Committees of the House  It states: 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; I want to emphasize (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...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...

Status of Women  Speaker, the Prime Minister loves to tell everyone how proud he is to be a feminist, but according to the Conference Board of Canada, his government is falling far short when it comes to closing the gender wage gap. Canadian citizens have been waiting years for policies that would help eliminate income inequality between men and women. The Prime Minister says all the right things to women in New York City, but when will he take action here at home to end this unfairness?

Canada Business Corporations Act  Speaker, I want to thank and congratulate my colleague from Regina—Lewvan for his excellent speech. Income inequality is at the root of our economic problems in society, in my opinion. When the gap between the rich and everyone else becomes that wide, we end up with economic crises and all sorts of social problems.

Business of Supply  If they do not, every Canadian is cheated. In its 2016 annual report, Oxfam blamed tax havens on income inequality for much of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Canadians want better health care, community infrastructure, good jobs, and for us to tackle climate change. Instead, the Liberals are maintaining tax loopholes that benefit Canada's wealthiest, while leaving most Canadians behind.

Business of Supply  What I want to raise, and I have done this in the form of a question before, and I will do it again for the member, is that when we talk about income inequalities, we saw in the last budget a middle-class tax cut. We saw a budget that brought in help for our seniors, and for our youth with the Canada child benefit program. It was a massive redistribution of wealth into the hundreds of millions of dollars, including a special tax on Canada's wealthiest.

Business of Supply  In fairness, we should also be talking about the bigger picture, being the issue of the amount of taxes that different groups are paying and how income inequality can be best addressed through the House of Commons.

Business of Supply  The government says it wants to reduce the gap between rich and poor. Should it not then jump at the opportunity to release data on the tax's impact on income inequality, unless it has something to hide? Could it be that, after running an entire election campaign on the supposed promise of taking more from the rich so that it could give back to the poor, the government is doing precisely the opposite and, worse, trying to cover it up?

Taxation  Speaker, it has become fashionable for millionaires to give self-righteous speeches about income inequality. For example, last week our millionaire Prime Minister told a sumptuous gala at the palatial Hamburg city hall, “I fully appreciate the irony of preaching about the struggles of the middle class to a sea of tuxedos and ball gowns while wearing a bow tie myself”.

Human Resources committee  The federal government has a unique role to fight the demoralization of job churn and rising income inequality by being a tangible leader and a model for the rest of the country by protecting defined benefit pensions, organizing and collective bargaining rights, and successorship rights.

Child Poverty  Speaker, in November last year, the BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition released its B.C. child poverty report, which shows the growing income inequality among B.C. families that have one in five of our children living in poverty, a statistic that has not changed in two decades. In my own riding of Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, the city of Duncan is highlighted as having the highest child poverty rate of 31% for an urban area in B.C.

Human Resources committee  It keeps less-educated workers from their best opportunities and the places that would offer them the highest-paid jobs. It increases income inequality and stops that regional income catch-up or convergence that I began by discussing. To recap, I argue that there is a change in housing markets in America's richest cities that changed regional migration patterns and income catch-up.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  Many people are feeling that globalization has left them behind. People are faced with income inequality. They are suffering from economic hardships. They are worried about their jobs and future prospects. These are real and legitimate concerns. That is why, at my first WTO meeting, I said to all the ministers, “Let us have a WTO for the people.

Finance committee  In regard to the latter, people with higher incomes can get larger mortgages and buy bigger, more luxurious homes. Coincident with increased income inequality in Toronto and Vancouver, price increases in these cities in recent years have been led by more expensive single detached homes. Perhaps an even larger factor impacting house prices in some markets is the weak and lagging supply response.

Canada Pension Plan  We need to go to 50% benefits of the pre-retirement income if we to be serious about tackling the issues of retirement, security, and income inequality. We also need to continue tackling the GIS and raising it. While the increase that came in budget 2016 was welcome, it has still left a lot of seniors without the adequate income they will need.

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act  CETA will set the bar for future trade agreements, and it forms the cornerstone of our government's progressive trade agenda. This is an agenda linked to our government's core focus here at home on reducing income inequality and enhancing inclusive growth that benefits all Canadians. CETA sends a clear signal, at an essential moment, to the whole world, that we in Canada believe in an open society. We believe in a society that welcomes immigrants and welcomes investments, and believes that by doing that we have more jobs and more growth.