Mr. Speaker, in the last month, our world has changed dramatically. On Thursday, we learned that a million Canadians have lost their jobs. This is not just a statistic; these are families that are now struggling to put food on the table, to pay rent and to make ends meet. The government has moved to respond to this crisis, but in many cases too slowly.
In early March, we had two suggestions: one, that the government should send direct financial assistance to all Canadians, and two, that we need a 75% wage subsidy, at a minimum, to ensure that people can keep their jobs and to support businesses in keeping workers on the payroll.
We have already supported the unanimous consent motion, and later today we will be supporting the legislation to make this wage subsidy a reality. However, I want to urge the government that, while we are here in Ottawa, we should not leave here without knowing and without guaranteeing that all Canadians who need help get that help.
The Canada emergency response benefit simply does not cover all Canadians who need this assistance. Too many people are at risk of falling through the cracks.
I think of some of the stories that I have heard over the past weeks about the people who desperately need help but are unable to access that help because they do not meet all the criteria.
I think about people working multiple jobs to make ends meet who have lost most of their hours of work and do not know how they are going to pay for groceries. They should be applying for help.
I think about the freelance and contract workers who have lost most of their income and are maxing out their credit cards to pay their bills. They should be applying for help.
I think about students who depend upon summer jobs to pay their rent, and some work to support their families. Now they have no jobs to apply for. They should be applying for help.
I think about the artists, the self-employed and people who are just on the margins. In fact, there are so many examples, and that's the problem.
For the last several days, New Democrats have been working with the government to fix the gaps, and that work is reflected in the motion that we have heard and in the work that will be done.
I want to thank the Prime Minister and other members of the government for the constructive way they have worked with us. However, we are not done yet. The current system discourages people who need help from applying, because they still have some income or they do not meet all the criteria.
Yesterday, the minister confirmed that everyone who applies for the CERB will get it, so I asked the Prime Minister today to announce that all the criteria will be dropped and to simply tell people, “If you need help, apply for it and you will get it.” Let us keep it simple. Let us make sure that all who need help know that they can apply for that help and that they will receive it.
The only way we can get through this crisis is if we take care of each other. We are all connected. We will not stop fighting until every Canadian gets the help he or she needs, period.
There have been heroes in this crisis in fighting COVID-19, and I also want to acknowledge those front-line workers who are keeping us fed, those who are keeping us healthy. It is saddening that they do not have the equipment they need to protect themselves and prevent the risk of infecting their families. I specifically want to mention health care workers, who are often sleeping in their cars or sleeping in tents to prevent the spread of infection or the risk of infection to their families. We have to do better. We have to ensure that all workers have the protective equipment they need to stay safe.
During this crisis, I also believe it is important to make it very clear that there is no room for companies profiting from the desperation of people. Credit card companies and others charging double-digit interest rates need to be stopped, and we need to use all of our powers at the federal level to make sure that happens. Banks are continuing to charge interest, leaving people worse off with the mortgage deferral. In effect, they are profiting from this crisis.
I know the Minister of Finance has spoken with the banks, but, clearly, speaking nicely has not worked. Banks are regulated expressly by the federal government. The Liberal government has to be prepared to use the powers we have to enforce pausing interest, putting a brake on that. In fact, we also need to put a pause on mortgages, so that we can work with provinces to put a pause on rent. This should also apply to commercial rent, which would significantly help out small and medium-sized businesses.
I know that in the coming weeks we are going to start talking about what a recovery would look like, how people will get back to work. As we designed this stimulus, I urged the Liberal government not to make the same mistakes as in the past. Every public dollar that we spend must go to workers, not to CEOs. Executive bonuses, share buybacks and protecting shareholder profits do not sustain or create jobs.
We can stimulate the economy and do the things that can transform our nation and fight climate change, such as building housing, investing in public transit, making it easier for Canadians to choose renewable energy sources, making our homes and buildings as energy-efficient as possible, and investing in child care services that all families can afford and that give our children the high-quality education they deserve.
I also want to talk about indigenous communities specifically.
Over the last month, I have spoken with leaders across the country. Indigenous community leaders have expressed grave concerns around the lack of capacity for their communities to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak. These are communities that, as a result of historical and ongoing injustice, are without basic infrastructure, where washing one's hands with clean water is not often possible, where overcrowding and the lack of quality housing means physically distancing is also not a reality, and where access to health care is severely limited, to the point where the nearest ventilator for many communities is a flight away.
I know the government has put some money on the table, but I have heard two specific concerns: that money is insufficient, and many indigenous communities are finding it difficult to access that money.
Historical neglect and racism have put indigenous lives at greater risk of this virus. We have to do better, particularly due to the fact that in the coming weeks many of these communities will face flooding and in the summer they will face forest fires, so we need a clear plan for the safe evacuation of these communities and a clear strategy to ensure that these communities have the resources they need to respond to COVID-19. Indigenous lives matter, and we need to make sure we are prepared.
I believe the decisions we make in the next weeks and months will be some of the most important of our lives, some of the most important that any Canadian government has been faced with.
We believe in solidarity. We believe in helping one another.
We hear a lot of people talking about when things will return to normal, but I believe we need to do far better than normal. Normal is workers not having paid sick leave. Normal is families struggling on a minimum wage. Normal is people who are essential to our health and safety not getting paid enough to live. Normal is a public health care system that has been starved of funding. Normal is a society that is neither fair nor resilient. We cannot ever go back to normal.
Canadians are showing their compassion. They are showing their desire to care for one another. We should demand that of our government as well. We should demand that the Liberal government embrace those same values.
Let us not return to the old normal; let us build a new normal, where we take better care of each other, where we have a strong social safety net that lifts us all up together. Let us build a Canada that is fair and resilient. Canadians are counting on us. They are counting on us to learn from this crisis to build a better Canada for all of us.