Paul Manly

[Petitions, June 3rd, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, it is an honour today to present two petitions.

The first petition calls upon the House of Commons to adopt a national poverty elimination strategy, thereby ensuring Canadians a suitable quality of life and opportunity to succeed.

[Criminal Records Act, June 3rd, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, the Green Party agrees to apply and will be voting yes.

[Petitions, May 29th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, I rise to present a petition that calls upon the House of Commons to enact legislation and policies that would promote pay equity and pay equality so that women in Canada get the equal treatment they deserve.

[Accessible Canada Act, May 28th, 2019]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour for me to speak in favour of the bill, the proposed accessibility Canada act.

I ran in 2015. I was a filmmaker, and it kind of destroyed my business. However, I took a job after that with Nanaimo Foodshare, doing work with people with diverse abilities, as they like to say, rather than disabilities, and people with barriers to employment. I worked with a group called the Self Advocates of Nanaimo, and I would like to give a shout out to my friends Kara, Crystal, Pat, Barb, Sara and Charmaine. They had a saying “Nothing about us without us”.

Advocacy groups have asked for more input on the bill, saying it could be better. However, I am glad to see we are making this historic change. I hope we can improve the bill at a future date.

[The Environment, May 27th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the member regarding the new Coast Guard vessels that were proposed on the weekend.

We have a number of companies in Canada that are creating innovation and technology that is being implemented in Europe. We have a company called Hydrogenics, based out of Mississauga, that is working with the railway system in Europe to make hydrogen locomotives. We have a company in Richmond, Corvus Energy, which is creating an electric ferry system in Norway and Sweden. We have companies like Harbour Air, in Nanaimo, which is taking its fleet of sea planes and making them electric, without any government subsidy.

I am wondering when we will see the Canadian government working with these companies on contracts for things like the Coast Guard vessels that are proposed, so that we could see Coast Guard vessels that are zero emission, that do not emit any greenhouse gases, that use hydrogen? We have all of this technology available to us, and I am wondering if we will be seeing that technology used for the proposed Coast Guard vessels.

[The Environment, May 27th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know why the government is not doubling the targets for 2030. We are still dealing with the targets that were set by the Harper government, which is a 30% reduction over 2005 levels. We should be looking at 50% to 60% reductions over 2005 levels so we can deal with this climate emergency properly.

[Housing, May 27th, 2019]

Mr. Speaker, is the government prepared to take emergency action to help people in crisis with affordable housing under the national housing strategy? We have people with disabilities, low-income seniors and single-parent families who are finding themselves homeless in our communities due to rising housing costs and a lack of affordable housing.

Will the government take emergency measures to help our most vulnerable citizens?