Tracey Ramsey

[International Trade, December 10th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, that tired line is not getting rid of the tariffs.

Canadian workers, small businesses and farmers are paying the heavy price of the Liberals' decision to sign the new NAFTA. Giving access to U.S. dairy compromises our supply management system and hurts our farmers. Canadian farmers want to be able to produce and sell their milk without U.S. interference, and families want to be able to purchase milk made in Canada that they can trust.

Farmers cannot understand why they were sold out by the current Liberal government. Why have the Liberals betrayed farm families and our food security in Canada?

[Business of Supply, December 4th, 2018]

Madam Speaker, while I appreciate my colleague's passion, if he is supportive of auto, I question why he supported the CPTPP, which all of auto opposed. Auto workers in Oshawa are not in favour of it because it is a direct threat to all of their jobs. Also, why did his Conservative government give money to GM without any long-term strings attached about jobs staying in our country, which could have prevented this? Last, when the member was in government, why did the Conservatives not create an auto strategy?

[International Trade, December 4th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, Canada's ambassador to the U.S. told an audience yesterday in Ottawa that in 12 months from now there would be a 90% chance U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum would be gone. He said that tariffs were hurting the U.S. businesses.

Who is hurting 100% right now? Canadian workers and small businesses. This deal should never have been signed without removing the tariffs in the first place.

No one understands why the Liberals are choosing to wait for communities and families in Canada to suffer and giving up our best shot at removing them. Canadians want to know now what the plan is to remove them.

[International Trade, December 3rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, if the Liberals want to see a leader in this House who defends workers, they should call the by-election.

Just last week, with the stroke of a pen, the Prime Minister made it clear that it is more important to please Donald Trump than to protect Canadians. This is shameful.

He signed an agreement without removing Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum that threaten thousands of jobs, and a deal that compromises Canadian sovereignty over our dairy industry, giving the U.S. power to interfere in the regulation of our supply management system. This is wrong.

Why is the Prime Minister so willing to sacrifice so much to Donald Trump?

[Automotive Industry, December 3rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is in Oshawa today with auto workers after GM has turned its back on them.

The GM plant closure is devastating for the families of 2,500 workers and for thousands more whose livelihoods have depended on that plant for 100 years.

The Liberals have yet to act. They have no emergency plan. There have been no emergency meetings. What is the Prime Minister waiting for? GM did not build Oshawa; Oshawa built GM, and it is time to fight for good jobs.

Will the Liberals listen to the NDP and call for an urgent meeting with industry, labour and all of government to find solutions to fight for these jobs?

[International Trade, November 29th, 2018]

That is not an answer for dairy farmers in Canada, Mr. Speaker.

Liberals say they are on track to sign the USMCA tomorrow but they do not even know what we are signing onto. Wording is changing and the Canadian interpretation and the U.S. interpretation are not lining up. No wonder the Prime Minister does not even want to attend the signing ceremony, when we do not even know what the text is.

Canadians know one thing for sure. If we sign with destructive steel and aluminum tariffs in place, we are losing our best chance to eliminate them.

The reasons not to sign this deal are stacking up. Will the Prime Minister stand up for Canadian jobs and not sign this shifty agreement?

[Resumption and Continuation of Postal Services Operations Legislation, November 23rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, although the Liberals and the Conservatives may find this amusing, the New Democrats do not. That is a curious use of word by the member.

Only a Liberal would argue that the language in the back-to-work legislation is progressive in some way. That is what we have been hearing today. I cannot understand why Canada Post would bargain fairly at the table right now when it knows that in seven hours the Liberals will give it the gift for which it has asked.

The Liberals keep acting as though something miraculous is going to happen at a table that they have consistently poisoned. Nothing will happen at that table, because Canada Post knows it is going to pick up the red phone, get the hotline to the Liberals and people are going to be ordered back to work.

It is not just that they will go back to work. They are forcing workers to go back to a workplace where women are not paid equally, which is ironic because the member said how important that was to him, that women were paid equally. They are not at Canada Post, and the Liberals are going to force them back. Rural workers are not paid for all the hours they work. They work overtime every day for which they are not paid. That is a clear violation of labour rights, yet the Liberal member is quite comfortable with that.

This is the busiest time of year. The Liberals are forcing Canada Post workers back to work in dangerous working conditions. Why?

[Canada Post, November 23rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, if the Liberals care, then why are they ramming through back-to-work legislation?

Today, the Liberal government is violating the constitutional rights of workers. This is wrong. Postal workers are not getting paid equally. They are not working in safe environments. They are working so much overtime that they cannot get home to see their families.

Today the Liberals are betraying working people. When they come for one worker in Canada, they come for all of us. Just like the Conservatives, they are siding with rich corporations and Black Friday profits by violating workers' rights.

Why are the Liberals so hellbent about forcing postal workers to return to an unfair and dangerous workplace?

[Resumption and Continuation of Postal Service Operations Legislation, November 23rd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that this shows how little Liberals know about the house of Labour, because when they come for one of us, they come for all of us. When they come for postal workers, they are coming for every worker across this country.

Everyone today knows that when Canada Post picks up the red phone to let the Liberals know that it wants people to be sent back to work, the Liberals will be happy to do it.

We are talking in this proposed legislation about workers, women, who are not paid equally. How many times have we heard the government talk about pay equity for women in this Parliament? Here is a concrete example of women not being paid equally who are now going to be forced back into that workplace. There are rural people who are not being paid for all the hours they work. Apparently it is okay with the Liberal government that there are Canadians out there working hard who are not being paid. That is unacceptable.

This is the busiest time of year, and with the injury rate they have at Canada Post, the Liberal government would force them back into a situation where they will have forced overtime. There will be more injuries before Christmas, because there will be nothing to help the health and safety of these workers at their busiest, most vulnerable time of year. However, this Liberal government is quite content to do exactly what the Conservatives did before it and force working people, without rights, back to work. The minister is sending those workers back into those conditions.

My plea is that we do not have to do this. The Liberals do not have to send people back into a situation where there is no equality for women and no health and safety and where workers rights are being disrespected. The Liberals had time to draft not only back-to-work legislation, which the minister seems incredibly proud of, which is bizarre, but legislation on a super closure motion, which we have been debating. It had a lot of time.

Will the minister now take the time, pick up that red phone and call Canada Post and tell it to negotiate at the table in a fair way for working people in our country?

[Accessible Canada Act, November 22nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I really want to commend my colleague from Windsor—Tecumseh for her passionate work on this. I can say that throughout this process, she really did have hope that the government would take seriously its obligation to people in our country who are living with disabilities. She was crestfallen to find that after many amendments, which she described in her great speech here today, to try to improve this legislation, what the minister had been stating in committee and outside committee was completely false. The Liberals had no intention of improving the lives of Canadians with this bill.

The NDP and the member for Windsor—Tecumseh stand strongly in having the ultimate goal of fostering a society in which all citizens are able to participate fully and equally.

This bill would give several public agencies and officials sweeping power to grant partial or blanket exemptions from important parts of this bill to specific organizations. This is one of the more questionable things in this legislation. I would ask for the member's thoughts on why that is in the bill.