Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, committee members.
I'm coming to you from the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin territory. It's my honour and my pleasure to be here with you today.
The Canadian Labour Congress advocates on behalf of all workers in Canada.
The 55 national and international unions that are affiliated with the CLC bring together over three million workers in virtually all sectors, industries, occupations and regions of this country.
Workers in Canada currently are suffering intense cost-of-living pressures, but with bold action, we believe that government can help alleviate these pressures. Government can make ambitious investments to provide more affordable, non-market housing for workers in need.
The CLC recommends that budget 2024 allocate $20 billion per year in capital funding to the national housing co-investment fund. Together with provincial partners and other public contributions, this will help build a minimum of 100,000 new units per year.
Budget 2024 should accelerate the rollout of the national housing strategy's federal lands initiative for affordable housing. Government should introduce a dedicated five-year, $10-billion public land acquisition fund to acquire additional land for the construction of non-market, affordable rental housing.
In order to assist the community housing sector to acquire existing affordable rental buildings, the government should create a $20-billion housing acquisition fund in order to maintain the supply of affordable housing for low-income and modest-income households.
The CLC also recommends that in order to cope with high food prices, budget 2024 impose a windfall profit tax on large food retailers and use the revenues to fund an extension of the existing grocery rebate program.
The situation with the cost of prescription drugs is also a major affordability issue for Canadians. We call on the federal government to accelerate the current plans to introduce a national public pharmacare program in Canada. That should entail passing enabling legislation by the end of 2023, implementing—without delay—an essential medicines formulary, and implementing the bulk purchasing plan by the end of 2023. The multi-payer, patchwork system that we currently have has left Canada paying among the highest prescription drug prices in the world. We know that Canadian households paid nearly $7 billion out of their own pockets for prescription medicines in 2020.
Numerous studies have linked the high cost of prescription drugs and related charges, like deductibles and co-payments, to patients' not taking their drugs as prescribed. That, overall, raises the cost of our health care system.
Canada's unions want to see a truly universal pharmacare plan, implementing a single-payer system of public insurance coverage for prescription drugs.
I'll remind you that the Hoskins report advocated a “universal, single-payer, public pharmacare” program and noted that it would reduce the cost of prescription drugs for employers and businesses by $16.6 billion and for families by $6.4 billion.
I also want to address the issue of employment insurance. Since 2019, the federal government has committed to creating an EI system for the 21st century that works for everyone. Canadians are still waiting to see the results of years of consultations on EI.
First, we had a global pandemic, and then this year we've had disastrous floods and the worst forest fire season on record. These disasters have displaced tens of thousands of Canadians from their homes, jobs and communities. Now the economy and the job market are beginning to cool, with the possibility of an economic downturn in the near term. The CLC calls on the government to introduce an annual government contribution of 20% to EI program costs, and we know that this will help pay for improvements while minimizing employment insurance premium increases.
We call on the government to commit to improving access by establishing a lower, uniform, national entrance requirement of the lesser of 360 hours or 12 weeks of insurable employment, and to provide up to 50 weeks of regular benefits to meet the needs of seasonal workers across this country. We're also calling for a raise on the ceiling of insurable earnings and for a substantial increase to the 55% benefit rate. We expect to see the end of a clawback of EI benefits due to severance and vacation pay that workers have earned prior to a downturn requiring them to apply for EI. We also expect to see the end of a 50-week restriction on combined special benefits with regular benefits, which disproportionately punishes women.
Finally, I want to touch on budget 2024 investments in sustainable jobs and the environmental transition. The CLC welcomes the sustainable jobs act. We want to see greater investments in social protections for workers in sectors at risk due to climate change. That includes transition supports for workers, including skills recognition, training and retraining, relocation assistance, mental health programming, family supports and other assistance programs. Budget 2024 investments in decarbonizing the economy have to include job-quality strings, building on the climate-focused investment tax credits that were announced in budget 2023.
Job quality requirements will ensure low-carbon jobs that are well paid and safe and that will afford workers a say through access to a union and ensure that green investments are made in consultation with workers.
Thank you. I welcome any questions from the committee members.