Debates of Sept. 16th, 2014

Opposition Motion—Federal Minimum Wage

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, I just want to get into this federal-provincial argument a bit here. What is happening in this country is that there is a race to the bottom. Businesses pick up on that. They move to provinces where the corporate tax rate is lower, and they put their head office there. When it comes to employees, the people who work for us in this country, they are the ones who suffer when provinces play the game of keeping the low minimum wage so they can attract industry into that particular province.

The federal government wants to take down the barriers for trade in this country, and make us all uniform. At the same time it will not do anything for the workers in this country. It will not recognize that the workers have a right to a decent living and a decent wage wherever they live in this country. Does the Liberal Party agree with that?

[Rodger Cuzner, Liberal, Cape Breton—Canso, NS]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Northwest Territories for what was a comment, more than a question.

The answer to the question is obvious. We belive that workers in this country deserve to make a fair wage. That good, hard, honest worker is only trying to raise his or her family. They show up at work every day, get paid a wage, but depending on what area of the country they are in, continue to struggle with making house payments. It impacts on health. It impacts on the justice system. The studies are many and deep on how living so close to the poverty line impacts on citizens.

Certainly our party does believe that the growth in precarious employment in this country over the last eight years is frightful, and certainly we are committed to trying to address that. This is a small measure to help address that. It is one tool to address it, but certainly so much more has to be done.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Cape Breton—Canso for allowing me to follow him.

This is an interesting debate this morning and throughout the day. I like the idea of the contrast between the leadership of the Liberal Party versus that of the New Democratic Party on this particular issue.

Ever since the leader of the Liberal Party took the position as leader, we have seen a lot more attention in the House of Commons on the issue to the middle class. Finally, the House of Commons wants to give more attention to the issue of the middle class. This is something we believe is very important. It affects us all. If we can somehow improve the living conditions of the middle class in Canada, we would all benefit as a society. That is something we need to achieve.

Yesterday, we had a good, very tangible example. It was an idea that would make a difference. My colleague from Cape Breton made reference to it in his comments when he said that the leader of the Liberal Party followed it up through questions. It is an idea that would generate in excess of a hundred thousand jobs for Canadians—that is, to look at the EI premiums and give refunds to employers who hire Canadians. This is something that would actually generate jobs.

A week ago, the Conservatives came out with a somewhat different plan that in essence would provide a disincentive for employers of more than 12 to actually hire someone. Therefore, it is nice to provide a bit of contrast. The Liberal Party is more focused on the economy, assisting the middle class and creating jobs.

Out of the blue, last week the New Democrats proposed a federal minimum wage of $15. It is hard to go against that. Jack Layton, an NDP member of Parliament and leader of the New Democratic Party, supported getting rid of the federal minimum wage back in the 90s. However, things have changed, and we recognize that.

It is important to look at minimum wage in terms of how it can lift Canadians as a whole to earning better living wages. One of the ways to do that is to encourage our provinces. As has been pointed out, they are more in tune with the local labour markets.

I remember as an MLA posing questions to the New Democratic Party, which is in government in Manitoba. I asked it to increase minimum wage. It has been in power since 1999, yet the minimum wage is still, I think, $10.30 or $10.40. One of the greatest needs for increasing minimum wage is in the province of Manitoba. That is why, if we want to increase the minimum wage at the grassroots level, we need to get the provinces on board, because when a province increases minimum wage it affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

It is somewhat admirable that the NDP wants to reinstitute the federal minimum wage. It will no doubt have an effect, but in actual numbers, it would affect less than a thousand people. In reality, if we really want to increase the living wage for Canadians from coast to coast to coast, we need to look at provincial minimum wages and what role the federal government can take in terms of sitting down, working with the them and articulating where they might be able to increase it, depending quite possibly on regions and so forth.

We are very concerned about how Canada's economy is performing. We want to maximize the economy and the number of jobs being created. Members saw that with the first question that our leader asked yesterday in question period. We want to see jobs being created, because that is a priority for Canadians. Canadians from coast to coast to coast want jobs. They want good quality jobs.They want the economy to do better. Obviously they want good paying jobs, and the Liberal Party is committed to doing just that, wherever possible. The Liberal Party is committed to creating an atmosphere for job creation.

During the summer break, I and my colleague from Cape Breton—Canso toured a hog processing plant in Brandon. There is incompetence at both the provincial and federal government levels, but I want to comment in particular on the federal government's incompetence because it is preventing this plant from hiring. There are jobs there, and the plant is unable to hire people because of the federal government. Capital machinery has been set aside and is not being used because there are no people to run the machinery. The demand for Manitoba pork is very real, but the plant cannot get enough pigs into the processing system to meet that demand.

