Debates of Oct. 5th, 2020

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Madam Speaker, there is no relationship more important to us than that with indigenous peoples: first nations, Métis and Inuit people. The throne speech is very much focused on the crises we are facing in our communities, our country and the world, which are COVID-19, the economic crisis as a result of COVID-19, climate change and building back better.

I will take this time to say we are in wave two. It is important to remember that there is a time lag in the data, so the numbers we are currently seeing are from 10 to 14 days ago. On Friday, we were at 2,000 cases. Asymptomatic spread is a threat. This is a virus that hospitalizes people. It still kills people. It is challenging to treat. It is disrupting—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I think we all respect my colleague deeply in this place for her research expertise and her expertise on epidemics and pandemics. I want to ask her a question about that other epidemic, the opioid epidemic. In British Columbia it has killed five times more people this year than COVID, and over the last few years, over a thousand people each year. I want to ask her what she thinks about the hundreds or thousands of people being poisoned by fentanyl and whether they would benefit from a safe supply and decriminalization so that we could bring them in to get them well. This is a medical problem, not a criminal problem.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Madam Speaker, I would also like to thank my hon. colleague for his decades of research and expertise.

The question he asked is so important. There is a pandemic because of COVID-19, and we are also facing the opioid crisis. We must work together. This does not take one simple fix. It is a very complex problem. Our government has taken numerous actions, and we must work together to do more.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the fabulous MP for Vancouver East.

Today, we are in debate on the reply to the Speech from the Throne. It is a throne speech that the government said was necessary, because the pandemic has transformed our economy and way of life in six short months. Whether a five-week prorogation, a complete shutdown of Parliament, was necessary to write this speech is another question entirely, and to which the answer is almost surely no. However, COVID has indeed impacted every riding across the country, and I would like to spend most of my time on experiences in my riding.

South Okanagan—West Kootenay, as everyone here knows, is one of the most beautiful ridings in the country with mountains, forests, sparkling lakes, sandy beaches, mighty rivers, bountiful orchards and the best wine in Canada. It is a wonderful place to live and a great place to visit. It is no wonder that tourism is one of the major drivers of the economy.

When COVID-19 hit in March, tourism was hit immediately. People stopped travelling. Within weeks, Air Canada stopped flying into Penticton and Castlegar. Pacific Coastal stopped flying into Trail. WestJet cut back most of its flights. While a few of these flights have returned, my constituents remain very concerned about the continuation of air service into regional airports. A recent announcement by NavCan about possibly closing towers across the country brings extra concern.

As travel stopped, motels and hotels emptied, restaurants closed and up until June. Things looked very bleak for tourism in the South Okanagan—West Kootenay, but after travel guidelines were relaxed in June, tourism was surprisingly busy. Many restaurants did well. Hotels and motels along the beaches in the South Okanagan were packed. Private campgrounds, public campgrounds, rough campgrounds back in the woods were filled beyond capacity. Boat and RV dealers were busy, and bike dealers sold stock as fast as they could get it.

Every year, I ride my bicycle around the riding in the last week of August. Before I left this year, I dropped into one of the local bike shops to get a spare tire just in case something untoward happened along the trails. The dealer said that he would lend me one, but made me promise that I would bring it back if I did not use it. He was happy that I already had extra tubes, because he said that he had not had any normal tubes in months. People wanted to get out and enjoy the South Okanagan—West Kootenay. They came from all over B.C., Alberta and the rest of Canada. I cycled over 400 kilometres of trails and roads while going around the riding, and those trails were very busy. One of the common complaints I heard in the Slocan Valley was that there were so many tourists, they were taking up all the secret campgrounds that used to be used only by locals.

I do not see this changing significantly after the pandemic subsides. People have really discovered the joys of getting out into the woods, hiking mountain trails, and boating on the lakes of Canada. It is clear that we need to invest more in trail and other outdoor infrastructure to provide proper camping, hiking and biking experiences for the future.

