House of Commons photoWon his last election, in 2021, with 50% of the vote.
Canada Labour Code November 22nd, 2023
Mr. Speaker, earlier on we heard two Conservative MPs speak. For 30 minutes or so they had one job, and that was to state whether they were in favour of hiring scabs or not. They refused to do so.
Does my colleague think that the MPs were on strike because they did not want to speak in favour or was this a lockout imposed by the Conservative leader?
Canada Labour Code November 22nd, 2023
Mr. Speaker, I think that one of the important questions raised during this debate is whether the Conservatives actually know what a replacement worker is. We are starting to wonder whether they even understand the term.
Perhaps our colleague could just reassure us that he does in fact know what a replacement worker is, notwithstanding the spin that the Conservatives are putting on the term today in the House of Commons.
Canada Labour Code November 22nd, 2023
Mr. Speaker, in the fall economic statement yesterday, the government projected that, over the next year, unemployment is going to be up by 1% in Canada. I absolutely agree with the member that investments in battery plants have to lead to good union jobs here, although he did not say “good union jobs”. I will give him the opportunity in a moment.
What I am concerned about is that he did not talk about the legislation, and he is using replacement workers in a very different sense than the sense relevant to the legislation. If the Conservatives want to coin a new term, that is their business, but they should not do it to conflate issues and distract from the fact that they clearly do not want to talk about bringing home powerful paycheques for Canadian workers by protecting their right to strike with anti-scab legislation.
Would he now like to take a moment to talk about replacement workers in the relevant sense, who are people who take the job of someone out on strike or in a lockout, and tell us what the Conservative position is on this bill? He has not even talked about the content of the bill yet despite us being almost at the 15-minute mark.
Canada Labour Code November 22nd, 2023
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, now that the member has considerably less time, I wonder if he might hurry up in becoming relevant to the bill.
Canada Labour Code November 22nd, 2023
Mr. Speaker, the Canadian middle class was built on the union movement, and we can see the Canadian middle class rise with union density. To the extent that we have seen a decline in union density, we have also seen a decline of the middle class.
The right to strike is fundamental to the union movement. If workers do not have the right to withhold their labour, they do not have leverage in bargaining. It is why unions have been calling for anti-scab legislation for so long and why they needed it not just in the case of lockouts, which is what the Liberals started talking about after decades, but also in the case of strikes. Therefore, I am very pleased today to see legislation that would ban replacement workers both in the context of lockouts and in the context of strikes, because that is how to fight for powerful paycheques for Canadians.
However, I am concerned about an 18-month coming-into-force period after royal assent. We know that sometimes, government officials ask for a long time to implement things, but when pressed, can do it much faster. Indeed, when it came to Quebec and B.C., we saw relatively swift implementation of their anti-scab laws. Will the minister go back to his department and press it to ensure that we could put the law into force much faster than 18 months after royal assent?
Fall Economic Statement November 21st, 2023
Mr. Speaker, Canada has been kicking the can down the road when it comes to addressing the need for social affordable housing and more market housing for far too long. We should not be kicking the can down the road any further.
We do not want to trade a Liberal government for a Conservative government and then a Conservative government for a Liberal government because that has been the problem. It is how we came to where we are now. We are going to take the time we need to talk to Canadians to let them know there is an option for a real NDP government that would do what it takes to build the housing Canadians need.
Fall Economic Statement November 21st, 2023
Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely no question that the federal government has an even bigger role to play when it comes to funding health care. One of the best ways it could do that would be to establish a national pharmacare program.
This would reduce the amount that Canadians are already spending on prescription drugs. We know, and Conservatives like to remind us in other debates, that there is only one taxpayer. There is only one taxpayer when it comes to pharmacare too. The fact is that those taxpayers are paying a lot more for prescription drugs, having 10 individual provincial pharmacare plans or having to pay premiums into a workplace plan, than they would under one national pharmacare plan.
The single best thing that the government could do to increase health services and save Canadians money at the same time would be to institute a national, universal, single-payer pharmacare system. It is why we are holding their feet to the fire on that and expect them to deliver.
Fall Economic Statement November 21st, 2023
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Vancouver East for all the excellent work that she does on the housing file.
There is no way that Canada can meet the deficit of affordable and social housing that we have if we are going to lose 15 for every one that we build. That is why it is imperative for the government to find a way to stop big corporations from acquiring buildings and kicking out the tenants. It could be done by a moratorium.
The way the government should have done it eight years ago was by renewing the operating grants. The fact that those operating grants were allowed to expire is what put so many affordable units back on the market. The Liberals promised to undo that measure of the Harper government, but they completely failed Canadians. We have seen hundreds of thousands of units pass from the hands of non-profit and co-op operators, who were offering affordable rents, to those of giant corporate landlords, which are more interested in paying big dividends to their shareholders.
We cannot continue like this. It is why we are seeing so many people on the streets in all our communities across the country. It has to stop, or the problem will continue to get worse and the tent cities will continue to grow.
The Conservative leader likes to talk about tent cities, but he does not like to talk about the things that have to be done in order to properly close them and make sure the people there have a place to go. The policies of the government he was a part of built those cities. It is going to take an NDP government to take them down in the right way.
Fall Economic Statement November 21st, 2023
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for her private member's bill, which I was very happy to support.
I think it is pretty clear. There are plenty of things the NDP would like to see a federal government do that the Liberals are not prepared to do. We are asking them for things they are not prepared to do. Negotiation involves finding a way forward that enables us to get results for Canadians despite the fact that the Liberals are not prepared to do many of the things they should do. If the Bloc Québécois wants to try negotiating, that is up to the Bloc. I am very proud of the fact that, even though we cannot get everything we want, our negotiations can still produce results for Canadians.
Fall Economic Statement November 21st, 2023
Mr. Speaker, I am trying to figure out how the Liberal government is so ineffective at delivering new housing. I think it may be that it is spending all its time thinking about Manitoba provincial politics in the early 1990s. I do not know. I was seven or eight at the time.
I would encourage Liberals to pay attention to the economy today. Yes, there has been a lot of fanfare and announcements, but I would say to the member for Winnipeg North that when they look at the details of the program, such as, for instance, the announcement made today that they will be out trumpeting, they should look at the details and the table. The table very clearly says this money is not coming for another two years. It should be now, and there should be more of it.