Irek Kusmierczyk

[Employment Insurance, March 29th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, we know that Canada's EI system is complex, and that is why we are focused on improving it. Budget 2023 invests in seasonal workers so that they have five additional weeks of coverage, for a total of 45 weeks. Also, in budget 2023, we propose establishing a new independent tripartite board of appeal, to hear cases regarding employment insurance claims.

In the past two years, the minister has led more than 35 national and regional round tables with workers, employers and academics. EI reform is a priority. We are on it and we will get it done.

[Canada Revenue Agency, March 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, when the pandemic hit, we acted quickly to get recovery benefits into people's bank accounts without delay. To achieve that goal, we planned to verify eligibility in the back end after the fact. This approach kept workers attached to their jobs and positioned our economy to come roaring back.

Lower-income workers and groups most impacted by the pandemic were able to benefit from all of our programs. We did the right thing. We will continue to have the backs of low-income Canadians and workers.

[Employment Insurance, March 27th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, EI is currently one of the oldest and most complex systems across the Government of Canada. That is why we made a commitment to fully modernize the system. In the past two years, the minister has led more than 35 virtual national and regional roundtables with workers, employers and academics.

EI reform is a priority. We are on it, and we will get it done.

[Canada-U.S. Relations, March 22nd, 2023]

Madam Speaker, on Friday we will welcome to Parliament U.S. President Joe Biden to strengthen the unbreakable bond between our two countries. Border communities like mine rely on that relationship more than any other. From 80% to 90% of what we manufacture and what we grow is exported to the Midwest and beyond.

There are 1,600 Windsorites who cross the border every day to care for Americans, and they kept crossing every day during the worst of the pandemic. We cross the border to visit family, go shopping and attend concerts, so we welcome President Biden and the First Lady to Canada.

We are celebrating the rise of a new auto industry in North America, a battery belt up and down the Mississippi River that connects new battery and electric vehicle plants in Windsor and St. Thomas to factories in Michigan and Georgia. We say to our American friends that we are in fact stronger when we work together to lift American and Canadian workers and families on both sides of the border.

[Questions on the Order Paper, March 20th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, in 2020 and 2021, employment insurance, or EI, call centre employees had no guidance instructing them to reply in the affirmative whenever individuals inquired about eligibility for EI benefits. Although there were temporary simplification measures in place for benefits, there were eligibility criteria that needed to be met. Employees were expected to inform callers of the criteria and encourage them to apply for all benefits that they might be entitled to in order for them to get a decision. Note also that eligibility decisions are not made at the call centre level, but are instead based on EI applications that have been formally submitted.

[Anthony Johnston, March 10th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, Robert Frost once wrote, “I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”

My community of Windsor-Essex lost a great teacher this week. To many, he was “Tony” or “TJ”. To my brother and me, and countless students he awakened, he was “Mr. Johnston”.

Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, Mr. Johnston immigrated to Canada in 1962, where he started his teaching career in Barrie before moving to Windsor. He taught at Holy Rosary, St. Alphonsus, Brennan, St. Michael's and my alma mater, St. Joseph's.

An amateur boxer with an incredible memory, he was the original Google. He taught English, coached Reach for the Top quiz teams and loved coaching cross-country. He was the recipient of the 1997 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence. He was proud of his Irish heritage and was a proud member of the Irish Canadian Cultural Club and the Gaelic League of Detroit.

His ashes will be taken home to Ireland, but his lessons and his love for his students, those are ours to keep.

[Black History Month, February 17th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, each February, my community of Windsor—Essex organizes a celebration of Black History Month that rivals any in the country, with close to 50 events to celebrate one of the oldest and most dynamic Black communities in Canada.

We can step into Sandwich First Baptist Church, the oldest active Black church in Canada; trace the steps of American slaves crossing to freedom at the Amherstburg Freedom Museum; listen to the Windsor Symphony Orchestra celebrate Black voices and Oscar Peterson; honour Windsor's connection to the famed No. 2 Construction Battalion; walk the McDougall Street Corridor, where Black culture and commerce thrive; join the Black, Indigenous and Workers of Colour Conference at Unifor Local 444; listen to Giller Prize-winning author Suzette Mayr at Biblioasis; support local Black businesses with the Buy Black 28-day challenge, and learn about innovators like engineer Cornelius Henderson, who helped build the Ambassador Bridge.

I wish a happy Black History Month to all back home.

[Business of Supply, February 16th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his fine speech and his fine leadership on the issue of advancing health care.

We have to support the heroes who make our health care work. I had a chance to meet some of those heroes two weeks ago, when PSWs representing SEIU visited my office. They shared with me the incredible stories of the challenges they face, and of their incredible sacrifice and service above self.