I also want to mention the performing arts, which is a sector that does so much to make our lives worth living, and COVID has brought that sector to its knees. Any facility based on a live audience and live performance has been hit hard all spring and summer, whether it is the big South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton, the small but mighty Dream Cafe, the Venables Theatre in Oliver, Gold Fever Follies in Rossland, the Bailey Theatre in Trail or any event held in any of the community halls across my riding. These theatres and the workers, musicians and actors who work in them have seen their professional lives comes to a halt. Most of these workers are gig workers, living precariously from job to job. They, like millions of other Canadian workers, generally do not qualify for EI. They would have literally been out on the street with no support if the NDP had not pressed for broader benefits that resulted in the creation of CERB.

I spoke with representatives from a coalition of performing arts workers from B.C. last week, and while they were very grateful for those supports, they were concerned about what lay ahead and how we would rebuild our social safety nets that COVID has exposed as entirely inadequate.

The agriculture sector was hit by delays and difficulties getting foreign workers in to work in the orchards and vineyards. I want to thank the BC Fruit Growers' Association, the Government of B.C., and the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen for their hard work in coming up with protocols and funding supports, so that at least some of these workers could quarantine and work in conditions that were safe for them, as well as safe for the broader community.

The forestry sector was already hurting from low prices and illegal tariffs when COVID-19 hit. There were some shifts cut back in some mills, but fortunately lumber prices rebounded through the summer. I want to give a big shout-out to Kalesnikoff Lumber. In the middle of the pandemic, it finished building a new mass timber facility in South Slocan that is now producing engineered wood products for projects in Victoria, Vancouver and Toronto. Along with Structurlam in Penticton, I now have two of the top mass timber facilities in North America in my riding. They are part of a trend that is changing how we build large buildings that are safe, beautiful and good for the environment.

I want to talk now about some of the health impacts of COVID. I have to say that my riding was relatively untouched by the virus, thanks in large parts to the steady guidance of Dr. Bonnie Henry and the Government of British Columbia, and it will hopefully remain so.

We all saw the horrific news from long-term care facilities across the country, especially in Ontario and Quebec. I have been concerned about long-term care centres for years. Even before COVID, it was clear that funding and staffing at these sites was often completely inadequate. We need to bring long-term care centres into our national health care system, with national standards and adequate funding. We need to pay care workers, and all the other workers on the front line of COVID, fair wages, so that they will know that we value them as the heroes they truly are.

I was shocked to find out, when I first talked to care workers pre-COVID, that many of them who had worked for over 20 years at the same facility were now making less money than when they had first been hired.

Once COVID is behind us, we must once again focus on the real crisis facing the world, and that is global warming. We must focus on renewable energy, electrification and energy efficiency. For the past five years, I have pressed the Liberal government to seriously invest in building retrofits. It passed that responsibility on to the provinces in the pan-Canadian framework and then on to the municipalities in the last budget.

The government needs to take direct action now so that all Canadians can access funds to make their homes and businesses more energy efficient, and so that workers can find good jobs across this country.

If the infrastructure minister is looking for shovel-ready projects that need federal investments, there is an irrigation canal in Oliver that has been seeking that support for the last four years. I am happy to see that irrigation has finally been added to the list of qualifying projects for the latest program.

The NDP has been completely focused for the past six months on finding solutions that will make life better for Canadians. We pointed out that the initial COVID benefits would have let many workers and businesses fall through the cracks, and we presented positive solutions to improve those benefits.

When the government said it was going to reduce CERB by $400 in the new CRB, we forced it to keep the payments the same, so that Canadians who still have no jobs to go back to could continue to live in dignity. We forced the government to put forward a meaningful paid sick leave program, so that workers will not go to work with COVID.

We will continue that focus as we face the second wave of COVID, and as we build for a better Canada.

Does the Speech from the Throne give us confidence in that future? It is the actions that flow from the speech that will count. The speech mentions pharmacare, something the Liberals promised back in 1997. It mentions child care, something the Liberals have been promising since 2005. It mentions pay equity, something the NDP forced the Liberals to act on in 2015. They are still talking about it.

We look forward to real action. The NDP has been and always will be a party that strives for a fairer, greener and more prosperous Canada for all Canadians.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Madam Speaker, I just want to say how much I appreciated the speech from the hon. member across the way.

I, too, share his concern about seniors in long-term care facilities. This is a particular concern in my home province of Quebec. I would like to know what the hon. member would suggest. How does the hon. member think the federal government could work with the provinces and territories to improve long-term care for our seniors?

