Sheila Malcolmson

[Business of Supply, December 4th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, for the people of Nanaimo—Ladysmith and, in fact, B.C.'s entire coast, our economy, culture and way of life are dependent on a clean coast. Therefore, I am sure the member opposite can appreciate our dismay and alarm at the government's $4.5-billion investment in a leaky old pipeline in the name of climate action. We want a very different kind of infrastructure investment in our community and not something, for example, that could cause an oil spill, which would threaten tens of thousands of jobs in fisheries and aquaculture on our coast.

A great example of the kind of investment that we have been asking for is the harbour-to-harbour link. It has been well received. Every party in the 2015 election expressed support for a downtown Vancouver to downtown Nanaimo passenger-only ferry run. However, it needs infrastructure investment. The fisheries minister and the parliamentary secretary for transport have been very supportive of this.

Is my colleague opposite willing to stand with us and other coastal MPs asking for this very positive investment, which does not threaten coastal jobs but enhances our economy?

[Business of Supply, December 4th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I was elected to protect the coast and represent jobs in B.C. on the coast, where we are obviously threatened by the risk of an unrefined oil spill. Tens of thousands of jobs in the aquaculture and fisheries sector have already been identified as at risk.

We are trying to find jobs that do not preclude the existing economy and the existing environment we have now. We hear about climate change impacts every day. We see the effects of climate change, with unprecedented forest fires.

In my region, I am proud to represent jobs at Harmac Pacific, Vancouver Island University, the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre, Habitat for Humanity, and Canadian Electric Vehicles, all of which are part of the movement across the country. They are acting on climate change and employing people right now.

The green building sector employs more people than forestry, oil, gas, and mining put together. Does my colleague see the benefit of investing in this additional energy path that can employ people and protect our environment?

[Petitions, December 4th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, because vision loss is predicted to double over the next 20 years and because the most vulnerable people are children, seniors and indigenous people, petitioners in Nanaimo—Ladysmith ask the government to recognize that early detection and better access to eye health care service could prevent vision impairment. They call for the recognition that vision care is a growing public health care problem and urge the government to act proactively to prevent blindness in the first place.

I want to thank the organizations in Nanaimo—Ladysmith that have gathered hundreds of signatures for this cause.

[Petitions, December 3rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I present a petition in which constituents from Nanaimo—Ladysmith call on this House to adopt a national strategy to end the terrible problem of marine plastics. They urge this House to support the Motion No. 151 by the member for Courtenay—Alberni's, which will be voted on this Wednesday, to ban single-use plastics, to develop regulations to get at the root of the marine plastics problem, and to fund, in a permanent way, dealing with some of the ongoing problems like ghost fishnets that move across the sea and continue to kill marine mammals and fish. They urge the consideration of their petition.

[Petitions, November 30th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, because five new anchorage spots for 300-metre long freighters off the Island of Gabriola in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith are proposed in order to receive Wyoming coal exports to China, coal that was refused by all western U.S. ports, the petitioners in this petition urge the government to recognize that these anchorages harm fish habitat, risk oil spills, and would introduce heavy industrial activity into quite a pristine area. Moreover, there would be no local benefit whatsoever, and not even a benefit for Canada. They urge the government to refuse the establishment of these five new industrial anchorages off Gabriola.

[Status of Women, November 30th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, as the 16 days of activism to end violence against women go on, women's groups across Canada still struggle to keep their doors open. These groups give critical front-line service to women fleeing violence. They told us, “if you value the lives of women, you're going to appropriately fund those organizations that are serving these women and potentially saving their lives.”

Liberals say they want to end violence against women. Why will they not fund core, secure operations funding for these brave groups saving women's lives?

[Poverty Reduction Act, November 30th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we all want poverty to be eliminated in our country and women have been at the front line of poverty, no question. When women are paid less because there is no proactive federal pay equity legislation, they are the ones who drop out of the workplace to look after kids or elders, with no universal affordable child care. They end up taking the brunt of family care and get into more precarious and part-time work. We have been calling on the government to reform EI legislation and it has not. It would have helped women in precarious work have more of a social safety net.

I cannot let my colleague's comment about pay equity go unanswered. CUPE says its members have been waiting decades for federal proactive pay equity legislation and, “Based on this legislation, it appears women could be waiting until 2027 for a full remedy. We urge the government to...ensure that women's equality rights are no longer denied.” I moved 20 amendments to the budget implementation act in the finance committee, putting forward the exact amendments that the Ontario Pay Equity Coalition, CUPE, the Teamsters and the Canadian Labour Congress proposed, detailed amendments under tight timelines because the government has rammed through the budget implementation act and, therefore, the pay equity bill at every step of the way and the Liberals voted every amendment down. How do they answer that?

[Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act, November 29th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands and I both represent regions of the Salish Sea, both very much informed by our constituents. They talk about the need to protect whales, to take our responsibility as citizens, now that we know the impacts on these highly social species. It is important for them to be able to dive deeply, to be able to communicate with each other. We know the social and feeding needs of the species. It is increasingly abhorrent to have them in captivity.

When my two nieces, Rachel and Breanna, were very young, the cool thing to do was have a birthday party at the aquarium. Now they and their friends say, “no way”, that this would be the worst birthday party they could ever go to. They are much more interested in going to aquariums, the kind of Ripley's Believe It or Not. As a result, the stocks of Sea World and so on have dropped as the appetite has left.

I am curious about my fellow parliamentarian's sense of the public support she has had for the eventual phase-out of keeping whales in captivity.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, November 29th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, here we are under time allocation, debating the budget implementation bill, Bill C-86.

We have been waiting three years in this Parliament for pay equity legislation to be tabled. Canadian women have been waiting 42 years since the first Trudeau prime minister promised to implement pay equity legislation.

Having spent three years ostensibly consulting with employers, the labour movement and the lawyers who have been litigating pay equity in the absence of federal legislation, the government finally jams it into this 800-page bill.

We thought it would really reflect the advice the consultations had gathered. Instead, under extremely tight timelines, the NGOs, the labour movement, teamsters, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition all proposed extremely detailed amendments. They said the pay equity parts of this legislation would not work, and that women would not get equal pay.

I proposed dozens of amendments at finance committee that were written by the lawyers who have been litigating this all this time. Liberal members voted every single one of them down.

Why did the government not take the advice of the people closest to pay equity and get this right after waiting 42 years?

[Petitions, November 29th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the calamity of marine plastic pollution is evident all over the world.

Plastics are making their way into our oceans and lakes via storm drains and global ocean currents, and consumer disposal and industrial waste, and making their way into salmon on the west coast.

I have so many petitions from citizens in Nanaimo, Lantzville and Ladysmith urging the government to adopt a national strategy. This would deal with single-use plastics but also make sure that we have funding in a permanent way to deal with some of the big problems, like ghost nets, fishing nets that move across our oceans, across the globe and continue to capture and drown animals.