Those are lost job opportunities that affect everyone. Jobs are available, whether it is selling coffee at Tim Hortons or selling a car. Government can play a more significant role in encouraging and providing incentives.

In this particular situation, there are two things that come to mind for me. One is the temporary foreign worker program. What a mess the Conservative government has made of that program. The government is destroying small businesses across the Prairies and other regions of Canada because of its total incompetence with respect to that particular program. That is a direct way of taking jobs away from Canada's economy, and that is affecting each and every one of us. Shame on the government for not addressing the issue of the temporary foreign worker program.

Then we take a look in terms of ideas that come out. I made reference already to what the leader of the Liberal Party stated yesterday, and I will do it again. Why not provide all employers with the break on employment insurance, thereby giving them an incentive to hire? Let them be allowed to forego the cost of those premiums on any new hire. This is no more of a cost than what the Conservatives committed to just last week, yet it would create jobs. It has been estimated that more than 150,000 jobs would be created. Why do the Conservatives not recognize their mistakes and take the necessary action to improve upon them? They owe that to all Canadians.

During the summer, all MPs have the opportunity to canvass with our constituents, many of whom have told us that the economy does matter. New Democrats wave this particular change in policy from the nineties when they originally supported getting rid of the federal minimum wage. We can have that discussion today. We in the Liberal Party are open-minded. What really matters is that we want good quality jobs for all Canadians. We want to ensure that the opportunity to excel, the opportunity to have hope, is there.

Over the next number of months we will continue to hold the government accountable for this. We will all win if we can provide good quality paying jobs for Canadians. The middle class needs to be considered a higher priority inside the House of Commons, and the Liberal Party of Canada is committed to doing that.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and for Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my hon. colleague with great interest. I think there are a few important notes to look at. Our record is very significant. We agree that creating jobs is important and that creating well-paying jobs is very important, but I would like to contrast the Conservative government with the Liberal government. Single families have gone from 43% to 23% and children living in a two-person home has gone from 8.4% to 5.9%. The number of Canadians living under the low-income level is 8.8%, and of course, we again have had significant and phenomenal success in terms of raising the bar for everyone.

Does my hon. colleague believe that raising the federal minimum wage to $15, removing it from aligning with the provinces, is really going to have a significant impact on those very favourable numbers that have come about since our government took office?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, I would love to see where she draws those numbers from. What I can say is that people actually recognize as fact is that Canada has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs, and those are good-paying jobs, which the government has done very little to protect.

When we go to places like Winnipeg Harvest, we find that the lineups for food banks and so forth continue to grow under the Conservative majority government. There is a whole lot of room for improvement. Yes, they can pull some numbers from here and there and try to make it look good, but at the end of the day, what really matters are the quality jobs. We have seen hundreds of thousands of good manufacturing jobs and others lost because of the incompetence of the government.

[Marc-André Morin, NDP, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would not want to dampen the enthusiasm of the hon. member for Winnipeg North. I agree with him about the government's incompetence. However, I find his solution somewhat laughable.

As party leader, he belongs to the most privileged class in Canada you can imagine, and he is bragging because he hit a home run, but he did not mention that he was born on third base.

Furthermore, the collective impoverishment that Canadians have been experiencing for decades happened mainly under the Liberals.

Can my colleague explain what advantage his leader may have over an Irishman from a large family who became a lawyer working as a roofer?

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Speaker, the real advantage my leader has is that he is in touch with what Canadians really and truly believe and think. The leader of the Liberal Party constantly goes out and is communicating with everyday Canadians. I would challenge the member or any other member in terms of the degree to which the leader of the Liberal Party has actually been able to make connections with the working class and the middle class in Canada by constantly going out.

I have had the opportunity over 20-plus years as a parliamentarian to work with many different leaders, both at the provincial and federal levels, and never before have I seen a leader so proactively engaged with the common person in Canada. That is what Canadians want and what they are responding to. That is why I believe that the leader of the Liberal Party is in such high demand.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I will share my time with the hon. member for Beauport—Limoilou.

I am very happy to speak to this very important motion put forward by New Democrats on the minimum wage. What this motion would do, of course, is increase the minimum wage over time to $15 an hour as a measure to combat inequality and to boost the standards for workers in the federal jurisdiction. It is a very important motion we are debating here today, something that really gets to the heart of what so many Canadians are experiencing, which is growing poverty across the country and certainly a real squeeze on the middle class in Canada.

This motion would also correct the terrible injustice created by the Liberals in 1996 when they eliminated the federal minimum wage, much to their shame. However, even before that, for a decade, the minimum wage had been stagnating in Canada. It had been languishing at just $4 an hour. When they eliminated the minimum wage, some people actually benefited, because some provinces had a higher minimum wage, but that does not let them off the hook, because what they did was start a downward spiral. In fact, under their watch, inequality increased dramatically. More than 94% of the increase in inequality over the last 35 years has been not under Conservative governments but under Liberal governments. That is shocking. New Democrats are here to help correct that. We are here to reinstate a minimum wage.