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, it is very obviously one of the things that COVID has exposed that has been a problem all along. As I said in my speech, we have all heard in previous years about issues around long-term care. I have heard it from friends and workers. We have to do something. What the NDP is proposing is that we bring long-term care, something that keeps our seniors healthy in their final years, into the Canada Health Act so that we can provide money to the provinces. As the member mentioned, this would involve negotiations with the provinces. We could provide federal funding in return for national standards that would make sure we have proper staffing levels and funding for staff salaries. It is very difficult in many places to find people willing to work in long-term care centres because the pay is so low.

[Mel Arnold, Conservative, North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Madam Speaker, a couple of years back, the Liberal government decided it was just fine for senior care homes in British Columbia to be sold off to a Chinese company, eventually taken over by the Chinese government. The care in those facilities certainly became an issue. Conservative members pointed out the problem with this and opposed the purchase of these long-term care homes by the Chinese communist regime that the Liberal government seemed to support. Even the Prime Minister has an admiration for the way things are handled in China.

I would like to know why NDP members were not as vocal about this and why they continue to prop up the Liberal government that seems to be hell-bent on supporting this communist regime.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I will start by saying that we are not propping up the government, we are dragging it, kicking and screaming, to do the right thing for Canadians.

With regard to Anbang and senior care centres in British Columbia, the main one that was part of that sale was in Summerland. It was a care facility I knew very well. When I was running in a provincial election, I went to talk to the families who had loved ones who died there due to various levels of lack of attention by the staff. That is when I was first exposed to the problems in long-term care facilities. This was years before it was sold. Therefore, those problems are inherent in how we run our long-term care facilities and that is why we need to change the system completely.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Madam Speaker, I commend my colleague on his speech. I must say that I found certain parts of it rather entertaining, particularly when he talked about the gains his party made over the past few months by supposedly improving various programs.

In his speech, he talked about artists in his region who said they felt reassured by and satisfied with the measures that have been put in place. Either the reality in his region is starkly different from that in Quebec or he did not really speak with artists. Artists are not at all reassured by the way this government is handling their situation during this pandemic.

I asked the government some questions earlier and I did not really get the answers I was expecting. Existing programs for artists and culture do not at all meet the needs and expectations of this sector, which I would remind him brings in $53 billion a year.

Given the obviously different realities across this country, I want to ask my colleague whether he agrees that it would perhaps be simpler to give the money to the provincial and Quebec governments so they can manage the culture file, their culture, themselves.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

Madam Speaker, I do not know where to begin with that one, because I was going to answer the first question and now I have another one.

I think the performing arts, as I said in my speech, are often forgotten and often neglected. I think the current government has neglected them as well. I think we have to support the performing artists in British Columbia. I met with them last week. They presented a five-point plan on what the federal government can do, using federal powers, to support them. Those are the kinds of things that we need to bring forward, whether they are from Quebec or British—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

Resuming debate, the hon. member for Vancouver East has the floor.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Madam Speaker, I am delighted to join the debate in reply to the throne speech. When I heard the government deliver the throne speech, I thought, what has the government been doing since it prorogued the House? Surely the speech is more than just reciting commitments on a variety of different topics, and to their standard, which is to always make commitments on a variety of issues and then to never deliver on them. Sure enough, as I listened to the throne speech, it was a repeat of that pattern yet again.

I was looking to hear the government address the issue and the crisis that many small businesses are faced with. I know that I am not the only person in my riding who has businesses that are struggling with this. For example, they were looking for the government to say that the commercial rent subsidy program is not working and that the Liberals would ensure and allow small businesses to apply for the commercial rent subsidy. They did not hear that. It was not in the throne speech, even though the government should have acted whether or not it was in the throne speech.

The small business community has waited and waited. It has been more than six months and still there is no action with respect to that. So many of the businesses in my riding had to close because that help was not forthcoming. Even this week, I had constituents phoning and contacting me, saying, “Please help, we need the federal government to come to the table and allow us to apply for the commercial rent subsidy because our landlords will not do it.” They are being penalized for that and they are suffering. If we do not support the small business community to survive this, all of us will be impacted and the recovery for the economy will be that much longer and that much slower. That needs to change.

