Irek Kusmierczyk

[Proceedings on the Bill Entitled an Act Relating to Certain Measures in Response to COVID-19, September 28th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I want to reiterate that from the very start of this pandemic the primary focus of the government was to make sure we got the support Canadians needed into their hands as quickly as possible. With the new Canada response benefit, I can assure the member that when people apply online they will be able to receive benefits within three to five days of the application if they have a direct deposit account. I reassure the hon. member that Canadians will receive the support they need in a timely fashion.

[Proceedings on the Bill Entitled an Act Relating to Certain Measures in Response to COVID-19, September 28th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, it is really good to be back in the House representing the residents of Windsor—Tecumseh and also good to be back in the House with all my colleagues across the aisle.

I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Orléans.

I am pleased to rise today to participate in today's motion, but before I begin I would like to acknowledge that we are meeting on the unceded territory of the Algonquin people.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our government has put Canadians first and provided the support they need to continue to make ends meet while staying safe. As long as the pandemic continues, our number one job will continue to be supporting Canadians. That is what our Speech from the Throne was all about on September 23. The pandemic crisis exposed many gaps in Canada's social safety net. As a result, the government committed to addressing these gaps in ways that both keep Canadians afloat and boost the economy for an eventual recovery. The measures our government has put forward are part of that commitment. If passed, the measures will help Canadians weather the next phase of the pandemic while at the same time helping keep people connected to the labour force. Let me provide some context.

In August, the government extended the Canada emergency response benefit, also known as the CERB, for another month: from 24 to 28 weeks. We also made changes to the EI program to enable more people to access benefits. On September 27, Canadians began transitioning from the CERB to this more flexible and more accessible EI program, but not everyone who is currently receiving the CERB will be eligible for EI even with the new temporary measures in place.

Our message to Canadians is that if they cannot work for reasons related to COVID-19, there will be support available to them. Specifically, our government has proposed a suite of three temporary benefits: the Canada recovery benefit, the Canada recovery sickness benefit and the Canada recovery caregiving benefit.

I will spend my time today on the Canada recovery benefit. This new benefit will provide $500 per week for up to 26 weeks to workers who have stopped working due to COVID-19, or who are working but have experienced an income drop of at least 50% due to COVID-19. This new benefit will be available to them if they are available and looking for work, and are willing to accept work when it is reasonable to do so. This makes the CRB different from the CERB. It aligns more with how EI benefits function and will reintroduce measures that help keep people connected to jobs and the labour market. Let me provide a real-life illustration.

Ibrahim is a self-employed bookkeeper in Toronto. He earned $34,000 in 2019, but his business has slowed to a trickle due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April, Ibrahim applied for and received the CERB, but like many Canadians, his benefits ran out on September 27. While his business has begun to rebound, it is still not business as usual. He is back to working at only 50% capacity, but he is available for work and is actively seeking new clients. Ibrahim would not qualify for EI, but he would qualify for the Canada recovery benefit. As I mentioned, he could receive $500 per week for up to 26 weeks between the period of September 27, 2020 and September 25, 2021.

If his annual net income ended up being above $38,000, not including the CRB payments, he would need to repay 50¢ on every dollar over that net income through his annual income tax return. Thanks to this benefit, Ibrahim would be able to maintain his business, help support his family and continue to be an active participant in the economy.

This new benefit also differs from the CERB in terms of the integrity measures we have put in place. The government is committed to setting up safeguards to protect Canadians from fraud and to prevent non-compliance.

To prevent misuse of the CRB and the other benefits in this proposed legislation, the following measures would be part of the package: The Canada Revenue Agency would collect the social insurance numbers of applicants, CRB applicants would need to provide documentation to prove their eligibility for the benefit and individuals would have to repay any benefit amounts they were not entitled to.

In other words, we would have stronger integrity measures in place for the new recovery benefits. Unlike with the CERB, which had integrity measures built into the back end, the new recovery benefits would have robust verification measures up front. Applicants would experience different up-front and downstream validation checkpoints to ensure they only receive the benefits to which they are entitled. Applicants should prepare for a potentially longer gap between the submission of their application and their payment than they experienced with the CERB or the Canada emergency student benefit, the CESB. As well, unlike the CERB, the benefit would be paid in arrears and taxable at the source.

Our government has been there for Canadians. Since March 15, we have paid more than $76 billion in CERB benefits to almost nine million individuals. In my riding of Windsor—Tecumseh, thousands of Canadian families and workers took advantage of, and benefited from, the support the government provided during these incredibly difficult and challenging times.

