisory body has already been established. There are 14 members who have been appointed. This advisory body will play a key role in helping engage with the public and inform the types of actions the government can and should take. The advisory board could poten…
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Madam Speaker, it is an honour to join the debate on Bill C-12, Canadian net-zero emissions accountability act, which is arguably the most important piece of climate legislation in our country's history. This is because Canada should always be striving to act as a world leader in climate change action, but our history has not borne that out. The fact is that Canada remains a top-10 emitter in gree…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, today marks the sombre one-year anniversary of COVID-19's claiming its first life in Canada, a resident of Lynn Valley Care Centre in north Vancouver. Since then, over 14,000 more seniors have perished due to the virus in long-term care centres, representing over two-thirds of the total COVID-19 deaths in Canada, and undoubtedly the biggest calamity of this pandemic. This has hit very…
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Madam Speaker, this week the West Vancouver Place for Sport dedicated its track in honour of Canadian hero and homegrown athlete Harry Jerome. Harry Jerome was a renowned track and field sprinter, but although his achievements, including an Olympic medal and seven world records, are outstanding, he faced significant prejudice and racial injustice as a Black man. Harry's persistence in the face of …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, today I have the honour of presenting two petitions. The first is petition e-2891. The petitioners, Gambier Islanders and friends, call upon the Minister of Transport to ensure long-term public access to the New Brighton dock, the primary port of Gambier Island's southwestern peninsula. They also call on the minister to assist the Gambier Islanders and friends in working with the Sq…
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Madam Speaker, the second petition is petition e-2748, which I present on behalf of Canadians across the country. The petitioners request that the government require all financial institutions with more than 50,000 customers to offer free-of-charge, easily accessible multifactor authentication as an enhanced security option for online accounts.
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Mr. Speaker, last fall the opposition leader claimed that Canada was at the back of the line for vaccines and that 2.5 billion people would get vaccinated before Canadians. This was on top of the claim by his health critic that we would not get vaccines until 2030. The leader of the Conservative Party has been deliberately misleading Canadians at a time of a national health emergency solely to adv…
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Mr. Speaker, I apologize if my language was unparliamentary.
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Madam Speaker, I think we all agree and know that this is our most important international relationship and our biggest trading partner, but with the new administration, there will be both challenges and some opportunities. One of the big commitments of the new Biden administration is to have much stronger action on climate change, and I think this also presupposes some opportunities and challenge…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, the 2,500 search and rescue volunteers in B.C. provide an invaluable service in our province. I know the Pemberton, Whistler, Squamish and North Shore search and rescue crews have been working tirelessly to respond to emergency distress calls this year, having been deployed almost 1,600 times since April. In a typical year, Whistler search and rescue encounters two to three fatalities…
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Mr. Speaker, certainly the tourism sector is very important in British Columbia and especially in my riding. It is our biggest economic sector, so I am very much attuned to the comments and suggestions that my colleague made. The FES has targeted supports, particularly for tourism and some of the other hard-hit sectors he mentioned. The $1-million HASCAP program, for instance, will be available in…
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Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to lend my voice in support of the fall economic statement, more commonly referred to as the FES. As we continue to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, our foremost commitment remains supporting the resilience of our people and businesses. To uphold this commitment, our government has provided an unprecedented $407 billion in overall support to keep Canadians and Canadian …
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Mr. Speaker, I very much share my hon. colleague's concern about the plight of wild Pacific salmon. One of the measures he mentioned in his comments, the permanent funding for the passage of fish in Big Bar, is a very, very important step, but it is one of many, many important steps that we need to take to restore our salmon stocks across the province. This is going to take wide-ranging efforts to…
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