The current government has not been a particular friend of working people. Back in 2006, the federal labour standards review recommended that the federal government reinstate a federal minimum wage and benchmark it to the Statistics Canada low-income cutoff. Of course, that was not done at the time. I introduced a private member's bill at that time calling for the reintroduction of a federal minimum wage but was not successful in getting the support of my colleagues.

I know something about the federal minimum wage. I began my working life in the federal jurisdiction, working for a crown corporation, and I was very fortunate as a young person starting out in the workforce. It is very different for many young people starting today. I went into a workplace that was a crown corporation represented by a union, so I was very privileged to start with a collective agreement, where everyone made the same wage. We had benefits. We had strong working conditions. That is not the case for far too many working people today. In fact, what we often see is that the global economy, in many cases, relies on low wages as a way to boost profits around the world.

We see far too many, young people especially, who are suffering because they are getting contract temporary work and work at low wages with no benefits. That is no way to start out in life, especially for young people who are getting into the workplace already saddled with high student debt because of the dramatic increase in tuition costs in post-secondary education. If we were to ask young people if they think they are going to have pension plans when they retire, overwhelmingly they are going to say no, because they are only temporary and they do not get any benefits, or the employer got rid of the pension plan, or it has become a defined contribution and not a defined benefit pension plan.

Far too many people are losing confidence in the ability of the marketplace to offer them a decent standard of living, and this is at a time when profits are rising, when the top 1%, thanks very much, is doing extremely well here in Canada and around the world. Yet the average family is being squeezed and too many people are living in poverty.

There is a constituent of mine in Toronto, Professor David Hulchanski, from the University of Toronto, who has written a report called “The 3 Cities within Toronto, Income Polarization”. What he talks about in that report is that other cities, not just the city of Toronto, are increasingly becoming three cities. The people at the top are increasing their wealth and doing better. There is a shrinking number of people in the middle, and their incomes are pretty much stagnating. Then there is a growing number of people at the bottom who are losing their ability to make ends meet and who cannot keep their heads above poverty.

This House, back in 1989, voted to eliminate child poverty. I wonder if people here today know how many kids in Canada are living below the Statistics Canada level for low income. It is close to one million children in Canada. These children are poor because their parents are poor, and far too many of those parents are working. They are trying to make ends meet. They go to work every day, and they cannot get their heads above poverty.

Canada needs a pay increase. This particular motion would not do everything. It would not solve all of the problems, but it would be a very positive step. I salute my colleague who introduced this motion, and I salute the House for having this debate today. It is extremely important that we talk about the pay levels people are getting.

We talk about CEO paycheques and how they are spiralling out of control. They are getting many millions of dollars, sometimes for seeing the business they run decline. Sometimes we see huge payouts for people who work for a company for just a very short couple of years, yet we have a growing number of bankruptcies, where working people who have spent their lives building their company are then thrown out of work.

We need to send the signal that it is not right to pay people rock bottom wages. If people work full time and they contribute to the economy, they deserve to get a decent level of pay.

It is not just the labour movement that is supporting this kind of change, although I will quote from Jerry Dias, the president of Unifor, who said:

Minimum wage jobs are not only for the after-school crowd of kids looking for spending money, but also an entry into the workforce for immigrants, recent graduates and many others who can only find part-time work and need to hold down two or three jobs to survive.

He certainly supports an increase in the minimum wage.

I will also quote from the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Paul Meinema. He said that a $15 minimum wage would be a bold step towards establishing the principle that no full-time worker in Canada should live in poverty. He said that he was delighted to see the NDP taking a leadership role in advancing this important tool for combatting poverty and rising inequality.

This clearly makes sense for working people and for people who represent working people, but it is not just labour that supports this. Let me quote from a very recent editorial in the New York Times. They were commenting on the German increase in minimum wage, which is going up to $11.60, or 8.5 euros, next year. This is what the New York Times said:

In Germany, as in the United States, business lobbyists and some economists have warned that a robust minimum wage will lead to job losses and higher prices, but that has not been the historical experience. Rather, higher wages for low-wage workers are generally offset by lower labor turnover, while the boost in consumer spending from higher wages is good for the economy. Boosting consumer demand is especially important in Germany, whose economy is overly reliant on exports.

I submit that it is also essential here in Canada. I urge every one of my colleagues to support this call for a higher minimum wage. Let us get Canadians an increase. Let us give them a pay boost.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and for Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, obviously I find the debate very interesting today because it is an important debate.

