- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Courtenay—Alberni
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $148,159.67
- Government Page
Mr. Speaker, it is an honour and a privilege to rise tonight to talk about a really difficult year that we had in my riding of Courtenay—Alberni.
We know that ocean temperatures around the world have been rising rapidly. It is a record year for air temperatures, ocean temperatures and wildfires globally.
We watched with horror as we saw wildfires rage across Yellowknife and Hay River and Nova Scotia, coast to coast to coast. My riding was no different. This included Highway 4 at Cameron Bluffs in my riding, which separated my riding from the west coast to the east coast along the Alberni Valley. That fire started, really, at full rage on June 6. It had a tremendous impact on the communities and on small business.
We know that the PBO projected just 10 years ago that climate emergencies would cost Canadians about $900 million a year. Here we are, and we are into multi-billions of dollars. This has an impact on the economy, the ecology and the ecosystem. We are seeing, right now, that the PBO projects that, so far, climate emergencies have cost Canadians between $20 billion and $25 billion.
I think about the impact that has on our communities. Of course, we need to take real action when it comes to climate change. We need to make sure that we invest heavily in clean energy and transition away from fossil fuels.
We also need to make sure that the impact of climate emergencies is not shouldered by the most vulnerable or by small businesses. That is why I am here tonight.
The communities of Tofino, Ahousaht, Hesquiaht, Clayoquot, Yuułuʔiłʔath, Toquaht, Huu-ay-aht, Hupačasath, Tseshaht, Uchucklesaht and Port Alberni have all been heavily impacted by wildfires in my riding.
In just Tofino and Ucluelet, they identified that the cost was $44 million, and that was on August 16. We are talking two months in. It took a long time before the highway could get cleared and people could move. Supply chains were heavily impacted.
Currently, Canada does not have a rapid response emergency fund for small businesses when it comes to climate emergencies. We know that there will be a lot more emergencies.
I cannot imagine the suffering of people in Hay River and in Yellowknife. They were even more impacted. We need to find a fund.
When I ask small business owners who should pay for this climate emergency rapid response fund, and if it should be an increase in taxes, the flat-out answer is no when I give them the alternative. That is to charge an excess profit tax on oil and gas, which has had record revenues and record profits. Shift that revenue to help support small businesses that have been impacted.
I believe we can have hope in taking on climate action really wholeheartedly after a year such as this. We need to.
However, SMEs cannot shoulder the burden. Right now, they have asked for an extension on the CEBA loan. They are still not getting that refundable portion, which they need by the end of next year.
I was just talking to Scott Stewart, who runs True North Distilleries. He needs the CEBA loan extended. His distillery also pivoted to help provide sanitizer for public health agencies through the pandemic. They just cannot absorb this kind of punishment.
We need to make sure that we are supporting small business with urgency, especially with the impact of climate-related emergencies. The CEBA loan extension is one part; we should provide a fund that can move rapidly and pivot, so that we can help support these small businesses.
We have seen Britain charge an excess profit tax on oil and gas. We know the Conservatives are not going to support that. We cannot even get Liberals to do that in Canada. It is time for the Liberal government to step in and provide resources to support those small business owners, who really are the economic drivers of our small communities.
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- Jun/16/23 2:06:41 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, like my colleague before me, I also want to pay my respects to all those who have been impacted by the terrible bus crash in the Prairies, and their family members. I thank all the first responders and everybody in our health care system especially. It is a traumatic experience for them and for everybody in those communities.
We are in the middle of a crisis in my riding. There are wildfires that have cut my riding right in half. Over 30,000 of my constituents are cut off from the rest of Canada. Many of them are struggling. I have to give a shout-out to all those people who are fighting the wildfires, all the first responders and the people in our community who are stepping up, like those who work at the food banks. We are looking out for each other. It is what we do in Canada and across this country, especially in rural Canada; we look out for each other.
It is a tremendous privilege to rise to speak to this bill. I have worked with my colleague from Cariboo—Prince George since we both got elected in 2015. He brought forward a bill for a PTSD strategy. He has experience in this area, or at least knowledge of it. He has been a strong advocate for first responders and people working in health care since I have gotten to know him, and I do appreciate his bringing forward this bill. We are both from rural B.C., and we understand the importance of looking out for our health care workers, especially in rural Canada.
We know this bill would amend the Criminal Code to require a court to consider the fact that the victim of an assault was, at the time of the commission of the offence, a health care professional or first responder engaged in the performance of their duties, and that that would be an aggravating circumstance.
The main thing that we, members of the NDP, want to say is that, clearly, no health care worker or first responder should ever be subjected to violence in the workplace. Bullying, abuse, racial or sexual harassment and physical assault should never be considered part of the job. Health care workers take care of us at our most vulnerable times; they look out for us. We rely on them. We have a responsibility to take care of them in return. That has not been happening. I am going to speak to that in depth.
Violence against health care workers is a pervasive and growing problem in the Canadian health care system. Both the number and the intensity of attacks are increasing at an alarming rate. Assaulting a health care worker not only harms the individual person but also puts our entire health care system at risk. I am going to speak to that in more depth. Workplace violence is a major factor driving Canada's dire health care staffing shortage. We know that workplace violence is a pervasive problem in health care settings across the country. However, prior to COVID-19, health care workers already had a fourfold higher rate of workplace violence than people in any other profession. We know it has gotten worse since then. Incidents of violence against health care workers have escalated dramatically during the pandemic and postpandemic.
