44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 6, 2023 10:00AM
Madam Speaker, my colleague mentioned many things I think we agree on. She mentioned the need to reform employment insurance. She mentioned the need to increase old age security for seniors who are struggling. I want to ask her a question about another group that is struggling to make ends meet, and that is people with disabilities. I met with a group on Friday in my riding that told me that half of the clients it works with, adults with developmental disabilities, are having the CERB benefits they received clawed back by CRA.
Does my colleague agree with me that the government should put a stop to the clawback of CERB benefits for people living with disabilities in this country?
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- Jun/6/23 2:51:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, last Friday, I met with a group in New Hazelton that works with adults with developmental disabilities. They told me that about half their clients were receiving letters from the CRA clawing back CERB benefits.
The Liberals know full well that people living with disabilities are struggling to make ends meet, that they are twice as likely to be living in poverty, yet instead of helping them, they are harassing them with these CERB clawback letters.
Will the minister do the right thing, stand today and commit to ending the CERB clawback for people with disabilities?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to take a brief moment to thank the minister for her work establishing a new passport office in Prince George to serve northern B.C. It is something I pushed hard for and it is going to make a real difference for the 300,000 people who call that region home.
Moving to child care, the government's agreement with the Province of British Columbia is making a difference in the northwest. I know a lot of people are pleased to have access to lower cost child care. However, the big challenge we face is, as she well knows, recruitment and retention of new early childhood educators. These positions are not paid nearly enough for the role that they play in our society.
What role does she feel the federal government has in ensuring that these positions are compensated properly and that we are able to recruit good people into these important roles?
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the member for Mirabel, for his comments, notwithstanding some of the little partisan digs he managed to fit in there.
Our goal is to make life better for Canadians. I am sure his goal is to make life better for Quebeckers in his riding. Does the member not see anything in this budget implementation act that would improve the lives of his constituents?
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Mr. Speaker, my colleague's party has said that, instead of carbon pricing, it is going to focus on technology, yet every single economist out there, including my friend from Mirabel, will tell us that directly subsidizing technology is a far more expensive approach than carbon pricing, which relies on the market.
I am wondering why the Conservatives are insisting on a more expensive approach to addressing climate change.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to ask my colleague from Charlottetown a question that I asked earlier in question period. Given what we know about the financial hardships faced by people living with disabilities, does he agree with me that the CRA should stop clawing back CERB from people in our country living with disabilities? People with disabilities are twice as likely to live below the poverty line given the challenges they face getting their bills paid and given the fact that the government has long delayed the Canada disability benefit. Does it not add insult to be clawing back the few benefits that these folks have received over the past two years?
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Mr. Speaker, I share the member's concern about the opioid crisis, as does everyone in this Parliament. I was pleased that he did not repeat some of the misguided falsehoods that his leader has been putting out there in the media when it comes to safe supply in the province. I am sure, as a British Columbian, he is familiar with the words of the chief coroner and the provincial health officer who have said there is no evidential basis for linking an increase in opioid deaths to the safe supply that we are seeing.
Where the member and I really strongly agree is the need for treatment programs, that one of the pillars of responding to the opioid and toxic drug crisis is having free treatment on demand. Would he support a federal fund directed to establishing those kinds of treatment centres in our province?
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