Paul Manly

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 6th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to stand here today on the territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people to represent constituents in Nanaimo—Ladysmith, and Greens across Canada.

There are a number of things in the Speech from the Throne that I am pleased to hear. In fact, there are some sections that sound a lot like the Green Party platform I ran on in 2015 and 2019. There are also sections that echo the Green Party's road map to economic recovery from the pandemic, “Reimagining Our Future”. What the throne speech is missing are plans for the bold actions in those documents. To quote our new Green Party leader Annamie Paul, platitudes are not a plan.

We are facing two unprecedented crises: a global pandemic and a climate emergency. Both of these crises require that we listen to the scientists and the experts. Both of these crises require bold actions. The Speech from the Throne does not reflect the urgency of this moment.

We keep hearing that we are all in this together, but this pandemic has laid bare the inequality in Canada. Those who have been affected by the pandemic are seniors, women, people of colour, indigenous people, people with disabilities and low-wage workers. At the same time, the wealthiest Canadians have been making money, hand over fist. The 20 richest people in Canada have increased their wealth by $37 billion during the six months of this pandemic. It is time for a wealth tax in this country. It is time for the wealthy to pay their fair share for the public services their businesses and employees rely on. It is time that the Internet giants and multinational corporations that do business in Canada pay their fair share of taxes as well.

Small and medium-sized Canadian enterprises are suffering from the economic fallout of the pandemic. In particular, the travel, tourism, hospitality and entertainment sectors need additional help so that these businesses can survive. The non-profit sector provides vital services to Canadians, especially right now. This sector needs additional targeted support as well. Small and medium-sized businesses are the engine of the Canadian economy and employ almost 90% of the private sector workers in this country. These businesses need support to get through the second wave of this pandemic.

We need to do a better job of taking care of each other. We are the only country in the world with universal health care but no universal pharmacare. It is mentioned in the throne speech, but we have heard it before and we have not seen a plan. Universal pharmacare would save billions in unnecessary health care costs by ensuring people have the medicines they need. We need a universal dental program to complete our universal health care system. This too would save billions in unnecessary health care costs. A $90 filling today can save $10,000 in a heart operation down the road.

Our recovery must focus on supporting women and families. Canada urgently needs a universal child care program to enable more women to return to the workplace.

Thousands of people across this country are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It is more important than ever that the federal government invest in affordable housing, in particular community-owned co-operative housing. The announcements on housing programs sound good, but the funding needs to flow right away.

We have an opioid crisis in this country. Thousands of people have died from drug poisonings. Addiction is a health and social issue. Our public health officers are telling us to follow evidence-based solutions to this crisis. We need to listen.

We need a national mental health strategy.

The Green Party has long been calling for a national strategy for seniors, including national standards for long-term care and additional supports for home care so that people can age in place. Seniors deserve a top-up of OAS and GIS to help make ends meet.

Many people with disabilities have been waiting for long periods of time for the benefits and protections that they need. The COVID-19 one-time support payment for people with disabilities was announced three months into the pandemic. It is now almost four months later and nobody has received a cheque. I understand those cheques are supposed to be sent at the end of this month. People with disabilities are sick of waiting and sick of being left behind.

Veterans Affairs Canada had a backlog of almost 50,000 disability benefit applications as of March 2020. It will take three years to clear that backlog with the current resource levels. Veterans deserve better.

Young people and students are not mentioned in the Speech from the Throne. The Green Party has been advocating for the elimination of tuition fees so that we can create an educated workforce without burdening our young people with unsustainable debt. Northern European countries all have free tuition. It is a matter of priorities. Let us prioritize our young people.

The Canada student service grant was a very bad idea from the beginning, and we know how that turned out. Those funds should have gone into the Canada summer jobs program to help youth and non-profits get through the pandemic. Canada summer jobs was underfunded. In my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith alone, there was 500,000 dollars' worth of unfunded applications. We need to bring our social programs in line with the northern European countries, where citizens have a real social safety net from cradle to grave.

The biggest opportunity that the government has missed in the Speech from the Throne is a guaranteed livable income. Our current patchwork of social programs allows too many people to fall through the cracks. A guaranteed livable income would create an income floor, under which no Canadian would fall. It would eliminate extreme poverty in this country.

I can hear the objections now. How are we going to pay for all of this? Let us go back to where I began. Canada needs a wealth tax. We need to close tax loopholes that allow people and corporations to avoid taxes in Canada and offshore their wealth. It is worth emphasizing that the costs of social inequality are far greater than the costs of taking care of people to start with.

Let us use this resource wealth we have to create maximum employment and benefits for Canadians, starting with first nations and indigenous peoples, who are the rightful owners of those resources. We need to implement all of the recommendations in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. It is time to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We also need electoral reform. It was not mentioned in the Speech from the Throne, and that is no surprise.

