Sheila Malcolmson

[The Budget, March 20th, 2018]

The New Democrat leader, Jagmeet Singh, has been very strong in his way of describing taxation and spending where we can show investments in a strong social safety net will benefit the people who need it the most, those who most need a boost and who have been discriminated against by successive Conservative and Liberal policies. We should make those investments. We have a lot of evidence, for example, on universal, affordable child care. The International Monetary Fund, the Conference Board of Canada, and the Governor of the Bank of Canada are all saying to invest here and it will pay dividends.

However, I will note another win that we got in the budget that we do credit the government for. We have been asking for years that Status of Women Canada be made a full ministry. It was in the 2011 and 2015 NDP platform to make it a full ministry. Our colleague, the member of Parliament for Elmwood—Transcona, had been pushing for it in this Parliament very actively. We are glad to see the government finally take our advice.

[The Budget, March 20th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, I am glad to be here in the House standing in support of women in Canada, who honestly have received the raw end of the deal.

Over the last year, our status of women committee has heard from countless witnesses about how far women in Canada have fallen behind. We heard from women who are burdened with university debt and have a very difficult time making it forward in the workplace. We heard from women about the lack of access to child care. We heard from women about the lifetime of earnings comprised either by precarious work or by the lack of pay equity. We also heard from elderly women who are living in deep poverty, and professional women who have worked all of their lives but in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith are finding themselves having to access homeless shelters. It is terrible.

For all the good words of the Liberal government, with the majority that it has, with the mandate it had to implement real action on feminism, and the long shopping list that women's organizations and witnesses at our status of women committee have been giving, I honestly expected so much more in the budget. I am going to run through some hits and misses in the budget.

The first one, and we heard this from women's organizations across the country, is the failure of the government to fund a universal, affordable child care program. We have had funding announcements in the past, but they are pushed way into the future. Women cannot wait 10 years to access affordable child care spaces. Zero new child care spaces have been funded in this budget.

Child care is a major missing piece from the budget. It is the number one thing the government could have done to help with affordability, prosperity for women, and getting them into the workplace. The experience in Quebec has shown that investments in this area are good for the economy. The Quebec model has almost paid for itself by virtue of the fact that 70% of women who want to be in the workplace are working and earning more money. They are spending in their local economy and they are being taxed. It is a good investment.

The International Monetary Fund, in talking about Canada specifically, said the same thing, as did the Conference Board of Canada and the Governor of the Bank of Canada. This is in addition to the fantastic NGOs that have been carrying the torch on this issue for so long. Canada would be in very good company with the rest of the developed world. It would certainly have a lot of allies if it would put its money where its mouth is and funded affordable child care.

Pay equity is another big piece. I was so honoured to stand with my colleague the member of Parliament for Jonquière on the NDP's first opposition day motion which asked for the consent of the House to have the Liberal government agree to implement pay equity legislation. That was two years ago. It was a big win for us, but it was the same promise that had been made by Pierre Trudeau 40 years earlier. We are still waiting.

To have in the budget the announcement that there would be legislation was really like a sore consolation prize, because women have been waiting so long and the gap is real. We are glad to hear the re-announcement that there will be legislation. That is a checkmark, but it still is overdue and we have not seen the legislation yet. The big hole is there is no implementation funding at all.

Last year, the alternative federal budget put together by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recommended $10 million a year be spent to implement pay equity. That did not happen.

The Canadian Labour Congress recommended at a bare minimum that the government fund the establishment of a commissioner and some of the machinery that would be needed for the adjudication process. Again, there were zero dollars for that. The government, in saying it is still committed to pay equity but will not put any dollars in the budget, to me represents a great timidity on the part of the government and a failure to put its money where its mouth is.

A win that we did get in the budget is better support for sexual assault centres on campus. There is funding in place for the development of policies to prevent campus rape. This was a recommendation that arose from an earlier status of women study where we asked the Liberal government to lead the coordination of national policies to prevent campus rape.

My colleague the member of Parliament for Salaberry—Suroît, who is the NDP's youth critic and also the deputy women's equality critic and the critic for post-secondary institutions, has heard, as have many of us, from women on campus. If a female is born and raised in Vancouver, for example, and her big sister goes to UBC, she learns how sexual assault is dealt with on that campus. Then she may go across the country to Dalhousie University where she is away from her family for the first time, and there may be alcohol involved. Those first few weeks on campus are the most vulnerable time for a woman to be sexually assaulted. The policing, justice system, and the level of support may be different, which would make it worse.

There is no question Canada has a coordination problem around sexual violence, with the territories, provinces, and municipal governments. However, this is the first thing the government should have done. It took the Liberals several years to agree with us, but we are glad to see some money. Sadly, and this is a theme, the money will not appear for five years. Women should not have to wait to be safe on the campuses of our higher institutions.

