- Member of Parliament
- Liberal
- Humber River—Black Creek
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $134,163.57
- Government Page
- Oct/17/23 2:00:08 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, October 17 is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. This day is a moment to reflect on the amazing strides we have made as a world in reducing poverty, but also to recognize that there is still much to do.
Between 1990 and 2014, the world made remarkable progress, with Canada being a leader in helping more than a billion people to move out of extreme poverty. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine have caused the cost of food to skyrocket throughout the world, putting 150 million people on the verge of returning to extreme poverty.
Canada has long been a leader in the fight to eliminate global poverty and we are well positioned to continue that leadership. I would like to thank Results Canada, a non-profit agency with over 500 volunteers across the country, for its more than 35 years of work to end extreme poverty. Let us continue together to explore ways to eradicate poverty in Canada and around the world.
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- May/15/23 2:10:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, over the past two years, the world has suffered from the unprecedented crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am pleased to say Taiwan is one of the few places in the world that has successfully stemmed the spread of the coronavirus.
Sadly, despite its efforts, Taiwan is still effectively locked out of full participation in the World Health Assembly. Taiwan, as a responsible member of the global community, has always been committed to promoting public health and has contributed significantly to the international efforts to control and prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Taiwan's experience and expertise in managing the pandemic could have been invaluable to other countries, especially those in the region.
Taiwan's re-entry into the World Health Assembly would not only benefit its citizens, but also the global economy. It is time to focus on what is truly important: the health and well-being of all people, regardless of nationality or political affiliations, and allow Taiwan access to the WHO.
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- Mar/6/23 2:51:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, during the pandemic, gender-based violence increased at an alarming rate. We simultaneously saw that crisis lines were used more than ever across Canada, and this demand, unfortunately, continues today.
Could the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth share what our government is doing to respond to this heartbreaking increase and provide support to those experiencing gender-based violence?
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- Nov/1/22 2:04:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we learned very early on in the COVID pandemic that masks save lives. As demand for life-saving masks spiked, we also learned valuable lessons about Canada’s supply chain for personal protective equipment. When COVID hit, we were not manufacturing medical-grade respirators in Canada, which were badly needed to protect our medical staff and essential workers. As Canadians do when faced with a challenge, we all got to work.
Today I want to thank 3M Canada and its employees for their incredible commitment to Canadians' health and well-being. During the heart of the pandemic, 3M Canada, with support from our government and the Province of Ontario, was able to increase the domestic manufacturing of critical N95 respirators right here in Brockville, Ontario. It continues to supply those masks today.
By manufacturing N95s here, 3M Canada has demonstrated true dedication to our country, to our frontline health care workers and essential workers, and to our economy, supporting good jobs across the country. Today I want to thank 3M and its employees for that.
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- Jun/13/22 2:01:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the past two years have been difficult, fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but none more so than for our health care professionals, who have been challenged both personally and professionally.
Situated in the traditional lands of the Anishinabe, Humber River Hospital has cared for more COVID patients than many other hospitals in Toronto. It played a key role in keeping the northwest community safe and healthy, delivering close to 400,000 vaccines at the clinic and raising over $2 million for local COVID response. With a greater mission in mind, Humber River Hospital continued to save lives, improve patients' journeys and foster innovations, while nurturing the culture of philanthropy and playing an important role in bettering the community.
The pandemic has been tough, but Humber River Hospital employees were up to the fight to protect residents of Humber River—Black Creek, showing further leadership on how to foster a positive work environment, something that was vital for our health care professionals.
To the CEO and president, as well as every employee and volunteer at Humber River Hospital, our community thanks them. We are forever grateful.
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- Apr/26/22 12:22:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can say that over the last last two and a half years that we have been dealing with the pandemic, nothing has made me more proud of our government than the amount of help that we put out there for people who were losing their jobs or did not have jobs to go to any longer. With the monthly support they received and the help that we gave to businesses, the job numbers are now back up to pre-1974 levels, and a lot of that is because this government handled the pandemic and those challenges the correct way.
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- Feb/19/22 2:23:37 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, one of the things that I continue to be concerned about is the amount of violence that is happening throughout our country on different fronts for different reasons. Maybe some of it is the result of the pandemic and the stress on people. That is what I would like to think it is. Once we can get a bit further along with this pandemic, people will feel better. They will be calmer and they will find a more rational way of dealing with problems.
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- Feb/19/22 2:13:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have talked about trying to get through this pandemic and the difficulties many businesses are facing, so we cannot stand back and allow things to continue this way.
Michael Kempa, a law professor and criminologist in Ottawa, was asked a few minutes ago if the Emergencies Act was really necessary. He said that it absolutely was, because without the Emergencies Measures Act being brought into play, it would have taken a minimum of five or six more days to get other police services here and deputized. We would have continued to see this kind of illegal activity going on outside Parliament Hill and the disruption to neighbourhoods for another five or six days.
I ask members to think about the impacts this is having on the economy. Nate's Deli, which is located at Sparks and O'Connor, is a little delicatessen many of us go to on our lunch hour. Its workers told me that they were just hanging on at the end of the lockdown restrictions. That delicatessen has now been locked down for four more weeks. Will it be able to open and survive this?
I think of Goodfood, which is company close to the riding owned by a young family. President Dan Simile phoned me last week to tell me that he could not get a truck to deliver boxes across the border. He was having to lay off all his staff.
Those kinds of things are big disruptions to our economy. They are also disruptions to the people living in the Ottawa area in particular. Many employees were unable to get to their places of employment, even to work on Parliament Hill, without being called names and facing abuses. My own staff was subject to some abuse from some of the protesters out there.
We have a responsibility to move forward. Businesses, such as the grocery stores in downtown, are suffering. One had to close up because protesters without masks would come into the store with no respect for anybody else. This upset everybody, so ultimately it had to close.
This has gone on for far too long. Yes, I know this is not easy. I have received lots of calls from people in my constituency who do not quite fully understand this, but they are not here. They are not seeing it every day, and they do not realize the full impact of what is going on. It is imperative we do the right thing. We need to protect our country, and we need to protect its citizens. Very importantly, we also need to protect the economy.
To have a banker in the U.S. refer to Canada as a banana republic is unacceptable to all of us. It is a real insult. I am proud of my country, and I am proud of what we do. We are taking the necessary steps to move forward.
We try to not get into political rhetoric. If folks on the other side choose to join us in a united front to support this, it will only be in effect for a very short period of time. There will be a parliamentary committee that will reviewing it, and there will be a full investigation afterward. This came off the rails right from the beginning, and once these protesters became entrenched, it was very difficult to move them out.
I ask that we stay as united a front as we possibly can and not confuse people by talking about the War Measures Act, because that frightens the very people we represent. Let us try to be more united and provide accurate information regardless of what side anyone is on.
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