Sheila Malcolmson

[Business of Supply, February 2nd, 2016]

moved:

That the House (a) recognize that the government must take action to close the unacceptable gap in pay between men and women which contributes to income inequality and discriminates against women; (b) recognize pay equity as a right; (c) call on the government to implement the recommendations of the 2004 Pay Equity Task Force Report and restore the right to pay equity in the public service which was eliminated by the previous Conservative government in 2009; and (d) appoint a special committee with the mandate to conduct hearings on the matter of pay equity and to propose a plan to adopt a proactive federal pay equity regime, both legislative and otherwise, and (i) that this committee consist of 10 members which shall include six members from the Liberal Party, three members from the Conservative Party, and one member from the New Democratic Party, provided that the Chair is from the government party, (ii) that in addition to the Chair, there be one Vice-Chair from each of the recognized opposition parties, (iii) that the committee have all of the powers of a standing committee as provided in the Standing Orders, as well as the power to travel, accompanied by the necessary staff, subject to the usual authorization from the House, (iv) that the members to serve on the said committee be appointed by the Whip of each party depositing with the Acting Clerk of the House a list of his or her party’s members of the committee no later than February 17, 2016, (v) that the quorum of the committee be as provided for in Standing Order 118, provided that at least one member of each recognized party be present, (vi) that membership substitutions be permitted from time to time, if required, in the manner provided for in Standing Order 114(2), (vii) that the committee report to the House no later than June 10, 2016.

Mr. Speaker, I am the Nanaimo—Ladysmith member of Parliament, and, for the New Democrats, the Status of Women critic. I will be splitting my time today with my colleague, the member of Parliament for Jonquière.

Today I honour the work of many generations of women, and their supporters, for the gains that have been made. I think of my aunt, Kim Malcolmson, a social justice activist, feminist, and one of Ontario's first pay equity commissioners, who I think is watching today.

We stand as New Democrats with many feminists who have made enormous strides over many generations. Yet, Canadian women have hit a glass wall when it comes to the salary gap. Equal pay for work of equal value is a fundamental human right. However, today women in Canada continue to be paid far less than their male colleagues.

Last night, I heard that full-time Canadian child care workers, who have to go to school and get a several-year degree, earn on average $25,000 a year, and 97% of the people in that profession are women. A comparable profession, which is 97% male, would be truck drivers. They are also well trained, but earn $45,000 a year on average. When comparing $25,000 versus $45,000, it is not fair.

On average, women working full time in Canada make only 77% of that of their male colleagues. The gap is even worse for indigenous women, women of colour, transgender women, and women living with disabilities.

Canada is one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the gender gap, ranking 30 out of 34 OECD countries on this measure. This is unacceptable. It contributes to income inequality, and it discriminates against women.

My friend June Ross, in Nanaimo, was telling me this weekend of her experience as a single mother going to school, working as a teacher's assistant after getting a degree, and earning $8 an hour. She watched her colleagues, custodians in the school system, earn $11 to $15 an hour. It was not fair. Since then, she has given much of her life's work to fighting for pay equity. She is very discouraged to see the rollbacks, the lack of progress that has been made, and is very disturbed to see senior women living in poverty in our riding. It is not fair.

Now is the time for real action toward real equality for women. That is why New Democrats are urging Parliament to recognize pay equity as a right, because women's rights are human rights.

Canada has excellent and very strong international and national direction to do so. In 1976, Canada ratified the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which requires remuneration that provides all workers with fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value.

In 1977, the Canadian Human Rights Act was amended to state the following:

It is a discriminatory practice for an employer to establish or maintain differences in wages between male and female employees in the same establishment who are performing work of equal value.

In 1981, Canada ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which recognizes women's rights to equal remuneration and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value.

It has been 40 years since Canada committed to these three foundational documents, and we are still not where we need to be. However, the beautiful symmetry is that these three groundbreaking pay equity commitments were all made by the Pierre Trudeau government.

For the sake of our generation, I urge today's Prime Minister and his government to complete the work of the first prime minister Trudeau and legislate equal pay for equal work.