Our government believes that the best way to move people above the low-income cut-off is through measures such as creating jobs. The NDP has put forward a motion that will affect 0.05% of the workforce. That is a very small number. That is the federally regulated workforce. This is not impacting the provinces.

The NDP provincial governments have not taken it upon themselves to move up, because they recognize there are some issues with the plan.

What we have is a plan to create well-paying jobs. I would like to note, again, that the number of Canadians living below the low-income cut-off is at its lowest in history. We have a plan. Our plan is working.

Does the member see that this affects 0.05% of the federal workforce, approximately 400 families. It is going to have an impact in terms of the important things that we need to do to create good jobs across Canada.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, of course we have to create good quality jobs. Of course. We are completely, unanimously in support of creating good quality jobs. However, a good quality job also means a decent level of pay. It means not working for poverty level wages. Surely to goodness we can all agree on that.

We can quibble about how many workers are going to be affected by this. We happen to believe that in fact many tens of thousands of workers in the federal jurisdiction are now earning less than $15 an hour and would benefit from this change. There are lots of very low-paying jobs created in Canada today by companies that are making multi-million or sometimes billion-dollar profits. It is about sharing a bit of the prosperity, creating good jobs, and making sure that everybody benefits from that.

I will also say that the provinces have a key role to play. Most workers in Canada are under provincial jurisdiction. However, reinstating the federal minimum wage and setting it at a decent level will have the impact of spurring on the provinces. People will point to that and say that if the federal minimum wage is $15 an hour, something is wrong with my province. They will want to know why they cannot earn that wage in their part of the country.

This would be a good thing for all Canadians.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for her very instructive discussion here today. It is important for all members of the House to hear what is happening out in the communities.

One of the things my colleague mentioned was this quibbling about numbers. There has been a lot of quibbling and a lack of looking at the big picture.

I am the critic for seniors issues. In my dialogue with the community, I have discovered that not only is there a quarter of a million seniors living below the poverty level, but that poverty began because of low-paying jobs and a lack of opportunity. If we are going to address the reality of senior poverty and health in the future, as well as the health of the entire community, we have to start looking at the minimum wage.

My concern has to do with the cost of poverty to the economy. I have heard a figure as high as $30 billion in terms of health care costs and children going without. I wonder if my colleague would care to comment on that.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Speaker, poverty has a huge cost to our society.

One of the other terrible things that the Liberals did was abolish our national housing strategy. The cost of housing has been a huge factor in the increase in poverty. It costs all of us.

Health care costs rise the more a society is unequal. Giving individuals and families the wherewithal to keep a roof over their heads and put healthy food on the table, does not just benefit those individuals, it benefits us all as a society.

We understand the social determinants of health, and we are determined that no Canadian should be left behind.

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, it is a great privilege for me to rise to speak to this very important matter: reinstating a minimum wage for businesses under federal jurisdiction. It is something I feel very strongly about.

As the member of Parliament for the riding of Beauport—Limoilou, in the Quebec City area, I see that the riding has quite a lot of disadvantaged individuals and even people living in poverty and exclusion. As the representative for my constituents who struggle daily and as a long-term resident in the area—because I have lived in various parts of Limoilou in the past 20 years and it was there that I raised my son, who recently turned 24—I can tell you I was a worker earning a relatively low income, and as such I have experienced close up the challenges associated with the living conditions and fairly limited incomes in a rapidly changing market.

When I moved to Limoilou in the early 1990s, rent was a lot lower than it is now. You could rent a two-bedroom apartment for less than half of what it costs now per month. There has been a major change in that regard. It is a change that has prompted many families to turn to food banks. I am not just talking about families who rely on welfare, but workers too. I have seen this over the past three years. In a few months, on Christmas Eve, I will go on my fourth food bank tour. As I did last year, I will no doubt hear that needs are growing, that the food banks have fewer and fewer resources and, above all, that people who make an honest living in a one- or two-income family are no longer able to put enough food on the table.

This is not surprising given that successive Conservative and Liberal governments have been going in the wrong direction for over 30 years. We are all elected to represent the people in our ridings. All of us, without exception, are MPs who represent all of the people in our ridings. The reality is that over 80% of my constituents are no longer on the winning team that is benefiting from the economic activity and community life here in Canada. Frankly, that is disappointing.

In Quebec, we have a very simple expression that means that a person is born into a lower class with very few opportunities for the future and that he is resigned to the fact that he and his children will remain in that state. As an individual and especially as an MP, I refuse to accept that state. If my Conservative and Liberal colleagues want to impose that resignation on Canadians at any price, then they are free to do so, but I will not. That is why I have been a committed member of the NDP for nearly 10 years. My active commitment to the party began when I agreed to run as a candidate for the first time in 2005. That is why I will continue to be a member of the NDP for a long time so that I can fight in order to give most people in this country a chance to improve their lot. I will fight so that they have real opportunities, not opportunities that are tied to partisan political marketing schemes. I am talking about real, measurable, tangible opportunities.

