44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 30, 2024 10:00AM
- Apr/30/24 10:11:48 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first, I want to thank my colleague for the kind words and for his advocacy.
It is an honour to present a petition on behalf of constituents of mine from Tofino, Ahousaht and Clayoquot Sound.
They are citing concerns around migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, which are under serious threats from pathogens, pollutants and sea lice originating from open-net cage farms. They cite that wild salmon support first nations' cultural traditions and complex ecosystems, including contributing to coastal forests, which produce the oxygen we breathe.
They are calling on the federal government to remove open-net pen fish farms from B.C. waters by 2025, including with legislation aimed at immediately stopping the transfer of PRV-infected smolts into open-net pen fish farms and completing the transition of open-net pen fish farms to land-based closed containment by 2025.
They are also calling for a transition plan that includes a conservation financing package that compensates first nations and businesses that would be impacted by the removal of open-net salmon farms in their territories, as well as the local businesses that would be impacted.
Pacific salmon runs on British Columbia's coast are in a state of emergency. It is very important that the federal government listen to these petitioners.
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- Apr/30/24 10:43:22 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I also know that my colleague was an esteemed police officer. We heard from the B.C. chiefs of police and chiefs of police across this country. When it comes to the toxic drug crisis, the chiefs of police see it as a health issue. They do not want to go back to criminalizing people in my home province; however, they have asked for tools to deal with public use. They cited that it is not diversion, but actually toxic fentanyl, that is killing people. They have called for more safe consumption sites. In Alberta, deaths have skyrocketed, with a 17% increase in toxic overdose deaths. There has been an increase of over 5% in British Columbia.
We had Petra Schulz from Moms Stop the Harm here in Ottawa yesterday, again asking for a meeting with the leader of the Conservative Party. She lost her son Danny 10 years ago today.
Will my colleague urge his leader, the only leader in this country who has not met with Moms Stop the Harm, to meet with the mothers of loved ones lost because of the toxic drug crisis? Does he support the chiefs of police in British Columbia?
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- Apr/30/24 11:12:36 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, just yesterday Canada hosted the fourth round of the INC discussions on plastic pollution to try to get traction. We know that Conservatives put forward a bill to bring back the plastic straw, because they said it is good for the environment and it is healthy for us. I cannot make this stuff up. I did not read it on The Beaverton. It is actually a bill here in Parliament.
We know two garbage trucks of plastic are getting deposited into our oceans every day. We are choking on plastic, yet in the budget, the Liberals would get rid of the ghost and derelict fishing gear fund, a $10-million fund that was actually getting traction on our coast, especially in British Columbia. It was supporting the restoration economy and employing indigenous people from coast to coast to coast. It was a world-class program.
Maybe my friend from British Columbia can explain why the government would cut this really important program, which was also critical to protecting the blue economy.
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- Apr/30/24 11:42:14 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is so hard to speak at this end of the House without getting heckled by Conservatives. It is next to impossible to even hear someone next to us. This really needs to be addressed.
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- Apr/30/24 12:17:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, here we are, on the eve of the Day of Mourning. Every year, we honour those who have died or been injured at work. I want to give a shout-out to United Steelworkers in Port Alberni, which hosted Sunday's event in my riding, as well as to the others from labour who hosted in communities in Courtenay and Parksville.
As we honour those workers, it is critical that we support workers who are injured. We know that if workers who have been injured in the workplace do not return to work within 12 months, they have a 1% chance of ever returning to work. Right now there are 1.2 million Canadian workers who are not working. We need to unlock their potential and support them by accommodating them when they are injured at work, to get them back to work immediately.
We have a historic program for returning to work through Pacific Coast University, a disability management program that the government started, but the government did not renew it. Is the government going to renew the disability management program with Pacific Coast University, or is it going to abandon workers?
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- Apr/30/24 12:32:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, we continue to hear Conservatives rise in the House and tell us that people in British Columbia are covered for diabetes medication.
Becky, from my riding, wrote, “Our out-of-pocket costs for my son's insulin and devices come to just over $11,000 per year. It is so expensive sometimes that the pharmacy calls me to give me a heads-up about how much an order will be, as if we have an option. Without it, he will die. Something like national pharmacare would be a game-changer for us.”
Why are the Conservatives trying to block pharmacare and insulin for Becky and her kid?
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- Apr/30/24 1:20:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the Liberals promised that their disability benefit would end poverty for people living with disabilities. We have heard my good friend, the member for Port Moody—Coquitlam, advocate very hard for the disability community.
As New Democrats, we were expecting a disability benefit that would actually lift people out of poverty. Instead, what they are offered is $200. That is $6 a day. It is not even a bus pass in many areas.
Could my colleague maybe explain to people living with disabilities why they could not even offer a disability benefit that would meet the poverty line in our country, to ensure that people living with disabilities could at least have a $2,000 minimum income a month to try to make ends meet?
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- Apr/30/24 1:55:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my good friend, Joshua Charleson from Hesquiaht nation, the former elected chief of Hesquiaht nation, who works for Coastal Restoration Society, is here in town to talk about the importance of a restoration economy when it comes to cleaning up our waterways and our oceans.
We had a historic program, a ghost gear fund, that was world class, and the Liberal government cut it out of the budget. It was critical in removing things like polystyrene and fishing gear that infect and that impact our ecosystem. In terms of food security, it had a really big impact on indigenous peoples in particular, on their traditional and cultural needs, and on the blue economy. I know that my colleague lives on a waterway and that he cares deeply about the environment. Is he also disappointed that the Liberal government cut this historic program? Just after we finished an international convention with the United Nations on combatting plastic pollution, what did the government do? It cut historic programs. That is not leadership.
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