Because past governments have missed these critical opportunities to tackle the pay gap, our second recommendation is for the government to implement the recommendations of the 2004 pay equity task force report. In 2000, the then Liberal government established this task force. In 2004, the task force recommended stand-alone, proactive pay equity legislation, legislation that the Liberals of the day failed to adopt.

In 2009, the Conservatives attacked pay equity in the public service, and that leads to our third recommendation, that the government restore the right to pay equity in the public service, which was eliminated by the Conservatives.

The 2009 Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act was yet another bill that does the exact opposite of what its title suggests. It made it more difficult for women in the public sector to achieve equal compensation. It made pay equity an issue for collective bargaining rather than a human right. It forced women to file individual complaints rather than allow a union to support them. The act imposed a $50,000 fine on any union that supported members in filing a pay equity complaint and it prohibited access to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. This legislation was bundled into a budget implementation bill, which the Liberals supported during a minority Parliament.

To undo that damage and to carry forward the work that the previous government did not complete, we urge this Parliament to adopt our fourth recommendation, and that is to appoint a special committee to conduct hearings on pay equity and propose proactive pay equity legislation.

We hope members of the House of Commons will agree that in 2016 this must be a priority. Not only is it the right thing to do, it is smart economically. Women with more spending power benefit the local economy. Study after study has told us that. Letting women fall into poverty costs us all. One-third of single senior women in Canada are today living in poverty, and that is unacceptable. It is long past time for the federal government to step up and do the right thing and do everything it can to tackle the wage gap.

There is no excuse for the fact that women in Canada continue to make substantially less than men. We are ready and willing to work with the Liberal government to get proactive pay equity legislation in place to finally achieve wage equality for women. Let us make it so.

[Business of Supply, January 28th, 2016]

Madam Speaker, the environment commissioner's revelation that the National Energy Board has been failing to ensure compliance with the conditions that it provides around pipeline approvals over the last 10 years is extremely worrying to my constituents and to all Canadians. Hundreds of conditions, for example, were given on the Enbridge pipeline, but we now have lost faith in the ability for those conditions to be implemented and enforced.

Therefore, what confidence can Canadians have in future National Energy Board decisions? What concrete measures will the Liberal government put in place to ensure that we can rely on the work of this regulatory body?

[Banknotes, January 27th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, as the member of Parliament for Nanaimo—Ladysmith and the NDP critic for Status of Women, I stand with 72,000 petitioners across Canada who call on the government to do the right thing and put the image of Canadian women on banknotes.

The Famous Five and Thérèse Casgrain, women who advocated for the right to vote, used to be on one of our currencies. The Conservative government removed them in favour of an icebreaker.

Last year, my NDP colleagues asked the government to do the right thing and recognize the role that Canadian women have played in building our country and contributing to our history.

Two weeks ago, I asked the new government to do the right thing and indications in the media were that the finance minister is open-minded on the topic.

I urge all members of the House to do whatever they can to support recognizing the important role Canadian women.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, we are already living in a community in Nanaimo—Ladysmith with very wet winters and very dry summers. It is a Mediterranean climate. It has an extremely sensitive ecology that has resulted from that long-term weather system. Whether we are seeing a change in invasive species or in the viability of what kinds of vegetables grow well, we are also seeing real pressure on our salmon stocks and on all of the commercial fisheries, which have traditionally been a part of our region.

We have also been very reliant on forestry and the threat of forest fires and the pressure on firefighters in our region is extreme. I was very pleased to stand, with New Democrat colleagues throughout the campaign, with firefighters for a climate change and natural disaster response framework that would ensure that when we do have extreme waves of forest fires and extreme drought, we are prepared as communities for such eventualities.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot to support in the throne speech, there is no question, but as we hear leaders say everyday, including the leader of the Assembly of First Nations today, words are easy, actions are hard. We have a decade of lost leadership to make up and actions are our focus on this side of the House.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, it is a question of leadership that New Democrats have not seen the federal government take in the area of health care for a decade. I come from local government, so I know how much we need to work together in partnership, but if a federal government is setting standards, taking the lead, passing on transfer funding with some strings attached, and encouraging provincial governments to do the right thing, let alone the doctors associations in each province, that provides the opportunity to change the tone.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I recognize that Canadians want us to work together and co-operate, and New Democrats absolutely will. We campaigned on most of the same things. I have just provided a great list of things that I believe the member's colleagues also believe in, all implementable, all doable, all would benefit communities across the country, the environment, and the economy.