Our proposal is to reinstate the federal minimum wage and ultimately bring it up to $15 an hour.

There is no denying that this is one particular measure, but also one specific measure of a set of measures, seeking to encourage income sharing among as many people as possible and especially the sharing of wealth. It is also meant to encourage the return to jobs that are much more stable and to a work and entrepreneurship environment that is much more predictable and robust.

I have had the privilege of sitting on four different committees. Right now, I am on the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology and I am very happy about that. Having had the privilege of sitting on the Standing Committee on International Trade and the Standing Committee on Finance, I was truly able to see how ignorant my colleagues in the other parties are when it comes to the competitiveness issues facing the vast majority of Canadian businesses.

Regardless of our entrepreneurs' level of activity, whether they are sole business owners or they own businesses with 100 or 200 employees, they have a strong case for needing long-term projections and a certain degree of stability to be able to grow and pay all their employees.

Our measure provides this stable environment for the entire Canadian business community. Notwithstanding the fact that we will set a standard for businesses under federal jurisdiction, there is another purpose: the provinces are expected to follow suit and raise the minimum wage in their own legislation.

Let me go back to the dust contamination caused by the Port of Québec, because my constituents in Beauport—Limoilou are very concerned about it. Over the past decades, the Conservatives and the Liberals have shown us that they are at the beck and call of big business. For instance, four or five senior executives from Quebec Stevedoring, the company at fault in the dust contamination in Limoilou, have made political contributions totalling nearly $20,000 to the Conservative Party in the last 10 years.

That is perfectly legal. However, it speaks volumes about the Conservatives' inaction and paralysis in terms of their refusal to take action, whether to address a public health issue such as the issue facing the people of Limoilou or to address the rapid deterioration of the living conditions of Canadian families.

Having sat for one year on the Standing Committee on Finance, I would like to quote from the brief submitted by the Canadian Medical Association. I hope this will give my Liberal and Conservative colleagues some food for thought, especially if they take the time to listen.

Recently, my leader, the leader of the official opposition and future prime minister of Canada, gave a speech to the Canadian Medical Association. He talked about the problem and the importance of the social determinants of health.

According to a report by the Canadian Medical Association, the 20% of the population with the highest income lives an average of three years longer than the 20% with the lowest income. Suicide rates are two times higher for the poorest 20% of the population than for the richest 20%. Cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes are much more prevalent in the poorest 20% of families than in the richest 20% of families.

That is what I am seeing in Beauport—Limoilou, and that is why I support this measure. I am pleased to do so and I am looking forward to my colleagues' questions and comments.

[Lois Brown, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Development]

Mr. Speaker, an unidentified economist wrote, “rent controls are the best way to destroy a city other than bombing”. In the same way, it is what minimum wages can do to destroy an economy. We know that employers, the people who are the business owners, are going to have to pass these costs on to the goods and services they produce, so we are looking at increased inflation.

Right now we have young people who are looking to get into jobs, and there are a finite number of jobs for these young people to undertake. Could the member give us any information from the work the NDP has done on finding out how this kind of motion, if passed, would influence and impact the number of jobs available for our young people who are so anxious to get into the workforce now?

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her question. It was funny how she started with a quote from an unidentified economist. Maybe it was an economist in the Prime Minister's Office. Who knows?

To answer her question, I think that the government displayed its ignorance about the economic impact and the importance of making decisions that benefit as many people as possible in the federal pension file.

I would like to point out that we proposed increasing benefits by adjusting contributions, which is the most efficient savings vehicle because the management fees are lower. The government handily displayed its ignorance by talking about taxes when what we really need to do is encourage people to save money. Households have a major debt problem. People have to save money.

The government does not even understand this basic fact. It needs to be replaced.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Mr. Speaker, it is pathetic that the Minister of Labour quoted 2008 statistics as justification for her argument about the labour rates in Canada. That speaks volumes about the Conservative government which has cut back on Statistics Canada finding out what is actually happening with Canadians.

When we look at the 2008 statistics, we find that the minimum wage at the time was around $8 across the country. Yes, perhaps there were a few people in the federal system who were earning $8, but we are talking about $15. The difference in those statistics means that there were tens of thousands of people in 2008 who were not earning $15 working for the federal government, and we have not seen that much wage inflation in those six years since 2008. We know darn well that right now many Canadians who work under federal jurisdiction do not earn $15 an hour and could benefit from this program.

