- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- North Island—Powell River
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 64%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $145,542.18
- Government Page
- May/30/24 10:45:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when we are in this place, we have to wrestle with really hard pieces of legislation that benefit some but not all, and I am afraid that in this place, historically, up until today, indigenous people are left out of so much decision-making, and their needs are extensively not met, again and again.
I am just wondering if the member could talk about what she sees as being needed right now to start including indigenous people in a more meaningful way so that we can start to repair the harm that has been done, specifically in this place.
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- Apr/18/24 3:46:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it surprised me that something I have heard about from a lot of first nations communities across this country was missing in the budget. This is the issue of enforcement. We know that, on reserve lands, tribal lands or treaty lands, people do not have the ability to call the RCMP or the local police to enforce a lot of the laws of the land, whether provincially or federally. We know this is becoming a higher-risk issue in that members of the indigenous leadership are having to go out and implement enforcement to the best of their ability. Why is this not a priority for the government?
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- 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.
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- Dec/11/23 10:52:48 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am a little confused by the question. We are not actually here today debating a bill. We are here having a take-note debate, which is something the NDP brought forward because we know that there are going to be significant cuts to Indigenous Services Canada.
Yes, I will always work for clean water. I am happy to talk about the nations in my riding that still struggle with clean water because of the systems that continue to oppress, but the reality is that what we need to see members on the government side understand is that there is unconscious bias that they are allowing to permeate everything that they put forward. That unconscious bias is their responsibility, even if it is unconscious. They must take what is invisible and make it visible, and that is hard. I understand that. At the same time, that is not an excuse.
Hopefully, we will see the current government take it seriously, because we have not seen any government before take it seriously. If this is the most important relationship the Liberals have, I certainly would not want to investigate a relationship with them.
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- Dec/11/23 10:46:12 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, it is always an honour to be in this place and speak on behalf of the amazing people of North Island—Powell River. I want to start by recognizing that I will be sharing my time with the member for Vancouver East.
I want to give a special thanks to the NDP indigenous caucus, the member for Winnipeg Centre, the member for Edmonton Griesbach and the amazing member for Nunavut, for their tremendous work on making sure that we keep having these discussions.
I also want to call on all members of this place to remember that this is not an indigenous issue. It is a Canadian issue. Canada was created on a line of colonization and genocide. We continue to see this repeated in our system, because it is the foundation of our system. Until Canada owns that and understands what that means, we are not going to see the changes that we need to see.
We are here tonight to talk about the fact that Indigenous Services Canada is making some significant cuts. I represent a significant number of indigenous people in my riding, and I am very grateful to them. They educate me all the time. When I was thinking about this, a few nations came to mind.
I thought about Ahousaht, which called for a state of emergency because of the number of deaths it was having in its small community. It was seeing significant drug overdoses, and in large part, the deaths in the community were directly related to a lack of supports and programming, which it desperately needs in the area. It has done a tremendous amount of work to bring forward plans, both to the provincial and federal governments, to start to address those issues. However, it is still finding the government slower to react than it would like.
Again, I think this comes back to the issue that my colleague from Winnipeg Centre talked about earlier today. These are matters of life and death. This is not something where we are just saying to be nicer. We are saying that people are dying. They have been dying since the beginning of this country, and they continue to die. When it is a particular group, and we know in this place that it is the indigenous people who continue to have the highest rates of suicide across this country, that is enough for a significant call to action. We are just not seeing the intensity that is needed when responding.
I think of Ka:'yu:'k't'h'/Che:k:tles7et'h'; I went to meet with that community recently. It is a very remote community doing some tremendous work. Its members talked about the infrastructure gaps. They are moving towards economic development, but those infrastructure gaps keep being a burden to them in taking that next step.
They also talked about the fact that, as a remote community, they do not see those first responder services. They still have not seen the federal government stand up and say that it is going to be part of them moving forward, so their independence is something that is equal to every other non-indigenous community across this country. This is really about basic human rights.
I think of Dzawada’enuxw, which is another remote community in Kingcome Inlet. The people there do not have a road to get to safety. If there is a storm, they all have to go to the school and wait for helicopters to pick them up. When that many people are being taken in hazardous weather, that is not a good solution; however, they do not get the support they need to make sure that road is there. They are not seeing the federal government step up and make it a priority, as though human safety should not be a priority.
I think of the ‘Namgis First Nation, which is doing some tremendous work around language. It has created a language hub. The community is talking about how to bring children into the circle and start them in their own language first, so it is just who they are as they grow up. However, it needs the resources.
In fact, every single nation I just mentioned has talked to me about language, about the fact that they are doing everything they can to fix it. However, they still do not see those supports.
Many years ago, my husband, who went to residential school, made a mask for my son's school. It was called “the Indian in the child”. It was a transformation mask, and I hope people understand what that is. On the outside, he had a white face covering a beautiful indigenous face inside. This history is today. My son stood there with his uncle holding that mask for the rest of his school to look at, because he knew that he was the first generation of his family not to go to residential school.
This is happening today, and we need to make it right. Seeing cuts in this country means that we will continue to see this genocide. The government must be held accountable, as every Government of Canada must be held accountable.
