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.