Does my colleague not agree that this shows the terrible situation we have when the federal Minister of Labour has to rely on 2008 statistics and to misinterpret them in presenting them to Parliament?

[Raymond Côté, NDP, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Northwest Territories for his question and his enlightening comments.

We get the feeling that big business and spin doctors are dominating Conservative thought.

Yesterday, the CBC aired an interesting report stating that the Prime Minister was both right and wrong about employment. It is true that there have never been more jobs, but in relative terms, the situation is disastrous. In no way have we caught up to where we were before 2008. The government is refusing to admit that. Many of the backbenchers are refusing to understand that or are incapable of understanding it. Families are suffocating and they need air. It is time to do something about it.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour and for Western Economic Diversification]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join the debate today. Canada's economic well-being and ability to harness the benefits of its ambitious trade agenda depend absolutely on our labour force.

It is unusual for us to be debating an issue about raising the minimum wage. The NDP consistently votes against things like WITB, the working income tax benefit, and the decrease in the GST. Our government has taken many measures to support people with low-income cut-off levels, and indeed they are working. We have the lowest number, I believe 8.8%, of people who are working at the low-income cut-off level. That is still not good enough and we continue to support jobs and opportunity. Again, consistently the NDP members vote against them. Whether it is natural resource projects and development, we see a consistent pattern of the NDP voting against things that truly would help people near that low-income cut-off level.

We are debating a motion that strictly looks at the workers in federally regulated workforce. We know the vast majority of them are well above the minimum wage or the planned $15. We have a small number of families that would be impacted, but again the NDP consistently votes against the millions and millions of people who would have been supported with items like the working income tax benefit. However, we are here to discuss minimum wage.

What my hon. colleague is suggesting with the motion is that the federal government should unilaterally push ahead with a substantial increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The logic is that the provinces would have no choice but to follow along. The provinces have very specific systems in place where they look at a number of different measures. They review them regularly. To suggest that the provinces are just going to follow along is perhaps a little naive because the provinces look very carefully and very hard at what they are doing and where we are going.

As all hon. members know, in 1996 the Government of Canada got out of the business of setting a separate minimum wage for workers under the federal jurisdiction. Instead, we pegged the minimum wage for workers under the federal jurisdiction to the provincial minimum wage of the province in which the person worked. Since we have been office, we have seen no reason to change that, and the motion of the hon. member or the debate has not convinced me that we should change it.

We need to remember that it is only a small percentage of the Canadian workforce and enterprises under federal jurisdiction. Most of them are higher income jobs and minimum wages are not very common in federally regulated workplaces. To go back to the federal jurisdiction workplace survey 2008, it was 416 employees. We could argue about how things might have changed a little over time, but it is important to think it probably will be relatively similar. We are talking about 0.05% of all employees under federal jurisdiction.

The provincial governments are much better suited, especially considering the millions of workers under their jurisdiction, to set a minimum wage for them and for the very small percentage of the federally regulated workers. Again, we changed the system 1996. The provinces have not been asking for any changes. We have a system that in past years virtually all provinces and territories have increased the minimum wage rates in many cases after reviews by minimum wage boards or independent experts.

Rather than rewording the Labour Code and encroaching on provincial decisions, our government is taking a better route to ensure the well-being of Canadian workers and their families. We are focusing on what we consider may be the single biggest challenge to our economic health: ensuring that we have people to fill the jobs our growing economy requires both now and into the future. The measures we are taking fit into Canada's economic landscape right now.

Canada's economy is performing soundly in the context of a global economic recovery. We have had 1.1 million jobs created since July 2009 and over 80% of these jobs have been in full-time positions, nearly 80% are in the private sector and over 65% are in high wage industries.

Canada is now the only country in the world to have tariff-free access to the American market of 300 million people and the European market of 500 million people. I love the quote of the B.C. cattlemen when they heard about the Canada-European free trade agreement and the was access to 500 million hungry customers. They are seeing absolute opportunity in these free trade agreements. After going through many years of very difficult times since the BSE crisis, they are happy to see the support our government has provided.

We are seeing a resurgence in industry like mining and oil and gas in Canada, which helps to drive the construction sector. If one were to drive up Highway 5, one would see significant piping heading up to Alberta. With hundreds of resource projects scheduled to come on stream over the next decade, there are a myriad of economic opportunities for Canadians now and in the upcoming years.

We have some challenges, and the problem is that there are not enough people with the skills required for the jobs which are in demand now and into the future. These will be real and potentially dire consequences on our economy and the well-being of Canadians if we do not adequately address this challenge. Many regions and sectors across the country can attest to that.

The mining industry, for instance, says that it will need 145,000 more workers by the year 2020. The petroleum sector estimates it will need up to 150,000 workers by 2022.

