44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 6, 2021 11:00AM
- Dec/6/21 5:39:37 p.m.
- Watch
- Re: Bill C-3
Madam Speaker, I am here to talk about the government's proposal to amend the Criminal Code to criminalize certain behaviour, which I believe most Canadians thought was already against the law.
Before speaking to Bill C-3, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the fine people of Langley—Aldergrove for endorsing me for a second term. It is a great honour to be re-elected. I have promised my constituents that I will be a clear voice for them in this Parliament.
I want to thank my wife, Inga, and my extended family for their ongoing support. I also want to thank the many volunteers who helped me throughout the campaign and made my success a reality. Politics is a team sport.
Moving onto Bill C-3, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canada Labour Code, I am going to focus on the Criminal Code aspect of the bill, which would make harassing health care workers illegal if the intent is to prevent them from doing the work of serving the public.
As I said, many people think that this is already against the law. There are provisions in the Criminal Code that the police and prosecutors could rely on to prevent this type of anti-social behaviour. One thing we have learned through the pandemic is that we must value our health care workers as they are essential to the full and proper functioning of our society and our communities. We owe them a debt of gratitude.
Everybody in this House knows a health care worker, is related to somebody who is a frontline health care worker, or is a neighbour to one. I have two family members, a daughter and daughter-in-law, who are. One is a care aid in a seniors home and the other is a nurse in a hospital. Every day they go to work, and they are eager and happy to serve their patients to the best of their abilities.
Sometimes they are in very stressful situations, such as situations of understaffing or having to be moved from one ward to another on very short notice. Sometimes they have to work extended shifts due to a shortage of health care workers. Sometimes they have to work in the COVID ward. I think not only of the health care workers, but also of the family members, who share the risks, stresses and strains of health care work.
This law is a step in the right direction. It is a gesture in support of our health care workers. A more constructive and substantive way to support our health care workers would be by hiring more nurses. The shortage of nurses is a long-term problem that we knew about long before the COVID pandemic, but it has been exacerbated by that.
I met with members of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union. I have a quote here from a publication they shared with me. It states, “Many risk factors for burnout have been exacerbated during the pandemic, including increased patient acuity, understaffing...increased overtime...reassignment to unfamiliar roles”. It goes on to say, “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, severe burnout was typically found in 20%-40% of healthcare workers.” In the spring of 2020, at the commencement of the pandemic, that percentage increased to between 30% and 40%, and by the spring of 2021, it was more like 60%.
The publication goes on to say that job vacancies for registered nurses had the largest increase of all occupations over a two-year period. This is what is happening to our health care workers. There is a shortage of them and that shortage is increasing stresses and strains. The best thing that we could do for our health care workers would be to hire more health care workers.
I asked the people with whom I met with whether there is a shortage of people who want to be in the nursing industry, and I was told absolutely not. There are many applications to universities and to nursing schools across the country, but not enough seats in these nursing schools. I am thinking of Trinity Western University in my riding. The nursing school has a very good reputation across the country and around the world, and it would love to open up more chairs. That is what we need to do. We need to increase the supply of nurses.
Let us go back to Bill C-3. I am happy to listen to the debate. There seems to be a consensus developing that we are all in support of this bill. I am happy to hear that we want to support our health care workers, but I am hoping there is also a consensus forming around the right of protest.
Long-standing democratic rights in our society include the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom to protest; however, they need to be done in a balanced way. No rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are absolute. They are always subject to such reasonable limitations as defined in law and as are demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society. The question for the committee would be to determine whether we have found that right balance in Bill C-3. It is an open question.
The effective paragraph in the bill states:
No person is guilty of an offence under [the relevant] subsection...by reason only that they attend at or near, or approach, a place referred to in that subsection for the purpose...of obtaining or communicating information.
We are allowed to have information pickets. I agree with that. I think everyone in the House is going to agree with that, but the right of protest does not extend to interfering with the proper functioning of society.
I am going to pivot to something that was in the Conservative platform in the last election. Reference has been made to it by several of the previous Conservative speakers. We are proposing to introduce a critical infrastructure protection act that would prevent protesters from interfering with infrastructure projects, whether they are hospital construction, transit construction or pipeline construction. Yes, we have a right of protest. No, we do not have a right to interfere with legal projects that Canadians have determined are essential for our society. I am very pleased that we are introducing Bill C-3 because not only would it protect health care workers, it would also set a good precedent for us going forward.
