44th Parl. 1st Sess.
October 6, 2022 10:00AM
- Oct/6/22 12:10:53 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Nunavut.
I am pleased to rise today to speak to the motion in the name of my esteemed colleague from Cowichan—Malahat—Langford. I commend him on his excellent advocacy on behalf of workers and producers in the agricultural sector. I also commend our leader, the member for Burnaby South, for his unwavering fight to force CEOs and big corporations to pay what they owe and to tackle the corporate greed that has gouged families in every corner of our country.
As more and more people struggle to make ends meet, wealthy CEOs are raking in record profits. To make matters worse, workers' wages are not keeping up with these rising profits or inflation. The motion we are debating today is a logical and responsible response to alleviate the burden being placed on workers, families, seniors and Canadians as a whole by closing the tax loopholes the government and its Conservative counterparts continue to support, allowing these already-wealthy CEOs and big corporations to avoid paying $30 billion in taxes in 2021 alone.
After seven years in government, the Liberals continue to allow ultrarich CEOs and large corporations to avoid paying their fair share. While making these profits, they are stagnating the wages of workers and increasing prices. After seven years of government promises to be there for people and have large corporations pay their fair share, we are instead where we are today, with large corporations continuing to benefit off the backs of everyday Canadians.
While the Conservatives continue to make noise, they continue to prop up the ultrarich while leaving people behind. The Conservatives will always have the backs of their wealthy friends, not those who need it most. While the new Conservative leader was minister, the Conservatives cut the tax audit of the wealthiest and prioritized excessive CEO profits. While the Conservatives fight against children having dental care, they step back and prop up the Liberals to continue, as they always have, refusing to have those making the most pay their fair share.
My NDP colleagues and I continue to fight for people, as we always have. Instead of sitting idly and continuing with the status quo of the rich getting richer, we continue to pressure the Liberals to make the wealthiest CEOs pay what they owe and to stop the price gouging they are doing to people.
I want to take a moment to look at what we are talking about exactly. While Canadians pay the price for rising food, billionaire Galen Weston, chairman of Loblaw Companies, which includes stores like Real Canadian Superstore and Extra Foods, has increased dividends to shareholders from $118 million to $125 million by 2022. While shareholders reap the profits, more and more Canadians are having to cut back on the amount of food they buy. As a matter of fact, 23.6% of Canadians in a recent survey identified having to do so. We are not talking about Canadians having to cut back on luxuries here. We are talking about Canadians having to cut back on the basics: bread, milk, meat, fruits and veggies.
Canadians not having access to nutritious foods impacts us all. Prior to entering federal politics, my work was focused on the many symptoms of poverty and fighting for those who have the least to access their most basic human rights, such as a home, food on the table and the head-to-toe health care they deserve. I worked on the front lines with those who are almost always forgotten in the decisions being made by the federal government. The decisions made in this very chamber impact the lives of Canadians in endless ways. Every decision is an opportunity to do better, and this is even more true at a time when so many are struggling to make ends meet.
Children are among those most impacted by these decisions. In my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith, over half of children of lone-parent families live in poverty. Imagine for a moment a parent working hard to provide for their children, yet regardless of how hard they work, the money coming in does not cover even the most basic expenses. To make matters worse, the cost of living continues to increase, leaving them further behind than they were when they began.
I understand first-hand the frustration and hopelessness that parents trying to give their kids the best start in life experience and feel when all the systems surrounding them have set them up for failure. No matter how hard they work, they are always worried about how they are going to keep a roof over their heads, healthy food in their kids' stomachs and even transportation to school. However, children in Canada, who will one day be the ones to make decisions about our well-being, are often an afterthought.
There is no reason that children in Canada should not have access to healthy, nutritious foods. We know healthy foods are essential to the development and learning of children, yet while I was working in schools and had the honour to serve as a school board trustee, I saw too many children show up to school hungry. This impacted children in endless ways, with increased misbehaviour and challenges in learning, and now we know that the number of children showing up to school hungry continues to increase.
I am thankful for the work of so many on the ground in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith who continue to do what is best for our communities despite the challenges that are being faced. I think of Nanaimo Foodshare, as one example, which continues to provide what it calls “good food boxes”. These boxes are offered on a pay-as-one-can basis to members of the community and include seven to nine varieties of whole fruits and vegetables, all packed and provided by the hard work of local volunteers. I also think of the Ladysmith Resources Centre Association, which offers a food recovery program that collects food from commercial production and distribution channels and redistributes it to those in need.
