Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Kingston and the Islands.
On June 19, the people of Winnipeg South Centre put their trust in me to be their voice in this chamber. It is with the greatest sense of pride and humility that I rise today for my maiden speech as a member of Parliament.
The people of Winnipeg South Centre are as diverse as the country itself. It is a riding comprising individuals who have arrived in Canada recently and those, such as my ancestors, who escaped the pogroms of Europe, who came some time in the more distant past, as well as first nations and Red River Métis. We are blessed in Winnipeg South Centre to reflect the foundation of diversity upon which Canada is built.
What I appreciate most about the people of Winnipeg South Centre is their deep social conscience. They hold a collective belief in the responsibility that we all bear to look after one another. They care about those around them, never limiting the scope of their concerns to themselves only, but extending it broadly. It is an honour to be an extension of that here.
I saw these values reflected in the thousands of conversations I had with neighbours during the recent by-election campaign. Whether it be concerns related to climate change, reconciliation, mental health or education, my constituents are engaged, and they care.
I come to this role with a deep sense of gratitude and responsibility. As I took my seat last week and walked in this chamber past colleagues from all sides of the House and all parties, I was overcome by the magnitude of this place and reminded of how great a privilege it is to have the honour to serve one's community within these walls.
Today, I am thinking of those who have helped to shape me along the years: teachers, coaches, friends, family, neighbours and constituents. Whether it was Monsieurs Sokalski and Young at Kelvin High School, who fostered my love for civics and history; my coaches, Romu and Urbanovich, who taught me to always keep my head up and do my part as a member of a team; my dear friend who we lost earlier this year, Lydia Hedrich, who reminded me to always focus on my north star; or my mother and father, who instilled in me the foundational values of kindness, hard work and honesty that guide my actions today, I have been incredibly well served by those who collectively raised me. Of course, I am eternally grateful to my partner, Amy, for the positive influence she is on me every day.
I am a product of bilingualism in Canada. Like many Canadians across the country, I was in a French immersion program from kindergarten to grade 12. It was during a French speaking competition that I first announced, “One day, I will be an MP”.
The public service has guided a number of the decisions I have made throughout my lifetime. I will continue to improve my French as best I can here in the House.
With every job or duty that I have undertaken in my life, the underlying aim has been to contribute to the benefit of the community that helped raise me. Whether it was as a teacher, volunteer coach or school principal, I have tried to immerse myself in actions that give something back.
Of particular focus for me over the coming months will be to advocate for the advancement of our collective journey toward truth and reconciliation, and I am grateful for the opportunity to sit on the Standing Committee for Indigenous and Northern Affairs. I have had the privilege as a teacher and principal to work closely with indigenous students and their families. I feel that, despite the significant progress that has been made since 2015, there is still much more work to do at the federal level to ensure equity and opportunity for young people from our indigenous communities.
By fostering stronger bonds with these communities and working together with our provincial colleagues as well as post-secondary institutions across the country, we can achieve meaningful progress.
I come to my work as a parliamentarian with a view through many lenses. In addition to conveying the thoughts and aspirations relayed to me by the people of Winnipeg South Centre, I arrive here as a teacher, as a Jew, as a son and as a westerner.
My hometown of Winnipeg is a special place. As an emerging destination for newcomers and economic development in the 19th and 20th centuries, Winnipeg served, and continues to serve, as the gateway to the west. As I look to the future of this great country, I see no region playing a more critical role than western Canada.
As we tackle the climate crisis, the Prairies will be there to innovate. With technologies like carbon capture and green hydrogen, wind and solar power, vast networks of clean hydroelectric energy, and critical minerals, we will lead the way.
Although I have been assured that my maiden speech can be somewhat less relevant to the debate at hand, it is timely that we are discussing the issues of affordability as I give these remarks, for the future costs we will assume or avoid as a country are rooted in the issues I have just highlighted.
If we do not address climate change, we will bear significant costs, ranging from massive increases in insurance premiums to emergency preparedness, infrastructure and more. If we do not follow the facts and medical expertise on how to effectively address the drug and mental health crisis we face in this country, including the implementation at provincial levels of supervised safe consumption sites, our costs for health care and within the criminal justice system will never be resolved or recovered.
If we do not continue moving towards closing the gap with indigenous education, we will leave the nation's fastest-growing generation’s ideas and intellect behind and perpetuate the harms of the residential school era. In my home province of Manitoba, of the 11,000 children in the care of child and family services, 90% of them are indigenous.
In addition to the west, I am eager to contribute where possible to the growth and stability of our north. In my home province of Manitoba, the Port of Churchill will play a vital role in economic export activity, clean energy transmission and, of growing significance, Arctic sovereignty.
As we talk about affordability, it is a combination of these social and economic policies that will ensure that life is better for Canadians from all parts of the country. Along with the announcements the government has made in recent days pertaining to the GST on purpose-built homes, inclusive of the proposed changes to the Competition Act, are significant steps in our ongoing efforts to make life more affordable for Canadians, and to ease the financial burden being driven by myriad global factors.
As I conclude these maiden remarks, I want to turn my memory for a moment to my father. Less than a year ago, he stood courageously in this very chamber, just a few seats away from the one that I occupy today, and he used, literally, the last days of his life to continue fighting for the country and the region that he loved. The aspect of his work that I, as his son, was most proud of, across a long and diverse career of public contributions, was his unwavering commitment to building bridges and a conduct that evaded hyperpartisanship at every opportunity. Whenever the time may come that I look back at my own parliamentary career to judge its successes and shortcomings, I hope that I will be able to genuinely say that I have lived up to the standard that he set for us all.