Matthew Green

[Questions Passed as Orders for Returns, November 20th, 2023]

With regard to the government’s Directive on Automated Decision-Making, since March 4, 2019, broken down by department or agency: (a) did the department conduct any algorithmic impact assessments; (b) what was the conclusion of each assessment in (a), including the (i) information technology or automated decision system assessed, (ii) date the assessment was completed, (iii) impact assessment level results; (c) does the department currently license, subscribe to, or otherwise procure services from an entity that provides artificial intelligence or automated decision-making services; (d) what are the details of all procurement contracts in (c), including the (i) name of the company contracted, (ii) name of the product provided, (iii) amount paid by the department or agency; (e) was the department or any individuals within the department found in non-compliance with the directive; and (f) what consequences were applied for each instance in (e)?

[Government Business No. 30—Proceedings on Bill C‑56, November 20th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, the hon. member would know quite well, perhaps better than most in this House, that people living in northern, rural and remote communities, for decades have seen the high prices of groceries rise due to the lack of competition and the high costs associated with bringing goods to their communities.

Does the hon. member agree that programs like Nutrition North must be made into social programs, so people could afford food, not subsidy programs for companies to continue to make massive profits?

[Government Business No. 30—Proceedings on Bill C‑56, November 20th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, when I asked the hon. member about the commodification of the production of labour, we were clearly talking about the commodification of wages. I would love for him to answer that question. It was a good, fair question, one that underscores much of his argument. I would like him to determine whether he agrees with that statement.

Second, does he agrees with the analysis that “the long cherished freedom of competition has reached the end of its tether and is compelled to announce its own palpable bankruptcy.”

[Government Business No. 30—Proceedings on Bill C‑56, November 20th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I have to hand it to the hon. member. I rather enjoy his analysis on monopoly capitalism. He has spoken at length about the ways in which the dominance of corporations have concentrated their power in this stage of capitalism.

I wonder if the hon. member would find common ground with me and agree that the battle of competition is fought by cheapening of commodities. “The cheapness of commodities depends, ceteris paribus, on the productiveness of labor, and this again on the scale of production. Therefore, the larger capitals [defeat] smaller.” Further, “the credit system, which begins as a [modest helper] of accumulation,” soon “becomes a new and [formidable] weapon in the [competitive struggle], and is finally transformed into an enormous social mechanism for the centralization of capitals.”

Would the hon. member agree with that economic theory? It could have been Adam Smith.

[Government Business No. 30—Proceedings on Bill C‑56, November 20th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I heard the hon. member talk about how Liberals believe in the middle class. I would like to believe in Santa Claus too, but at the end of the day, it is the workers who make the presents for the kids. If Liberals believed in the middle class like he says they did, why is it that, as members will recall, they abolished the ministry of the middle class and those working hard to join it? How insulting is it to the working class to suggest that its members are not working hard enough to make ends meet?

My question to the hon. member is this: Is it his assertion that working-class people are just not working hard enough to make it to the middle class?

[Foreign Affairs, November 9th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, UN agencies have reported that over 10,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed and 1.5 million have been displaced by the Israeli siege and bombardment on Gaza since October 7. UN experts say that these attacks constitute war crimes of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing.

Shamefully, the Prime Minister directed his ambassador to abstain from a vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza at the UN General Assembly. Yesterday, the Liberals and Conservatives voted against our motion calling for the same.

How many Palestinian deaths will be enough for the Prime Minister to find the moral courage to call for a ceasefire?

[Labour, October 31st, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, the current Liberal government is all talk and no action when it comes to protecting the rights of workers. In the past, the Liberals have used back-to-work legislation to force workers off the picket line; now they are dragging their feet on introducing our NDP anti-scab legislation. Meanwhile, the Canadian Olympic Committee has just hired a company that has locked out its employees, and Canada Post has just produced a non-union commercial with a union-busting company. Is it trick or treat? Will the minister finally do the right thing for workers and commit to bringing in our NDP anti-scab legislation today?

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I often enjoy my debates with the hon. member for Northumberland—Peterborough South. He likes to reference his economic theory. He did some of that today in talking about the out-of-control housing crisis we have, what I affectionately call the crisis of capitalism.

I would like the hon. member to reflect on this. In 2013, in Hamilton, the average house cost was $350,000. The high end of a unionized carpenter's salary was $42 an hour. Fast-forward 10 years and the high end for a unionized carpenter's salary is $48 an hour, but the same home the carpenter builds has now doubled in price, to over $700,000. That is what we are looking at now. The reality is that the surplus value of the labourer's work, the money he or she is building and wealth he or she is creating in this country, is going somewhere, but who is not going to? It is not going to the worker.

My question for the hon. member is on his economic theory. When he looks at the crisis of capitalism and the housing crisis, would he at least have the courage today to stand up and talk about where the surplus value of labour is going? It is not going to the working class but to Bay Street, the banks and big developers.

[Business of Supply, October 17th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I only caught the last three minutes of the member's speech, but I heard him touch on some things, and he has presented to the House that he is indeed fiscally responsible and looking for some cost recovery in some of the programs and services. However, when he speaks of balance, I have never heard that particular member talk about the out-of-control compensation for CEOs and the profiteering of big corporations.

It seems that much of the discussion around inflation is centred on the Bank of Canada, where we have Conservatives blaming the government and the Liberal government blaming workers.

Whether it is regarding this particular matter, the fall economic statement or the budget he has proposed, we have a scenario where, in 2021, the highest-paid CEOs made $14.3 million or collectively brought in $1.4 billion, while the good hard-working people I know in Wolfville are still struggling to get by on their average salaries for everyday Canadians. What does he have to say about that?

[Affordable Housing and Groceries Act, October 5th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, we heard the hon. member speak about the housing crisis. I would like to suggest that what we have is a crisis of capitalism. We have the commodification of people's very existence, identified in the real estate investment trust that the member has highlighted. We have Vanguard, BlackRock and others. In my community, we have nine apartment buildings that are facing renovictions and demovictions.

To the people who are going to be meeting in Hamilton in about an hour, from those nine apartment buildings, what do you have to say about the crisis of capitalism and the impacts it has on housing?