Don't look down.
House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 35% of the vote.
Standing Orders and Procedure October 6th, 2016
Don't look down.
Petitions October 6th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to present this petition from northern Ontarians about the shortage of federal health and safety inspectors in northern Ontario. Canada cut the number of inspectors from 151 in 2006 to fewer than 67 now. Northern Ontario has a single officer covering the whole region. That person's work can be held up by just one injury, illness, or absence.
We are asking the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Labour to increase the number of federal health and safety inspectors in northern Ontario so that this important work can be carried out at all times without interruption.
Indigenous Affairs October 5th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, according to Cindy Blackstock, the Liberal government shortchanges first nations students by $130 million this year in foster care under Harper's plan.
On education, the Prime Minister promised $2.6 billion over four years to first nations students. An INAC document showed the minister was given the plan to follow through on this promise, but the Liberals once again decided to pull the football out from under first nations children. They stretched that promise past the next election, shortchanging children by $800 million.
When it comes to priorities, why squeeze money from children suffering under this broken system?
Indigenous Affairs October 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice was regional chief of the AFN when it took the government to court to end systemic discrimination against first nations children, but now her government has ignored two compliance orders to address the crisis of children at risk.
She has the responsibility to ensure that the government meets its legal obligation, and pretending that an under-funded plan written in the final, dying days of the Harper government was somehow a response to the ruling in January is not acceptable. We are talking about children here.
Will the minister respect the tribunal? What steps will she take to restore credibility in the House regarding these broken promises?
Paris Agreement October 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I would suggest the Liberals could put our hon. colleague on the road as exhibit A of the problem with the Conservative viewpoint. I remember when the Conservatives used to get up and say there was no such thing as climate change, that it was dinosaur flatulence that caused this. Now what we are hearing is that he has a wetland in his riding so what else do we need to do.
I will say that I have a wetland right behind me, and 100 years later there are still lots of birds but we cannot fish in there because it is poisoned with cyanide and arsenic, because the mining industry at the time thought the easiest way was just to dump. If we had asked them to fix up the environment back then, they would have all screamed that they would all be out of business.
All our northern lakes were destroyed by Inco. What did Inco do? It was not voluntary. Inco managers never fixed it up because they thought it was good to help. No, the capitalist economy was legislated to change it. Guess what happened? They became more efficient and they are making lots of money.
There is the idea that somehow if we ever force industry to do anything it is an absolute threat, when in fact industries have gotten away decade after decade with polluting the atmosphere and not paying. This comes from a region full of resource communities that know. Our communities have lived with that environmental impact, so we are not flat-earthers like my hon. colleague. We actually believe that legislation is needed to make these guys live up to their obligations.
Paris Agreement October 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. He has expertise on the Far North and brings that expertise to the work of the indigenous affairs committee.
Today we are discussing the amendment the NDP brought forward to help fix the motion being debated, because what we have been asked to vote on in the House does not include the obligation to negotiate, discuss, and meet with indigenous community leaders, as well as the municipalities. The reason it is important to put this in the motion is that we hear all the time that we are going to talk with indigenous communities who have traditional economic knowledge. Yet when it comes to federal environmental assessments, issues are rubber-stamped without the involvement of the communities. The government can approve the LNG pipeline while ignoring the five hereditary chiefs who came to Ottawa to discuss it.
New Democrats think it is really important that this be written into our obligation as parliamentarians. If we are going to move toward ratifying the Paris accord as a nation, we need to include the first peoples, who have been left out, for example, of the health accords. They were not involved. We need to change this nation-to-nation relationship and it has to be done in a concrete manner.
I would ask my colleague if he will support the New Democrat amendment to make sure that these negotiations involve indigenous communities and their leaders.
Paris Agreement October 4th, 2016
Mr. Speaker, I listened with great fascination to my hon. colleague. My recollections of the Stephen Harper years are a little different from those of my hon. colleague.
My colleague is telling us now that Stephen Harper had a great vision of the environment, but I never saw that in all of my years here. I did hear a lot of huffing and puffing and banging on the table to delay action, which has put us even further behind the eight ball after all of these years.
I represent a region that is heavily dependent on resource extraction. When I talk to people in industry, they get it. They say they are willing to put a price on carbon. Industry is willing, if the government will work with it, to find the incentives to start lowering emissions. Industry recognizes that it has to start moving in a positive direction.
I am not opposed to the government on this, if we can find a credible way to move forward. I agree with my colleague on cap and trade. It is a pretty bizarre concept that, in my opinion, has not really produced results. My concern is that, even if we put the government's price on carbon, we are not going to meet the Paris targets.
Could my colleague tell me how we are actually going to be credible in the international market and the international community, if we do not even have a plan yet that would meet the Paris obligations that we are agreeing to in the House of Commons?
Paris Agreement October 4th, 2016
Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague, but I missed the point. The point was the NDP amendment on the fact that the Liberals have excluded their obligations to negotiate and discuss with indigenous Canadians and indigenous leaders on this.
This is our attempt to help the Liberals. The Liberals talk a lot, but man, they really get bogged down when it actually comes to doing something right. For example, five chiefs fly to Ottawa to talk to the government about LNG and they are told that their meeting is cancelled because people are in Vancouver doing a photo op. The chiefs thought they would be getting discussions on site C, but the Minister of Environment and Climate Change and the Minister of Justice said that they could not discuss that because it was in court, so they will just approve the permits. That is not a relationship.
Will my hon. colleague support our amendment to ensure the government is obligated to involve the indigenous leaders of our country in the climate plan, because the Liberals have left it out? Maybe they are just excited. Maybe because they are a new government, they just forgot to include indigenous Canada. Maybe it is part of a disturbing pattern. Perhaps this debate and the subamendment will help us to find out where the Liberals are going on this issue.
Paris Agreement October 4th, 2016
Madam Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for her excellent work on this.
Yes, we are all in this together. If we are going to deal with the crisis of climate change, we need smart solutions—and smart solutions are happening already, on the ground. Municipalities are in the forefront. Indigenous communities have to be part of this conversation. I would think that a government that says it is having a new historic relationship would move beyond just running the pipelines through their territory with the LNG or the Site C and actually talk to the communities that are affected.
Paris Agreement October 4th, 2016
Madam Speaker, I guess it is how we look at moving forward. The issue is that we all recognize it is not credible to have communities in isolated areas living on diesel generators. It is just not good enough.
How do we actually, then, move forward?
We could regulate it, or with government we have enormous tools to find better sources of energy. That is how we need to start thinking.
For communities to have to fly in fuel to run generators is not a credible way of running any kind of first-world nation. We could actually use the incentives of government. There are enormous geothermal, wind, solar, and other options, including biofuels, that we could look at.
If we are going to talk about a $30-billion deficit, we need to ask how we start putting in smart investments, so that these communities become more sustainable and they are not on the forefront of greenhouse emissions.