While millions of Canadians have returned to the workforce and are no longer actively receiving the CERB, many Canadians are still facing the reality that they do not have a job to go back to. That is why we introduced measures that are delivering a more flexible and more accessible EI, and the Canada recovery benefit would work in parallel with it to ensure all working Canadians are supported as we work together to build back better and stronger.

The recovery plan our government has laid out would help us span the gap between the emergency support of the spring and summer and the new measures that will help us get through the next phase of this crisis, and that is why I encourage hon. members to support this motion.

[Thomas Wilson, March 11th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in the House with a heavy heart to pay tribute to the life and public service of a great Windsorite, Mr. Tom Wilson, who passed away this week.

Tom was a retired teacher who taught history and geography before entering municipal politics in 1985. He faithfully served the residents of Windsor for 21 years as a city councillor for ward 5. For many of us in the east end, he was known simply as the mayor of Forest Glade, where he supported youth athletics and organizations. He helped establish Forest Glade Optimist Park. He chaired the conservation authority and was an early champion of environmental sustainability.

Tom and I ran against each other in a municipal election. He quickly became a mentor, supporter and friend. Many times he would pick up the phone to provide insight and encouragement. More than anything, he wanted to see young people succeed.

All of us in Windsor are better for knowing Tom Wilson. Rest well, Tom. Rest well, mayor of Forest Glade.

[Criminal Code, February 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I am not sure the question is cogent to this incredibly personal, complex and emotional discussion we are having in the House, but what I can say is that our government remains committed to protecting vulnerable individuals and to protecting the equality, value and self-worth of all Canadians.

[Criminal Code, February 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, that is an excellent question. If we read the preamble to Bill C-7, we will see the legislation's explicit desire to balance several interests and values: the autonomy of the person seeking a dignified death, the protection of vulnerable persons and the important public health issue that suicide represents.

I believe Bill C-7 achieves that balance by relaxing safeguards for Canadians who are at the end of life, but also strengthening safeguards and, just as important, strengthening supports for Canadians who have a grievous and irremediable medical condition and are in an advanced state of irreversible decline, but not necessarily at the end of life.

[Criminal Code, February 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for the excellent question and the concerns that have been raised in the House. Again, we know this is an incredibly complex issue and an incredibly personal issue. Our priority was to listen to Canadians, which is why we conducted extensive consultations with doctors, nurses, the disability community and vulnerable populations across the country. We received over 300,000 responses to a survey that asked Canadians their opinion on MAID.

The legislation before us is of course a reflection of the Quebec Superior Court decision on Truchon, but we firmly believe that it is also a reflection of Canadian voices from coast to coast to coast through those extensive consultations. In terms of accessing the survey results, I do not have that information now but I am happy to provide that information to the hon. member outside of the House.

[Criminal Code, February 27th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Beaches—East York.

It is an honour to stand up in the House of Commons and participate in the second reading debate for Bill C-7, an act to amend the Criminal Code to Canada's medical assistance in dying legislation.

In developing these amendments, Canadians were widely consulted in January 2020. During these consultations, approximately 300,000 Canadians completed an online questionnaire. In addition, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion met with stakeholders in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Quebec City to discuss proposed revisions to Canada's medical assistance in dying framework.

These experts and stakeholders included doctors, nurses, legal experts, national indigenous organizations and representatives of the disability community. The high level of participation in both the questionnaire and the in-person sessions is a reflection of the importance of this issue to Canadians. Moreover, the results of the consultations were critically important in shaping the government's approach to medically assisted dying as it evolves to reflect the needs of Canadians.

This bill would amend the Criminal Code to allow medical assistance in dying for people who wish to relieve their suffering through a medically assisted death, whether their natural death is reasonably foreseeable or not.

This bill would remove the reasonable foreseeability of natural death from the list of eligibility criteria. It would also expressly exclude people seeking medical assistance in dying solely because of mental illness.

The bill proposes a two-track approach based on whether a person's natural death is reasonably foreseeable. Existing safeguards remain and are eased for those whose death is reasonably foreseeable. In addition, new and modified safeguards would be applied to eligible persons whose death is not reasonably foreseeable.

In the spirit of “nothing without us”, I would like to mention the government remains focused on addressing the concerns of the disability community around vulnerability and choice. The proposed changes to the legislation support greater autonomy and freedom of choice for eligible persons who wish to relieve their suffering by pursuing a medically assisted death.