We were already in a crisis, like I said, prepandemic. We have seen that there is a labour market shortage in the health care system. We have seen the increased demands on the health care system. In 2017, a survey cited that 68% of registered practical nurses and personal support workers experienced violence on the job at least once that year. Imagine someone going to work and that, at least once a year, there will be a violent attack committed against them. Who wants to work in that environment? It is just terrible to hear these stories. Nearly one in five of the RPNs and PSWs surveyed said they had been assaulted nine or more times in that year alone. We have heard, from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, that violence-related incidents and claims for frontline health care workers have increased by almost 66% over the past decade, which is three times the rate of the increase for police and correctional service officers combined, who are also facing an increase.
We really need to step back and look at how, over the last couple of decades, we have seen a huge erosion of our health care system. I am going to speak a bit more about that.
If we look at Canada's ratio of nurses to patients, we have one of the worst in the world. In universal health care, we are at the bottom. We are just above the U.S. That is just a terrible stat on its own. Nurses know this full well. Their patients see them running from patient to patient and the stress this creates.
Nurses are really the victims of the failure of consecutive federal and provincial governments to stabilize and strengthen our health care system. They have been dealing with the huge erosion of cuts. They are dealing with the people at the front line. When there is a wait at an ER or a wait to get the services people so desperately need in their vulnerable state, it is the frontline health care workers who are dealing with a political problem. The cuts from all levels of government are falling on the people on the front line, and that is creating a huge strain on the patients and on their families, as we know. It is slowly eroding staff levels as well because people are having to make difficult choices.
The long-term health care system is now over 50% privatized. Privatization has a huge impact on the health care system as well, as there is a lack of protection for workers, inadequate wages and staffing levels that are quite low. The health care system is in deep trouble, and staffing is a major issue. There is frustration in the lack of care, like I said earlier, and the burnout it is causing people on the front line. This is a crisis, and it is propelling these terrible statistics.
One thing I wanted to highlight is that we need to do a few things to help fix that. We need to invest in our health care system, stop for-profit health care and ensure that we are supporting the staff. The bill before us is a really important start to that, but there is also the burnout.
We are hearing from nurses, and they are saying they have three options. The first is to leave the field. The second is to get burnt out and make a mistake while practising their care. This is falling on them. The overburdening of our health care system is falling on them. Can members imagine going to work, worried they would make a mistake while trying to take care of somebody? The third option nurses have is to reduce to part-time hours, but that creates even further erosion of the health care system.
There is a lot of compassion fatigue happening as well. I really appreciate my colleague before me talking about the lack of mental health support. We now have a two-tiered health care system. Our mental health care system is a two-tiered health care system. There are people who need care. We are hearing from people who cannot get access to that care. They have to get arrested just to get the care they need. That is absolutely ridiculous. They have to get arrested. What kind of state are they in at that point?
When they go to the ER and they are in that kind of state, it is health care workers who are dealing with them. This is not acceptable. We need to ensure that we create parity with physical and mental health, and that we are not reactionary. Right now our health care system is reactionary instead of preventative, and we need to get to a preventative state.
It is an uphill battle, and it is exhausting everybody in this country.
I do want to highlight that our critic from Vancouver Kingsway tabled a very similar bill, Bill C-434, to ensure that we are on this path, and I believe my friend from Cariboo—Prince George tabled a very similar bill.
We want to make sure that we get the definition of health care professional or first responder right, so we are supportive, obviously of this legislation, and we can work on that with our colleague at committee. I am sure we can find a pathway to doing that. This legislation is an important legislation that we have heard support for from the Paramedic Association of Canada, the Paramedic Chiefs of Canada and all important stakeholders.
I have to highlight something before I finish. The majority of health care workers who experience workplace violence are women, and this violence is often connected to gender-based discrimination and harassment. This needs to stop. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information's 2019 report on health workplace statistics, women account for approximately 82% of Canada's regulated health professionals, which includes nurses, midwives, physicians, dentists, pharmacists and other health professionals.
We have lots of work to do. We are very supportive and appreciative of this bill and legislation.
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- 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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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the minister for her work on the emergency that we are in. I also want to thank my colleague from South Okanagan—West Kootenay for calling for this important debate today.
The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs just wrote an op-ed in The Globe and Mail yesterday and cited how Canada is becoming more and more reliant on over 90,000 volunteer firefighters. It also highlighted in its op-ed that, number one, it wants to make sure that the government sends a clear message to firefighters that they are needed, valued and appreciated. It highlighted that the tax benefit for firefighters who do over 200 hours of volunteer work get about a $450 benefit. They get a $3,000 tax threshold relief. They have been calling for that relief threshold to be raised from $3,000 to $10,000, and the right thing would be to support this. It is identified in my private member's bill, Bill C-310.
Will the government support what is really a small token given the inflationary costs and the costs on firefighters? They are being stretched to the max. Some of them are working right now. On top of the normal work they do, they also fight wildfires. Will the government honour this ask?
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