New Democrats and Liberals have a strong tradition of working together. We have provided some of Canada's best ideas, such as old age security, the Canada pension plan, public health care, and even the residential schools apology by the Conservatives was initiated by the NDP.

We will be constructive, co-operative and reinforcing wherever we can. Where we see that action is not being taken in a way that lives up to the commitments of the Liberal government's election promises and the throne speech, New Democrats will absolutely be standing together and holding the government to account.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am splitting my time with my colleague, the member of Parliament representing Berthier—Maskinongé.

Because this is my first full speech in the House, I want to thank the voters and volunteers of Nanaimo—Ladysmith, and my family and friends for the honour of their support and the great privilege of being in this House. I also salute my local government colleagues and constituents who taught me a great deal over four terms serving in office.

I also want to state the privilege of living on the unceded territory of three first nations in my riding, Snuneymuxw, Stz'uminus, and Snaw-naw-as or Nanoose First Nation, along with many Métis and indigenous leaders in the community and many residents. They are teaching me every day about the importance of reconciliation around working on right relationship, work that Canada needs to do vitally. They are teaching me about the importance of holding an inquiry into the murdered and missing indigenous women, implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, implementing recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and moving forward in a true nation-to-nation relationship.

Those were all common cause commitments between the Liberals and New Democrats through the election campaign, but in the throne speech there were no details and no commitments. That makes it hard to pin good intentions down. For concrete actions that might build goodwill, I would love to have seen the Liberal government commit to dedicated investments and a clear plan around its commitment to eliminate boil water advisories on reserve. This is too important for our country to build hopes high and then not to have them implemented.

I am going to flag a few other hits and misses in the throne speech. I am very relieved to see the government reiterate its commitments to infrastructure investments, but we want detail on how much and how they will be distributed. Inter-regional public transit is an example of a win-win-win investment. It is good for our economy, community, and environment.

Nanaimo—Ladysmith has a transit gap between its two communities. We cannot take public transit between Nanaimo and Ladysmith and they are only 20 minutes apart. That makes it hard to get a job outside one's immediate community, it is bad for business, it is bad for the environment. Better yet, supporting inter-regional transit into the the riding of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford would connect the burgeoning campuses of Vancouver Island University. Inter-regional transit connecting those two communities would be very good for student affordability, let alone the economy and environment.

In my home community, Gabriola Island, residents got tired of waiting on long lists for public transit funding, so they established their own regional service. For a community of just 4,000 people, they have funded three biofuel buses, with some support from the regional district of Nanaimo. They run the whole system on volunteers and on Saturday they celebrated their 33,333rd passenger. It is fantastic work by a very small community organization. I am very proud of what they have done, but running public transit should not fall only to community volunteers. We badly need strong federal and provincial government partners to make public transit work.

Last year, New Democrat members of Parliament representing very reliant communities asked the federal government to make it permissible for BC Ferries to apply for infrastructure funding. Ferry users in our communities have been hit very hard by skyrocketing fares originating from the semi-privatization philosophy of the provincial Liberal government in British Columbia. It is very hard on communities and on affordability. BC Ferries represents our marine highway. As the progressive opposition, New Democrats will keep pushing the Liberal government for strong, reliable, long-term investments in public transit infrastructure.

The throne speech promised legislation that will provide greater support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. I cannot overstate how badly Nanaimo—Ladysmith needs such support. We need to prevent violence against women. So much has fallen to front-line organizations that pick up the pieces every day.

One such organization is Nanaimo's Haven Society. It fields eight distress calls every day. Every year, it serves close to 4,000 people in the region, all victims of sexual abuse, physical, emotional abuse, and violence. However, because of inadequate finances, Haven Society has to turn away 75 women every year who are ready to leave abusive relationships, but there is no shelter for them. Imagine the heartbreak of that. They simply do not have enough shelter.

Across the country, there is a powerful network of domestic violence shelters picking up the pieces. One night alone 8,000 women and children were in such shelters in our country. Another night that same year, shelters turned away more than 500 women and children for lack of space.

