Karen Vecchio

[Red Dress Day, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Chair, that is what we all should be doing: fighting for women. When we are talking about that, we always talk about how to raise women up and how to empower them. It is when we work together on something that we all find a common goal. I think that if we looked at everybody, as members of Parliament, this is a common goal. We know that indigenous women are not seen as equals. That can stop right now. It really can. It can stop for us right now. We need to have that conversation and we need to change the conversation, but we can have the leaders in here doing so. As I said, this has to be a team effort where everybody is on board.

[Red Dress Day, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Chair, I think what we often do when we look at inquiries and recommendations is point fingers at who was to blame in the past instead of asking how we make a plan for the future. I know it is really important that we reflect on the past when we do these inquiries so we know what to reflect on. That is why doing these inquiries is important. However, from there, it is about taking these recommendations seriously and finding a plan.

We have seen a number of recommendations from both the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. There is some very low-hanging fruit that is so easy for us to all work together on. Yes, the harder things will be challenging, but imagine how challenging it is for the indigenous women and girls who have gone through this all their lives. We need to step back and ask how we can make it better for all. We need to break away from the beliefs we had in the past and ask how we can change things for the future.

[Red Dress Day, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Chair, I thank the member for teaching me to become a person who understands this a lot better. Seeing it through her eyes or sharing the experiences that she shares with her own community makes us all better people. It makes us all recognize what a job we can do. That is how we work together, by sharing who we are.

Earlier today, I texted a lady asking where she was, and she responded by asking if I was okay. She was worried about me, for goodness' sake. When people work together and build relationships, amazing things can happen. I thank the member for all the hard work she is doing. I have her back and I know she has mine.

[Red Dress Day, May 2nd, 2023]

Mr. Chair, it is so important that we are all gathered here today as we are discussing this issue. I would like to thank all of the speakers prior and all those coming after me.

I am looking at some of the speakers and notice many members of the status of women committee speaking on this important topic tonight. I think it is wonderful. I guess if we need to get it done, we will just take it to the status of women committee, right ladies?

The murdered and missing women and girls issue in Canada is a well-known phenomenon that has been plaguing the country for decades. The issue gained notoriety in the country's consciousness in recent years, but it has been an ongoing problem for indigenous women and girls for much longer.

According to the Native Women's Association of Canada, there have been over 1,200 indigenous women and girls reported missing and murdered between 1980 and 2012 in the country. However, this number is believed to be much higher since many cases had gone unreported or were misclassified as non-indigenous, which actually limits the accurate documentation of the issue.

The previous research done for the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls issue has revealed that the problem has a complex and multi-faceted root, including colonization, the residential school system, systemic violence and oppression, and ignorance about indigenous culture and heritage. The horrors of the residential schools that indigenous people experienced have had a traumatic effect on generations of families and individuals.

This brings me September 30 and the importance of gathering together from all walks of life in our communities to meet with those persons who were representing indigenous communities. We know that a lot of time has passed, but we have a lot of things that we must go forward on in working together. Reconciliation is about the communities all coming together, as I said, from all walks of life, to ensure that we build these links and bridges that we have lost.

The issue of missing and murdered women and girls has been exacerbated by a lack of accurate data, a poorly equipped legal system and limited accountability for perpetrators. Indigenous women and girls experience gendered and racialized violence at a much higher rate than non-indigenous women, and this is due to the history of colonization, which deeply entrenched systemic inequalities. The history is compounded by a lack of government interest in this issue, and the belief that indigenous women and girls are unworthy and not to be considered as first-class victims of violent crimes.

I want to stop here, because I think this is something we hear all the time. I heard multiple times from the member for Winnipeg Centre, who came forward and had to share some of the tragic stories of things that are happening in her own community. The fact is that these young women and girls are not seen as worthy. I have heard time and time again members from the community talk about the unworthiness and of people feeling second class.

However, it is up to us to change that. It is up to the members of Parliament and all Canadians to work together. This is part of the reconciliation. It is recognizing that when people are being treated as second-class citizens, they are being treated like objects. They are being treated like they are garbage to throw away. The words that the member for Winnipeg Centre said before, unfortunately, I do believe ring true in some cases, that people do not understand that these are women's lives, these are daughters, sisters, mothers and aunties. These are women's lives, and they deserve to be fought for, they deserve to be found and they deserve to see that this never happens.

Furthermore, the societal displacement and dislocation that indigenous women and girls experience has made them more susceptible to violence and harassment. It occurs not only outside indigenous communities, but with both non-indigenous and indigenous men who target them as lower status.

