SoVote

Context: House Hansard - 217 - Jun/20/23

Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)

Jun/20/23 2:53:01 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, Edmonton now has one of the fastest-growing monthly rent prices in the country, increasing nearly 16% over the last year. Young people cannot keep up, and Liberals are not doing anything. They will not protect young people from corporate landlords, who are handing out eviction notices to jack up the rent. They are not investing properly into building affordable units. They are leaving young people to fend for themselves, while corporate landlords keep getting richer. Will the Liberals invest in safe, affordable, community-based housing so that young people can actually afford to rent in Edmonton?

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Context: House Hansard - 217 - Jun/20/23

Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)

Jun/20/23 4:51:50 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-18

Madam Speaker, as much as I am tempted to ask my hon. colleague what those solutions are now, and I am sure Canadians probably want to know what they are now, I digress, because I am not quite certain. As the member is reluctant to give them today, I hope he may provide them to everyone here in writing. I want to make a quick differentiation about something that, for a long time, New Democrats have called for; this is the difference between the needs and the wants of Canadians. The member speaks directly to the market. As a matter of fact, we need to ensure that a market is well-balanced to ensure that the things Canadians actually need to obtain to live, such as food, water, homes and, in this case, good information, are actually available to them. The member did not speak directly to the concern that I think is important in this legislation, which is why I think we can probably agree that there needs to be a process ensuring that our small businesses, particularly news outlets in small rural communities, can actually get the information they are working for produced on to the websites people are seeing the news on. This is important for small communities, because people are doing the work. They are doing the journalism in their communities to talk about the good work happening, whether it is in Edson, Drayton Valley or Fishing Lake, so that when people go to the news, they can actually have access to it. Right now, these companies are saying that they will not, and they are benefiting to the tune of nearly $10 billion. Could the member speak to how important it is to balance those two?

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Context: House Hansard - 217 - Jun/20/23

Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)

Jun/20/23 5:49:06 p.m.
Watch
Re: Bill C-278

Madam Speaker, it was a very poignant speech made by the member. I heard several things. I think it is important for Canadians to note something: Many of the restrictions in place during the pandemic were provincial regulations. Whether they were Conservative or New Democratic governments, they often instituted those uniformly, particularly in my province of Alberta. The former member of this chamber Jason Kenney instituted many of those mandates. I think the member is conflating public health measures and the measures taken federally. It is important to note that governments, at one point in this country, were unified on ensuring that Canadians' lives were saved. World War I and World War II veterans were saved because of vaccinations. Today, we have the convoy party talking about how inappropriate vaccinations are. How many lives have to be lost before he takes deadly pandemics seriously?

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