Chris Charlton

[Employment, April 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the unemployed get targeted, while Canadian jobs go unprotected. The government has its priorities completely backward.

Conservative changes to the temporary foreign worker program have thrown the doors wide open to the displacement of Canadian jobs. After being vilified in the media, the Conservatives announced that they were rolling back some of the changes they made that weakened the program.

When will they fix the labour market information that has led to the inaccurate labour market opinions and when will they finally allow an independent investigation of the temporary foreign worker program?

[Employment Insurance, April 30th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, we have heard all the excuses before, but the real Conservative record is one of failing to protect Canadian jobs.

The government has made a mess of EI and even timed the changes to specifically target Atlantic seasonal industries. All Atlantic premiers, two of whom are Conservatives, are demanding a halt to the changes because they “impede our economic growth”.

Why will the government not shelve its reckless changes and instead work with the premiers on a plan that actually creates jobs?

[Employment, April 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, no New Democrat has asked the minister to displace Canadian jobs.

The Conservatives have twice claimed to fix the program, but each time they have only made matters worse. No one trusts the Conservatives to clean up the mess that they have created.

Whistleblowers have recently come forward to expose that thousands of unqualified foreign workers are being brought in to replace Canadians through a loophole known as the intra-company transfer. Like with so many other problems, the minister has known about this abuse for years. Therefore, why have the Conservatives failed to act?

[Employment, April 29th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, that answer is cold comfort to the hundreds of locked-out workers at U.S. Steel.

The Conservatives completely lost control of the temporary foreign workers program. Originally, it brought in a small number of workers. Now it is massive, pays them less, displaces Canadians and drives down wages for everyone. Even Mark Carney agrees the current program is good for neither workers nor our economy.

Now that the minister has finally acknowledged we have been right all along, will he reverse the changes that drive down wages by 15%? Will he put jobs for Canadians first?

[Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, April 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, I want to first of all thank my colleague for her comments, and frankly for her amazing tribute to Raymond Taavel. I also want to thank her for the amazing tribute to her community of Halifax, the resilience of her community, the love for her community, the strength of her community, all of which we do not celebrate enough in this House when we talk about issues within our own riding boundaries.

I want her to know that the tragic death of Raymond Taavel was felt not just in Halifax, but indeed right across the country. I remember reading the story in the Hamilton Spectator. It touched a nerve. It left all of us feeling the loss, but also feeling the need to take concrete action.

I have to admit we were perhaps a little helpless in knowing exactly what needed to be done. I think there is an opportunity before us now to take that action. However, I think my colleague from Halifax is absolutely right; we cannot take that action in haste.

This is not an easy problem. It is a complex one. As my colleague from Edmonton—Strathcona has pointed out, we do need to hear from organizations like the Elizabeth Fry Society, and we need to hear from the John Howard Society. I would suggest that we also need to hear from our provincial partners.All too often in this House we march on as if the federal government were the only government that mattered. Consultation with our provincial partners, and in some instances municipal partners, seems to have become a bad thing somehow.

I think we would move forward in a much more positive way if we were to work collaboratively with other orders of government, and if we work together, in this case, with health experts.

I wonder whether my colleague could comment on whether she thinks the Nova Scotia government in particular might not have some very important things to say, as we continue collectively to want to pay tribute by doing the right thing now. They too shared the tragic loss of Raymond.

[Petitions, April 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, there are hundreds of people in Hamilton Mountain engaged in the fight to save public health care and to ensure access to high-quality health services wherever they live.

In particular, the petitioners are really concerned about needing a pan-Canadian prescription drug strategy, about the need for high-quality home and long-term care services, about the need for a pan-Canadian health human resources strategy, and of course the need for improved living conditions, including access to food, housing and a living wage.

As a result, the petitioners are calling on the government to fully co-operate with the provinces and territories to negotiate a new health accord by 2014 that improves health care services through stronger federal leadership, backed by long-term and stable health care funding.

[Employment Insurance, April 26th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives substantially reduced EI without ever considering the impact. Even the premier of New Brunswick, a Conservative, is calling for a moratorium on these changes until a full impact study is done. This weekend, thousands of workers will be protesting across the country against these damaging changes to EI.

Will the minister listen to the provinces, listen to workers, listen to industry and reverse these cruel and ill-conceived cuts to EI?

[Privacy, April 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, Conservatives take protecting information about their cuts very seriously, in fact to the point of hiding it. Just ask Kevin Page. However, when it comes to protecting the private information of Canadians, totally different standards apply. We have now learned that at least a million Canadians have been affected by data breaches, at least 885 different breaches at HRSDC alone.

Why is a government that is so obsessed with secrecy so careless when it comes to the personal information of Canadians?

[Workplace Safety, April 25th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, in 1991, this House adopted an NDP private member's bill proclaiming April 28 the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job, but for New Democrats, mourning is just one part of our annual recommitment. Yes, first we mourn the dead, but then we fight for the living.

There is no such thing as a workplace accident. Every workplace death and injury is preventable. That is why we have had Criminal Code amendments in effect since 2004 allowing for the criminal prosecution of employers for workplace injuries and fatalities. It should be straightforward: kill a worker, go to jail. Yet only two provinces have ever laid charges. It is time governments take the measures needed to ensure that police and crown attorneys treat the site of a workplace injury or fatality like a crime scene. It is a crime scene. Only by prosecuting to the full extent of the law will we ever achieve the deterrent effect that will lead to safer workplaces.

On this day of mourning, I call on all of us who participate in making laws to also do our part in ensuring that those laws are enforced.

[Petitions, April 24th, 2013]

Mr. Speaker, since 1999, the water level in Lake Huron has dropped by four to five feet, with no sign of rebounding even 13 years later. This has caused immeasurable damage, not only to aquatic wetlands and spawning areas, but it is causing serious economic and safety concerns to the communities in the area, many of which depend in large measure upon tourism, cottaging and boating during the navigation season.

The petitioners are asking the government to significantly increase its efforts to halt and reverse the ongoing loss of water from the Great Lakes Basin in general, and the Lake Huron-Michigan-Georgian Bay-North Channel Basin in particular.