So V ote

Oct/30/23 6:35:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today on a really important issue that is impacting small businesses throughout Canada. Throughout the pandemic, small businesses closed their doors to protect public health and the people in our communities. They are the unsung heroes that are not talked about enough in the House or in this country. Obviously, many of them took a major hit financially. I have some stats from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It cites that 60% of small businesses are still struggling with pandemic debt. In fact, the average pandemic debt is $126,827. Forty-seven per cent of small businesses are operating with sales that are below normal, and 19% are at risk of closure. This is a significant number of small businesses, which are one of the economic drivers in our communities. Many workers are employed by and rely on small businesses to succeed. My colleague, the member for South Okanagan—West Kootenay, has been pushing the federal government to extend the CEBA loan for one more year, for the full-fledged, forgivable portion. We have been calling for a CEBA extension. Right now, 250,000 businesses are at risk of closing their doors. As New Democrats, we understand the critical need to support small business. We are glad to see the Bloc join in our call for a full-fledged extension to the end of next year. We are glad to see the Greens support our call to action. However, can we guess who is missing in action? It is the Conservative Party. We cannot find the Conservatives when it comes to this critical ask that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has identified as critical to supporting small business. I am just going to read a note from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. It is part of their petition. They are asking people to write to the government. The petition says, “18 days isn't an extension. It's an insult.” That is what the federal government just offered small business when it comes to the CEBA loan. Then, if they can, they have to go back to the bank where they got the CEBA loan. They have to come up with a deal by March and have the bank take over the loan, or they will lose the forgivable piece. Then they have to pay huge interest on top of that to the bank that finances them. This is absolutely an insult to these small businesses and those that closed their doors to protect our health. I went on a business walk with Jolleen Dick, the executive director of the Alberni Valley Chamber of Commerce. We went into Flandangles Kitchen and Gifts in Port Alberni. I was talking to Chris Washington. Not only did Chris close her doors to protect public health, but she also kept her employee going. She went out and got a job so that she could pay her employee the difference on the wage subsidy. She has paid $10,000 a year for the last two years toward the debt, but she cannot afford to meet the deadline. She is on her way back up, but it is not fair to punish Chris Washington and Flandangles Kitchen and Gifts, which not only closed its doors to support public health but also supports our community. Wildflower Bakeshop and Cafe is in the same boat. They paid $5,000 toward their loan. In fact, the mayor of our community, who owns a restaurant, told me that there is not a restaurant she knows of that has been able to pay back the CEBA loan. I am asking the government this: Will it extend the full CEBA loan to the end of next year, with the full one-third nonrepayable portion, to December 31, 2024?

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Nov/1/22 11:55:45 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, this needs a deep dive, and it needs support from all parties. We need to work collectively on this. Right now, there have been 18 complaints out of 500 that have come through and made it to the commissioner to look at. Not one has made it to the tribunal. This is not okay. It is actually impossible to imagine that not one whistle-blower complaint would have gone through to the tribunal and been supported—

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Nov/1/22 11:54:20 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, that fits the whole story, the whole regime of the Conservatives and the Liberals. It is about them bailing out their friends, whether it be big oil, big grocery or the big banks. This is what they do. They do not want to go after them and make them pay their fair share. Instead, they leave Canadians hung out to dry. This outsourcing that we are talking about today is again part of their history and story. It is about their friends, these expensive consultants who hire expensive consultants. The Conservatives started the Phoenix pay system. It was supposed to save over $80 million a year. It has cost $2.4 billion. The Liberals are not innocent, but they carried it on. They kept going with it. It needs to end. We are going to be here to stop it and to fight for the Auditor General to come in and look at this. It needs to change. We are going to stand up for Canadians and make sure that Canadians get the support they deserve.

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Nov/1/22 11:52:37 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I will just start with the government financing oil and gas. It makes these huge investments in industries that had $147 billion in profit last year, and here the government is subsidizing building the Trans Mountain pipeline, which is skyrocketing out of control. Outsourcing is built into this whole regime. It is a waste of taxpayers' dollars. It could all be going to help improve the lives of Canadians, so they could get access to medicine, housing and things they actually need to live.

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Nov/1/22 11:51:37 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, we are here every day, calling on the government to do the right thing and provide support to Canadians. What we have are gatekeepers from the Conservatives and the Liberals protecting big corporations that are having record profits. Every day we are standing up for Canadians. Today, we are calling for transparency when it comes to outsourcing. Both the Conservatives and the Liberals are the champions of outsourcing. It is their friends. They are highly paid consultants hiring highly paid consultants. This is their history. It needs to stop, and it needs to stop now. We are here to fight for the people.

