Good afternoon, Chair and honourable members.
My name is Siobhán Vipond. I am the executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress. I am honoured to be joining you today from the traditional unceded territories of the Anishinabe and Algonquin peoples.
We at the CLC speak on behalf of working people in Canada in every industry, occupation and region of the country. The congress welcomes many aspects of the budget implementation bill. The introduction of a labour mobility tax deduction, improvements to Canada's trade remedy legislation and restoring the prohibition on wage-fixing in the Competition Act are all steps that Canada's unions have been urging the government to take.
However, there is a great deal that is missing from this bill. Budget 2022 provides an additional $2 billion one-time top-up to provinces and territories for health services, yet health workers are facing dire staffing shortages and growing burnout. The bill fails to take urgent action to improve the retention and recruitment needed to address this crisis.
Also missing is action to help Canada's care workers, including in early learning and child care and in long-term care. To appreciate the scale of this problem, in March, Statistics Canada estimated the value of unpaid care at between $515 billion and $680 billion.
The budget takes steps on housing affordability and transit shortfalls, but it falls short of addressing the affordability crisis facing working people. The cost of food, fuel and shelter has shot up while wages lag far behind. Workers' spending power is falling. Living standards are declining for workers whose real wages are dropping at the fastest rate in memory. Pensioners who lost inflation-protected pensions are seeing their fixed incomes quickly eroded by soaring inflation.
The government should be urgently responding to this crisis by taxing corporate superprofits, housing speculators and the concentrated wealth of the richest Canadians; allowing wages to rise by strengthening labour standards and removing barriers to unionization; and strengthening social programs by implementing national pharmacare and dental care, quickly getting child care fees down and expanding free high-quality public transit.
Instead, the government is ramping up employers' access to vulnerable migrant workers, while the Bank of Canada is preparing to hike interest rates in the hopes that it will cool inflation. These measures are going to hurt working-class households and worsen inequality while doing nothing to tackle the entrenched power and corporate greed responsible for price-gouging and pandemic profiteering.
Let me end with some specific recommendations for amending Bill C-19, starting with the EI board of appeal.
For many years, labour and community organizations have struggled to restore important elements of the EI boards of referees that were scrapped by Stephen Harper's government in 2012. EI appeals should be heard by worker and employer representatives: people who understand their communities and the realities of workplace life.
Instead of the board of appeal reporting only to the government, we, Canada's unions, urge the committee to make the board of appeal answerable to the entire Canada EI Commission, including both worker and employer representatives.
We also urge the parties to restore the commission's lead role in selecting labour and employer members of the board. Historically, this was done in consultation with the commission's social partners, which included local labour councils. Workers have a right to regional representation and the option of an in-person hearing, another key recommendation of the 2018 tripartite review.
Establishing accessible, accountable social safety nets like our proposed changes to EI ensures workers have the support they need during turbulent economic periods. In our current climate of economic insecurity, workers must have confidence in the services they receive and the future of their employment. The proposed strategic policy review must not be a Harper-style attack on public service workers that opens the door to cuts and the privatization of services that workers and families rely on.
Thank you. I look forward to answering any questions you may have.