Thank you, Mr. Easter.
I'd like to thank the committee for inviting us to join you today to speak about government subsidies for businesses, like the new federal hiring subsidy and the extension of the wage subsidy.
As Michelle spoke about, the federal government took over our hotel, the Pacific Gateway. The government also brought in the Red Cross, and they have been here since last year. We became displaced from our restaurant, kitchen and housekeeping jobs. The hotel management used the federal takeover as an excuse to terminate me and 140 of my co-workers. That meant 70% of our staff was fired. Two-thirds of them were women.
I worked there full time for seven years as a hostess and server until the pandemic put me out of work. I am a single mom raising two children. Their ages are 12 and 14. This past year has been very stressful for me and my family. My co-workers and I thought we would have jobs to return to when the pandemic ended. All we asked of the hotel was to extend our recall rights due to the pandemic. We have only a 12-month recall right. All of us have pretty much gone past that. That's why we have been fired.
The owners of Pacific Gateway used the wage subsidy but never used it for us. Will they be receiving the new hiring subsidy to hire our replacements? Public subsidies are supposed to help businesses keep us connected to our jobs during the pandemic. This isn't happening. Prime Minister Trudeau also promised us a feminist recovery, but women are still bearing the brunt of the firings at our hotel on the government's watch. These were living-wage jobs that allowed us to support our families.
After the latest round of mass firings, we went on strike on May 3. The federal government should not spend millions of dollars subsidizing a hotel that throws us away. We urge you to stop using this hotel and to not allow hotel owners to use public subsidies at our expense.
Thank you.