Sheila Malcolmson

[Business of Supply, November 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Ethics Commissioner has called these cash for access arrangements, where people pay $1,500 to get access and lobby a minister in the guise of fundraising, “unsavoury”, and has said, “One wonders whether people are getting unfair access.”

Is it enough to say that the Ethics Commissioner was consulted, or to ask the minister to simply give the money back?

[Status of Women, November 3rd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, today Amnesty International released a troubling report on resource development in northeastern B.C. and the resulting risk of violence against indigenous young women and girls. This report is consistent with what I heard from indigenous leaders directly when I travelled to the Peace River Valley this summer. To make matters worse, there are no federally funded domestic violence shelters on reserve in northeastern B.C.

Did the government consider these impacts when it approved the Site C dam, and what support will the government provide to women who face violence in these areas?

[Status of Women, November 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, not a single witness at the pay equity committee asked for the timeline the government has suggested and not a single witness asked for consultation. This legislation was written in 2004, the last time a Liberal government was in power. No reason has been given to delay until 2018.

A further frustration is instead of actually making equal pay for work of equal value for all women across the country, the government has chosen to table legislation that deals with pay equity in a strange way, among its cabinet ministers. There is nothing more elite than that.

I was at a conference the other weekend where I heard speakers say that trickle-down feminism did not work any better for women of our country than any other trickle-down economic theory did. It is very much the wrong priority to bring in Bill C-24 instead of bringing in an act now. We could do it next month.

Again, what is so special about 2018? What will the government learn that it does not already know?

[Status of Women, November 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I want to bring the House back to the conversation we were having about pay equity and the advancement of that issue in the House. Canada remains without federal pay equity legislation despite having made that commitment 40 years ago.

I am going to describe a few leaders in our country who are urging action.

Margot Young of the University of British Columbia has pointed out that “talk about gender equity, slogans like ‘it's 2015’, are purely empty rhetoric without such things in place as proper and full pay equity law.”

Barbara Byers, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Labour Congress, has stated:

After 12 years, working women deserve nothing less than proactive pay equity legislation.... We can't let it languish in the archives any longer. Let us also be mindful that women have been waiting for longer than 12 years. We've been waiting for decades and decades, and while we wait, the debt owed to those who are caught in the wage gap continues to mount.

I was honoured in the House as a new MP to stand and present the NDP's motion on pay equity. I was so glad to have the government's support. The government did agree to strike a special committee, and my colleague, the New Democrat MP for Saskatoon West, was our representative on that committee. Her recommendation was that there be pay equity legislation tabled this December. That would be six months from the time of the report and it is what witnesses had said.

The committee itself recommended that it be June 2017, but, sadly, the government has just let us know that it will not be until 2018 that it tables that legislation. There is no rationale for that.

We just heard a report from the Canadian Bar Association that says:

So to recap: a 1956 federal law requiring equal pay didn’t close the gender wage gap. Neither did the 1977 law establishing a complaint-based system for equal pay for work of equal value. In 2016 a special committee suggests the government get around to drafting proactive legislation based on a report tabled 12 years ago that said it was time for women to be paid the same as men for work of equal value.

It is time to act, indeed.

Fiona Keith of the Canadian Human Rights Commission has argued that, compared to alternative options, “the task force's recommendations will likely lead to the most robust and most effective right to pay equity, both in terms of implementation and cost.”

So, we have the right models. I want to know why the government is asking us to wait until the end of 2018. Even the President of the Treasury Board has said that “equal pay for work of equal value is a human right”. Why is his government still denying women their human right?

[Holidays Act, November 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, Remembrance Day is a vital time for Canadians to reflect and honour the service of men and women who put their lives on the line for our country.

On November 11, we honour our veterans, our fallen soldiers, peacekeepers, and their families and we recommit to stand up for them as they have stood up for us. It is our solemn responsibility to ensure that every veteran has the care our country owes them.

Hundreds of volunteers conduct Remembrance Day ceremonies in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith, and I am very grateful for their work. Nanaimo—Ladysmith has four legion branches. Members should listen to this rundown of ways our community honours veterans and remember on November 11. There are at least seven distinct events.

On November 11, I will be at a breakfast for veterans, service members and their families at Legion 256 at 8 o'clock in the morning in Nanaimo. Lantzville and Ladysmith both have parades that lead to their local cenotaphs where wreaths are laid.

I will be at Lantzville luncheon for veterans, service members and their families, following that Remembrance Day ceremony.

