John Rafferty

[The Budget, April 4th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I listened to my hon. colleague's comments with great interest. I have the utmost respect for him, and I am sure he certainly believes everything he was saying.

It is interesting that the member talks about reckless spending sprees. I would just like to get his thoughts on one particular spending spree his government is on right now. A lot of Canadians voted for the government on the basis of what it was calling a $2 billion boondoggle with the long gun registry.

It seems that there is now a $25 billion boondoggle. Those are not my words but words from the media, a $25 billion F-35 boondoggle. The Conservatives pretend they are good mangers of the economy. In fact, they are ideologically moving forward on a boondoggle that will certainly outdistance any other boondoggle they have ever talked about.

I wonder if my hon. friend would like to make a comment on that particular $25 billion boondoggle.

[Canada-Panama Economic Growth and Prosperity Act, March 29th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I am always very impressed when my friend and colleague, the hon. member for Nanaimo—Cowichan, speaks, not just because of her background and knowledge, but also because of the passion with which she speaks. I certainly appreciate that.

One of the passions we have on this side of the House is protecting jobs, ensuring that resources are protected and that secondary manufacturing takes place whenever possible. In this case, we are not just talking about Canada, we are talking about Panama and their point of view.

We have an expression in northern Ontario that Conservatives are always very happy to give away the trees and buy back the furniture. One of the things we have to do is ensure we protect jobs. We also have to ensure that Panamanian jobs are protected.

Would my colleague care to comment on that?

[Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, March 16th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, there are many parts of the bill that make me feel uneasy. At the very end of his speech, my friend mentioned the part that I would like to concentrate on.

The Government of Canada over the years has a very checkered history when it comes to detention. We do have a history of sending refugees away, sometimes to their death. We do have a history of detaining and jailing Italian Canadians, Ukrainian Canadians and Japanese Canadians. Therefore, there is a very slippery slope with respect to those kinds of measures in the bill.

I will talk about detention for a moment and children in particular. In the bill, children will have two choices. They can either stay with their parents in detention or are put into foster care. I do not think either of those are good options. For children, who have just come to the country and may not know the language that is spoken, to be put into foster care away from their parents, regardless of their age, is not a good option, The other option is to stay with their parents in jail. I wonder if my friend would like to make a further comment on that.

[Protecting Canada's Immigration System Act, March 15th, 2012]

Mr. Speaker, I must say the bill makes me feel somewhat uneasy, particularly the provisions on detention.

Canadian governments in the past have had no problem turning refugees away from our shores to their death. Governments in the past have had no problem with detaining Canadians, Japanese Canadians, Ukrainian Canadians, Italian Canadians, and the list goes on. Whenever we talk about detention, I get a little concerned.

I would like to ask my friend across the way what he really thinks about the detention provisions that are in the bill.

[Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, October 27th, 2011]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-338, An Act to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (termination and severance pay).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand in the House today to introduce my severance protection bill.

As we found out, since 2008 a lot of companies are struggling, which means that a lot of workers and their families are struggling. When companies close their doors, what happens to workers in this country is that their severance pay is unsecured when those bankruptcy proceedings occur.

This is a very simple, straightforward bill with only one clause and it would elevate the status of those payments from unsecured to preferred. My old bill from the last Parliament, Bill C-501, has now been taken over by my friend from Hamilton. I am very glad that the pension part will also be taken care of. This is the severance part.

I want to let everyone in the House know that this is not a political statement. It is a measured and effective proposal that could help workers who are owed money during bankruptcy proceedings. It would do so without disrupting capital markets or negatively affecting the borrowing costs of struggling companies. It would also fulfill a promise that I made to workers from Buchanan Forest Products and others in my riding and, indeed, workers right across this country, that we would protect their severance when their companies go bankrupt.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

[Petitions, October 19th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, my petitioners call upon Parliament to ban asbestos in all its forms and to institute a just transition program for asbestos workers in the communities in which they live.

They call on the government to end all government subsidies of asbestos both in Canada and abroad and to stop blocking international health and safety conventions designed to protect workers from asbestos, such as the Rotterdam Convention.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my friend for sharing his story and the gift of his son, Nathan, with us today.

I think the member brings focus when he speaks about Nathan to the three million Canadians who are affected by this issue. It is not just Nathan, it is his family and everyone like Nathan and their families, co-workers and all sorts of other people. It is estimated that about three million people are touched by suicide every year in this country.

I do not want to ask the member a specific question, but I wonder if he would like to comment on that particular part of the issue and on why we do not do anything about this, and the other issues that he has pointed out.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I was not aware of those figures from the Vietnam War and those who returned. That is an enormous number. It is also reflective of what is happening now, and not just in our armed forces. Our armed forces are much smaller, but the problem is still just as large.

I can reference my comments from the last question. People need to know we value their being on this earth. People need to know that we value the work they have done and the sacrifices they have made. Part of expressing that value is by listening and being ready to help when we need to help.

Coupled with that is an atmosphere in which people feel safe and secure in asking for that help, because we know that is also one of the problems.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, that is an important question. My background is in education and as an educator. In fact, I was principal of a high school with a large percentage of aboriginal students, so I have a particular interest in schooling, and I thank the member for that question.

Schools provide a centre for students, a centre for learning and for after-school activities, but more importantly, schools offer an acknowledgement that people care about the students who attend that school and care about the community.

The fact that Pikangikum still does not have a school after so many years of promises is a travesty. It needs an auditorium. It needs a playground. It needs soccer fields. It needs all these sorts of things as just one small key to ending this problem.

[Business of Supply, October 4th, 2011]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my friend from Halifax.