Can my hon. colleague speak to some of the concrete investments this plan will make for the health care heroes who make our health care system work?

[Canada National Parks Act, February 8th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent point of order and well taken.

The Parks Canada process is the best path forward for one major reason. It prioritizes, from the very start, community consultation with our community and also with indigenous communities like Caldwell and Walpole Island, which have historic ties to Ojibway.

Consultation with first nations from the start on the design of the Ojibway national urban park is especially important, not only because Canada has a constitutional duty to consult with indigenous communities on the creation of national parks, but because Ojibway provides a genuine opportunity to strengthen our relationship with indigenous peoples and advance reconciliation.

Imagine an innovative made-in-Windsor model where indigenous communities and environmental groups co-design an Ojibway national urban park and share stewardship of an Ojibway national urban park. Imagine a process that allows other community groups to have a real voice in the design of an Ojibway national urban park. In the spirit of Black History Month, we want to hear from the Amherstburg Freedom Museum or the Essex County Black Historical Research Society, to connect Ojibway to the story of the Underground Railroad.

Again, I want to recognize my colleague, the MP for Windsor West, for being a passionate champion of Ojibway all these years. His contribution to this work cannot be overstated.

However, Bill C-248 bypasses community consultation, falls short of our duty to consult with first nations and creates a duplicate process that could jeopardize the progress and partnerships already developed by Parks Canada.

Here are some of the most significant concerns I have with Bill C-248—

[Canada National Parks Act, February 8th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to Bill C-248, an act to amend the Canada National Parks Act. I want to begin by acknowledging that the land I represent is the ancestral and unceded territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of first nations, the Ojibwa, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi.

I share my colleague's enthusiasm for the creation of an Ojibway national urban park, and I recognize his long-standing advocacy. Both of us recognize that Ojibway is a precious gem, unlike any other. Compared to, say, Rouge National Urban Park in Toronto, Ojibway is a postage stamp of land, but in its 300 hectares, Ojibway contains rare Carolinian forest and tall-grass prairie, and it has the most biodiversity in all of Canada, including hundreds of plants, reptiles, insects and wildlife.

When I first got elected in 2019, my first meeting with the Prime Minister's Office on Parliament Hill was about the creation of an Ojibway national urban park. Not quite two years later, I joined the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development at Ojibway, in addition to dozens and dozens of local community partners, to announce our government's commitment to create seven new national urban parks, among them Ojibway. It was a historic day. Parks Canada was put in charge of creating an Ojibway national urban park, which makes sense, since Parks Canada has over 100 years of experience building national parks. We trust the experts. Since that day, Parks Canada has been busy putting in the work to make Ojibway national urban park a reality.

I will walk members through the Parks Canada process, which I support, and the real measurable progress we have already made to building an Ojibway national urban park.

Last year, we established a local partnership committee to oversee the process of creating an Ojibway national urban park. Parks Canada provided the City of Windsor with $600,000 to begin consultations and the groundwork to carry out a joint work plan with Parks Canada. Windsor's city council voted unanimously in favour of this process. We brokered an agreement between the Windsor Port Authority, Transport Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada to transfer Ojibway Shores to Parks Canada for inclusion into an Ojibway national urban park.

I am proud to say that we will have some even better news to share with our community in short order on the transfer of Ojibway Shores. Ojibway Shores is the last piece of natural habitat on the shores of the Detroit River. It is priceless. It is beyond value, and our community fought tooth and nail to keep it safe from bulldozers. Now, through the Parks Canada process that is under way, we will protect Ojibway Shores forever.

In December, Parks Canada began a series of open houses and pop-up workshops to engage residents of our community, listen to our community members and get local feedback on the design of an Ojibway national urban park. What I mean by that is the design of not just the footprint of Ojibway national urban park, but the design of how Ojibway national urban park would be managed.

Most important, we are in the process as we speak of working toward a collaboration agreement with our indigenous partners, Caldwell first nation and Walpole Island first nation. Two weeks ago, I had a chance to meet with Chief Mary Duckworth and members of Caldwell first nation to talk about the Parks Canada process of building an Ojibway national urban park. What I heard is support for a Parks Canada process that envisions Caldwell first nation being not only co-designers of an Ojibway national urban park, but also co-managers and co-stewards. In that way, the Parks Canada process is not just about creating an Ojibway national urban park, it is also about taking concrete steps on the path to reconciliation with our indigenous partners.

The work of building an Ojibway national urban park is already being done. Ojibway national urban park is already being constructed, much like we see the construction of the Gordie Howe international bridge, right next door, moving forward. The Parks Canada process is the best path forward for one major reason, and that is that it prioritizes, from the very start, community consultation with our community and with indigenous communities such as Caldwell—