Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Nunavut for perhaps one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard in the House. I certainly hope all members of this place have an opportunity to listen to the power of her words. Last night one of my constituency offices was vandalized.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, I apologize for interrupting my colleague, but I wanted to make sure that she remembers to share her time with the member for Vancouver Kingsway.

Emergencies Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member, who is also my neighbour, for his intervention today. When we look outside and see what has happened and talk about extremism, one thing I heard during this time from some members in the House is that there are “a few bad apples”, and this is very concerning to me.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, I am wondering if I could get comments from the hon. member. There was a joint column from former Conservative MP Peter MacKay and my dear friend the hon. Senator Vern White. I just want to quote it. It said this: As a rule, let’s affirm that negotiations with those committing illegal acts is a terrible precedent.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, I appreciate being here in the House debating the very important piece of legislation before us. I want to thank the member who just spoke. I work with her closely in our joint roles as whips, and I really appreciated the very sensitive approach she took in her speech.

Emergencies Act  Madam Speaker, I appreciate working with the member on the veterans committee and appreciate and respect his opinion. I also appreciate that while I sat through his speech, I was in the camera shot the majority of the time. I am wondering if the member could answer a very important question.

Emergencies Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her intervention, but I admit to having a great sense of despair in my own heart right now. I think of when the first children were found buried in Kamloops, outside of that institution. When I was four, I was adopted into an indigenous family.

Emergencies Act  Mr. Speaker, I hope all of us in the House are taking on the serious responsibility of the decisions we are making here. The member opposite and I have had conversations about both of us being parents to children from the BIPOC community and how worrisome it is. On this planet and in this world in which we live, when we send them out the door, just because of who they are, we do not know that they are always safe.

Old Age Security Act  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for her support. I have not tabled it in this Parliament, but it is in front of the minister's office right now and we are looking forward to having conversations on it. It is true that if we think about it, between 25,000 and 35,000 seniors across this country every year lose their GIS for up to four months.

Old Age Security Act  Madam Speaker, I also enjoy my time in committee with the member. This is probably the most devastating reality. The NDP has been very clear since August that something needed to be done. Earlier in the spring, we brought up multiple times that we were concerned that as these rollouts happened the most vulnerable would pay.

Old Age Security Act  Madam Speaker, I thank the member for those kind words. It really means a lot to me because I do care passionately. I share that with him and I just want to acknowledge that. I could not agree more. This needs to happen now. It needs to happen sooner. I have been talking to a lot of people in different departments of the government, talking to different ministers, pleading for the reality that these seniors are facing.

Old Age Security Act  Madam Speaker, I am very happy to be here today to speak on this really important issue, especially for the many seniors across our country who are relying on us to get this piece of legislation passed. I will be sharing my time with the amazing member for Nunavut, who has some very important things to share with us about the region she represents and how unique those experiences are for seniors.

Old Age Security Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the minister, through you, for her speech, and for working with the NDP to actually make some of these things happen a lot more rapidly. I know that seniors across the country have been devastated by this decision. They have lost more than we can ever measure with respect to their health, their housing and in some cases their self-respect, because they have had to ask people to lend them money when they never had to do that before.

Government Business No. 8—Proceedings on Bill C-10  Mr. Speaker, as we move forward with making sure that people have the rapid tests they need to continue to address the realities of COVID, we know that in Canada we are still not seeing the investment that we need to support local businesses in being able to provide PPE and other necessary requirements for us to deal with these kinds of health concerns.

Seniors  Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government made a huge mistake when it cut some of the most vulnerable seniors off the GIS, which they rely on to purchase basic things like housing, medication and food. They feel hopeless and they feel abandoned. The New Democrats have been asking the government since before the last election to fix this problem.