Paul Manly

[Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1, May 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, having a universal child care program is well beyond its time. The Liberals have been promising this since their “Red Book” in 1993. I hope that we pull through with this and actually make it happen, because I have heard from constituents that they want this, and Canadians across Canada have been asking for a universal child care program for a long time. We have seen it work in Quebec. We know we can make it work in the rest of the provinces by working with them on this issue.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1, May 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the budget makes some positive steps toward addressing the affordable housing and homelessness crisis in Canada. Unfortunately, it is not enough to make up for decades of neglect by the federal government. Housing is a human right, recognized in international law and affirmed in the national housing strategy. Much more needs to be done to ensure that right is respected. Weak regulations have allowed our housing market to be used by the global ultrawealthy for tax evasion and money laundering. These activities have driven up the cost of housing to unsustainable levels and it continues to climb. Where does this end?

We should be looking at regulations to protect Canada's residential real estate market. Many countries have regulations that restrict foreign buyers. I have heard both Conservatives and Liberals talk about how much they love foreign direct investment. When people earning median incomes can no longer afford to own or rent a home without spending 50% or more of their income, is foreign direct investment in housing benefiting Canadians? Housing prices in Canada have gone up an average of 30% in the past year. We have barely begun to see the fallout of that.

The investment in Canada's nature legacy is a very welcome addition, especially the funding directed to indigenous protected and conserved areas, or IPCAs. Reconnecting indigenous people back to their traditional lands is key to reconciliation. A sixth mass extinction is happening right now. Species are disappearing at a rapid rate, and we are losing important and endangered ecosystems around the planet. The endangered big tree old-growth ecosystems on Vancouver Island are a perfect example of where the funding from Canada’s nature legacy should be spent. Indigenous protected and conserved areas would put land under the control and authority of local first nations. This ensures long-term economic development built on harvesting second-growth forests and creating value-added forest products, while preserving old growth for eco-tourism and traditional practices.

Low-income seniors in my riding have been asking for additional pandemic relief and for a permanent increase in the old age security. The budget promises that old age security will increase in 2022, a year from now, but only for seniors over the age of 75. This is creating two classes of seniors: those 75 and up and those under 75. This is going to force more seniors to continue working in jobs that young people could be filling.

It is positive that the government is moving toward national standards for long-term care, but bolder action needs to be taken. The pandemic has exposed glaring deficiencies in some provinces that allowed for the warehousing of seniors in for-profit homes. Serious action should be taken against private for-profit long-term care homes that used pandemic relief funding to give executives and shareholders a bonus instead of fixing deficiencies.

The government has made a good start with additional support for students during the pandemic, with interest relief and an increase in student grants, but it is time to take bold action to bring Canada fully into the knowledge-based economy. It is time to follow the lead of northern European countries and make post-secondary education in this country tuition-free.

The Green Party has long been calling for improvements to our health care system, with an increase of health transfers and a system that recognizes provincial demographic differences. There is an incremental move toward universal pharmacare, but we need bolder steps to ensure Canadians have access to the medicine they need. We have been calling for universal pharmacare, universal dental care, universal mental health services, wellness care and a patient-centred focus on health and well-being to keep people out of the sickness care system, because we know that all of these things will save money in the long run and keep Canadians healthier.

Small businesses are going to have a more difficult recovery than large multinational companies that have been able to ride out the storm with big box stores and online sales. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the lifeblood of the economy. They hire the vast majority of private sector workers. Special consideration needs to be given to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses across this country are able to recover. The wage subsidy ends in September. Many businesses in my riding need help well beyond September.

This is Tourism Week. The budget commitments to the tourism industry are not enough. Tourism's contribution to the economy is underestimated. Tourism employs more people than oil and gas in Canada, and $500 million is not adequate to meet the needs of tourism operators across the country, especially for those who will not be in full operation again until at least 2022.

I hear from constituents like Shelley and Dave, who own and operate CruisePlus, a company that books tours in Canada and around the world. When the pandemic hit, they and their team worked hard to get Canadians home and cancel bookings. They have struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. They have lost well-trained, loyal employees and are concerned about the end of the wage subsidy. They will lose support before they are expecting to be able to restart their business in a serious way.

The plan to lower the Canada recovery benefit from the current $500 a week to $300 a week by July needs to be re-examined. Workers are still struggling and may not be able to find enough work to compensate for that reduction.