When we are talking about missing and murdered indigenous women, regardless of all of the data, and we know that there is a lot of information there, it really comes down to societal change where we say that indigenous women matter. It comes back to the whole thing that is to love, to matter and the mental health pieces, which are lacking for so many of the women who have lived on reserve and have not had proper housing or proper care. They see their job is to be there and, in some cases, their job is to be the object of violence. We know this to be true, and we know that with intergenerational trauma over the years, there is difficulty for that perception to change. For all the generations that were there, it takes time to go back as well, and there is a lot of undoing that we must do.

We look at the unethical treatment in the justice system. This is something that we can talk about, recognizing the number of people who are in prisons and looking at those numbers. We have to also understand the justice system. The missing and murdered indigenous women and girls report talked about the bias. It talked about the bias of the justice system.

I recall when I was growing up, as I think we all do, some of the slang words that were used. I have heard them sometimes from people in the chamber and outside the chamber. When we start disrespecting people and, as we say in this House, when we start calling people names, we are not valuing those people. We have seen that time and time again with our indigenous population, specifically the women and girls who deserve to be recognized, deserve to be loved and deserve to be standing among every single person in Canada as an equal.

However, we have not seen this. The missing and murdered indigenous women and girls report released in 2019 pointed out that the systemic bias is there. It is real. We see it in our police. We have seen it in law enforcement with some of the different issues that happen. This comes with training. This comes with recognizing the past and building those bridges.

Over time, all of that has been broken. Not only the government but all Canadians need to work to rebuild those bridges. We need to work with our police force to rebuild those bridges. We need to make sure that when people go into the criminal justice system, they are going to be treated fairly and there will not be bias. Unfortunately, that is part of the issue. They are going into something they feel they will already fail in.

We are looking at the red dress alert system as the key issue here. In my bedroom when I hear the beep that goes off here in Ontario letting us know that a child is missing, I know there is a call to action. There is a call to action from the people who live in Canada, or live in Ontario specifically, that we need to be on the lookout. That is something I make sure to share. That is something I am watching for.

There have been some transient people in my community. We want to make sure everybody is safe. We want to make sure everybody is accounted for. When looking at this, we need to make sure this is also extended to women. There are indigenous women and girls who have been lost and who have been buried in landfills. This is not acceptable at all. We have heard about young women in garbage bins. No person's life belongs in a garbage bin. That is why we need to work together on this.

When it comes to the red dress alert, I will be fully supportive of it. We need to make sure that it is done by the people themselves, that it is done by the community, that it is done by the indigenous people ensuring their communities are safe. We are working to make sure that the resources are available for them.

It is not just the red dress alert that we need. There are multiple things that we need for those living on reserve and those living off reserve. When it comes to indigenous women and girls, we need to make sure they have the assistance they need. This includes assistance in going to a shelter when fleeing violence, and medical care when living on reserve when the only way to get to a doctor is by getting on an airplane. We need to make sure they have that care and those resources, and that they are accessible.

Unfortunately, we have not seen that. I have heard members across the way talk about those resources not being available in communities. We need to make a dedicated promise that we are not going to break. I have heard people talk about governments now and before. It is all of us who need to work together. We have all made mistakes in the past, and it is time that we work together to fix this.

[National Strategy for Eye Care Act, April 28th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for putting forward this really important bill. Eye care is absolutely critical for Canadians. I say this as just a few months ago my husband was a patient having cataracts removed from both eyes, and seeing how much technology has changed, seeing how many things are available now to patients and how we can make that better for all in putting this forward.

On World Sight Day in October, I had the opportunity to meet with an incredible group that came with OneSight. In that group was Dr. Stan Woo from the University of Waterloo. He and I just connected; I guess it was the energy and excitement for what he does at the University of Waterloo, including the research and development and seeing what they can do for patients to ensure that they have the proper care. When there are opportunities for reversals they know what to do to ensure that the treatment, such as medication, can be used. The knowledge and what they are doing there, not just at the university but shared across this great country, and how they can ensure that access to eye care is available from Nunavut down to the Maritimes, is extraordinarily important.

People at the university, when I was there on my visit on January 20, shared with me all of the incredible things that they were doing for research. It was noted here in this bill: “promote research and improve data collection on eye disease prevention and treatment”. Being at the university, that is the type of stuff that I saw being done there: making sure that they knew what was happening among their own patient base and making sure that they had the expertise across the country working to ensure the best technologies were going to be there so that the future of eye care was going to be enhanced.

