Taylor Bachrach

[Labour, May 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday 10,000 Canadian rail workers voted to strike, in part because Canada's two largest railway companies want to undermine key safety measures in their collective agreements. The safety of rail workers, the safety of rail communities and the safety of our environment are all at stake.

Will the minister ensure that the parties remain at the bargaining table until a fair, safe and equitable agreement is reached?

[World Para Hockey Championship, May 2nd, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, teams from around the world are gathering in Calgary next week for the World Para Hockey Championship. I am so pleased to share that the starting goalie for Team Canada is none other than Adam Kingsmill from my home community of Smithers, B.C.

Despite losing his leg in a tragic lawnmower accident when he was just a toddler, Adam became an accomplished athlete, playing softball, racing motocross and excelling at stand-up hockey, all with the incredible support of his parents Bobbie and Grange.

In 2016, Adam caught the eye of Team Canada's coaches, who convinced him to try para hockey, or sledge hockey. Five years later, he brought home a silver medal from the world championship in the Czech Republic. He followed that up just a year later with another silver, this time at the 2022 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China.

Adam's indomitable spirit, determination and achievement continue to inspire people across northern B.C. and across Canada. I hope my colleagues will join me in wishing him and his teammates the very best of luck at this year's world championships. Go Canada. Go Adam.

[The Budget, April 30th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, the member makes some good points. His first question was whether we did our job in essentially giving the minister responsible carte blanche to determine the amount. I think there are reasons the amount of the benefit was not codified in the legislation.

Where the government has let us down is that the minister did not consult with the disability groups that are so important in this whole equation. If the government would have consulted on the actual amount, if it would have looked at what is required to lift people out of poverty, the benefit would have been a higher amount.

The member's second question is about prioritizing funding to those who need it most. I think, regardless of whether we are talking about CPP, disability or people on social assistance, the reality is that folks need what they need to get by and cover their basic costs. We need to ensure that this benefit, for everyone who is living with a disability and who needs it, is raised to a level where they are able to cover the basic cost of living. There are many details in ascertaining what those levels are, but the key thing is the outcome, which is whether people getting what is required to lead a decent life.

[The Budget, April 30th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I suppose if the parliamentary secretary considers us dragging the Liberal Party, kicking and screaming, to be working together, then I am all for it.

His question was about housing. Of course, we need to see jurisdictions work together. My concern is that I represent a riding entirely made up of rural and remote communities. The government's focus on housing has predominately been in the larger urban centres where it can make commitments of tens of thousands of housing units.

Communities in the region I represent need infrastructure. They need a commitment to building drinking water systems and waste water systems. That is what would enable housing development in small communities, and it is something that we see is sorely lacking in the budget before us.

[The Budget, April 30th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise on behalf of the good people of Skeena—Bulkley Valley and address the 2024 budget.

I want to start with a few words about the truly shameful display that we saw today during question period. I was thinking back to my time, just a few weeks ago, on Haida Gwaii, where we celebrated the signing of a historic agreement. The president of the Haida Nation spoke about the Haida concept called yahguudang, or respect. It is about a respectful way that we govern our communities, that we engage with our neighbours and that we lead. The Wet'suwet'en, whose land is part of the territory where I live, have a similar word: wiggus.

I was thinking about those words and just how far from the spirit of those concepts this place was during question period today. Looking up in the gallery, I saw Canadian citizens looking at the governance of this country, embarrassed and ashamed of what it has become. As a member of Parliament, I too was embarrassed.

I do not speak to individual Conservative members, because there are many good Conservative members whom I respect, some of whom are in the chamber right now. However, the party and the leader are working not to try to change policy in this country, using the institution, but to erode public trust in the institution itself. We have seen that happen in other parts of the world and other parts of North America, and it is not a road that we want to go down as a country.

Turning to the budget before us, I want to start with the context. The context, of course, as many Canadians know, is that we are in a very difficult time. People across the country are struggling with increased costs in terms of skyrocketing rent, groceries, home heat and just about everything. In these times, the government has choices. We all have choices to make. As New Democrats, our vision is that we must come together more than ever during difficult times. We must lift each other up and bring in programs that support each other and support the people who are struggling. Therefore, it is in that context that we are very proud that there are things in this budget that we fought hard for. These things have long been a part of NDP policy, and we are finally seeing steps toward their implementation. I will speak about a few of them, and they have been raised.

I want to thank my wonderful colleague for her words just prior, but I will start with pharmacare. This is obviously such an essential extension of universal health care in Canada. It has been five years since the Hoskins report laid out a very clear path for the government to take to implement universal single-payer pharmacare. We are finally seeing steps toward that, with the recent pharmacare legislation that has been tabled and, in this budget, a commitment of $1.5 billion over five years for the first phases of a national pharmacare program, starting with two essential classes of medication. One is diabetes medication, which affects thousands and thousands of Canadians. I was noticing statistics from Diabetes Canada that the out-of-pocket cost of type 1 diabetes is as high as $18,000 per year. People living with type 2 diabetes are paying as much as $10,000 a year, and this is precisely the kind of cost that the first tranche of a national pharmacare program would cover. We are very proud to see that in the budget and to see the legislation that is before this House.

A national school food program is something that would lift up so many students across Canada who are going to school hungry, and the idea is that having at least one meal per day of healthy food would help those students so much. It goes without saying. I was thinking back to my experience in Terrace with the wonderful community volunteers, such as Gurjeet Parhar, with the Kalum Community School Society, as well as Helene Fleury, of the group Groundbreakers in Smithers.