We know that those using food banks are disproportionately women, children, indigenous and racialized individuals, and those living with disabilities. Nanaimo Loaves & Fishes Community Food Bank in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith has distributed 2.4 million pounds of food, valued at $6.5 million, to people on Vancouver Island directly or through first nation communities, non-profits, food banks and schools.
Clearly, as Canadians, we carry on the deep-rooted values of taking care of one another, but the onus of responsibility should not be laid on the shoulders of members of our communities. We need federal leadership that prioritizes people first, not the profits of rich CEOs. The trickle effect of the lack of federal leadership can be felt at every level: provincial and territorial, municipal, first nations and even school boards. Our municipalities and school boards, for example, should not be left to pick up the pieces where the government has failed with minimal resources to do so. Nobody benefits from this.
It is not just children who are impacted by the government's inaction. The number of seniors trying to make ends meet with low, fixed incomes while costs continue to increase is also on the rise. In 2018, 12% of seniors in Nanaimo were living in poverty, and we know that this number has seen steep inclines since. I heard from a senior recently, who wrote to me and said, “I am a senior who is just trying to live on a fixed income. Rent increases, cost of food, just too much to list. We were the people who helped build this country and we need to see some help please.”
There are also those who get up in the morning and head to work daily in order to provide for their families. They are also unable to make ends meet. It is sad to see so many working hard, day in and day out, and still struggling. This is just not right.
The cost of so many people struggling impacts us all in many ways. We know that as the number of people struggling to make ends meet increases, so do the needs within our health care system, as just one example. When we take care of one another and remain proactive with the ways we do so, we all benefit. It costs us all to leave people behind.
That is why the motion we are debating today is so important. While so many are going hungry in our country, wealthy CEOs are making record profits. It is time we force CEOs and big, wealthy corporations to pay what they owe so that this money can go where we need it most: back to people.
It is time to launch an affordable and fair food strategy that tackles corporate greed in the grocery sector and includes a full investigation into grocery chain profits, while increasing the ways we can hold them to account for abusing their positions for gain. It is time to remember that the decisions we make today impact people and that nobody benefits when we line the pockets of the ultrarich at the expense of Canadians.
I am happy to vote in support of this motion to do what is right for people, and I hope my colleagues in this chamber will do the same.
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- Oct/6/22 12:21:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is clear that this issue is complex. There are many different factors that we need to be looking at.
However, in response to the member's question, I will quote from an article about Jim Stanford, an economist and director of the Centre for Future Work, who says that when people spend more on shopping, it inflates supermarket profits. This is “acting as a kind of trickle-up economics and transferring wealth from the poorest to the richest.
“The inflation we're seeing ‘wasn't caused by wages,’ Stanford said, or by workers. ‘It's caused by greed.’”
This is why this motion is so important. We need to look at what is happening, look at the greedflation that is happening around us and finally start having those who are profiting off the backs of Canadians pay their fair share.
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- Oct/6/22 12:23:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I hope this is supported and goes to committee so we can look at the results from witnesses and from those who are seeing, first-hand, the impacts.
What we know is that currently the system is set up to be lining the pockets of the ultrarich at the expense of everyday Canadians. I cannot reiterate that more than today. We are seeing the trickle impact. When I was in a level of government that was very local, we could see the impacts of federal inaction and how it trickles down to everyday people on the ground.
We need to be flipping this on its head and starting to make choices that benefit workers, seniors and children in our communities.
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- Oct/6/22 12:24:35 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the emphasis on seniors, and I most definitely mentioned this, although it may have been missed, in my speech. I spoke of seniors who are living off of fixed incomes, who are feeling the burden of the cost of living continuing to increase while the income they are receiving remains fixed and, by far, does not bring in enough to make ends meet.
Absolutely, anything that we can do to provide seniors with dignity and respect into their retirement, and to ensure that they are able to put food on their tables, I am in support of. I would be happy to continue the conversation with my colleague from the Bloc.
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- Oct/6/22 5:02:26 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, many in my riding of Nanaimo—Ladysmith are reaching out after feeling the impacts of living with lower incomes and rising costs. Lone-parent families, seniors, those living with disabilities and their children are feeling hopeless as rich CEOs continue to profit off the backs of everyday working Canadians.
I wonder if the member could expand a bit on the importance of systems being put in place to address abuse and exploitation by rich CEOs in their positions so they are held to account to prevent this from happening again. What would that look like?
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- Oct/6/22 5:18:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am curious. I know the member speaks quite passionately about helping people. However, that is not what we have seen historically. I wonder if the member wants to put his words into action today and support this motion to start calling to account the ultrarich CEOs who continue to line their own pockets at the expense of everyday families. Actions speak louder than words. The member and the Conservative Party have shown that they are not there for people.
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