The pandemic has demonstrated the need to improve our social safety net with a guaranteed livable income. We are going to see additional shocks to our economy with automation, artificial intelligence and climate change. A guaranteed livable income can help ensure that no one falls through the cracks as we navigate these new realities.

How will we pay for all these things? During the peak of the pandemic, more than 5.5 million Canadian workers lost their jobs or were working half of their normal hours. More than half of Canadians are within $200 of not being able to cover their monthly bills. At the same time, Canada's 48 richest billionaires increased their wealth by $78 billion and now have almost a quarter of a trillion dollars among them. We now know that some large corporations used taxpayer-funded relief programs to pay their shareholders and executives huge bonuses. That is disgusting.

Canada needs an increase in the progressive tax rate at the higher income brackets. We also need a wealth tax and an inheritance tax for the ultrawealthy. It is time to close tax loopholes that allow them to offshore their wealth and avoid paying taxes. It is time to tax the Internet giants that extract billions from our economy. Big banks and credit card companies have been raking in profits through increased user fees and interest rates they charge to consumers and businesses, and payday lenders are trapping low-income people into predatory loans with terms designed to keep them in endless cycles of debt. This is unacceptable. How have we let income inequality reach this point? All of these things could have been dealt with in this budget.

Over and over again during this debate, I have heard the Conservatives call on the government to spend less. They caution about deficits and increasing debt. I agree with them in at least one area: We need to end all taxpayer handouts to the fossil fuel industry. Real climate action requires that we cut all funding to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, cut all subsidies to fracking companies and put them on notice that their climate-destroying practice will be banned within the year, and make the costs of industrial cleanup a non-dischargeable debt so we can stop subsidizing the cleanup of abandoned wells. The fossil fuel industry is a sunset industry. It is time to stop propping it up and invest those billions in a just transition to a renewable energy economy.

While there are a number of things that are positive in this budget, it falls short of dealing with the challenges of our time. We are in a climate emergency and we have growing inequality. Canada can and must do better for people and the planet. I will continue to work toward that goal.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1, May 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to rise today from the territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, and to serve the communities of Nanaimo—Ladysmith in the territories of the Snaw-naw-as, Stz'uminus and Lyackson First Nations.

The budget is over 700 pages long and the budget implementation act is over 300 pages long, so there is a lot of ground to cover in a short speech. I have picked some of the key positive and negative aspects to highlight.

A national child care system is a program the Green Party has been calling for for decades. This program is needed more urgently than ever, as we begin to address the heavy impact the pandemic has had on working mothers. The Province of Quebec has been providing low-cost child care for the past two decades, and researchers have studied what has been successful there and what has not. I am encouraged to see the government supporting the not-for-profit model. We must not allow the quality of child care or the quality of—

[Questions on the Order Paper, May 26th, 2021]

With regard to the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights: (a) when is the statutory review of the act by a committee of Parliament expected to begin; (b) why has the said review been delayed beyond the required five years; (c) does the government plan to adopt any of the 15 recommendations of the Office of the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime’s November 2020 Progress Report on the act, and, if so, which recommendations; and (d) has the Department of Justice assessed the outcomes of the act to date, and, if so, what are its findings?

[Petitions, May 26th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition initiated by constituents in Nanaimo—Ladysmith.

The petitioners are deeply concerned about protecting British Columbia's endangered old-growth forests from logging. Recently, threatened screech owls on the species at risk list were discovered in these forests, but it is clear the B.C. NDP government does not give a hoot.

Therefore, the petitioners are calling on the government to work with the province and first nations to immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems, fund the long-term protection of old-growth ecosystems as a priority for Canada's climate action plan and reconciliation with indigenous peoples, support value-added forestry initiatives, in partnership with first nations, to ensure Canada's forestry industry is sustainable and based on the harvesting of second-growth forests, ban the export of raw logs and maximize resource use for local jobs, and ban the use of whole trees for wood pellet biofuel production.

[The Economy, May 25th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, there is a term that some thinkers use to describe our current economic model, and that is a “self-terminating civilization”. In the pursuit of greater and greater economic growth, we are driving ourselves toward extinction, so measurements of economic well-being must account for environmental degradation and social costs. I am glad to see the government moving in this direction.