At the same time, full consideration has been given to the protection of vulnerable persons and to respecting the equality rights and dignity of persons with disabilities. In short, this bill would maintain and strengthen safeguards to support fully informed decision-making, while also respecting individual autonomy.

In terms of advance consent, many participants were comfortable with implementing advance requests for those who have been assessed and approved for medically assisted dying, but are concerned about losing capacity before it is provided. This bill would allow people who risk losing decision-making capacity to make arrangements with their practitioner to receive medically assisted dying on their chosen date, even if they lose decision-making capacity before that date.

The bill would also make advance consent invalid if the person demonstrates refusal or resistance to the administration of medically assisted dying. The bill goes on to clarify that reflexes and other types of involuntary movements, such as response to touch or the insertion of a needle, would not constitute refusal or resistance.

In addition, the bill would allow eligible persons who choose to self-administer to provide advance consent for a physician to administer a substance to cause their death if self-administration fails and causes them to lose capacity. This type of advance consent would be available for all eligible persons, regardless of their prognosis.

I would like to take a moment to speak to the progress the government has made with respect to the rights of persons with disabilities in Canada. In fact, last year, the government enacted the Accessible Canada Act, which aims to create a barrier-free Canada through the proactive identification, removal and prevention of barriers to accessibility wherever Canadians interact with areas under federal jurisdiction.

The act is one of the most significant advances in disability rights since the charter in 1982 and is designed to inspire a cultural transformation for disability inclusion and accessibility in Canada. The act created Accessibility Standards Canada, a new organization that will create and revise accessibility standards, and support and promote innovative accessibility research. The CEO and board of directors were appointed and operations began last summer.

That act also established National AccessAbility Week, a week dedicated to accessibility in late May and early June each year. National AccessAbility Week is an opportunity to promote inclusion and accessibility in communities and workplaces, and to celebrate the contributions of Canadians with disabilities.

It is also a time to recognize the efforts of individuals, communities and workplaces that are actively removing barriers to give Canadians of all abilities a better chance to succeed. The act applies to federally regulated organizations for now, but we know the culture shift will have a trickle-down effect, and that awareness and action on disability inclusion will increase across the country.

Our government is taking real action to address the rights of persons with disabilities. The careful writing of Bill C-7 is a testament to that. Representatives of disability organizations and leading disability scholars participated in consultations across the country. Their input informed the reforms proposed in the bill.

We recognize that disability inclusion requires more than legislation. That is why we are continuing to work with the disability community and other stakeholders to address stigma and bias. It is important to bring about a culture change to ensure that the important contributions made to Canada by persons with disabilities are recognized and valued on the same basis as those of other Canadians. Going forward, we will continue to focus on improving the social and economic inclusion of persons with disabilities.

We will continue to work hard to ensure that all people are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, especially when it comes to deep and personal issues like ending life. It is imperative that the voices of all Canadians, including Canadians with disabilities, continue to be heard on the issue of medical assistance in dying.

[Post-Secondary Education, February 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, we know that education is vital to succeeding in our modern workforce, and that is why we are investing in Canadians and their futures.

To help Canadians reach their full potential, we will increase the Canada student grant by $1,200, extend Canada's student loan repayment grace period from six months to two years after graduation, give parents with their own student loans a repayment grace period until their child turns five and increase the threshold of the repayment assistance program so students do not need to start repaying their loans until they are making over $35,000.

That is how we are helping the middle class and those working hard to join it.

[Employment, February 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, again, we are aware of the increased volume of LMIA applications. We have invested $8.1 million to reduce the volume of applications, because we understand how important this program is to employers. This investment in itself has decreased the backlog by 1,400 applications.

We will continue to work to ensure that this program works for employers, for workers and for the Canadian economy. We are committed to working with our provincial partners to improve this program.

[Employment, February 21st, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, this government is committed to working with our provincial partners and our local partners on this issue.

We are aware that there is an increased volume of LMIA applications in Quebec. We understand the urgency of the labour shortage in Quebec and we are taking action to address it.

In 2019-20, we hired 34 new staff in Quebec, reallocated $1.7 million within ESDC to address the backlog and reviewed and streamlined processes.

I understand the importance of temporary workers in Quebec, and our department continues to work to address this backlog. We will continue to monitor the situation very closely.