Others might suggest that if the opposition wants to support better jobs, it can support the high-wage unionized jobs provided in Canada's oil sands.

BuildForce says that we will need 300,000 workers in the construction trade alone over the next 10 years. At the same time, there will be 550,000 unskilled workers who will be unable to find work by 2016, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. That number could be well over a million by 2021.

It really becomes very clear when the question is asked where we as a government should focus. We have to ensure that the employees will have the right skill sets for both the jobs of today and the jobs of tomorrow.

We are looking at employer-driven solutions, such as the Canada job grant. The foundation of the grant, as we know, is a Canada job grant, an employer-driven approach to help Canadians gain the skills and training they will need to fill available jobs.

We are finalizing agreements with all the provinces and territories, and several of them are now accepting applications from employers with a plan to train people for the jobs. It is a critical step in ensuring Canadians are equipped and prepared for the jobs out there, but it is not enough considering the high demand for skilled trades in the years to come, particularly in the mining and energy sectors.

Over the years, we have had a real focus in the area of skills, trades and apprenticeships and have helped six million young people get the skills and experience needed to find better jobs through different programs.

Our youth unemployment is still stubbornly high and it has nearly doubled the national unemployment rate. Everyone can see why we needed to change our approach. We need to give a message to students that entering a trade is a good move forward. Having a university degree is great, but we need to also look at other opportunities. The trades present enormous opportunities for young people. The opportunities are there if they choose to pursue them.

We have partnered with several colleges and training institutions to try to turn this around and get more businesses directly involved in the process so there is a better match with skills taught and skills needed.

I have to give a quick example. The riding I represent, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, has a partnership with the university and the local home builders' association. Every year, they have students build a house that ultimately gets auctioned off by the YMCA. The home builders' association gives the students real-life experience. It is an absolutely phenomenal program. Then the YMCA has the benefit of using that home as a major fundraiser.

In addition to the apprenticeship grants, of which we have issued more than 500,000 to help apprentices pursue and complete their training, we have also provided tax credits to the apprentices and the apprentice employers.

The new Canada apprentice loan will also be available in January 2015. That was well received at Thompson Rivers University. This loan would provide apprentices in a Red Seal trade with interest-free loans of up to $4,000 to complete their training. Minister Kenny also received strong agreement from the provincial and territorial governments at the meeting of labour market ministers this summer to move forward aggressively to harmonize apprenticeship training. We want to encourage labour mobility, not to restrict it.

New Canadians, people with disabilities and aboriginal people represent a real untapped potential, and we cannot afford to let any qualified people sit on the sidelines. We need all our talent at work to guarantee our prosperity. That is why we are investing in initiatives that will help underrepresented groups join the workforce. For example, we have this tremendous opportunity to improve economic opportunities for aboriginal people because of the large-scale natural resource projects on the horizons, which are situated where they live. If we work with partners in the first nations communities, we can help many unemployed aboriginal people realize their potential and participate in our country's prosperity.

As members can see, our government is heavily investing in job skills and training of all Canadians so they can secure a better future. This is how we plan to ensure the well-being of families and ultimately the economic health of our country.

Our government is committed to ensuring that workplaces are also fair, safe and productive. We have stuck to our commitment and have taken important steps to improve labour market standards for the protection of employees. A program that comes to mind is the wage earner protection program. Since its coming into force in July 2008, more than 74,000 Canadians have received $174.8 million in WEPP payments. This program was enacted to protect the wages, vacation pay, severance and termination pay owed to workers if their employers go bankrupt or into receivership.

Another important initiative by this government was the Helping Families in Need Act. This act allows employees under federal jurisdiction to take unpaid leave under various circumstances in order to care for their families. For this reason, it is clear that the government has acted in the best interests of Canadians to protect them in their workplace.

Another example of how we are working to improve economic prospects and create more jobs was announced last week by the Minister of Finance. That is the small business job credit, which was very well received by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Over the next two years this would save job creators $550 million, which they can use to hire more Canadians. The plan would effectively lower the EI premiums for small business by 15%. According to the CFIB, this would create 25,000 person-years of employment. That is great news. Therefore, we are strongly supporting Canadian families with these important measures.

Under our government, Canadian families at all income levels have seen increases of about 10% in their real after-tax income. The lowest income Canadians have seen a 14% increase. I mentioned this earlier in some of my questions, noting the number of Canadians living below the low income cut-off is now at its lowest level ever, 8.8%, according to Statistics Canada.