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Nov/1/22 11:41:17 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to discuss the motion regarding the ballooning costs of the ArriveCAN app. In a time when too many Canadians are struggling just to make ends meet, it is critical that the government ensure we have sound stewardship of tax dollars. I share the concerns of Canadians and frontline CBSA officers that the ArriveCAN app has cost way too much and delivered too little. Last week at the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, we heard from the national president of the Customs and Immigration Union that frontline service workers were never consulted on the development of the app or any of the more than 70 updates that were required. While the government continued to pour money into ArriveCAN, frontline workers were forced to deal with the fallout of a glitchy app on top of a severe staffing shortage. This has had a huge demoralizing impact on the mental health and the moral of CBSA officers. At committee, I supported a study to provide more transparency to Canadians, which they deserve, about the costs associated with the ArriveCAN app. I also pushed the committee to go further. I believe the ArriveCAN debacle is part of a larger systemic issue of the government increasingly hiring expensive consultants, who hire expensive consultants, with no regard for delivering the best value for Canadians. That is why I tabled a motion, which was supported unanimously at OGGO, to request that the Auditor General conduct a performance audit on outsourcing policies and practices more broadly. Earlier this year, the Globe and Mail reported that since the 2015-16 fiscal year, government spending on outsourced contracts had increased by 41.8% under the federal Liberals, reaching $11.8 billion in the 2020-21 fiscal year alone. This trend started under the previous Conservative government and continues to cost Canadians today. All too often, outsourced contracts seem to balloon and cost more than if public service workers were tasked with the same work. The Treasury Board has provided guidance on preparing estimates to help departments with “make-or-buy” decisions, as well as policies on the planning and management of investments that require departments’ decisions that demonstrate best value and sound stewardship. However, it is not clear how these policies are applied in practice or what oversight is involved. A broader performance audit by the Auditor General, as I proposed and as was supported at the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, could provide important insights to Parliamentarians on questions. How often are departments' cost estimates exceeded for outsourced work? What happens when a department gets an estimate wrong? How are lessons learned and shared across departments? I want to highlight the concerning transparency and accountability issues that arise in relation to outsourced contracts. The Public Service Alliance of Canada recently told the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates that “The procurement process to contract out work favours corporate secrecy over the rights of Canadians to know how funds are spent and how services are managed.” Our access to information regime is broken and it is extremely difficult for Canadians to get a full picture of how funds directed to the private sector are being spent. This is a perfect example of what we are talking about today. It is also extremely difficult for public service workers who become aware of mismanagement related to outsourced contracts to raise the alarm without fear of reprisal. Canada’s whistle-blower protection regime has been called among one of the worst in the world and cases like the Phoenix pay disaster and the ArriveCAN app show how there are real costs to the Canadian public when public service workers cannot speak up. The blame for Canada’s ineffective whistle-blower protection regime lies with both the Conservative and Liberals parties. David Hutton, a whistle-blower protection expert and senior fellow at the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, recently wrote in the Hill Times that when the member for Carleton, then-minister under the Harper government, introduced federal accountability legislation in 2006, “he claimed repeatedly that it would offer 'ironclad' protection, and indeed it does—but for the wrongdoers, not for whistleblowers or the public.” Since the Liberals came into power, they have failed to remedy this situation. Instead, they have sat on a unanimous report from the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates for over five years. That report recommended sweeping legislative reforms to Canada’s whistle-blower protection law. As the Liberal government bounces from scandal to scandal, it seems to have no interest in improving protections for whistle-blowers who could shine a light on government wrongdoing or mismanagement of public funds. This is critical to the transparency for which we are calling so Canadians can trust their government. In addition to the transparency and accountability issues that I am talking about, the government’s increasing reliance on outsourcing raises concerning equity issues that warrant discussion. In 2018, the UN special rapporteur on poverty and human rights discussed privatization as a cause of poverty while still costing governments more. In 2019, the Standing Committee on Human Resources tabled a report on precarious work, recommending the government, “[review] human resources policies and budgeting practices to ensure that they incentivize hiring employees on indeterminate contracts.” It is critical that the government stop the precarious work and incentivize hiring people full time. Further, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada has written about the interplay between outsourcing and gender equity, stating: In IT, lucrative contracts are doled out to a male-dominant industry that has notoriously struggled with gender equity. While at the same time, lower paid and precarious temporary service contracts are disproportionately filled by women. The majority of temporary workers become trapped in a cycle of persistent temporary work, defined by low pay, few if any fringe benefits, and high risk of unemployment and labour force exit. While the government will say it is forced to rely on the private sector to deliver IT services because of skill shortages within the public service, it is ignoring in-house talent and failing to invest in building further institutional capacity in a way that promotes gender equity, and I will also say failing to work with public institutions to tap into that expertise and knowledge that lies in our public institutions, including higher-learning institutions. The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada has filed more than 2,500 grievances where work was outsourced rather than assigned to existing expertise in the public service. In the last fiscal year, the government spent $2.3 billion on information technology service contracts compared to $1.85 billion on its own IT workforce. If the government is truly committed to building a strong and inclusive public service, it is essential that it maintain and build in-house IT capacity. The government’s increasing reliance on outsourcing is not only undermining efforts to promote equity, but it is also costing Canadians more. Although it is difficult to get information on outsourced contracts, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada shared with me the following alarming examples: “one IT Technical Architect at National Defence cost Canadian taxpayers over $359,000 per year in a contract that was renewed for over 8 years. The equivalent public servant (including their pension) would have cost $147,876 – saving over $1.5M”; and “Another example: Shared Services Canada has spent over $14M over the past five years on 3 resources and posted a contract tender extension for another four years. Three public servants (including their pension) over the same five years would have cost $1,855,476 – saving over $12M.” It is not just in IT that we are seeing these increased costs because of reliance on outsourcing, but also in other areas like cleaning, grounds maintenance, health care and access to information. While I agree that Canadians deserve transparency on the ArriveCAN app, they deserve much more. They deserve transparency on the true costs and risks of outsourcing public services. I hope all members will agree that a broader examination of outsourcing by the Auditor General is warranted and is in the best interest of Canadians.

