Evidence of meeting #136 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was seniors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bobby Morrissey
Madame Zarrillo, your time has gone over by a good bit.
Next is Mrs. Gray for five minutes.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, Food Banks Canada says that food bank access has increased by 90% in the last five years, and that seniors are the fastest-growing group accessing them. Feed Ontario says that the number of seniors accessing food banks has roughly doubled in six years. The Central Okanagan Food Bank in my region now serves thousands of seniors, as food bank demand increased 59% in the last two years alone.
As the minister for seniors, have you gone to the Prime Minister and voiced your concern about the cost of living crisis that has increased food bank usage for seniors?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Well, of course, any one person needing to rely on the services of a food bank is one too many and we must all devote ourselves to eradicating poverty for every age group in this country. In my case, obviously, my particular area of concern is seniors.
I would point out that seniors' poverty has come down in this country. I talked about the numbers in Quebec, but we can talk about reductions across the board in seniors' poverty in Canada, such that seniors are less likely to live in poverty than the average Canadian is. That was not always true during my lifetime. That is currently the fact.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Thank you, Minister.
Given the ongoing cost of living crisis for seniors, do you believe that now is the time to be raising taxes, such as the carbon tax on groceries and fuel that will be coming this April?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
I certainly don't believe it's the time to be voting against dental care. I don't believe it's the time to be voting against increases—as your party did—to various benefits for seniors.
Conservative
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
I'm talking about providing direct, tangible financial benefits to seniors—
Conservative
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
—that your party has opposed systematically for our entire time in government.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
That wasn't my question, Minister.
For my next question, over the last nine years of your government, thousands of union jobs supporting families have been lost in the forestry sector, especially in British Columbia, and a report by B.C. Forestry Workers showed almost 4,000 sawmill workers lost their jobs from 2018 to 2023.
This September alone, 500 jobs were lost from sawmill closures in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John in British Columbia. As a labour minister, are you concerned about the loss of these union forestry jobs?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Indeed, and that's why we wanted to make sure that our supply chains and our logistics in this country provided certainty for our forest product exports: for OSB, for softwood lumber and for other forest products.
British Columbia is an incredible world leader in forestry practices and provides some of the best forest products in the world. We should be very proud of those workers. We need to continue to invest in that sector, and we need to continue to make sure it's an important part of the Canadian economy. We should all be proud of British Columbia and its forestry industry.
November 19th, 2024 / 11:35 a.m.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Minister, your government has been in power for nine years, with three U.S. administrations, and you haven't secured a softwood lumber agreement, which the previous Conservative government secured back in 2006. Have you met with the international trade minister to fight for the importance of a softwood lumber agreement to protect forestry union jobs that are being lost?
Conservative
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Okay. That's great.
Can you table for the committee the meetings that were specifically related to your fighting for forestry workers in meeting with the minister of international trade?
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Sure. I'll do that right now. We are seatmates in the House of Commons and we talk every single day—
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Casual conversations aren't the same as you and your department getting together and you fighting for forestry workers and setting up meetings and letting the minister know.
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
We speak every single day about softwood lumber and about that dispute. I can tell you that the minister is seized with this issue and wants to get a fair deal for the Canadian forest industry.
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Well, after nine years, I would say that it hasn't happened, and it's been an absolute failure—
Conservative
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
Well, I would ask what you have done to go and meet with congresspeople in Washington state or other places, who are defying rulings of world trade organizations and others and putting up these phony disputes—
Conservative
Tracy Gray Conservative Kelowna—Lake Country, BC
Minister, again, you've been in government nine years, and you've had three U.S. administrations, and these are really serious job losses.
My last questions here relate to September 22 and the Ministry of Natural Resources' “just transition” plan, which states that there will be an elimination of 2.7 million jobs in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, construction and transportation. Have you done analysis on how many union job losses these would be and also union versus non-union and comparing paid pension and benefits to any type of re-skilled jobs that might occur?