I look forward to an opportunity, at some point, to introduce something like what the Conservatives were proposing: a critical infrastructure protection act. The work that the committee would do, and that Parliament is doing right now around Bill C-3, is going to be precedent-setting for legislation going forward that would regulate how protesting is to be done. Peaceful protesting is allowed, but getting in the way of society's functioning is not.
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- Dec/6/21 5:48:27 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-3
Madam Speaker, it starts with having enough people in the workforce. Right now, there is a shortage of health care workers. We are focusing particularly on nurses. We need to solve that problem. We need to get enough people in the workforce working in hospitals and in the many other fields where nurses serve their patients and keep Canadians safe. That is where we need to start. I would certainly be open to any suggestions about how hospital administrators allocate those resources, but the resources need to be there first.
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- Dec/6/21 5:50:18 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-3
Madam Speaker, the member's question gives me an opportunity to talk about jurisdiction and Canadian constitutional law. I am not talking about the federal government taking over jurisdiction. Of course, we are going to work with the provinces. Health care is a provincial matter. The federal government needs to work with the provinces to find the best way to increase health care resources.
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- Dec/6/21 5:52:17 p.m.
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- Re: Bill C-3
Madam Speaker, as other speakers have said, this needs to go to committee to be studied. We do not have a lot of detail about the government's plans in that regard. I do know that many unionized workers working in federally regulated industries have paid sick leave in their contracts, and I believe in the sanctity of contracts. I would certainly be willing to look at gaps where further assistance is required. However, that is for the committee to look into.
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- Dec/6/21 7:06:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, last week I had a question for the Minister of Emergency Preparedness about the recent flooding in the Fraser Valley and in particular in Abbotsford, which touches on my riding. I pointed out in my question that the Sumas Prairie diking system needs repair. We have known that for a long time. That is not news, and we knew that the price tag would be roughly $500 million, which seems like a big amount of money, but the cost to repair it if there was a flood would be significantly higher. Our worst nightmare came to pass a couple of weeks ago.
I was happy to hear the Minister of Emergency Preparedness say that there would be money. The federal government sees the responsibility there, so I hope he brought his chequebook today because I have a specific ask.
Here is a bit of background first. Sumas Prairie used to be Sumas Lake. It is a wetlands area. It was subject to annual flooding twice a year: a spring freshet and, in the fall, heavy rains such as we saw. About 100 years ago, it was diked off, canals were put in and big pumping stations pumped it dry. It is very fertile farmland.
There is another area of Abbotsford, which I am sure the minister is aware of because he visited there recently. It is called the Matsqui district. It is also low-lying land subject to annual flooding, but there is a diking system there. It held back the water this time around. That is a good thing because it is holding back the mighty Fraser. When that breaks, we have a really big problem.
I met with Mayor Braun on the weekend, together with my colleague the member for Abbotsford. We said to him that we were going to be meeting with the Minister of Emergency Preparedness, and asked him what specifically we needed. Mayor Braun said we needed money. Those two diking systems still need to be repaired at roughly $500 million for each of them, and they need to be seismically upgraded. It is a lot of money and I recognize that. Therefore, we are asking for some money.
However, here is a second question for the minister, which is more complicated. We need to negotiate with the United States of America, because the Nooksack River, which runs solely within the state of Washington in Whatcom County, also contributed in a very significant way to the flooding this time.
This is also a problem that we have known about for many years. I read a report recently that talked about the complexity of it. It is complex. It is the harder question, and the harder problem to solve. I wonder what the Minister of Emergency Preparedness says about that.
The first issue is money, and the second is negotiating with the United States.
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- Dec/6/21 7:13:07 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, spending $1.4 million on a study is important of course, but we are talking about $1 billion. If the minister did not bring the chequebook today, will it be in the budget? It is absolutely essential. It is existential to the Fraser Valley.
The minister did not make any reference to negotiating a treaty with the United States regarding the Nooksack River and the Columbia River, through the International Joint Commission. This is very important. We cannot do this alone. We need our American allies with us on this. I would like his comments on that.
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