Paul Manly

[Points of Order, March 9th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. There have been consultations among the parties, and I believe that if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move:

That the House recognizes that there are approximately 136,000 recipients of UK state pensions in Canada;

That it recognizes the UK government does not provide annual indexed increases to UK pensioners residing in Canada, effectively freezing their pensions at the levels they were at when they first claimed their pensions in Canada;

That it recognizes Canada provides annual indexed increases to Canadian pensioners who live in the UK;

That it recognizes UK pensioners living in the USA, Germany, Italy, Barbados, Bermuda, Israel, Jamaica and other countries receive annual indexed increases;

That it recognizes frozen pensions represent a combined loss of over $500 million per year to the Canadian economy and to Canadian taxpayers, due to three factors: frozen pensions force thousands of UK pensioners in Canada to rely on Canada's social assistance programs such as the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the significant loss of CRA tax revenues due to the lower income of 136,000 pensioners, and the loss of sales tax revenues due to the loss of discretionary income;

That it recognizes frozen UK pensions represent an injustice to both UK pensioners in Canada and to Canadian taxpayers;

That it recognizes the UK government is currently negotiating new pension indexing agreements with EU countries due to Brexit, and that now is the appropriate time for the UK government to negotiate a pension indexing agreement with Canada;

That the House believes the government should press the UK government to open negotiations with Canada to remedy this situation as soon as possible and provide annual indexed pension increases to UK pensioners residing in Canada.

[Employment Insurance Act, March 8th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I also look forward to getting this legislation passed through Parliament as quickly as possible.

A lot of workers need help and they needed help before the pandemic. People have brought this up. The extension of EI support is important for people who have cancer, for example, or have loved ones at the end of their lives who they need to care for, or people in other difficult circumstances or those who are self-employed. There are a number of areas where we need to improve EI. Why are we not doing this on a permanent basis to help people after the pandemic as well?

[Employment Insurance Act, March 8th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I agree with so many of the points that the member made in his comprehensive speech. This was a time when we could have been working on some permanent programs rather than this continued patchwork we are dealing with. So many people have fallen through the cracks during COVID-19 as well as many businesses. I am really happy to see the NDP and some Liberal members supporting the guaranteed livable income. The Green Party has been promoting this since 2006. Economic studies show that it will increase employment and increase economic activity. It makes for a great sickness benefit program as well if it is done properly. We could have a system available so when people do not work, they still get their cheque.

Could the hon. member comment on some of these things?

[Petitions, March 8th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to table this petition today on International Women's Day.

A guaranteed livable income, or a GLI, is a powerful equity policy. It is one of the calls to action in the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry report. A GLI would replace the current patchwork of income supports with a universal benefit that would be progressively taxed back based on income. It would reduce poverty and reduce demand on social services, health care and law enforcement. It would ensure a financial safety net for all Canadians through major economic shifts, pandemics, national disasters or industry automation.

For these and many other reasons, the petitioners from Nanaimo—Ladysmith who initiated this petition are calling upon the Government of Canada to implement a guaranteed livable income for all Canadians.

[Canada Elections Act, March 8th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I support this bill, but one of the things that I find is missing from it is what we have been asking for a long time, and that is electoral reform.

The Green Party got almost 1.2 million votes in the last election, just short of what the Bloc Québécois got, but they then got 10 times more MPs than us. The Conservatives got five times as many votes as us, but 40 times as many seats.

I am wondering if the hon. member thinks this is a fair representation of what voters in Canada were asking for.

[Business of Supply, February 25th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, a very good motion has been brought forward today to increase old age security. The regional district in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith has the largest per capita number of seniors in it. Many people come here to retire. They are struggling with COVID-19, but also with affordable housing.

Housing costs here have increased by 59% in the last five years alone. OAS is not keeping up with the increased cost of housing, the cost of food and the cost of dealing with COVID-19. So many of the services for seniors have been closed because of COVID-19, a lot of the meal and community programs.

I want to add my support for the motion today and I hope it passes through the House.

[Business of the House, February 25th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

There have been consultations among the parties, and I believe if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the following motion. I move that the House recognize that housing is a fundamental human right; that it recognize that an estimated 1.8 million Canadian households spend more than the affordability threshold of 30% of their income on rent, and 800,000 of those households spend more than 50%; that it recognize that an estimated 2.4 million Canadian households experienced core housing needs in 2020; that it recognize that housing is becoming less affordable and more precarious for low-wage workers, people who have lost work due to COVID-19 restrictions and people living on fixed incomes; that it recognize that an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Canadians are homeless and hundreds of thousands more are on the verge of becoming homeless; that it recognize that housing affordability and homelessness are twin national crises; and that the House believes the government should take immediate action to protect existing affordable rental stock from predatory investment practices and that the government should prioritize investments in non-profit and co-operative housing.

[Criminal Code, February 23rd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask my hon. colleague whether he thinks we should be doing more for people who are in crisis in terms of things like mental health. Would he support a national mental health strategy to bring mental health services fully into the Canada Health Act and to ensure that anybody who needs counselling services could get those counselling services without having to pay out of pocket for them?

Does he see a need for greater support for mental health services in this country?

[Committees of the House, February 22nd, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, in my riding tourism is very important, but so too is the booking industry. We have companies that work on booking cruise ships and booking travel around the world. They are worried about losing their businesses and then having large corporations take over what all these small businesses are doing.

Does the hon. member have some comments about what he sees as solutions to this issue? How can we protect these small businesses from having their businesses swallowed up by multinational corporations going forward?

[Economic Statement Implementation Act, 2020, February 22nd, 2021]

Madam Speaker, as we have seen over the decades, a number of trade agreements have gutted our manufacturing base in Canada and refocused us on exporting raw materials, such as raw bitumen and raw logs. We are seeing this problem right now with vaccines and the lack of pharmaceutical capacity in this country. We used to have a lot of capacity for this. We used to be a leader in vaccine manufacturing and providing vaccines around the world.

What does the hon. member think we should be focusing on here? Have we had the wrong focus? Should we be doing more on the value-added side and less exporting of raw materials? As we are seeing with the death of a pipeline—