It is with sadness that I rise today to speak on this issue. I come from a part of the country in northern Ontario where these sorts of headlines about suicide are in the paper almost every day. It is easy, I think, if one lives in a large centre to not have this issue as part of one's daily life, but it is part of everyone's daily life in regions like northern Ontario. However, it does not mean that people are not doing anything about it.

I would like to talk about some of the solutions that have come from northwestern Ontario. I will speak about aboriginal people, both on reserve and off reserve. I will begin with off reserve.

We have a unique situation in Thunder Bay in that we have a first nations high school. It is called Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School. It is a very interesting high school, and a perfect place to do an extensive survey as to what could be done to help solve this problem.

I would like to reference the Regional Multicultural Youth Council of Thunder Bay. Moffat Makuto is the youth adviser. We have been in touch for a number of years on this and other issues. We brought it to the attention to the minister in the last Parliament, but nothing has been done again. I have another letter from him today, and I would like to quote a couple of comments that he makes.

He talks about Reggie Bushie, a student who passed away in Thunder Bay and who went to Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School. He said there is a concern that the inquest is taking too long to begin, because two more students from northern reserves attending Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in the city have since died under similar circumstances. In fact, the media are characterizing them as mysterious circumstances.

This is a quote from Mr. Makuto's letter to me. He says:

We must work with aboriginal students and empower them to make a difference. But, our Youth Council lacks funding to create more peer leaders and role models at DFC. This is an effective way of connecting with aboriginal students to counter the aggressive criminal gang recruitment among school drop-outs across the region.

The Regional Multicultural Youth Council, in conjunction with the Multicultural Association of Northwestern Ontario, did a survey in March of this year. I do not want to go through the whole piece, but if anyone is interested in getting a copy, I would be more than happy to make sure they get one.

There are three recommendations for the federal government, and I would like to mention them briefly.

The first recommendation is:

Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the Ontario Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada should work with other government ministries and stakeholders to secure funding for a students' residence at DFC, ensure that it is adequately staffed with essential programs, services and supports to guarantee their safety, enhance their well-being, improve their educational performance and increase graduation rates.

The second recommendation is that:

...the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, should provide financial resources to create, support and sustain aboriginal peer leaders at DFC who can work with other students to organize activities that reduce risk factors, enhance their safety, improve graduation rates, counter negative lifestyles, and avoid involvement in criminal youth gangs.

Keep in mind that this is from students in their own words.

The third recommendation calls on the government to provide adequate funding for students to meet realistic costs and cover the needs of on-reserve and boarding students, addressing this inequity to match the provincial level of funding per student.

We know that for students at this particular high school, the aboriginal student gets about $2,000 less than what the equivalent student gets in the Province of Ontario.

I would like to thank the Regional Multicultural Youth Council and Moffat Makuto for their work on this.

I will briefly speak about Pikangikum in the time I have left.

Suicide is an invisible problem in Canada and it is an invisible epidemic among first nations youth. We have known for years that it is our collective failing that we, as political leaders, have not addressed this. It will continue to be our collective failing if we do not address it now, and I thank my friend from Toronto Centre for bringing this motion forward today.

The public safety of first nations youth on and off reserves must be a priority of the federal government. Suicide, particularly suicide among first nations youth, is not a partisan issue but a national crisis.

I asked a question in question period on September 23, about a week and a half ago, which I would like to read again. I stated:

Mr. Speaker, my constituents in Thunder Bay are agonizing over the unexplained deaths of seven first nations students in seven years. One week ago, on Pikangikum First Nation a sixth young man this summer took his own life.

Then I asked the minister if he had read the Ontario chief coroner's report on these suicides, when he would act on its recommendations, and what he is doing to make life safer and brighter for first nations youth on and off reserves.

He stated in part in his response, “We will do everything we can to address the situation”. I thank the minister for his answer, but I would like to provide a bit of a historical perspective to what has happened in Pikangikum in the past and what is continuing to happen.

A November 1999 report co-authored by Samson for Survival International, a U.K.-based watchdog, called for immediate Government of Canada action after it found the Innu suicide rate to be 178 per 100,000 people from the 1970s to the 1990s. It is the highest-documented rate in the world.

Then we have Pikangikum, a community of a couple of thousand people in the far north of Ontario, 300 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. It has an eight-year average of 213 suicides per 100,000 people, a nine-year average of 205 per 100,000 people, and the latest Pikangikum suicides have sent this year's rate soaring to 470 deaths per 100,000 people.

The problem, while it is worst in Pikangikum, is region-wide and countrywide.

The report in 2000 also said that the increase in female suicide is related to third world conditions now prevalent on Canadian reserves like Pikangikum. Grand Chief Stan Beardy of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation said in the year 2000, “In all my dealings with the Canadian government over the last seven years, I've been met with a stony silence”. Mr. Speaker, I would put it to you that he is still being met by a stony silence.

It is important to remind people of our history. This motion is a statement and a step that should have come from the federal government. It is still a step forward today, but only if we act on it.

In the time remaining, let me talk about some of the recommendations from the report.

First, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Affairs should fulfill its commitment to build a new school in Pikangikum as soon as possible.

Second, the government should be a stakeholder in the housing strategic study.

Third, the government and the Pikangikum Housing Authority should ensure that all homes built in the future are connected to water and indoor plumbing, something the rest of us take for granted.

Fourth, the government and Pikangikum First Nation should complete its earlier project to connect the first nation to the hydro grid.

Fifth, the Government of Canada should support the Pikangikum First Nation's Whitefeather Forest project.

Sixth, Pikangikum First Nation should develop a community healing treatment centre with funding from the Health Canada Inuit and first nations health branch.

The seventh is the last one I will talk about, although there are more. It is that the Pikangikum health authority should develop a comprehensive mental health and addictions program for children, youth and adults.