House of Commons photoLost her last election, in 2015, with 30% of the vote.
Pensions October 5th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, the government must take action to protect workers' pension plans.
In 2010, Fraser Papers in Thurso declared bankruptcy and 800 workers lost 40% of their pensions. The same thing is happening elsewhere in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick.
The NDP's policy is clear. Pensions represent earnings saved by workers and they must be paid in full.
How many workers will have to lose their pensions before the government will change the law to protect retirees like those from Fraser Papers?
Business of Supply September 29th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, there are a few parts to that question.
In answer to the first part, the member is exactly right that the government has not learned from the mistakes of the past. The second part referred to the Ontario election, on which I will not comment. However, we absolutely need to learn from the mistakes of the past and invest while we still can before the recession takes hold in order to save the most vulnerable people in our society and save our economy.
Business of Supply September 29th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Parkdale—High Park is doing great work.
Investing in Canada and strengthening our economy are important especially in these hard times. She is right that investing in social and physical infrastructure will help support all families.
The government is leaving behind the poorest of the poor. It is increasing the inequality in our country. It has forgotten too many families. The government needs to remember that this House represents all Canadians.
Business of Supply September 29th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, I will repeat something and I hope my colleague can deduce how the economy works from it. According to the National Council of Welfare, investing would save Canada billions of dollars.
Business of Supply September 29th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour for me to rise in the House in support of the NDP put forward by my hon. colleague from Parkdale—High Park in order to address a matter that is foremost in my thoughts and is a pressing concern for the people of Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel.
In particular, the motion states that the government should:
—take immediate action to promote job creation and address the persistently high unemployment rate among Canadian workers...take immediate action to ensure all Canadians can rely on a stable and guaranteed pension as they plan their retirement in a period of record household debt and declining stock markets...
These are major concerns in my community. I represent a large, beautiful, rural riding where, sadly, too many members of my community are un-waged or under-waged. Many people living in my community who are in poverty are over retirement age.
Low-income women always outnumber low-income men in Canada. Two out of every three poor adults are women, yet women do two-thirds of the world's work, receive 10% of the world's income and own 1% of the means of production. This disparity is most egregious when we look at aging populations. According to the Conference Board of Canada, under the Conservative government, between 2006 and 2009, Canada saw an increase of 128,000 elderly people living in poverty. Among them, 70% were women.
The reality of senior women living in poverty is not an incidental or marginal issue. It is a major concern. Indeed, it is a crisis. This crisis will only increase as the baby boomer generation in Canada moves closer and closer to retirement. These are the people who will suffer the most if we do not invest in our economy.
There are upstream causes to older women living in poverty. In Canada almost half of all poor families are supported by a single woman whose average income is about 30% below the poverty line. There is no one reason why women are so much poorer than men, rather there are many and they are all systematic. Data from 12 industrialized nations found that formally employed women worked about 20% longer hours than men, yet women comprise the majority of the poorest in these countries. Most women are still responsible for the unpaid work of child rearing and taking care of sick people and elderly people. Poor women who are fortunate to have jobs are therefore stuck in low-paid part-time work because they must split their time between work and caring for their family.
The government must take action to promote job creation, good jobs, immediately in order to support these families. According to the publication entitled, “The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty”, released yesterday by National Council of Welfare, an independent body established to advise the federal government, there is a correlation between poverty and the lack of investing. The report shows that investing to reduce poverty actually benefits the entirety of our society. In fact, it would save Canada billions of dollars.
I would particularly like to point out that the report finds that child and senior benefits provide secure, non-stigmatizing incomes broadly in society and that these have benefits well beyond individual recipients because the improved well-being of today's seniors enables them to remain active in our communities.
Too many of the jobs created by the government are under-waged and part-time. It is a weak job market. That unemployment is at 7.3%, that full-time permanent family-supporting jobs remain extremely difficult to find and that ongoing uncertainty regarding Canadian retirement savings plans are factors that are increasingly threatening our economy. This is why New Democrats are proposing strategic investments to promote economic growth.
We need to take immediate action to ensure that all Canadians, especially those who are most vulnerable like those I have mentioned, women, elderly people, especially elderly women, and children, are taken care of and not left behind by a threatening recession. We need to ensure that all Canadians, especially these people, are protected in hard economic times.
This is why I urge all members of the House to support the motion. It is rather simple why we should support it. It is a reasonable way to help families in Canada.
Safe Streets and Communities Act September 27th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, as my colleague well knows, aboriginals, women and children are overrepresented in our jails. In fact, I have some numbers here. Aboriginal women are overrepresented in maximum security prisons specifically. They make up 46% of federally sentenced women. I wonder if my colleague could speak to the fact that they lack services and rarely get proper legal representation. The government is giving few resources to combat all these things and, in fact, Correctional Services' own statistics say that there has been no significant progress in this in the past 20 years.
I wonder if my colleague could speak to how this bill would not actually targeting the problem.
Aboriginal Affairs September 21st, 2011
Mr. Speaker, for a government that claims to be the champion of law and order, the Conservatives' attitude towards violence against aboriginal women is hard to understand. In the last three months, Walk4Justice has had to add 37 names to its list of missing women. Federal resources are needed to protect these victims who have no voice.
How can communities provide support to the families of the victims without the assistance of this government?
Aboriginal Affairs September 21st, 2011
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the Walk 4 Justice gathered on Parliament Hill, asking for answers about the hundreds of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.
Back in February, Conservatives refused to renew funding they promised for Sisters in Spirit. This project tracked cases and gave a voice to communities facing this violence, yet Conservatives have severely hindered this groundbreaking initiative.
Why is the government shutting out the voices of the families and the affected communities?
Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act September 19th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Saint-Jean for his very good question. We do not seem to have learned a great deal from history. Children have been traumatized by being separated from their parents.
It creates risks in our society among generations. It causes many other concerns in terms of social understanding. It absolutely does not make any sense. It is not economically viable. It does not make sense in terms of our collectivity in Canada to be doing this to families when five years from now we will say to them that they can come in now. The damage has been done. It creates traumatic experiences and it puts a burden on our society that we do not need.
We should be welcoming these people with open arms and trying to help them instead of making their situation worse.
That does not make sense. We have learned nothing from history.
Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada's Immigration System Act September 19th, 2011
Mr. Speaker, when someone is put away for absolutely no reason and the person did not commit a crime other than to flee for his or her security, I do not care what term is used, the result is that a punishment is being inflicted on the person for something the person has not done. That is the problem.