Madam Speaker, I want to begin by talking about how the COVID-19 crisis has gripped this entire country. Coast to coast to coast, we are grappling with its impact. In the face of this really difficult challenge, I have been inspired by the courage, compassion and kindness of Canadians. I want to focus on one area in particular where we need to do more than just say thanks. We have heard governments thank front-line health care workers, but those health care workers need far more than just our thanks.
Expressing gratefulness for front-line and essential workers is important, but not nearly enough. What these workers need is to be assured that they have the equipment to stay safe during this pandemic.
I am talking about the people who are delivering our groceries, those who are working in grocery stores, those who are in the transportation sector, those who are delivering meals. I am talking about the cleaners and janitors, all the people who are helping to ensure that our workplaces and places of shopping are clean, who are doing their part to prevent the spread of the illness. There are the health care workers in personal care homes, the workers who are providing support to those living with disabilities. All of these workers from all sectors, including health care, transportation, food and janitorial services, need more than just thanks. They need the protection to stay safe while they are doing their work. They need access to personal protective equipment of the highest quality to ensure their safety is protected.
We also need the federal government to act now for essential workers who are on the front lines, whether they are delivering food services or providing financial services in credit unions. We need to ensure that workers on the front lines receive a courage bonus, a top-up to acknowledge the hard work they are doing in this crisis, and the risk and the danger they are faced with. We have called for this previously and we are calling for it again. We need to ensure these workers receive extra support during this time. While it is essentially important that those who cannot work receive access to financial supports like the CERB, we need to also help out the people who are still working and helping communities in such dramatic and important ways.
It is also important to note that for some of these workers, they are not working because of choice, because they have no choice. They need to work to be able to provide for themselves and their family. That is why it is crucially important they get extra financial support.
There are many stories of essential workers who do not have access to personal protective equipment or who are not protected by health and safety measures. Some of these workers have already lost their lives to COVID-19. They died because they went to work.
This crisis is highlighting the defects in our existing system. The most important job in our society, the job of taking care of other people, is also one of the lowest paid.
That is a shocking reality that we have to come to grips with. Those who are providing some of the most essential services are among the lowest paid.
I want to point to a particular group of workers who are working very hard during this time with inadequate protections, and in some cases, very insufficient work conditions.
Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon, takes $250 million a day of profit. Nobody earns that much money. He takes it from the people who work for him. He is the richest person on the planet and his workers do not have paid sick leave. He asked for public donations. Madam Speaker, imagine having the audacity to ask for public donations to cover workers who have to be isolated, and he is the richest human being on the planet.
Amazon workers report that they do not have protective equipment and some workers have been fired for speaking out, but this is a company that the Liberal government is giving Canadian tax dollars to. Instead of using our own public service, our postal service, the government is going to this private company with a very poor track record of treating its workers fairly.
I want to talk a bit about long-term care. In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, long-term care homes are now at the centre of the desperate loss that we are seeing. The impact to human lives, and the loss of lives, has been concentrated in the most dire way in long-term care homes. Our seniors, people who have contributed their whole lives and have sacrificed their whole lives, are in long-term care homes where there are deplorable conditions. These are seniors who should be treated with respect and dignity and they have not been treated that way. Nowhere is the desperation of the situation more clear than in long-term care homes.
The federal and provincial governments have known for years that our long-term and home care systems are inadequate to provide safe, dignified care to our seniors. Some of our most vulnerable citizens, who cannot defend themselves, live in long-term care homes. Even with dedicated, compassionate staff, many members of our long-term care system simply do not have the time or resources required to do work that they know is necessary.
Federal and provincial governments across the country, particularly Liberal and Conservative, have allowed for-profit operators to run these homes that cut corners and put families at risk. These for-profit businesses have a motive of making profits, so they are not concerned with the highest-quality care. They are concerned with the highest return on their investment. That means people suffer, and we are seeing it across the country.
New Democrats have talked about the importance of head-to-toe health care coverage, and it is nowhere more glaring and important than when it comes to the treatment of seniors. That is why we have called for national standards to be established across the country. Once those national standards are established, we need to roll long-term care homes into our Canada Health Act so that there is federal accountability for the treatment of the seniors in these homes.
I want to point out that the COVID-19 pandemic crisis has laid bare the inequalities in our society and made very clear the inadequate social programs. It has become clear that Canadians want to take better care of one another, but the existing programs and our existing health care have not been sufficient. It has not been good enough, and this is not by chance. This is a decision made by governments to starve public health care of the crucial funding it needs.
In closing, what type of Canada do we want to build? Let us not return to the old normal. Let us not go back to normal. Let us move forward to a new normal, and let us ask ourselves what that new normal looks like. It looks like health care that is well funded, that covers people from head to toe. It means social programs that take care of each other, and taking better care of each other by expanding EI to something broader and more universal. It means making sure paid sick leave is not a luxury but a right that all workers enjoy. It means better wages for the essential services and those working on the front lines to ensure they get paid in a dignified manner with a good salary that allows them to earn a good life.
I believe we can come out of this crisis stronger than before. We need to take care of each other. That is what Canadians have told us. That is our job. If we make the right choices, we can build a brighter future and more justice and equality for all Canadians.