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May/19/22 7:43:36 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the government says it is taking action while more people are dying. The deaths are mounting. It is not taking action in the way it needs to, like it did with COVID-19. I will change my line of questioning to the minister. As caregivers for children under five eagerly await a decision from Health Canada on Moderna's application for vaccines for this age group, how quickly will doses be distributed to the provinces upon approval?

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May/19/22 7:38:06 p.m.
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Madam Chair, is the minister saying she did not procure for any COVID response needs without direction completely from the provinces?

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May/19/22 5:05:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there are things I truly appreciated in my colleague's speech and things I do not agree with. One thing he touched on were the wait times at the airports. When we see the wait times at airports or passport services, we know the government has not adequately staffed the resources to respond to the increase in the amount of travel. We have constantly heard complaints like these from Conservatives over the years. It is always a surprise to me when Conservatives say there are not enough public servants. They cut services, then they complain about it. The repercussions are delays in service. We saw that happen with Veterans Affairs under the Stephen Harper government. It cut a third of Veterans Affairs, and that made a backlog that exists even to this day. Does my good friend and colleague not agree in the importance of investing in public services to support Canadians and make sure that they get the services they deserve and need?

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May/19/22 4:49:09 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is a really important issue and we are hearing from many people in my riding. Certainly, we believe that health measures should be informed by health science and not politics. We heard Dr. Tam in March, stating that a full re-evaluation of Canada's pandemic measures would be done and that she would report back to Canadians. We are at the end of May. People have concerns. Trust in public health measures requires explaining the arguments and sharing the evidence they are based on. For two years, the government was in front of Canadians, answering questions. We cannot find it now. It is not in front of Canadians, answering questions about this. To have trust, the government needs to be fully transparent with Canadians with the evidence behind any of the remaining health measures. Does my colleague not agree that Liberals are failing to answer the questions of Canadians? They need to come forward quickly to ensure that there is trust in Canadians.

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Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22

May/19/22 4:19:03 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really appreciate a lot of the comments from my colleague. I too share her frustration. I mean my office right now is getting absolutely inundated by calls from people who are waiting for their passports. As well, the time that they are waiting at airports is completely unacceptable. We know that none of this is a surprise. People were planning on travelling as soon as the travel restrictions eased. Can my colleague speak to how important it is for the government not only to hire staff but to ensure that the public service is fully resourced and that employees of the public service are paid good fair wages, especially in a labour market shortage like right now?

