House of Commons photoLost her last election, in 2015, with 24% of the vote.
Health October 23rd, 2014
Mr. Speaker, the latest reports on the ravages of the Ebola epidemic are alarming.
According to the WHO, the Ebola virus has killed 5,000 and infected 9,000 since the epidemic broke out in March. The WHO estimates that there could be up to 10,000 new cases a week by December. This is a major tragedy affecting Africa and the entire international community.
Can the government tell the House about what our country is doing to address this epidemic?
Aboriginal Affairs October 21st, 2014
Mr. Speaker, first nations throughout the country are particularly hard hit by unemployment. However, the government acts as though these unemployed Canadians do not even exist, as was pointed out by a researcher at McMaster University.
In some regions, they are not even included when unemployment rates are calculated. These misleading statistics mean that temporary foreign workers are brought in when there are first nations people without work.
Will the government act to resolve this problem and prevent the temporary foreign worker program from increasing the unemployment rate among Canadians?
Employment Insurance October 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I can sum up the Conservatives' budgetary policy in three words: cut, cut and cut. They have made such deep cuts to employment insurance that over 60% of workers who find themselves out of work collect no benefits.
Instead of covering up its incompetence by launching a useless job creation program with money that belongs to unemployed workers, why does the government not use the fund surplus to improve employment insurance benefits and coverage?
Employment Insurance October 9th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report on the hiring tax credit shows just what poor planners the Conservatives are. They cut the employment insurance program, and now they have created a tax credit that is supposed to stimulate job creation, but they have done nothing to make sure it will work. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the tax credit will create barely 800 jobs. Each of those jobs would cost $550,000. That is ridiculous.
How can the Conservatives justify using workers' contributions to pay for a program that will not create jobs?
Canada Post October 8th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, Saint-Lambert's city council unanimously opposed the elimination of door-to-door mail delivery, which is slated for 2015 on Montreal's south shore. Canada Post's decision will deprive seniors in my riding, such as Jocelyne Langis of Longueuil, of an essential service.
Not everyone can pay a private company to deliver mail to their home.
How can the government claim to be listening to the people when it is ignoring the unanimous call by elected officials on the south shore?
Citizenship and Immigration October 7th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, if the minister put as much effort into welcoming Syrian refugees as he does into playing with numbers, his department's bureaucratic problems would have been solved a long time ago.
The minister has to dispense with the nonsense. Yesterday, he explained that Sweden has welcomed more Syrian refugees than Canada has, saying that Syria was not far from Europe's borders. Come on. He made it sound like the refugees just had to walk to their host country.
Will the minister stop putting on such a sorry spectacle and start keeping his promise to welcome more refugees?
Citizenship and Immigration October 7th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, the minister has to stop playing games with the numbers. The truth is that 1,300 out of the 1,500 Syrian refugees he is talking about are already here. This government has just two and a half months to keep its promise to welcome 1,100 privately sponsored refugees. So far only 100 or so of those refugees are in Canada. In the past, temporary resident permits were provided to speed up the family reunification process, for example for the former Yugoslavia and Haiti.
Why does the minister not follow suit for Syria?
Military Contribution Against ISIL October 7th, 2014
Mr. Speaker, it is astounding to see that this government is using time allocation yet again. This time, it will cut short a debate that is crucially important to us as parliamentarians and to Canadians.
How can the minister justify his behaviour in the House to Canadians? How can he justify muzzling debate and, by extension, our constituents?
Department of Public Works and Government Services Act October 3rd, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I congratulate my colleague on his bill. I have a simple question for him.
What is he hearing from his constituents who use wood to keep the industry going in his riding?
Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act October 3rd, 2014
Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend all the hard work done by our colleague, the member for Gatineau, on this file.
She highlighted two important priorities of the NDP, specifically, the safety of sex workers and the constitutionality of this bill. Clearly, this bill does not address either priority.
I would like to come back to something my colleague said. Women who resort to prostitution are usually very poor, and unfortunately, many of them have substance abuse problems. What concrete measures does she think the government could take to address the root causes of prostitution, specifically, poverty among women?