I acknowledge the personal commitment of the Minister of Status of Women across the aisle. I deeply hope that her Minister of Finance and her cabinet agree that finding solutions is vital. I salute the work of shelters and anti-violence workers across the country. I hope that we have a government that supports them and keeps the vulnerable safe.

Climate change is the challenge and threat of our time. I see it right at home with salmon struggling to spawn in drying and warming streams, like the Cowichan and Nanaimo rivers. Just at the time when we need to have more resiliency and food security, I see farmers in Cedar and Lantzville struggling with drought, in a rainforest. Like many Canadians, I am very glad that the government believes in the science of climate change, but good grief that we would even be celebrating that is a testament to this dark decade that we have just experienced.

Despite that commitment from the government, the throne speech only said that the government would provide leadership. There is no concrete action plan. There is no commitment to reducing emissions. There is no commitment to making the government accountable in law for setting targets and for meeting them. Three times, New Democrats have brought to this House just such legislation. I believe the Liberals have supported us, almost every Liberal, every time, when they were the second or the third party, so why not now.

Also, climate change should be included in environmental assessment and National Energy Board reviews, but that was not in the throne speech either. The Liberals, on campaign, promised to strengthen pipeline reviews, but so far are letting Kinder Morgan carry through with its pipeline and its tanker traffic expansion, carrying through under Harper government rules. The Liberals must live up to their commitments. It is long past time for a review process that includes climate change, that allows full cross-examination, and full public participation, that takes into account local communities, indigenous people, and climate change.

Nanaimo—Ladysmith is a centre for health care. We have many patients, families, and front-line workers that we hear from all the time. All through the campaign we heard how much they are under pressure and how much the public health care system is under pressure. I am very glad the Liberal throne speech acknowledged a commitment to reinvest in a new health accord, which the Conservative government had abandoned. However, again, there is nothing concrete.

My favourite piece that I would love to see is a commitment from the Liberal government to do everything it can to provide a family doctor for the five million Canadians who do not have one. I would love to see a quick fix to the foreign credentials program. I heard from a family in Nanaimo whose son was born and raised in Nanaimo. He went to the States to get his medical degree and wants to come home to Nanaimo to be a family doctor here, but Canada does not recognize his foreign credentials. How frustrating that is.

There is much work to do, much hope and much opportunity. When the economy is in trouble, it is the most vulnerable and those with the least who suffer the most. The government can and must play a direct role in reducing that inequality and New Democrats will push the Liberal government to take concrete actions to do so. Tom Mulcair and our NDP team will be standing up for such action everyday in the House.

[Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply, January 26th, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, in response to the member for Souris—Moose Mountain, I must say that it is a little rich after 10 years of Conservative control in the House and 41 years of Conservative control in the Alberta legislature to not take some responsibility for the job losses we are seeing in the region.

I would suggest that if any party had any hope of building a pipeline, an unrefined fuel export scheme, and hoped to get a social licence and community support for projects like that, they might consider having that fuel add to Canada's energy security and add to the number of jobs by our refining wherever we can locally, by having some Canadian ownership and Canadian control, and not by having gutted environmental assessment hearings so that public hearings actually involve no hearing, but witnesses who cannot speak and cannot be cross-examined. Furthermore, the Conservative government fought for 10 years and spent at least $100 million of taxpayers' money fighting the truth of indigenous control and the requirement for consent around land use. If those things had not happened, I think the member's government might not have left residents of Alberta in the situation we are now in. The member cannot blame the New Democrat government in Alberta for what happened in the last five or six months.

I will close with the words of a former Conservative MP and former premier of Alberta, Jim Prentice, right before he lost the election to the NDP: “Look in the mirror”.

[Housing, December 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, 1.5 million Canadian families do not have adequate housing. Some families have been waiting 10 years on social housing lists. Affordable housing agreements are about to expire.

The Prime Minister's parliamentary secretary repeatedly promised through the campaign that the Liberals would spend $20 billion on affordable housing, but now it turns out that that same money is going to cover all kinds of other priorities.

Can the parliamentary secretary tell Canadians exactly how much the Liberal government will spend on affordable housing?