These folks have been advocating for years for a national school food program. A billion dollars over five years in the budget is going to be a huge step forward, helping deliver meals to over 400,000 students across the country.

With regard to the firefighter tax credit, I want to give credit to my colleague from Courtenay—Alberni for his hard work ensuring that this is in the budget. This is going to double the tax credit for volunteer firefighters and search and rescue personnel in our communities from $3,000 per year to $6,000 per year.

Certainly, in the region I represent, which is a huge rural region, volunteer firefighters and search and rescue volunteers play a critical role. I was in Houston the other day, talking with their search and rescue team. One figure that the individual shared with me was that, in British Columbia, search and rescue teams provide $200 million per year of value. If we think about all the volunteer fire departments and add that to the search and rescue teams, the figure would be a staggering one.

I think about folks in Bela Coola, Fort St. James, Bella Bella, Houston, Smithers, Telkwa and all the way up to Dease Lake. There, these small volunteer fire departments are made up of individuals who donate their time, contribute their personal time to keeping their neighbours safe.

This is a way we can recognize that contribution. It is going to help with recruitment and retention, and I think it is a huge step forward for our country.

Liberal budgets are often a bit of a mixed bag. There are things in this budget that are half measures and worse. There are policies that, on the surface, look as though they are heading in the right direction. However, when one looks at the financial commitment in the budget, it is hard to see how we are going to make marked progress on critical issues.

One that has received some debate already today is the government's approach to the Canada disability benefit. We were very hopeful when we saw the legislation pass that created the foundation for this benefit. However, people living with disabilities waited month after month, year after year, to find out what the amount was going to be, because the important thing here is the amount that was going to supposedly lift people out of poverty.

What we saw in the budget amounts to about $200 per month, or six dollars per day. That is a far cry from what is required to really improve people's lives in the way that is needed and to lift people out of poverty.

One of the most troubling aspects of that is that this number was arrived at without consultation with the disability community, without talking to the people who need this benefit most. It really contravenes the government's commitment to “nothing about us without us”, which is one of the promises that it made to people living with disabilities.

I want to mention the red dress alert, which is something we have been pushing hard for. I want to honour the work of my colleague from Winnipeg Centre, who has been a fierce advocate for that service, but it is $1.3 million over three years. It is hard to see how we are going to build an effective program and ensure that a red dress alert is available to families in northwest B.C. and right across Canada with such a modest investment. Much more needs to be done. We are going to keep pushing on that front.

I will end with the concept of fairness. This is how the government has framed the budget, with the idea of working towards a more fair approach to the way we govern this country. While there are some very modest changes in this budget to address inequities in the tax code, it is clear that there is much more that needs to be done.

TD just released a report showing that wealthiest third of Canadians in the country increased their wealth by 6% in the last year alone. The rest of Canadians either saw their income stagnate or go down, as a result of inflation, when it comes to their real buying power.

We need to do much more. I welcome the concept of fairness, which is something we have long spoken of, but this budget is only a very small step in that direction.

[The Budget, April 30th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, my colleague from Winnipeg South Centre mentioned reconciliation. I know that the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women and girls is one that has profoundly affected communities in his home province of Manitoba.

It was good to see mention in the budget of the red dress alert. However, we were disappointed to see the very modest budget commitment to that service. By comparison, the 988 suicide crisis helpline received $156 million over three years for implementation. The commitment in the budget for the red dress alert is $1.3 million over three years.

How does the member explain what seems to many people to be a huge discrepancy in the funding? Do not get me wrong; the suicide crisis helpline is essential. I am simply noting the disparity between the numbers.

[The Budget, April 30th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, also on the same point of order, because we are talking about clarity, I believe the parliamentary secretary referred to an incorrect name for the organization in question. He called it “Diagonal”. Just so that we are all on the side of the angles, I want to make sure—

[The Budget, April 30th, 2024]

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the member has heard from constituents who are upset about the paltry Canada disability benefit included in this budget. It is not just the amount; it is the process by which the government arrived at that amount. I will read what the National Disability Network noted: “These specific programmatic details were announced without consultation of the disability community and do not align with the principle of 'nothing about us, without us.'”

Does my colleague not agree that the Canada disability benefit should have been a higher amount to actually lift people out of poverty and, more importantly, that the amount should have been arrived at in consultation with the people who are most affected?

[The Budget, April 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, certainly there are things in the budget that we support and that we worked hard to deliver. However, there is a lot of concern and dismay around the Canada disability benefit.

I heard the parliamentary secretary describe it as a foundation earlier. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance described it as a first step. That was never the way it was conceived. The first step, the foundation, was the legislation. People were expecting a viable disability benefit that would actually lift people out of poverty, yet what we see is something that amounts to $200 a month, or $6 a day. I think the disappointment and dismay that we are hearing from the disability community is evidence that it is inadequate.

How many steps are there in the government's incremental, multistep approach to lifting people out of poverty, and how long are people with disabilities going to have to wait?

[The Budget, April 29th, 2024]

Madam Speaker, I am sure the member has heard from constituents in her riding about the Canada disability benefit and the insultingly low value that has been placed on that benefit by the government. It is $200 a month, $6 a day, and this is supposed to somehow lift people out of poverty. It is insulting to a lot of folks who live with disabilities.

Earlier today we heard the Deputy Prime Minister characterize it as a “first step”. Does the hon. member know when the next step will be available for people living with disabilities? How long are people with disabilities going to have to wait?