One of the best parts of doing research on private members' bills is looking at what I saw on cataract surgery, where it suggested that there are two separate surgeries. I brought my husband home just a couple of weeks before Christmas, after having double cataract surgery where he had two cataracts on one eye and one on the other, and wearing these cups on his eyes. Within 24 hours I woke up to a husband who for the first time could actually see me. I do not know if he wanted that, but he actually saw me for the first time because he was as blind as a bat in the morning. From the research I was doing, I saw that they used to do them separately and now they can do them together. It is all of this treatment and research and how they can do patient care better.

This is the type of work that I would hope we would see in a national eye care strategy, and promoting the information and knowledge-sharing between the federal and provincial governments and in relation to eye disease prevention and treatment.

I was very grateful that the member focused on four key issues here in looking at macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. These are four key things that we see especially in our aging population.

For instance, AMD is age-related macular degeneration. We know that there are approximately 2.5 million Canadians being impacted by this and it is impacting people my age and older. It impacts younger people as well, but this is usually something that we see in the aging population, 55 and older.

Understanding things like reducing smoking, diet and genetics in the family through awareness campaigns and what we can do as the national strategy is really important so that people understand their vision. Some of the diseases have no symptoms, so it is important to make sure that we have a program so Canadians in every part of this country, whether they are living in indigenous communities or well-developed communities, have access to this type of care as well. So many of these diseases have no symptoms but absolutely need the kind of care that they have.

We can also look at things such as cataracts, which is the most common type of vision loss. It is something very simple. Many Canadians are going around wearing their glasses. I lose my glasses all the time. People could have that type of surgery, knowing that each and every day it is getting better. I can remember my father having his cataracts removed and now my husband. I am just seeing that with the research we are doing by the doctors working together, we are actually providing great programs and great opportunities for patient care.

Glaucoma is impacting over 728,000 Canadians, which is related to age. I will read this about it:

Glaucoma affects more than 728,000 Canadians and takes the form of a number of related disease types. The most common types are open-angle, which is more prevalent and can go unnoticed due to a lack of early symptoms, and angle-closure, which can be painful with a sudden onset.

These are the things that we learn in research, and being members of Parliament, we get to do the research and learn about these things. It is important that all Canadians understand this.

Currently, there is no cure for glaucoma, but there are treatment options. When people have pressure in their eyes and may not understand what it is, they need to recognize the importance of going to see an optometrist or ophthalmologist to ensure they get the proper care they need.

I am also very supportive of clinical trials. As I said, there is work being done at the University of Waterloo and work being done at the London Health Sciences Centre in my hometown area, in my backyard. We have seen some incredible research, not only at the University of Western Ontario, but also throughout the Collip Circle area, where people are working to make sure that patient care is the number one priority.

Finally, when we are looking at this, I want to talk about the considerations. The bill notes, in subclause 2(3), “The national strategy must take into consideration existing frameworks, strategies and best practices related to the prevention and treatment of eye disease, including those that focus on addressing health inequalities.”

I will let the member know that I am very supportive of this bill, but this is where I have to say the government approach has to be right. We cannot do what it has done in the past.

We know the Canadian Dental Association, back in 2014, had a national oral health strategy. We saw the hygienists do it. We saw a number of organizations talking about oral and dental care. When it came to having a program with the government and Canadian dental benefits, it took none of those suggestions.

Instead, the government implemented its own dental program, which was not supported by the Canadian Dental Association at the time because it was not part of those discussions. That is one of my only fears. We need to make sure that people are at the table. We need to make sure that we have the researchers, the ophthalmologists, the optometrists, the patients and the academia, and that we have everybody working together so we have a proper strategy. Unlike the dental program, which was brought out by the government, not everybody was at the table. When we are talking about that, we need to make sure we have diverse opinions as well.

The reason I will continue to elaborate on the Canadian Dental Association is that the government has talked about the number of children who have been impacted by this program, which is sending out cheques to parents. As a person who comes from the dental health field, I would have loved for the government to consult with members of Parliament.

I actually used to go out to teach about dental health. If someone wanted to see a lady who could teach them how to brush their teeth, or if they wanted to sit in my chair, I would show people how to do their little, round brushing.

Those are the types of things that we should be focused on when we are looking at a dental health program. Instead, we saw a government say that it was going to send cheques out to Canadians, and that they will go to get their dental health needs dealt with.

Right now, we are in a crisis in Canada. Families cannot afford to put food on their tables. The government is coming out talking about the number of families, and I think they are saying 250,000 Canadian children have been able to use this program. However, I ask how it got those numbers. Nothing has been audited. We do not have information coming from the Canadian Dental Association or any of the providers that would be providing this type of information because they would not know. All we know is that we gave out cheques to families.