The other thing I was hoping to hear was that the government would do something to address a critical issue in my riding of Vancouver East. It is an issue that has been brought to their attention, but the scale of which applies to other communities as well. The PNE in my riding is a 110-year-old institution. It has been left out of pandemic help from the federal government and as a result of that the institution may not survive the pandemic. It is a fair in our community that has provided thousands of jobs to young people.

The throne speech talked about the value of young people and the need to support them. How about ensuring that the PNE survives the pandemic? It hires thousands of young people every summer for employment. Throughout the course of the year, it has some 4,200 workers engaged with the PNE. If we do not take action to save the PNE, we will lose this historic institution, the economic driver that it is in our community, the supports for young people and the enjoyment of so many families across the Lower Mainland and beyond. I was looking for the federal government to do something for institutions like that, yet it failed again.

Similarly, we have a beautiful Chinatown in Vancouver. The federal government acknowledged the value and the history of it by declaring it a national historic site, yet there was no help for Chinatown, even though the federal government saw fit to provide support to Granville Island as it should. However, I was calling on a variety of different ministers to support Chinatown and to ensure it can survive the pandemic, but no help came to Chinatown. It too was left to battle the issue on its own, yet this is a national treasure, which the federal government by its own admission has acknowledged and recognized as a national historic site.

Why would the federal government not provide the much-needed help that is required for the survival of Chinatown, as well as other sectors that are desperate for help from the federal government?

My colleague just before me talked about gig workers in the performance arts industry. They were the first to shut down in the pandemic and fear that they will be the last to reopen. They need help from the federal government not only to survive the pandemic, but to move beyond it. The government can take real action to ensure that industries have the supports they need to get through the pandemic and thrive in the future.

In the throne speech, the federal government talked about housing. I listened very hard to its message. There was a lot of vague language and promises that it has yet to deliver on.

Take a look at the national housing strategy. The Prime Minister announced with much fanfare back in 2017 that adequate housing is a basic human right, yet we just have to look around the community to see people who are homeless today. They are desperate to get into safe, secure, affordable housing, especially in the face of a pandemic. We talked about the prescription for safety required to flatten the curve: social distancing, washing hands, all of those measures. However, many people cannot access them because they do not have a home to go to.

I have the largest encampment in the entire country in my riding of Vancouver East. Both people in the Strathcona encampment, as well as the residents in the neighbourhood, are absolutely desperate for the federal government to come and help them,

The Government of British Columbia has reached out to the federal government on a number of occasions. I, myself, with the mayor of Vancouver and MLA Melanie Mark, wrote to the minister before the election. We called for the minister to step up, be a partner and join the city, community and non-profits to address this crisis. To this day, there has been no help from the federal government to address this crisis.

We are at a crisis here in Strathcona on all levels, from safety, health and security points of view. The winter months are coming. The rain is coming. The wet, cold weather is coming. How can it be that we would allow people to live in a camp at this time in the middle of a pandemic?

The federal government said that it would have a pandemic response to address the housing crisis. Just prior to the throne speech it had made an announcement of 3,000 units of rapid housing. Let me just put that in context. In Vancouver alone, based on the last count of homeless people, we have more than 2,000 people who are homeless today, so 3,000 units is not going to cut it. It is entirely deficient to address the housing crisis across the country.

My riding is not the only riding with a homeless encampment. Encampments can be found throughout the entire country. The government needs to do more than just say that adequate housing is a basic human right. It needs to act, delivering a flow of money while creating programs that are accessible. It needs to address this housing crisis in an effective way instead of just with words.

The throne speech—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

Questions and comments, the hon. parliamentary secretary.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada and to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Madam Speaker, it is always encouraging when MPs on both sides of the House are focused on the issue at hand, that being the pandemic, and coming up with ideas. I appreciate the fact that the NDP will be supporting the throne speech and the many fine initiatives within it. That is a very strong positive, and shows that even though we might disagree at times, we can come together in a time of need for Canadians.

We have introduced Bill C-4, which passed, that reinforced the importance of the CERB program being brought into EI and the wage subsidy program.