The Gabriola Island veterans association holds a ceremony at the Gabriola cenotaph, which is at the RCMP detachment. I have been laying wreaths there for 12 or 14 years as a local government representative. It is a great honour. Hundreds of people come out in the community.

Both legions in Nanaimo work together to hold a hugely well-attended ceremony that includes a parade also. Two legions co-operate together to have that ceremony happen at the cenotaph in downtown Nanaimo.

Finally, I will see community members at 1:45 p.m. at Cedar Memorial Gardens, where Ladysmith's legion holds an afternoon ceremony in the community of Cedar.

Air Cadets, Girl Guides, Scouts and Beavers are always there. We have this fantastic wave of young energy, people who are learning lessons from the experiences of veterans and honouring together.

In my home province of British Columbia, November 11 is a holiday already. We really recognize that when families are able to come together to attend all these ceremonies. They can spend all day in my riding honouring veterans. It really has an impact.

Another powerful learning place in our riding is the Vancouver Island Military Museum. It has 25 exhibits showcasing Canada's military efforts. It has a Wall of Honour where local community members can honour veterans and their fallen loved ones. It has free admission on Remembrance Day, 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock. It has special exhibit this year highlighting the achievements of the African-Canadian Battalion of World War I, which worked with the Canadian Forestry Corps to ensure safe access, particularly to rescue fallen soldiers at the front.

In my community there is a great deal of support and a deep recognition of the sacred responsibility to honour and respect. I look forward to standing with my community on November 11 in this way.

[Petitions, October 21st, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I rise today to present a petition from residents of Nanaimo—Ladysmith opposing the establishment of new commercial bulk anchorages off the coastline of Gabriola Island.

They are intended to transport Wyoming coal to China, exacerbating climate change. The anchorages themselves have oil spill risks. The anchors will scour the sensitive seabed, interfering with commercial and recreational fishing in the region.

I am disappointed that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Transport have not replied to my call for them to urge the proponent to withdraw the application. We hope that this petition will urge the government to take leadership on this important economic and environmental issue.

[Transportation, October 21st, 2016]

Madam Speaker, Canada needs a national action plan on abandoned vessels. They pose terrible risks to our economy and our environment, but the government's ship-by-ship approach is too slow and too expensive. At the rate we are moving, it will take a century to clean up the 600 abandoned vessels littering Canada's coasts. B.C. has heard dozens of motions of good intentions. Do we really need another?

When will the government deal with a clear action plan and table it in the House to, once and for all, deal with abandoned vessels in Canada?

[Status of Women, October 20th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is easy to call oneself a feminist, but standing up for gender equality takes action. My colleague from Burnaby South did just that with his bill designed to get more women into federal politics. However, yesterday, 126 Liberal MPs voted with the Conservatives to defeat the bill. Even the Minister of Status of Women voted to defeat the gender equality act. When women make up only 26% of the House, why did the Liberals vote to defeat the bill?

[Status of Women, October 18th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to be in the House to celebrate the groundbreaking Persons Case for women's equality.

On this day in 1929, five courageous women forced a ruling that women were in fact persons in Canada. Who knew?

This was a landmark victory for Canadian women, but 87 years later our progress has stalled. We rank 60th in the world on gender parity in Parliament, and at only 26% in the House, we have not met the United Nations' threshold of female legislators required to ensure that women's issues are forefront in our policy-making.

Tomorrow, I urge my fellow parliamentarians to vote in favour of the gender equity act. We need concrete action much more than good intentions.

Let us continue the work of the Famous Five and a history full of trail-blazing Canadian women. Let us ensure our Parliament reflects the diversity of our Canada.

[Paris Agreement, October 5th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I share a salmon connection—I on the coast and my colleague in the interior. This is such a valuable industry for our province. Our province was built on salmon. We are salmon people and we have a very strong commitment around the indigenous relationship in British Columbia to stand up in every way we can for salmon. This is a 100% federal responsibility.

Sockeye salmon at our latitude, which are already at their southern range, are threatened with extinction by 2050, and maybe all species of salmon, beyond sockeye, by 2100. It would be a disaster economically and environmentally. We cannot let that happen.

What is happening is that, as rivers get hotter, the salmon either cannot go up to spawn, or else they wait in the hope for cooler water at which point they get preyed on by seals and other animals.

When we lose our salmon population, not only are there human impacts, but the endangered orca whale that is resident in the southern Strait of Georgia, also known as the Salish Sea, is losing its primary food. Therefore we have a commitment as the federal government, a deep responsibility to protect the Chinook salmon on which the endangered orca rely. It is a mammal identified as a species at risk, and we have a strong responsibility to act. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the best way for us to do that.