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Rachel Blaney

Member of Parliament
NDP

North Island—Powell River
British Columbia
Voting Attendance: 64%
Expenses Last Quarter: $145,542.18

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 265 - Dec/11/23

Dec/11/23 10:55:28 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I think the impact will be actually devastating. I think of one chief in my riding, from Homalco, who spoke about the fact that there is a bridge in their community where they have lost one life of a young person and another young person made an attempt. They now really watch that bridge to make sure that their children do not hang themselves from it. These are real-life truths, and it is hard to figure out how people are going to fight one day for their indigenous rights, fight the next day for basic human rights for their people and fight to keep someone alive when those are the options on the table every day for a leader of an indigenous community. The complexity of that needs to be recognized, and I encourage all members to spend time in indigenous communities so they can better understand that reality.

152 words

Context: House Hansard - 111 - Oct/17/22

Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)

Oct/17/22 5:19:37 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-22

Madam Speaker, today is the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, so I am glad we are talking about this and the realities that so many people living with disabilities face. As a collective, as a country, we have to take ownership of the fact that our inability to create accessible spaces has excluded people and left them in poverty, so I am glad we are having that conversation and I hope we continue to actually take the next step. With respect to this piece of legislation, although I will support it, although I appreciate the intention, what really matters to me is the impact. What we see in this piece of legislation is that there is nothing concrete that is really going to make a successive difference. I do not want to see this just passed and the actions not taken. I wonder if the member could reflect on that.

152 words

Context: House Hansard - 52 - Apr/4/22

Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)

Apr/4/22 5:08:46 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I agree, especially regarding the issues of climate change. We know that the impacts are being felt profoundly. I am from British Columbia, and last year we saw a heat dome that took many lives because we simply do not have the infrastructure we need to deal with that kind of heat. We saw extreme flooding and forest fires and lost whole communities. Farmers lost everything. We know the impacts of climate change are real, but they are also extremely expensive, and I am very concerned because we do not see the government taking the next steps it needs to take to address this issue in a serious way. I am wondering if the member could talk about what she is seeing and how urgent and expensive climate change is.

132 words

Context: House Hansard - 35 - Feb/20/22

Ms. Rachel Blaney (North Island—Powell River, NDP)

Feb/20/22 5:49:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate being here in the House debating the very important piece of legislation before us. I want to thank the member who just spoke. I work with her closely in our joint roles as whips, and I really appreciated the very sensitive approach she took in her speech. I also want to say that these are amazing times. I believe we should not be here, yet here we are. I also want to say that today when I was walking to come to work I saw something that really bothered me. I saw a small business owner chasing two men out of his store with a stick, yelling at them. He could not get hold of the police. I am just wondering if the member could talk about the impacts this kind of recklessness is having in this county, when we see this extremism, when we see a blockade for three weeks, when we see people feeling so afraid and we also see the impacts of that activity, which means our social structures start to come undone. If we cannot stand up in this House and talk about how we are going to deal with that, then I do not think we are doing our jobs very well. I would love to hear her thoughtful response, just as thoughtful as her speech was.

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Member of Parliament

Rachel Blaney