There are good things in the speech, and there are a lot of things missing or things that need to be improved on, but the bottom line is that there is no real plan to do our part to stop our own destructive practices that are wiping out the biodiversity on this planet, destroying our climate and threatening the future of our children and grandchildren. We still have the climate targets set by Stephen Harper's Conservative government, pathetic and inadequate targets, and there is no plan to even reach those pathetic and inadequate targets. Since the first climate conference in Geneva in 1979, successive Canadian governments have been well aware of climate change. Only one government actually bothered to establish a plan to meet the targets that they agreed to. That was the Paul Martin government, which was brought down by the Conservatives and the NDP before those plans could be implemented.

Britain has set a carbon budget in law. It set plans and holds to those carbon budget targets, independent of the toxic partisan politics that dominate our electoral system. The U.K. has reduced its emissions by 42% below 1990 levels, while Canada has increased emissions by 21% since 1990. Canada is a climate do-nothing. I will not vote for a Speech from the Throne that does not include the targets that science demands and a real plan of action to meet those targets and address the crisis we are facing.

My work here is not to ensure that I get re-elected. My work here is not to boost the fortunes of the Green Party. My work here is not to play a game of partisan politics. My work and role here is to push the government as hard as I can to do the right thing, to improve the lives of Canadians and take real action on climate change. We owe our children and grandchildren nothing less than the full defence of their future on this planet.

There are other members of other parties who know this to be true. I want them to know that their work here is to fight for the existence of humanity. Their party bosses and big donors may be interested in making the last chunk of money from fracking, but they need to question what their purpose is on this planet at this time, in this place. Members should think about those moments in their childhood when they saw a world full of wonder and possibility. We in the House have the power to make decisions that count, decisions that matter.

This is our time to meet the challenge of our time. The Speech from the Throne does not meet the challenge. It is time to do better. I will be voting “no”.

[Petitions, October 6th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to present petition e-2565, which has 2,686 signatures. It calls upon the Government of Canada to request that Israel immediately lift the blockade on Gaza, in order to enable medical and humanitarian aid during the COVID-19 pandemic; insist that Israel permanently end its blockade of Gaza; and vote at the UN General Assembly in alignment with the majority of the international community taking a stance in line with international law and human rights for Palestinians.

[Taxation, October 5th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, as a society, we can no longer afford the growing inequality in Canada. Extreme wealth inequality has proven to have a corrosive effect on our society, as well as on democracy. Inequality harms our economy, damages health and well-being, decreases disposable income and entices middle-class individuals to incur debts they cannot pay. Extreme inequality also plays a factor in increased crime.

We need to crack down on wealthy tax cheats. We must stop the tax avoidance schemes that allow people and corporations to offshore their wealth and avoid paying taxes in Canada. We need an inheritance tax on massive fortunes, and we need a wealth tax. Northern European countries tax the wealthy and ensure their citizens are taken care of from cradle to grave. We should do the same in Canada. We can do better.

[Taxation, October 5th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, Canadian billionaires hold nearly four and a half thousand times the wealth of the average Canadian family. By 10 a.m. on January 2 this year, top CEOs in Canada made as much money as the average Canadian worker would earn in the entire year. Unlike those average workers who pay their taxes and contribute to all the infrastructure and services we depend on, Canada's wealthiest citizens are not paying their fair share.

What is wrong with this picture? Why are some people hoarding obscene amounts of wealth, while so many are struggling to make ends meet in the country?

During the COVID-19 lockdown this past spring, Canadians across the country stood on their balconies and doorsteps and banged pots and pans to show their appreciation for front-line workers. Health care workers and first responders worked through the lockdown, separated from their families and risking their own health and safety for our communities.

We also banged pots and pans for the essential service workers who were keeping grocery stores open and shelves stocked during a difficult and frightening time. Most of these service workers earn a modest income at best and many earn minimum wage. They had to travel to and from work during the pandemic, often on public transit, and then serve the public all day long, with the stress of the pandemic hanging over their heads. After seniors in long-term care facilities, low-wage workers, who live in crowded housing and rely on public transit to get to their service jobs, were most affected by COVID-19.

While these essential workers in our service economy continued to work and while millions of Canadians lost their jobs and felt the economic stress of the pandemic, the rich got much richer. According to Forbes' annual billionaires list, Canada's 20 richest billionaires increased their wealth by $37 billion during the first six months of this pandemic. Let us think about that. Twenty Canadian billionaires increased their wealth by $37 billion during the most economically catastrophic six months in Canadian history.