Another very sad point is insufficient investment in public transit. This past week, I was at the United Nations, hearing about the level of commitment of countries to implement their United Nations' obligations on women's equality. The focus was rural woman. We heard again and again about the role of a safe, accessible, and affordable transit system for them to be able to get to work or medical appointments, to accept jobs they are offered, and absolutely to avoid another Highway of Tears in northern B.C. Women were hitchhiking because there was no other alternative and it ended lives, again and again.

My colleague, the member of Parliament for Saskatoon West, has been raising the alarm on this, the loss of the long-standing and successful public transit system in Saskatchewan. This is a role for the federal government, and we really would have liked to see a significant investment in rural public transit. That is a big missing piece.

A win though, another one, is paid domestic violence leave. Many provinces have started to implement paid domestic violence leave, especially the New Democrat government in Manitoba. If a woman has to leave her husband because of violence in the home, she has the assurance from her employer that she is going to be able to take a few days paid leave while resettling her family or renting a new house, and she knows her job will be waiting for her when she comes back, let alone having a little bit of coverage.

To our disappointment, the labour minister's offer last year was three days, unpaid. That is cheap for a government willing to spend on all kinds of things. That was mean-spirited. Because of the pressure of my colleague, the member of Parliament for Saskatoon West, when she was in her role as our labour critic, and of the labour movement in Canada, we are very glad that the government was persuaded in this budget to fund five days of paid leave. It is the least we can do. Few women will take it up, but it will make a big difference to those who do and their families.

Use it or lose it parental leave was another win. It has been shown in other countries that when men take parental leave it locks them in early to some of the domestic care issues. They are changing diapers and looking after the home. If they do not take that leave, then it is gone. It is not the kind of thing we have right now where the father and mother can split the leave.

The former NDP leader, the member for Outremont, and I wrote to the Prime Minister back in September urging him to take this on. We are very glad he took our advice and we think it is a win for families. However, it is tempered by the fact that the budget did not fix employment insurance parental leave benefits. When working families cannot earn enough hours to be eligible to take that paid parental leave, it means that once again the better off middle-class people the Prime Minister loves to support get that access, but the poorest people who need it the most just cannot get a foot in the door. It is unfair. We have registered this with the government many times, and it is a problem that it has still not closed that gap.

It is the same with unemployment insurance for precarious part-time work. We have heard from witnesses at committee again and again that women are more likely to work part time. One may be a full-time teller or cashier, but that is not going to get them enough hours each week to be able to qualify for employment insurance, let alone benefits and a pension. This is the nature of the working world, the Prime Minister tells us. He said to young people to get used to it. Honestly, if the Prime Minister has admitted this is a for sure thing, we must fix our employment insurance system. Given the government's commitments, it should want to do that.

The government has a mandate, has a great amount of goodwill, and talks a good talk on feminism. We would have really liked to see more action and the government putting its money where its mouth is on women's equality.

[Indigenous Affairs, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, my difficulty with what the member opposite is saying is that nothing has changed since the inquiry's interim report was released the beginning of November.

We do not see evidence that the Liberals are keeping their promise to the families to help the inquiry succeed at every level. The Prime Minister said that he would review the report and pay attention to its recommendations, but nothing has changed.

Witnesses from the department said at committee that they were preparing options, and this was just in January, and that we were going to have a response very soon. It is now the middle of March and still nothing. We do not have time.

Again, when will we hear the government's response to the inquiry's interim recommendations? We need to act quickly.

[Indigenous Affairs, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the last time I was in conversation on this topic, the inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women had just filed its report. That was at the beginning of November. We had identified that eight out of the 10 challenges raised by the commissioners of the inquiry, those things that were making it difficult for them to get their work done, to get to the root of the terrible problem of murdered and missing indigenous women, were related to government interference. When I questioned the minister for indigenous affairs and reconciliation in question period, she said that we would get a quick answer and that the government was committed to removing barriers.

Here we are all these months later and we have not yet seen a change.

One of the top and most compelling recommendations of the commissioners in their November report was that the government work collaboratively with the provinces and territories to create a national police task force to which the national inquiry could refer families and survivors to assess or reopen cases, or review investigations. This is extremely important. We have heard repeatedly from families that, where police found their report of a missing or murdered family member to be unfounded or something had just not been investigated or pursued to its very end, it left families in limbo and with no closure.

My colleague from Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, the New Democrat deputy critic for indigenous services, stated:

I am hearing the desire for law enforcement to be involved and given the necessary resources to solve cold cases of missing Indigenous women from all over Saskatchewan; cases like that of my friend, Myrna Laprise, and her family, who want to know what happened to her aunt who disappeared years ago.

The summer before last, the Native Women's Association of Canada said, again, that it is a missed opportunity that the terms of reference did not specifically invite the investigation of cold cases. It stated:

There does not appear to be an opportunity for families to pursue or reopen cases through the justice system. In fact, for families who want to pursue cases or re-open ones that have been part of the justice system, the Terms of Reference direct that the support the Commissioners can offer is to redirect them to the appropriate provincial or territorial victim services. Families are not looking for mainstream counseling services through victim services but justice. This is a missed opportunity.