We have the healthy smiles program, which has been working here in Ontario. We should have been using its existing framework and working on that. That is the same type of work I want to see here. I hope we have success with this program and strategy because Canadians need it.

[Carbon Pricing, April 28th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, Canadians continue to struggle due to the soaring costs of fuel for their cars, homes and groceries. People on fixed incomes cannot absorb the rising costs and they do not have the opportunity to realize additional wages. The government is crippling Canadians financially and to suggest that the carbon tax rebate covers the additional tax is absolutely nonsense.

Will the Prime Minister cancel the plan to triple the carbon tax?

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, it is interesting because I do not think I have ever talked about cutting programs. We are talking about investing in things that are actually going to be accountable. I have talked about where the current government just continues to throw out money with band-aid approaches. When we are investing, we expect results, we expect fiscal responsibility and we expect there to be key indicators that are telling us how this money is spent and how it is actually improving the lives of Canadians. We are not talking about cutting. We are making sure that when we spend we actually spend wisely.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, the member referred to Hockey Canada and we saw that with no accountability; not even after the London police reinvestigated. We have not seen anything. They have just once again signed over to Hockey Canada, saying that all is fine. We have seen the exact same thing with Gymnastics Canada. I would like to see accountability.

At the end of the day, when our children go to play sports, they must be safe. We need to ensure that coaches are well trained, that they have criminal record checks and that they have not abused a person in another province and then gone to coach the same sport in a different province. That is what we have seen happen here in this country. There has been zero accountability and these national sports organizations are continuing to let this go. I will continue to fight for athletes just as this member has done.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I want to ensure that this member of Parliament who looks over the sports file realizes that this was signed on November 14, and I am referring to gymnastics. It was not until close to March 2023 that the CEO actually resigned, so perhaps those facts are really important because it was not because of OSIC that he resigned. It was nothing to do with that, so let us look at that.

I would like to say I am one of the biggest champions for our community and I will continue to fight for prosperity in my community. That is my job as a member of Parliament. Although the Prime Minister likes to come and try to use me as a pawn, I am sorry but he is not winning there.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2023, No. 1, April 25th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I thank all who will be listening and my husband at home, who I know stays up late. It means we are 52 years old, when it is 10 to nine and I am calling it “late”.

I really want to start this speech off by looking at where we are, looking at an Auditor General's report that just came out a month ago, and looking at how we have to move forward. I want to start by reading into the record the report called “Global Affairs Canada is unable to show the value of Canada’s international assistance in support of gender equality”. I want to read a bit of this report into the record so that we can understand setting this up. Really what I am looking for is accountability, transparency and fiscal responsibility, some things we have not seen from the government.

It reads:

A report from Auditor General Karen Hogan tabled...in the House of Commons concludes that Global Affairs Canada was unable to show how its implementation of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy had contributed to improving gender equality in low- and middle-income countries. The department is unable to [see] the information contained in its files to report on the value derived from the approximately $3.5 billion spent yearly on bilateral development assistance projects or to provide Parliament and Canadians with a complete picture of the outcomes achieved for women and girls.

I am going to go to another part where it also found that Global Affairs Canada did not meet two of its three spending commitments under the feminist international assistance policy:

The department fell short on funding projects that directly supported the empowerment of women and girls or that were located in sub‑Saharan Africa, where the benefit in terms of reducing poverty and advancing gender equality is typically higher.

The reason I am bringing this forward is that it kind of sets the stage for where we are with the government. As we are looking at the budget, I put on the lens of the shadow minister for women and gender equality and youth, looking specifically at what the government is indicating in its budget. Knowing the Auditor General's report, I think we need to start looking at what is going on with the government.

As I look at the 2023 budget, this is something the government has indicated as part of its foreign aid feminist international assistance policy goal for 2030. We are talking about the government continuing to give out money, but we expect results, we expect accountability and we expect that when we ask how money has been spent, it would be able to show how the people in those areas have been impacted.

However, we have none of that information. I see a budget that says the government is going to go do all these wonderful things, but I do not see any of the tangible results, and that is why I absolutely oppose so many different things in the budget. I do not think the government understands fiscal responsibility, and that continues to be one my greatest challenges.

I have heard many people talk about the food bank. I think one of the saddest stories I heard was from a person from the food bank in our area who shared with me that another person who had gone to the food bank owned a home in our area that cost $800,000. However, this man was not able to put food on the table. There are many reasons, but I look at the fact that this man, who had purchased this home for his family, unfortunately was not aware of the variable or fixed interest rates.