I wonder if the hon. member would provide some thoughts on that particular piece of legislation and how it complements the throne speech.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Madam Speaker, Bill C-4 was a piece of legislation the government introduced, and it was flawed. It was the NDP who went to the table and worked hard to get the government to make the necessary changes to ensure that the amount of money for CERB was not cut to $400 per week, which the Liberals wanted to proceed with, but rather that it honoured the required amount, which is $2,000 a month or $500 a week. We pushed forward to ensure people could get sick leave, but even then, Bill C-4 is not a perfect piece of legislation. Much work needs to be done. The government could have easily made those programs permanent if it wished to, but it chose not to. That is what the NDP did.

With respect to the throne speech, it—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

Questions and comments, the hon. member for Nanaimo—Ladysmith.

[Paul Manly, Green, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her advocacy on these issues.

I am really concerned about affordable housing and the effect that the pandemic is having on small business, but my question is about disability. Three months into the pandemic, there was finally a one-time payment promised to people on disability. For four months now they have been waiting, and apparently the cheques are going to be sent out at the end of this month. We learned in March that there was a backlog of disability applications for 50,000 veterans. It is going to take three years for those applications to go through.

The Disability Tax Credit Promoters Restrictions Act regulations have not yet been implemented, six years after the enabling act was passed. This means that people who are applying for disability are vulnerable to vultures. Someone in my riding with a brain injury was paid $1,000 and it was sent to collection.

Is the hon. member hearing the same kinds of things from her constituents, people with disabilities who are sick of waiting and sick of being left behind?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Madam Speaker, for seniors in need and members of the community with disabilities, the government has always approached them as an afterthought. The NDP had to push hard even for that one-time payment to come through. Even then, the government was slow-walking in that delivery, yet it does not hesitate with friends and insiders, as we saw in the WE scandal. It is also slow-walking the wealth tax, as an example. In fact, I do not even know if the government will bring in such a thing, so—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

The hon. member for Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

Madam Speaker, the member for Vancouver East and I sat on opposite sides in the B.C. legislature, so it is good to see her here.

I concur with her about the crisis being faced in British Columbia, in her riding of Vancouver East and my riding of Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, of drug addiction and the opioid crisis. Five times more people have died this year from opioids as from COVID-19, so it is very serious and we should not undermine the numbers with COVID-19.

How do the member and New Democrats feel about the Liberal government placing more emphasis on recovery and treatment than primarily on safe injection sites?

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Madam Speaker, we have two other health emergencies: the housing crisis and the opioid crisis. The truth of the matter is we need a full continuum of services. We need safe supply. We need harm reduction sites. We need harm reduction initiatives. As well, with the mental health supports we need recovery. We need all of it. Then, at the base of that, we also need affordable housing. The federal government has refused to act on this in a comprehensive way. No one every suggested harm reduction and decriminalizing are silver bullets; we need all of those—

[The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Alexandra Mendès), Alexandra Mendes]

Resuming debate, the hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Small Business]

Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Richmond Hill.

It is an honour for me to rise in the House for the first time in this Parliament, to respond to our government's Speech from the Throne.

I would first like to address my constituents in Outremont, Côte-des-Neiges and Mile End. More specifically, I would like to address the parents who, like me, are worried. The guidelines are changing every day, and I know that it is not easy to keep up.

As a mother, I understand the uncertainty mothers are facing; their fear of waking up to the latest news, the latest numbers, the latest closures; their anxiety of waking up to their child with a runny nose; the explanations they give their little ones about why and what is next; and the concern they have for their own aging parents and their health and well-being. I understand this and our government understands this.

Last week at around 3 a.m., my colleagues and I voted on legislation in order to address these very concerns. The caregiving benefit, which opened early this morning, provides income support for parents who need to stay home with their children because maybe their class is closed temporarily or their school is completely closed. Maybe they need to stay home and take care of a parent with COVID-19 or a loved one. They should never have to choose between bringing home a paycheque and being there for their family.

I believe that these benefits are absolutely necessary because we must be there for one another. Despite the challenges, despite the worrisome increase in cases back home in Outremont, we are nonetheless very fortunate. We are fortunate to have so many organizations in our community that help the vulnerable and all of us.

I am thinking of the organization Outremont en famille and its entire team, which is working hard not just for our young families, but also for our seniors. I am also thinking of Maison des jeunes d'Outremont, which is there for our teens. Of course, I am thinking of the community leaders from our riding who work for the Welcome Collective.

The welcome collective is helping pair Montreal families with refugee families arriving here for the first time.

