Mr. Chair, I will say that I am incredibly disappointed and incredibly frustrated at this Liberal government right now, and I'll tell you why. Let me start with a bit of a push-back on the comments that were just made. They were much like the ones made earlier. I don't believe they're ill-intended comments, but they're ill-informed comments. I'll push back on those quickly before I get to the main point of what I'd like to say.
The 17 weeks that were referred to as maternity benefits are intended as maternity benefits. Yes, the officials did indicate that if a mother happened to be on maternity benefits and lost the baby during that time, she would still be able to get maternity benefits because they are intended not as parental benefits but as maternity or pregnancy benefits. I don't really see how there's an argument that this jeopardizes a mother's ability to access those. If there's a concern that we don't want them stacked, then let's deal with that, but that's a separate issue. To try to pretend somehow that as a result of putting in a bereavement leave someone would be losing the benefits they currently have is completely inaccurate and disingenuous.
In terms of the other idea that there are these sickness benefits, I've already laid out very clearly the argument as to why that is not the case and they are not intended to be. Numerous cases in which they do not apply have been brought to our attention, so there's clearly a need for this. There's no doubt about that.
Let me get to the key point here, which is why I'm so incredibly frustrated with this government. For whatever reason, which I cannot fathom, Liberals seem to not want to proceed with some kind of a benefit for these families, but they clearly do not want to be seen to do that, so they try to find every excuse and reason they can come up with not to proceed.
I'll remind members that when this motion was first brought forward in the House of Commons, the Liberal government had a parliamentary secretary stand up in the House of Commons and oppose this. This changed only because parents across this country spoke out in great numbers very vociferously and not only informed the parliamentary secretary who had been directed to stand up and oppose this how cold-hearted what she said was but also reached out to Liberal MPs in various parts of the country where they happen to live. There was a lot of push-back. I can say that many members of the government did come to me and were privately expressing their support. I believe that, whatever happened within caucus, something changed and therefore the motion was supported.
However, what I've seen since that time is every effort to continue to make excuses and to make it appear as though the government is supportive of these families when clearly it has no intention to take action.
This very morning I was at the human resources committee. We realized that the timeline the human resources committee had proposed was in contravention of the motion the House of Commons had passed, and we sought to rectify that situation and give the government the opportunity to make sure it kept its word and make sure a report was brought forward prior to the end of the session we're currently in. When that was proposed at committee, a Liberal member immediately moved adjournment of that debate, and all of the Liberal MPs voted to adjourn debate while all of the other members, NDP and Conservative, voted not to.
It's very clear that this was intended to make sure the report would not be produced before Christmas, as it was supposed to be. It would mean that the government wouldn't have to respond within a time frame that would be sufficient to enable this to be done before the next federal election. Again, it's designed to try to prevent the government from having to do anything while being able to give us some nice words and make these people feel a little better that someone is listening to them, although they're not going to do anything.
I've always said that actions speak louder than words, and the actions have very clearly spoken. We're seeing it again here.
On one hand, the HUMA committee is saying that we can't get this done in the time frame that was promised to these families, and then we have members on the finance committee saying, well, let's let them do their work, however long it might take. That isn't going to get the job done, and I'm incredibly disappointed to hear what I've just heard. I really wish that Liberal members would back up their words with actions. I hope that it's just one member on that side—not all—and that we will get support for this motion and see this done, or maybe the other committee will decide to actually keep their word and do as they promised.
Some way or other, I certainly hope that it'll get through to this government that it's important, and that you can't just show symbolism and you can't just have words for these things. You actually have to to take action and accomplish something for these families.
I certainly hope that message will finally sink in.