We need to strive toward a circular economy with zero waste so that every product has a full life-cycle plan in its components. Our shared goals should be to eliminate poverty and homelessness; improve health outcomes through expanded health care services, mental health, dental care and pharmacare; provide free education from preschool through post-secondary; and leave a healthy environment for our children and grandchildren.

Doing better starts by placing a value on things that really matter for our survival: clean air, clean water, nutritious food and a safe and secure place to live.

[The Economy, May 25th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, how we measure the value of things says a lot about who we are as a people and as a society.

Currently we measure the performance of our economy by gross domestic product. GDP measures the market value of all goods produced and services provided in a given period of time.

When the consumption of goods and services goes up, so too does the GDP, regardless of whether the effects on people and society are positive or negative. For example, if a couple gets a divorce, it is great for the GDP. There are lawyers' fees to pay, and if the divorce proceedings go to court, the bills are even higher.

The former spouses now have separate homes and greater expenses than when they lived together. If they have children, the cost of setting up two homes for the kids increases expenses even more. If things go horribly wrong, and an angry spouse burns down the family home or totals the car, that is a bonus for GDP growth. However, what is the real cost of all this economic activity?

Healthy family relationships are integral for childhood development, and many divorces have a negative impact on that development. GDP does not account for the personal and social value of happy healthy families. GDP also does not account for the value of a healthy, biodiverse environment. When one is only measuring GDP, an old growth forest ecosystem has no value until it has been clear cut and turned into lumber.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is among the economists arguing that gross domestic product fails to capture the impact of climate change, inequality, digital services and other phenomena shaping modern societies. He points out that GDP failed to reveal distortions in the bloated U.S. housing market, which triggered the 2008 financial crash.

Some economists refer to GDP as gross depletion of the planet. At a rate of 3% GDP growth annually, we double the size of our economy every 24 years. That means we also double the exploitation and consumption of resources, which is completely unsustainable. If all humans consumed and disposed of products and materials the way the average North American did, we would need seven planets for the necessary resources.

GDP only values things that can be commodified. In a society where GDP is the main measurement, efforts to protect the environment can never succeed. There might be occasional small wins, but the endless drive to turn everything into money will always triumph because unexploited nature has no value on a balance sheet. The crash in biodiversity is the inevitable result of an economy and society that only values GDP growth.

While it would not make sense to completely eliminate GDP as a measurement, it needs to be tied to other indicators, such as the United Nations human development index, which adds together consumption, life expectancy and educational performance at the country level. Another option is the genuine progress indicator, or GPI, which incorporates environmental and social factors that are not measured by GDP. For example, GPI decreases in value when poverty rates increase. The GPI separates the concept of societal progress from economic growth.

It is time to adopt measurements of well-being that support healthy and happy humans, healthy and happy societies, and a healthy, resilient environment.

[Kindness Week Act, May 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise today on behalf of the Green Party of Canada to speak to Bill S-223 from the traditional territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation and to serve the communities of Nanaimo—Ladysmith in the unceded territories of the Snaw'naw'as, Snuneymuxw, Stz'uminus and Lyackson first nations.

This bill was inspired by the work of Rabbi Reuven Bulka, who has been advocating to designate the third week of February as kindness week since 2007. Rabbi Bulka is the founder of Kind Canada, an organization that aims to inspire Canadians to cultivate kindness in their day-to-day lives, support charitable causes and enhance the well-being of others.

My colleague, the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands, is a good friend of Rabbi Bulka. Rabbi Bulka has been an important part of her life for longer than she has been in the Green Party. They met around the year 2000, when the Rabbi invited her to take part in a program on community cable in Ottawa as a guest. The two of them did many shows together and discussed many topics, including the environmental movement and the idea that human dominance over other creatures is a misinterpretation of scripture. The hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands has asked me to pass on her best wishes to the rabbi and to thank him for pushing to have this legislation for kindness week passed in this House as soon as possible.

I really appreciate the preamble to this bill. These are things that all of us can strive for. Kindness encourages values such as empathy, respect, gratitude and compassion. Kind acts lead to the improved health and well-being of Canadians. It is important to encourage acts of kindness, volunteerism and charitable giving to the benefit of all Canadians. We need to encourage a culture of kindness in Canada throughout the year, but we must not limit our acts of kindness to Canadians and encourage a culture of kindness only in Canada. We must extend kindness to all people and all living things on the planet.