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Context: House Hansard - 60 - Apr/28/22

May/2/22 11:44:02 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Madam Speaker, it is a huge honour to rise tonight to speak to the fall economic update. Today, the families and friends of 20 Canadians will get the life-changing news that their loved one has died because of a toxic drug poisoning. Tomorrow, the families and friends of another 20 Canadians will get the same news, and again the next day and the next day. The expert task force on substance use established by Health Canada accurately described what we are facing when it said: The war on drugs has led to what ends up looking like a war on people who use drugs. People are dying every day, and the situation in Canada, already particularly deadly, is getting worse, not better. Canada has the fastest growing rate of overdose mortality in the world. This is from the government's own expert task force. The pandemic has accelerated the toxic drug supply crisis and there is no end in sight. The Public Health Agency of Canada, in its most recent modelling, predicted that opioid-related deaths will remain high until June and may even increase, yet the government has refused to take the urgent actions needed to stop the losses, including making investments, at the scale that this crisis requires, in addressing the root causes of problematic substance use, education and prevention, harm reduction and safer supply, and treatment on demand and recovery services. The fall economic update failed to even acknowledge the public health emergency that has been devastating communities for years, and the 2022 budget added a mere $100 million over three years to be spread across the country. That is 10 provinces and three territories. The stigma is not just in policy, nor just in the laws in this country. It is in the amount of money the government spends to tackle this crisis. The toxic drug supply crisis, which has arisen as a direct result of the failed war on drugs, is not just costing lives; it is costing significant amounts of money to all levels of government. Members have heard me say repeatedly in the House that this is a health and human rights issue, but this is also an economic issue. The expert task force wrote about the financial burden of the criminalized approach to drugs on the health and criminal justice system. Its report said: Criminalization leads to higher drug-related health costs because it keeps people who use drugs away from prevention and early treatment health services due to fear of being arrested, labelled, or outed. “Criminalization drives people underground and means that people are less likely to seek assistance, or have difficulties if they try to obtain assistance.” Because criminalization pushes people who use drugs to rely on an illegal, often contaminated drug supply, it is also responsible for high hospitalization costs. “23,240 opioid-related and 10,518 stimulant-related poisoning hospitalizations occurred from January 2016 to September 2020 in Canada (excluding Quebec).” In its second report, the expert task force put it bluntly, saying, “Current policies are currently costing Canada huge amounts. In—”

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Context: House Hansard - 45 - Mar/24/22

Apr/28/22 10:33:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there are so many things happening right now in this country. There is an overdose crisis, and a toxic drug-supply crisis that is killing people. There is a housing crisis. There are so many problems and issues that have to be resolved, such as veterans who are still waiting for their disability payments because of the backlog that started with the Conservatives. The Conservatives are delaying having really important conversations, and they have not brought forward any solutions around the issues that I have talked about, whether it is climate change, whether it is the important need to fast-track reconciliation or the failure of the government to deliver on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and the calls to justice. My question to the member is this. Why are the Conservatives continually delaying and not bringing forward solutions to solve these really important issues?

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Context: House Hansard - 45 - Mar/24/22

Mar/24/22 3:59:55 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really enjoyed listening to my colleague's speech and his expertise on this. I do appreciate that my colleague also supports and agrees that COVID-19 vaccines do provide strong protection against severe illness, hospitalization and deaths. Does my colleague agree Canada should support the TRIPS waiver at the WTO to expand global vaccine production, especially for middle and lower-income countries?

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Context: House Hansard - 45 - Mar/24/22

Mar/24/22 3:30:19 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I served on the veterans affairs committee with this colleague. I respect him and thank him. The government always talks about science and evidence-based decision-making, but that also has to come with transparency. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Tam, has indicated that the government is currently engaged in a broad interdepartmental approach to reviewing all vaccine mandates under federal jurisdiction. Does my colleague not agree that the government needs to provide Canadians with a timeline for this review and needs to do it soon, and that there needs to be transparency in its decision-making?

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Context: House Hansard - 44 - Mar/23/22

Mar/24/22 3:14:12 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I just now observed my good friend and colleague from Saanich—Gulf Islands trying to get through a question in this House and the amount of heckling that came from this side is completely unacceptable. We have had huge challenges in attracting women, not just to run for politics but to actually stay in politics. I want to remind men in this House of the important role they play when it comes to their conduct in any violence against women and attacks on women in this place. What I just heard happen is unacceptable.

