COVID-19 Response Measures Act  Mr. Speaker, in fact, earlier I stated that I had spoken with my provincial and territorial employment counterparts about this legislation, including the sickness benefits. As well, it has been part of the discussions between the first ministers and the Prime Minister and Deputy

COVID-19 Response Measures Act  Mr. Speaker, the changes being made to the CERB are outside the EI program. That was out of necessity to be able to give Canadians this benefit quickly. The EI measures we have announced are temporary measures in place for a year. Our government is committed to increasing EI si

COVID-19 Response Measures Act  moved that Bill C-4, An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19, be now read the second time and referred to a committee of the whole.

COVID-19 Response Measures Act  Mr. Speaker, I am happy to participate in the debate on Bill C-4, An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are gathered this evening on unceded Algonquin territory. Bill C-4 has three parts. Part 1 creates

Employment  Mr. Speaker, we understand how important our foreign workers are and their contribution to our efforts to combat COVID-19. Our businesses just cannot operate without our foreign workers. We have invested $60 million to keep them safe. We cannot maintain Canada's food security wi

Government Funding  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Whitby for his continued advocacy on this issue. Students in vulnerable communities have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is why I am proud to share that our government has invested $5 million in Pathways

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, after still having a bit of PTSD from my time with Phoenix, one of our number one priorities was to make sure that we could deliver for Canadians. We need systems that are reliable, efficient and can deliver quickly. We have learned a lot from our experiences with

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, we were flexible when we were developing the details of our plan six weeks ago. We understood that school was going to reopen. We did not know what that was going to look like. We did not know the August job numbers. We did not know what state the pandemic would be

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, as I said, this pandemic has really revealed the gaps in our social safety net. We have taken a more targeted approach than perhaps a basic income approach would have been. We are trying to give more to the people we thought needed it the most, particularly workers a

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, even though we have an incredibly high rate of unemployment, there are also jobs out there. There are businesses that require appropriately skilled workers, and those are the jobs I was talking about when I was talking about filling jobs. We know there is a skills m

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, in answer to those three questions, we have already started working on EI reform. We have set the stage for some very important conversations with Canadians about a new iteration of the EI system that will be more generous, more accessible and more inclusive. These

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, if one thing this pandemic has certainly laid bare, it is the massive gaps in our social safety net and how many of our systems do not respond to the needs of our citizens, workers and most vulnerable. It has also given us an opportunity to, as a legacy, do better by

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, we are trying as much as possible to parallel these new benefits to the EI system, because that system has many benefits, such as providing the incentive to work and transitioning workers back into the workforce, as well as the ideas of working while on claim and acc

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, we have put a lot of effort into ensuring that there are no disincentives to work. These new benefits really work like employment insurance: People must be looking for work, be available for work, accept a reasonable job offer and be present in the country. They real

Proceedings on the bill entitled An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19  Mr. Speaker, we have been dealing with this in real time, course correcting and working very hard for Canadians. One of the benefits of the plan we have put forth is it is a longer-term plan. The world changes every two to four to six to eight weeks. We have given Canadians a yea