On the topic of kindness, researcher and author Brené Brown said, “First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.”

We live in a time when it has never been so easy to be unkind to others. How many Canadians have received a negative comment on social media in a way they would never receive in person? This is especially true for elected officials and public figures, but it happens all the time to people who are not in the public eye as well. Why has social media become so toxic? Why do so many people act in unkind ways online?

This is not by chance. It is a by-product of the way social media platforms are designed. Social media algorithms are designed to make us spend as much time as possible on their platforms, in order to sell our attention to advertisers. What the algorithms have discovered is that a great way to keep us engaged is by angering us, so the algorithms feed us posts that fuel our anger, which increases polarization and destroys kindness.

Campaigners have learned this too. Everywhere we look in the public political discourse these days, we see the weaponization of anger for short-term political gain. Feeding the dark and unkind sides of human nature will come at a great cost and will be hard to undo. Some thinkers have dubbed what is going on right now “a war on sense-making”. Once upon a time, opposite political sides could engage in a rational and respectful debate about policy disagreements. We now have political forces that are fanning the flames of total delegitimization of their opponents, not just their opponents’ policies and ideas, but their opponents themselves. Some of the language being used in emails sent to MP offices these days is alarming.

Those who fan the flames of fear, mistrust and anger are at the same time strangling kindness, empathy and mutual respect. We will all pay dearly for this irresponsibility.

The Dalai Lama tells us, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

The kindness of discomfort can be one of the most difficult forms of kindness to embody in our lives. Confronting injustice requires difficult conversations about privilege. It requires us to acknowledge how we benefit from systemic oppression. It requires us to examine how we consciously or unconsciously perpetuate it. The kindness of discomfort means not being afraid to take responsibility for our own uncomfortable feelings. It means continuing to show up and do the work of creating a more just society.

The kindness of discomfort is an especially important idea to talk about right now. In my riding, there have been recent high-profile incidents of anti-indigenous racism toward the Snuneymuxw First Nation, when there was an outbreak of COVID-19 in its community, and when a memorial for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls was desecrated in the territory of the Stz'uminus First Nation.

Canada is also experiencing a surge of anti-Asian racism. Racism is part of our history and our present. We do not like to see ourselves this way, but it is essential to take the blinders off and sit in the discomfort of that reality. When it comes to breaking down the structural and systemic barriers of racism, bias and discrimination, the kindness of discomfort is the greatest form of kindness we can practise on a personal level. The kindness of discomfort is a conscious choice to become a better ally in the work of building a more equitable and inclusive society. American aviation pioneer and author Amelia Earhart wrote, “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”

I support the kindness week act and I deeply appreciate the work of Rabbi Bulka, who inspired it. Opening up opportunities for Canadians to cultivate kindness through education, action and service also increases our opportunities for connection. Our disconnection from each other is a foundational problem in our society, and we are all living the outcomes of that problem in the mental health crisis, the opioid overdose crisis, the homelessness crisis, the struggle against poverty, the struggle for peace, the crash in biodiversity and the climate crisis. Every act of kindness is an act of defiance toward a social order that goes against our natural impulses toward compassion and empathy.

[Business of Supply, May 13th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member for Kingston and the Islands noted that he supported changes to the Elections Act in case we had to have an election during a pandemic. I do not want an election during a pandemic, and I do not think Canadians want one. He said that some opposition members were saying that these would be permanent changes, and we know they would not be.

However, I would like to see some permanent changes to the Elections Act, and I wonder if the hon. member would agree with me. I hear from a lot of young people who would like to see the voting age changed to 16. I hear from a lot of people who would like to see a proportional representation system so that every vote counts.

I wonder whether the hon. member would agree with those two changes permanently to the Elections Act.

[Petitions, May 12th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition initiated by constituents in Nanaimo—Ladysmith.

The petitioners are deeply concerned about the B.C. government failing to follow through on an expert report and an election promise to protect British Columbia's endangered old-growth forests from logging.

The petitioners call upon the government to work with the province and first nations to immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems; fund the long-term protection of old-growth ecosystems as a priority for Canada's climate action plan and reconciliation with indigenous people; support value-added forestry initiatives in partnership with first nations to ensure Canada's forestry industry is sustainable and based on the harvesting of second and third-growth forests; ban the export of raw logs and maximize resource use for local jobs; and ban the use of whole trees for wood pellet biofuel production.