Our low income rates have dropped dramatically under the government. For example, children in female single-parent homes have dropped from 43% of low income families in 2002 to 23% in 2011. Therefore, the measures we have taken are having a huge and important impact on these children and families. Children in two-parent families have dropped from 8.4% of low income families in 2004 to 5.9% in 2011. In other words, we are making steady progress and moving more people up the economic ladder, out of poverty and into better paying jobs and better futures for themselves and their children. For this reason, we do not think that the motion put forward by the opposition would add to our steady progress, and we urge all members not to support it.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Mr. Speaker, where do I begin, with the government completely blind to the economic realities that are taking place, with the outpacing of the Canadian economy now by the U.S. economy by, perhaps, three or four times? Parts of Europe and others among our competitors are outpacing Canada. This is so reminiscent of when the great recession first hit, when the Conservatives said, “What recession?” In fact, as the rest of the world was bringing in budgets to augment their economies, the Conservatives brought in a budget that was an austerity budget that would have made the length and depth of the recession so much worse.

I have a specific question for my friend, because what we are talking about is a moderate and gradual increase of the federal minimum wage from where it is presently to $15 an hour in five years' time. I hardly think she would go to her constituents and say they deserve to earn far less than $15 an hour. I do not think, with the cost of living in Kamloops or other parts of British Columbia, that people working 40 hours a week at $10 an hour can afford to put food on the table for their family. Perhaps she does know a way to do that, but I suspect she would not enjoy that quality of life. I am just guessing. Therefore, if it is good enough for her, her colleagues and her friends, then certainly it is good enough for working Canadians who are saying they work hard, pay their fair share and certainly should have a reasonable income.

She talks about all these high-paying jobs. We have lost 350,000 manufacturing jobs in Canada since the recession started. Would this not go some way to help those who are struggling along at the lower ends to achieve some modicum of decency and respect in our society?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, things like our working income tax benefit have had an enormous impact across the country.

The NDP voted in 1996 to align with the provinces. Our government respects the provinces. We believe they are in a good position to look at the local market conditions and the minimum wages. Every single province and territory has comprehensive systems in place. As with the decision that was made in 1996, we very appropriately believe in having the federally regulated workforce aligned with the provinces in which they work.

We have had a number of NDP governments making decisions about minimum wages. They have been making those decisions based on the local conditions. What we are saying is that we do not need to make this change.

However, I sure would like to see the NDP support the development of our natural resources and support things like our working income tax benefit.

[Arnold Chan, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour for her contribution to the debate. I basically have two questions for her.

First, before the government concludes that it will not be supporting the motion before the House, what studies has it done to conclude that the federal minimum wage should not be raised?

Second, she noted that we are supporting high-paying jobs in the oil sands. Would she also be supportive of the same for the Ring of Fire in Ontario?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I welcome my colleague to the House. We look forward to many opportunities to debate issues over the upcoming year.

What we have talked about is really jurisdiction and impact. What we have consistently said is that it is appropriate for provincial governments to have systems in place, with the flexibility and agility that really relates to their local market conditions, and therefore, as a federal government with a small federally regulated workforce, we believe it is most appropriate to align with the decisions that are made in the provinces.

In actual fact it was his government that introduced that change, and we continue to support the mechanism that was made at that time.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the intervention by the parliamentary secretary on this important debate. She characterized the position of the opposition moving the motion as saying that the provinces have “no choice but to follow along”. Would not guidance by the federal government in this domain have a positive impact on provinces and territories that are paying—as perhaps in the province we both represent—only $10.25 an hour? This is a wage that, really, for most people in our province would be impossible to live on; yet that is the minimum wage. Even if it affected only a few federal workers at this moment, would this initiative not have a positive impact in providing guidance to the provinces and territories?

Also, if the government is in favour of business regulation, such as the idea of a national securities regulator and pushing that to the provinces, why would it not likewise support this for workers?

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to recognize that labour is predominantly in the provincial jurisdiction. The majority of workers are in the provincial jurisdiction. To be quite frank, we have a government that respects jurisdiction. It respects jurisdiction for health care. We believe that sometimes the federal government is the most important group to provide guidance—in areas such as national security—but we think that in determining labour market wages, the provinces are really well positioned. They have the structures and mechanisms in place, and we support continuing with the system we have in place.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Revenue and for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to the comments of my hon. colleague very closely. In a nutshell, she pointed out in her speech that in the next five to seven years in Canada, we will be requiring in the neighbourhood of 700,000 to a million to 1.1 million new qualified workers for very high-paying, good jobs in this country. That is a huge challenge.

Had New Democrats taken their time and effort to talk about that challenge, I think we could have a much more vigorous debate. Instead, they picked a very narrow, very small segment of the federal civil service, some 396 or so individuals whom they think should be paid a couple more bucks an hour. Not that it is not important, but is that what we should be talking about today? We have some really huge issues facing this country, which we really do need to work together to try to solve.