Mr. Speaker, I fear my friends across the aisle will not enjoy the rest of my speech.
When I left off, I was talking about the abject hypocrisy of the Leader of the Opposition when it comes to working people, unions and the labour movement in this country. I am going to quote a few things here. The Conservative leader said union contracts that pay workers a decent wage result in a pointless, unnecessary inflation of costs, and that non-union firms with lower wages are good for competition. He also said he simply cannot comprehend that union firms can, in fact, be competitive with non-union ones.
That is the Leader of the Opposition prancing around talking about workers in the House. He is determined to deny them their historic, decades-long, hard-fought rights. The Government of Canada is committed to promoting safe, healthy, fair and inclusive working conditions. As of December 15, 2023, federally regulated employers are required to provide sanitary products to all female employees in the workplace.
For years, replacement workers have been a distraction to the collective bargaining process, and those days are coming to an end. That is because on June 20, Bill C-58, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Industrial Relations Board Regulations, 2012, received royal assent. When it comes into force on June 20, 2025, it will ban replacement workers in federally regulated sectors.
Dealing with pregnancy loss can be very difficult. That is why the government instituted a new leave for pregnancy loss for employees in federally regulated private sectors. This leave will help support them during this difficult time. Adoptive parents and parents of children conceived through surrogacy need time to welcome their children home. That is why we have also instituted a new 16-week leave to support adoptive parents and parents of children conceived through surrogacy.
Technology is changing rapidly, and with it, so will the workforce. Increased availability of mobile technologies led to 20% of Canadians primarily working from home in 2023. In 2016, it was only 7%. However, remote workers are often required to be constantly available, which can lead to stress and burnout, ultimately impacting their mental health. We passed legislation to bring a right to disconnect into this new world of work. This measure will help restore the balance for nearly 500,000 federally regulated employees.
The Government of Canada is fully committed to pay equity as part of its overall goal of creating fair, safe and inclusive workplaces. It is not only the right thing to do, it is the smart thing to do. When Canadians are able to count on equal pay for work of equal value, our economy benefits. That is the purpose of Canada's Pay Equity Act, which took effect in 2021. Since then, the government has been taking steps to ensure that everyone receives equal pay for work of equal value.
These are real accomplishments. Canadians watching this debate can see the cynical ploys of the Conservative Party of Canada. They must ask themselves, which one of these dozen or more tangible, real, legislative accomplishments for working Canadians would the Leader of the Opposition have brought in? The answer is none. The answer is the Conservative Party would not have initiated any pro-worker or progressive reforms to the Canada Labour Code that help Canadians in their jobs, in their lives and to achieve the kind of balance we all seek in these very complicated times. The answer is the Conservatives would have done none of that.
What we have is a Conservative leader and a Conservative Party trying to gaslight Canadians into thinking Conservatives are friends of workers. They are not, and the facts speak for themselves. In his own words, the leader of the Conservative Party has called into question the very basis and structure of labour unions, claiming union dues are forced on workers, and has called into question the role of workers in collective bargaining in Canada.
He complains, “The union has the power to shut down a workplace.... These legal powers give the union a state-enforced monopoly on labour”. Those were the words of the member for Carleton on May 29, 2012, in the House of Commons. The Conservative leader has attacked union jobs and union wages as “fattened union contracts”.
My colleagues and I are proud that we have turned back this movement and proud of the significant progress we have made over the years, and we are not going back. We will keep listening and working alongside unions, other parties in the House and progressive Canadians everywhere to make sure we continue to be there for working Canadians and continue to provide the things, the reforms and the guarantees that we know they are entitled to and that Conservatives, cynically, would take away.
This motion deserves to be defeated. It is a cynical ploy. The Conservative Party is not pro-worker. It is anti-worker.
I encourage every member of the House to vote against this motion.