Two of those billionaires own Canada's largest grocery store chains. Galen Weston's fortune grew by $1.6 billion and Jim Pattison increased his wealth by $1.7 billion. During the pandemic, many low-wage workers, including workers in the grocery stores owned by Mr. Weston and Mr. Pattison, received a short-lived $2 an hour top-up as danger pay. When that $2 an hour wage increase was terminated by those grocery chains, the stock value of those companies shot up and Mr. Weston and Mr. Pattison reaped the benefits.

Tax dollars pay for the public infrastructure and services on which these billionaires rely. Their companies use our roads, bridges, water and sewer systems. They benefit from an educated workforce paid for by tax dollars. The public transit system that carries their workers to and from the job is built and subsidized by tax dollars. They benefit from our public health care system because they do not have to pay for private health insurance for their workers.

When successive Liberal and Conservative governments have cut taxes, it has predominantly benefited the ultra-wealthy. It is time to reverse that trend and introduce a wealth tax. Keep taxes reasonable for working people, but increase taxes on the ultra-wealthy and institute inheritance tax on the transfer of large fortunes. If we had greater income equality in the country, we could easily afford the social safety net that Canadians deserve: universal pharmacare, universal dental care, universal child care, free post-secondary tuition and a guaranteed livable income so we could eliminate poverty.

Canadians deserve better.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 5th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for her advocacy on these issues.

I am really concerned about affordable housing and the effect that the pandemic is having on small business, but my question is about disability. Three months into the pandemic, there was finally a one-time payment promised to people on disability. For four months now they have been waiting, and apparently the cheques are going to be sent out at the end of this month. We learned in March that there was a backlog of disability applications for 50,000 veterans. It is going to take three years for those applications to go through.

The Disability Tax Credit Promoters Restrictions Act regulations have not yet been implemented, six years after the enabling act was passed. This means that people who are applying for disability are vulnerable to vultures. Someone in my riding with a brain injury was paid $1,000 and it was sent to collection.

Is the hon. member hearing the same kinds of things from her constituents, people with disabilities who are sick of waiting and sick of being left behind?

[Petitions, October 5th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and privilege to present e-petition 2759. It has 2,278 signatures and has been put forward by Annamie Paul, from Toronto, who is the new leader of the Green Party.

The petition calls for the Government of Canada to proclaim August 1 as emancipation day, and to celebrate it on that day each year. It notes that the transatlantic slave trade brought people of African descent to Canada in the early 1600s and that the practice of slavery was also inflicted on indigenous peoples, continuing until it was abolished in the British Empire on August 1, 1834.

Canada’s history of enslavement, racial segregation and marginalization has had a devastating impact on people of African descent. The existence of systemic anti-Black racism in education, housing, employment, health, criminal justice, politics and other areas can be directly traced to the history of slavery in Canada. Canada has neither recognized nor educated the public adequately about the historical facts related to slavery and the anti-Black racism it has produced. Black Canadians have made outstanding contributions to Canada in every field, which is all the more remarkable given the legacy of slavery. It is necessary to recognize the history of Black Canadians in order to build a more just society, free from discrimination.

I am hoping that we can pronounce August 1 as emancipation day in Canada, each and every year.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, October 1st, 2020]

Madam Speaker, I have a question about the amendment we are voting on this evening that was put forward by the Conservative Party, specifically the new policy toward China and what we are going to do about the Canada-China FIPA. This is no ordinary FIPA, like many of the FIPAs we have signed with other countries. Instead of a one-year get-out clause, there are 31 years for state-owned corporations to be invested in this country.

This idea of investing in the oil sands, building pipelines and being able to rip and ship raw resources out of this country, and to then have state-owned corporations be able to challenge any blocking of that by making Canadians pay, tooth and nail, billions of dollars in compensation, was brought forward in an order in council by the Harper cabinet. We cannot block Huawei on national security grounds based on the Canada-China FIPA, so I am wondering, with this new policy that we are thinking about, how we are going to deal with this incredibly anti-democratic and lopsided agreement the Harper government has locked this country into.

[Resumption of debate on Address in Reply, September 30th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, my question is simple. During the six months of the pandemic, 20 of the richest people in this country increased their wealth by $37 billion. Two of those people own most of the grocery stores in this country: Galen Weston and Jim Pattison. They earned $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion respectively during that six months. When they cut off the two-dollar-an-hour wage increase to their workers, their stocks and shares increased.

I wonder if the hon. member would support a wealth tax for people who are earning money like this when their workers are struggling during this pandemic.

[Petitions, September 30th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present e-petition 2534.

Almost 15,000 Canadians have signed this petition calling for the decriminalization of psychoactive plants and fungi that have traditionally been used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes by indigenous people since time immemorial. The petition points out that there is a growing body of peer-reviewed evidence that these traditional remedies support recovery from addiction and help people suffering from PTSD, treatment-resistant depression and end-of-life anxiety.