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Context: House Hansard - 36 - Feb/21/22

Mar/23/22 4:52:17 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-8

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his respectful decorum in the House and for his speech. I have concerns about some of the things he said in his speech. Of course, we do not agree on many things, but he talked about the NDP fighting for and getting supports for workers throughout the pandemic, which is something we are proud and honoured to have fought for. We did want more provisions and more guidelines so that big corporations did not potentially take profits and then pay shareholders, and that is something we did rail against. The Conservatives cannot point to anything they fought for through the pandemic for workers or for people who struggled throughout the pandemic. We heard them yesterday when they voted against our motion to tax big corporations such as big oil to make sure there was revenue for things like a dental program, but we know they do not support a dental program. They actually do not believe that Canadians need a dental program. Does my colleague not believe that the super-wealthy who profited from the pandemic should be paying more in taxes to pay their fair share and contribute to supporting important programs like dental care?

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Context: House Hansard - 36 - Feb/21/22

Feb/21/22 7:24:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge the important interventions of my colleagues across all political lines throughout the weekend and today. We are all tired. Canadians are tired. I want to make sure it is unequivocally clear that NDP members are taking the use of the Emergencies Act very seriously. We have been unequivocally clear that if we vote in favour of the government's request, as we will tonight, it is not a blank cheque. We are very reluctant here. We are not supporting it because we want to, but because of the failure of leadership from all levels of government, which led to this point. The government will have to stay within the established powers or we will withdraw our support. We have made that unequivocally clear. I want to speak a little about the main group that organized this protest, this convoy. They came to Ottawa. They issued a memorandum of understanding, which is a pseudo-legal document. It called for the establishment of a committee with the Governor General and individuals appointed by Canada Unity, which would have had the power to override all levels of government and to dissolve the democratically elected Government of Canada if it did not follow through on the MOU. This is unacceptable. They called on the Prime Minister to dissolve Parliament. We can all agree that this is a failure of the leadership of the convoy as well to make that declaration. It is certainly not a way to get a meeting with the Prime Minister and the government. This is the first time the Emergencies Act has ever been used since it was created over 30 years ago. The NDP agrees that it should continue to be avoided as much as possible. It is very clear that we do not want to use this tool. This is, again, as a result of the failure of all levels of government, including our Prime Minister, to show leadership to keep Canadians safe over the past few weeks. What we face right now are illegitimate protests. They have not been peaceful. There has been an illegal occupation. People in residential areas of Ottawa have been harassed. People do not feel safe in their own homes. There have been reports of attempted arson of a residential building. The convoy has given itself unlawful powers to detain people. We have seen large numbers of firearms confiscated in Coutts, Alberta. This cannot continue to escalate further. It has to stop. I understand the concerns people have about the potential impacts of the use of emergency measures legislation. I have those concerns, too. I have seen Liberals and Conservatives abuse their power in the past. I have seen their governments attack rights of indigenous peoples and workers, as examples. That is not what we are talking about here. We are talking about an illegal occupation that has gone on for three weeks. It has had a huge impact on people. The NDP will use all powers at its disposal to hold the government to account while the Emergencies Act remains in effect. I did hear a Conservative member say that the NDP is the party of the working class and that it has abandoned them. That is not true. We are not abandoning the people of Ottawa. We are not abandoning the workers of Ottawa. We are not abandoning automobile workers in Windsor, Ontario, and workers across this country. We want to make sure there is a clear flow of goods and services so that businesses can continue to operate. I heard the leader of the official opposition initially say, “I don't think we should be asking them to go home”, and that we need to turn this into the Prime Minister's problem. I had a person from my community say the same thing to me. Paul reached out to me and said, “Let the Prime Minister sink on this.” I can tell you, as a New Democrat I will never let someone be harmed for political gain. We as New Democrats will not do that. We will stand up for Canadians, for health care workers, indigenous peoples, people suffering across this country. We need to stop the division. I know the Conservatives like to tell the story that this is not well supported. Again, I made it very clear that Peter MacKay, a former Conservative defence and justice minister under Stephen Harper, thinks that this meets the bar and that this should be supported, as does Vern White, a Conservative senator, the former chief of police of Ottawa, as does Prime Minister Harper's own senior security adviser. The Premier of Ontario is a Conservative and he supports the implementation of the Emergencies Act to relieve the citizens of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa. How can all levels of government be ignored, including first nations? First nations in my own province, the First Nations Leadership Council in British Columbia, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, and the B.C. Solicitor General support this. We need to move forward. We need to end the division in our country, and stop the flow of misinformation and foreign money. I see it is time to go to a vote. I urge us all as Canadians to come together and drop the rhetoric. I know the Prime Minister said a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian. It is time for all of us to include each other, drop the rhetoric and try to heal as a country.

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