Every day, I think of André, Bernard and the whole team at the MultiCaf community cafeteria, where I like to volunteer.

I also think of Lou at the Mile–End mission, who works with such a small team of volunteers in order to bring healthy, nutritious food to families in need in the Mile End. Of course, Sid Stevens at Sun Youth, a veritable institution in Montreal, bringing urgent care to those in need.

As parliamentary secretary, I am also thinking of our entrepreneurs on Bernard Avenue, Laurier Avenue, Parc Avenue, Saint-Laurent Boulevard and Saint-Denis Street. I am also thinking of entrepreneurs across Quebec who are currently in red zones. I know that the uncertainty they are feeling is extremely hard to take. I do not know when the pandemic will be over, but I can guarantee that our government will be by their side for as long as it takes. We are there for entrepreneurs with storefronts, such as the Jérôme B hair salon on Côte-des-Neiges and the beloved pastry shop Duc de Lorraine, for which the emergency wage subsidy has been indispensable.

It was feedback from entrepreneurs that convinced us to extend the emergency wage subsidy until next summer. The program has already helped cover the wages of over 3.6 million workers across the country, including 85,000 workers in Quebec.

We are also going to extend the Canada emergency business account. This interest-free loan, part of which is non-repayable, has already helped more than 760,000 small businesses in Canada. Thanks to the expanded eligibility criteria, Aude and État de Style, her one-of-a-kind boutique on Duluth Avenue, were able to take advantage of this extremely valuable support.

Just as we did before, we will have the backs of hard-working Canadian entrepreneurs in this second wave of the pandemic. We have extended the wage subsidy, we are expanding the CEBA loan program, we have topped up the regional relief and recovery fund, and the federal government will be paying for two weeks of sick leave that employees may need.

As we have seen, this pandemic has worsened pre-existing inequalities in this country. There are people who have been excluded from our social safety net for far too long. Many of them have been part of the nine million Canadians for whom the CERB was invaluable.

The CERB is ending, but our commitment to a broader and more comprehensive safety net is steadfast. The expanded EI is there for workers who cannot find a job at the moment. Our new Canada recovery benefit is there for our gig economy workers and independent workers. They will be able to apply for this benefit of $500 a week or $2,000 per month.

In Canada, the wealthiest 1% owns almost 25% of our total national wealth. The bottom 1% owns almost none of it. This gap is widening. Our government is acting on this data and is fighting this growing wealth inequality. This includes identifying additional ways to tax extreme wealth inequality, addressing corporate tax avoidance by digital giants and more.

The rising income disparity is not dissociated from the social inequality that has been capturing the hearts and minds of Canadians and of people around the world. Following the death of George Floyd, we saw people take to the streets and demand reform, and we have heard their cries. In the Speech from the Throne, we have committed to addressing the systemic inequalities in all phases of the criminal justice system; enhancing civilian oversight of our law enforcement agencies; modernizing training for police, especially surrounding the use of force; moving toward community-led policing; and collecting better disaggregated data.

In this context, I would like to give a shout-out to the work of Tiffany Callender and her team at the Côte-Des-Neiges Black Community Association, who bring the demands for justice and equality to every level of government every single day. This includes their incredible work on the Black entrepreneurship program, a first in Canada, a program that needed to be created because of the barriers that Black entrepreneurs continue to face. I hope we do not need this program in the future.

Equality of opportunity and income parity are also top of mind for me as a woman, because still in 2020, women are at a disadvantage in the workplace.

When I talked to people at the Le Chaînon shelter in my riding, I realized how much demand for women's shelters is growing.

Why? Because asking a woman who is experiencing domestic violence to isolate at home is simply not feasible. That is exactly why we announced additional funding to support women and children fleeing violence during this pandemic.

In the Speech from the Throne, our government also recommitted to reconciliation with first nations, Inuit and Métis people. We will introduce legislation to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the end of this year. This was confirmed, once again, by our justice minister in the last several weeks. Only a few short days ago, footage from a hospital in my home province, Quebec, shocked the soul of the country. In this fight against injustice I do not like to speak of victims; for me, Joyce was a warrior.

There are warriors everywhere, fighting for a better and a more just Canada, and they do not fight in vain.

A motion to adjourn the House under Standing Order 38 deemed to have been moved.