I would also like to thank the Minister of Health for giving an exemption to several people who are at the end of their lives for the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy.

The petition calls on the Government of Canada to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Food and Drugs Act and regulations to distinguish and exempt these organisms when used for therapeutic practices as adjuncts to medical care, healing ceremonies, or solitary spiritual growth and self development.

I would like to thank Trevor Millar and MAPS Canada for bringing forward this petition.

[Orange Shirt Day, September 30th, 2020]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank all of the speakers who came before me today for sharing their powerful words and to recognize this day.

I recognize that we are on the traditional territory of the Algonquin first peoples. I stand here before the House as the descendant of white settlers who are, in part, responsible for the actions of our government and our churches.

Today is Orange Shirt Day, when we honour and remember residential school survivors and bear witness to their healing journey, it is important to recognize the destructive policies of governments of our past that sought to destroy the cultures, languages and way of life of indigenous people in the country.

I have had the honour and privilege as a filmmaker of working with first nations elders in my community, in the Snaw-Naw-As, Stz'uminus and Snuneymuxw First Nations. I worked on a project with the Hul'qumi'num' Health Hub for a film called Tat ul utul', “Getting to Know Each Other”. It was to educate people who went into the health care system in the Cowichan District Hospital, so health care workers understood the history of colonialism in the country, how it affected people and why indigenous people did not seek health care when they had health issues.

When I talked to those elders, they talked about their residential school experience. They talked about the Indian hospital in Nanaimo, which has a horrible legacy as well. They talked about their experiences and shared a lot with me. During that time period, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission testimonial came through the community. I also heard testimonials from family friends, who have known me since I was a toddler. They told me stories I had never heard before, horrific stories. Canadians need to hear these stories to understand.

People should hear these testimonies from the survivors of the residential school system. We need to do more than listen. We need to act. We need to implement the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We need to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We need to implement the recommendations of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry. We need to take the words and turn them into action, and follow through. That is our responsibility in this place.

I want to indulge in a personal story.

In 1959, my father, Jim Manly became a United Church minister. He was a minister at a logging camp, but when he married my mother, Eva Manly, they moved to Kitamaat Village. That was his first calling and their first place together as a couple, in Kitamaat Village with the Haisla people.

Five years later, I was born and six years later my parents adopted my sister, Heather, who is indigenous. We were surrounded by indigenous family and friends who taught us about their culture and gave us the unvarnished truth about what happened to indigenous people in the country. They taught us a lot.

At two years old, I was adopted. My grandmother on my father's side died when my father was 19. We were adopted by Granny Irene Starr. She took us into her arms. She was such a loving, caring woman that the kids in the village would just glom onto her. They were all attracted to her beauty and her loving nature. I loved Granny Irene dearly. She went to a residential school, but she never talked about it. It was not an experience that she shared.

When we were teenagers, we figured out that all of these family friends were actually my sister's biological family. Granny Irene was her grandmother and Auntie Vina Starr was her mother. Vina Starr was the first female aboriginal called to the bar in British Columbia. My sister, who has spent 25 years with the Ontario Provincial Police, working in indigenous policing in the north, is now working on the bar exam. I wish Heather Manly good luck with her bar exam, following in the footsteps of her mother.

In the early nineties, when Willy Blackwater was taking his case against the Alberni residential school, the United Church and the Government of Canada, my parents stood with him because they felt a responsibility as members of the church and my father a minister. My father was looking for research on the Alberni school, but he found a letter in the archives written in 1898 by a woman called Elizabeth Shaw.

It was an 18-page scathing letter. This woman came from the east and went to the Port Simpson school run by Thomas Crosby, and she outlined 18 pages of systematic abuse of kids. This letter was written 122 years ago. My father found the letters of the government ministers and church officials who all shut her down as a whistleblower and called her crazy. She lost her faith and ended up dying in a mental institution in Brockville. The people who read those letters in the film that I co-produced with my mother, called The Awakening of Elizabeth Shaw, were all connected to this story. The ministers read the voices of the ministers. Government ministers read the voices of government members, and my father read part of it. The Dudoward girls read the voices of the chief and the chief's wife from Port Simpson.

My mother asked Granny Irene to sing a hymn in the film called Flee as a Bird. My mother explained to her when we were recording that the children in these homes could not escape because of the ocean and mountains. There was nowhere for them to go. When Granny Irene sang this song her voice broke and trembled and at the end, when she finished singing, she wept. She had never talked about residential schools, but I knew that she had suffered trauma and a lot of pain, and so had all her children and grandchildren, from what happened at the residential schools.

Knowing the truth, now is the time for reconciliation, and it is incumbent upon all of us to turn words into action and to do that work here in this place.