- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67
- Government Page
- Jun/14/23 3:11:46 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my riding is cut in half. Highway 4 has been closed for over a week because of wildfires. With the closure, local food banks are suffering, as people are trapped. This is impacting people who were already struggling with food insecurity. They are worried, and many do not know where their next meal will come from.
Will the federal government provide emergency funding to local food banks, small businesses and the community and provide emergency unemployment insurance to help people who are cut off by the wildfires?
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- Mar/30/23 10:15:50 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is a huge honour and privilege to table this petition today on behalf of constituents of mine from Tofino and Clayoquot Sound. They cite that migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks are under serious threat from pathogens, pollutants and sea lice originating from open-net fish farms. Wild salmon supports first nations cultural traditions and complex ecosystems, including contributing to coastal forests, which produce the oxygen we breathe.
In spite of the serious risk that domestic piscine orthoreovirus poses to the migrating juvenile wild salmon stocks, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans refuses to screen for domestic PRV and to stop the transfer of farmed fish that are known to be infected with PRV. Pacific salmon runs on the Pacific coast and in B.C. are in a state of emergency.
The petitioners are calling on the government to immediately stop the transfer of PRV-infected smolts into open-net fish farms. They also ask that it complete the transition of open-pen fish farms to land-based closed containment by 2025 and follow through with the removal of its promise of open-net fish farms from B.C. waters by 2025.
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- Mar/28/23 1:08:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table a petition today about ocean protection.
It is quite ironic that I am sitting with my colleague from Nunavut, whose birthday it is today. I wish her a happy birthday.
We know Canadians care deeply about the health of the ocean and they depend on thriving ocean ecosystems. In 2019, over one million cruise ship passengers travelled from British Columbia on their way to Alaska. These ships generate significant amounts of pollutants that are harmful to human health, aquatic organisms and coastal ecosystems.
Canada's regulations under the Canada Shipping Act that address the discharge of sewage and grey water are much less stringent than those in U.S. Pacific coastal states. Canada has zero no-discharge zones off British Columbia, it does not require third party independent observers on board ships as is required by Alaska, and it has less stringent regulations that encourage cruise ships to discharge their waste off British Columbia.
Constituents from my riding are calling on the government to set standards for cruise ship sewage and grey water discharges equivalent to or stronger than those in Alaska; to designate no-discharge zones to stop pollution in marine-protected areas, the entirety of the Salish Sea and Great Bear Sea and; to require regular, independent third party monitoring while ships are under way to ensure discharge requirements are met.
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Mr. Speaker, I asked him to consult with the Nuu-chah-nulth in my riding to measure how they are doing. I invite the members, really with an olive branch, to come and meet with the Nuu-chah-nulth people.
Now, there are some good things happening. Just two weeks ago, the B.C. government, working with the Huu-ay-aht First Nations, announced the creation of the Oomiiqsu mother's centre. It is creating a safe and culturally appropriate home. It is an indigenous-led model of care for women who are trying to keep their families together, who are leaving abuse, facing mental health and addiction disorders, or who are living in poverty and trauma. However, there is still no federal money. I hope that the government will live up to the council's recommendations and deliver funding.
Will the government work with the Province of British Columbia and ensure that we are delivering on that first call to action and make it a priority?
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- Oct/31/22 4:59:03 p.m.
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- Re: Bill S-5
Madam Speaker, I know the member spoke a bit to the bill and also talked about the carbon tax. My concern when it comes to the carbon tax is that all parties, everybody who is sitting in the House, ran on a platform to put a price on carbon. That is unequivocal. That is what happened. People voted for everybody to be here to deliver that.
My bigger concern is that we get here and then parliamentarians, even from British Columbia, think they can remove the carbon tax, when in my home province the carbon tax is a provincial jurisdiction. It was brought into my province by the right-wing B.C. Liberals and was supported by all parties.
Does my colleague understand that the federal government does not have jurisdiction over the provincial carbon tax in British Columbia?
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- Nov/24/21 11:00:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to make note in the House that between 2006 and 2011, floods cost Canada about $120 million. Between 2010 and 2015, it was $360 million. Between 2016 and 2018, it grew to $430 million a year. Now we are at over $1 billion. The PBO projected in 2014 that if we kept going the way we were going, floods and fires were going to cost us $43 billion to $50 billion a year. What a deficit to leave to future generations.
The member talked about investing heavily and taking bold and courageous action. The Liberals are investing $2 billion over 10 years. Bold and courageous is cancelling the Trans Mountain pipeline, which is $17 billion, and ending oil and gas subsidies, which are $18 billion. Let us start spending the money, the $43 billion to $50 billion a year that we are leaving, on my kids and most of our children and grandchildren now instead of shouldering them with the deficits.
The Conservatives talk about inflation. Just wait. Insurance rates are going to go through the roof. Let us protect future generations by investing now in the right thing.
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- Nov/24/21 10:03:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the people first in my riding, where 100 people were displaced, many of them living in a trailer park. I want to thank the first responders, the community residents who stepped forward, the Arrowsmith Search and Rescue, the people who took risks when the Englishman River breached its bank.
There is a lot of fear for the people in our community right now. There is a forecast of an atmospheric river coming for this weekend as well. We have not remediated the impact of the storm that hit us.
We have not talked enough about wild salmon and the impact on wild salmon. We know that wild salmon have seen drought, forest fires, a warming ocean and the Big Bar landslide. We had a 3% return in the lowest salmon-bearing river in the world last year.
Will the member speak about the importance of the government urgently ensuring that there are monitors and that there is support for indigenous communities to see what we can do for habitat restoration for wild salmon, so we can preserve that iconic species, which is critical to our economy, our culture, our—
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