To our disappointment, there still has been no government response to this very pressing interim recommendation from the inquiry commissioners, and there is nothing in the budget released last month to address other vital recommendations from the inquiry. There is no response to any of the requests in the report. There is no money to establish a commemoration fund in collaboration with families, survivors, and national and regional indigenous organizations as asked.

Therefore, these are my questions to the government. What is it doing with the recommendations? What assurances is it giving to families and survivors that their asks have been heard, and why was there no money in the budget to specifically address the inquiry's appeals for us to resolve this situation once and for all?

[The Budget, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, if the member opposite had been sitting through the testimony we have been hearing at the status of women committee, which has been studying federal barriers to women's economic justice in Canada, over the past year he would have heard some devastating stories about how women right now in this country have fallen so far behind, women who have worked their whole lives who end up at homeless shelters when they are evicted because they are not able to find affordable housing, or women who retire in poverty because they have never been able to put aside a pension because they have always worked in part-time, precarious work with no access to EI or benefits.

I really would have thought, if this were truly a feminist budget, that the government would have funded the implementation of pay equity and that, at a minimum, it would have taken up the call of the Canadian Labour Congress to establish an office of a pay equity commissioner to start to put the works in place so that we can get action for women and get more money in their pockets right away. It is not just and I want to hear from the member why there was no funding for pay equity in this budget.

[Petitions, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I stand to bring voices from coastal B.C., and particularly Gabriola Island, where I live. They are opposed to the establishment of five new commercial bulk anchorages. Each are to house 300-metre long freighters. The petitioners cite that the waters of the Salish Sea are already more jammed up with freighters than we have ever seen before. Establishing five new anchorages in this sensitive area to export Wyoming coal to China is a poor decision. They again urge the transport minister to reject the application in order to prevent oil spills and support local communities.

[The Budget, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, for a feminist budget, a gender budget, the budget was sorely lacking in funding for new child care spaces. The International Monetary Fund, the Conference Board of Canada, and the Governor of the Bank of Canada all say that universal, affordable child care as a publicly-funded program will get women to work and will largely pay for itself, as it has in Quebec.

I am concerned that the government's budget, although it has the label of a gender budget and names women many times, has not funded new child care spaces yet in its term. It has had two and a half years to do so, and there was no new funding in this budget to create new child care spaces for women who want to go to work can take their children. It is deeply unaffordable and costs more than rent in some communities.

Could the member please explain why there were no dollars allocated in this budget for this fundamental program for working women?

[The Budget, March 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to hear, from my colleague on the Liberal side of the House, details about the government's commitment to pay equity legislation. It was over 40 years ago that the first Prime Minister Trudeau promised pay equity and women would be paid equal pay for work of equal value. It never has been legislated by any Conservative or Liberal government.

Given that the NDP successfully encouraged the government to add it to its agenda in a vote in this House two years ago, we really thought that in this budget there would at least be money for implementation. There is nothing. The government did not even take up very strong encouragement by the Canadian Labour Congress to fund, at a minimum, the establishment of a pay equity commission and some of the implementation mechanisms, if not to actually set money aside to pay federal workers fairly and to implement legislation. Why is there zero money for pay equity in this budget?

[The Budget, February 28th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, there are indeed some good news items in the budget, and I enjoyed hearing, from the member's regional perspective, what the highlights were for him.

On gender equality and removing barriers to women in the workplace, I had really hoped we would see some new funding for new child care spaces. When I look at what the asks were from the NGO community, the recommendation from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which gathers together all the best NGO advice on the budget, was to commit, in 2018-19, $1 billion in new money to be transferred to the provinces, territories, and indigenous communities to begin building that comprehensive child care system, with new spaces, and that it should grow by $1 billion per year until it reaches the established international benchmark of 1% of GDP.

The Canadian Labour Congress made the same ask. Every witness we have had at the status of women committee has said the number one thing we can do to remove barriers to women's economic justice and women entering the workforce is to make new child care spaces. The Canada child benefit does not help women if there are not those new spaces to spend the money on.

Knowing my colleague's commitment to gender equality and women in the workplace, does he share my deep concern that the budget did not put its money where its mouth was as far as gender equality and child care is concerned?

[Petitions, February 28th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring voices from Gabriola Island, West Vancouver, Delta, and Victoria, B.C., and from Drayton Valley, Alberta, all urging the government to cancel five bulk anchorages proposed off Gabriola Island, which is my home also. These are proposed for the export of Wyoming coal to China to burn in power plants. The petitioners cite the chance of human error leading to oil spills, with catastrophic consequences for marine mammals, for the coastline, for fishing charters, and for the local economy that is dependent on a clean coast. The minister has recently announced a new policy on the alignment of anchorages, with no mention of the Gabriola anchorages proposed. We urge the government to heed the petitioners' advice.