I have a real problem with the fact that there was no customer service to help this person, who came to Canada and purchased a house, understand those things. There are lots of concerns there, and I do not want to point the finger, but at the same time I am finding that when this man had purchased a house for $800,000, he was able to do so because he came from a two-income family with a six-figure income. Subsequently, his family could not meet the goals of paying for their mortgage any longer.

Under the government, we have seen inflation go up so much. For example, a person had a mortgage that they paid biweekly. At one time, and I believe it was probably in April of last year, the principal, taxes and everything totalled $753. After everything going on with inflation, when they went back to the bank to renew their mortgage, their new mortgage rate was at $1,050. That is a substantial increase for anybody who is paying that type of money.

I want to also look at so many different things here. I submitted an OPQ a few weeks ago. I want to look at government accountability. I submitted an OPQ on March 2, and the question was, “With regard to the federal government’s funding of Gymnastics Canada being frozen in July 2022: (a) what was the original reason the government froze this funding; and (b) despite allegations of abuse and maltreatment within the sport still being unsettled, has this funding been reinstated and, if so, (i) on what date, (ii) for what reason?”

I would like to let everyone know it has been reinstated, but I do not know for what reason.

I want to read the response from Canadian Heritage on this:

...as a result of safe sport issues in the sport of gymnastics, Sport Canada froze funding to Gymnastics Canada and imposed the condition that Gymnastics Canada become a program signatory to Abuse-Free Sport, including the services of the Office of the Sport Integrity Commissioner, to allow Canadian gymnasts to be able to access the independent safe sport mechanism and other support services offered.

Part two of this, though, is probably the most concerning thing that I have ever seen and, hopefully, I can have somebody share this with me. Part (b) says, “funding to Gymnastics Canada was reinstated on November 14, 2022, as the organization had met the condition of becoming a program signatory to Abuse-Free Sport on October 18, 2022.” Why do I find this really crazy? It is because of the timeline. We are talking about a timeline where I know that on November 22, many parliamentarians were able to view something called “Broken”. It was the story from Gymnastics Canada talking about the number of young athletes who had gone through issues. We have had over 600, closer to 700, signatories talking about Abuse-Free Sport.

The reason I am bringing this up, as I said, is the timeline. On November 14, the minister reinstated this funding. On November 22, we highlighted that abuse was still happening in Gymnastics Canada. At that same time, the status of women committee started to study the abuse in sport and started to see that there was a rampant issue that was happening across not just gymnastics but multiple sports here in Canada.

The government talks about OSIC and how it is going to work, and I wish I believed it. They said they signed on and they are all good. That just does not meet the mark for me because they signed on, but they are the same CEOs who allowed this abuse to continue. We know that over the last number of years, they have never reported the complaints properly and that these perpetrators remain in the sport, not just in gymnastics but other sports.

The government did not invest a single extra dollar in this after all of the allegations had been going on. The funding was put in in 2022. We know there needs to be a lot done. Why did the government not look at what we need to do next? Why is it looking at OSIC and saying it is all good, it is fine and as long as it signs this, it is not going to worry any further? Hopefully I can get some answers to that question.

I also want to talk about women and gender equality in the workplace. We know, according to statistics, the participation rate decreased by 28% during the pandemic. If we look at any mom, any sister, any daughter, any woman and many men as well, it was a very difficult time as women were wearing many hats: as daughters, trying to take care of their elderly and as parents, trying to teach their children the things they had missed at school because they were at home. These are huge concerns for me.

The government is not attacking some of the key issues. The government will talk about a $10-a-day child care program. I am going to let everyone know how that is working out in St. Thomas, Ontario. Currently, one of the early learning centres, probably one of best places parents can find if they want great child care, cannot find employees. Although parents will be able to get approximately $10-a-day child care, spaces are not available in our communities because there is no labour force for this.

We always see that the government really likes to put the cart before the horse. It should make sure that it has the young men and women who will be working in these programs going through the education process, ensuring that they will be able to take these jobs that the government is promising to parents and that their children will be cared for. These are some major issues.

I have talked about food bank usage. We have seen across this country, across the board, that middle-class families are walking into food banks needing their help right now. We know with the sports abuse that the government put money in, but it is actually doing nothing about it. We have seen with the foreign feminist policy that the government can throw $3.5 billion out there and it does not matter where the money falls, no one is going to be accountable. I would really like the government to start being accountable.