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- Dec/11/23 10:41:48 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, the member's speech made me remember hearing testimony at a House of Commons committee from former chief Joe Alphonse, who talked about the fact that there were serious fires and everyone around them in non-indigenous communities talked to them in a very disrespectful way. Even though they had a significant plan and had worked at a high level to make that plan, these people came into their communities and marked every house on the reserve that had children in it.
I am wondering if the member could talk about how colonial practices continue to harm indigenous communities.
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- Apr/17/23 2:15:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in my riding of North Island—Powell River, every community I serve is in desperate need of housing. The top three reasons for housing insecurity are a lack of affordable rents or mortgages, low wages and housing in major need of repair with no resources to fix it. Indigenous people are four times as likely to be unhoused.
People with core housing needs in my riding are single-income families; those who live on a fixed income, such as seniors and persons living with disabilities; lone-parent households; and indigenous households. This issue requires a real partner in the federal government, and our region is simply not seeing that.
My constituents have ideas, such as redesigning the reaching home program's rural and remote funding stream. My communities have sent meaningful and thoughtful feedback. I urge the government to listen to it; prioritize rural, remote and indigenous communities; define affordability based on local realities, not market values; invest in non-market housing; and make capital investments into the upkeep of aging properties to keep people housed.
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Madam Speaker, first I want to acknowledge the people of this territory, the Anishinabe, for letting us continue to work here. We know that the history is not a good one, but here we are on their territory making the laws of this country.
I also want to take this opportunity to honour all the missing and murdered indigenous women across this country. We know, as we see what has happened in Winnipeg, this raw wound has been ripped open yet again. We know so many people around this country are suffering. I want to recognize and honour the hard work they are doing every moment in surviving this history, surviving this reality now and what that means. Everywhere we go in this country is indigenous land. It is a very special relationship between the first people of that land and the land itself.
I remember years ago speaking with late elder Ellen White from Snuneymuxw. I am so honoured she took the time that she did with me. I expressed my concern about the fact that colonization was continuing to happen, that so much culture was lost due to smallpox, the outlawing of traditional practices, residential schools, day schools and the continued apprehension of indigenous children today. She told me that much of the knowledge was saved, protected and hidden to keep it safe and that everything that was lost came back in the children who were born. They were the carriers of knowledge from the spirit world, so that nothing was ever really lost. That had a really significant impact on me.
When I look at Bill S-219, a bill to make January 4 national ribbon skirt day, it makes me think of how, in spite of everything, in spite of such a targeted effort to destroy the first peoples of this land, they are still here. It makes me think of how the children keep bringing things back to our communities in so many ways. Indigenous children carry inside them this beautiful spirit that will not bend in the face of discrimination, hate or shaming. Therefore, when we think specifically about this day, we have to think about Isabella Kulak who, at 10 years old, inspired a movement based on the pride she had in herself, in her family and in her culture by wearing a ribbon skirt to school.
From the Cote First Nation in Saskatchewan, she wore her ribbon skirt to a formal event at her school. Sadly, an educational assistant made fun of her. Why any adult would feel the need to make a child feel small I can just never understand. The pain perpetrated on children's bodies and spirits over history has never made any sense to me. Indigenous children, for far too many generations, have continued to experience this pain and suffering, and collectively in this place we must all fight to make it stop.
However, this did not prevent Isabella from having her own sense of pride in her family or her family's determination to support her. This moment of shaming was made into something powerful and beautiful. In solidarity, women and men wearing their ribbon skirts and shirts walked Isabella to school in January, and people from around the globe began to post ribbon skirt photos in her name.
I remember my Granny Minnie, from Stellat'en First Nation, who went to Lejac residential school, used to always say to me, “We are still here.” I remember as a child not understanding what that meant. I just knew that we were here. As I got older and learned about the history and what that meant for my granny, I understood that what she meant was that, no matter what happened, we just found a way to survive in those communities. I have such deep respect for that. I often tell people, when they express pity for indigenous communities, that I hope they have compassion but that I hope they recognize how powerfully strong indigenous peoples are because they are still here.
I want to recognize those moments of solidarity, moments when we stand with indigenous children, hold them up and keep them strong in the face of so many challenges. We know that the support for Isabella became much bigger than her community and spread across Canada. Her love for culture, family and community made her famous, and that is beautiful.
I am in support of this bill because pride of first nations, Inuit and Métis culture is part of the restoration of communities that have experienced genocide in this country, but it is also a significant part of Canada becoming a much better and stronger country.
I cannot help but think of my son, Henry. He comes from Homalco First Nation, Coast Salish Nation. Those people always wore cedar. I remember when he was a young person, he worked with an incredible, powerful weaver, Shyanne Watters. He made himself a cedar hat. It was not made in the traditional way; he actually made a cedar top hat. It is beautiful, and it has a very important place in our house. As he got older, he would wear it to high school on their fancy Fridays. Every fancy Friday, he would wear a suit or a vest and his cedar top hat. I watched him walk with pride into his school, and was really moved that it was part of his reality and his identity, and he was not going to hide it.
There is no doubt in our children, there is no core doubt in them about who they are and where they come from. We have to continue to fight for that to be a reality for all indigenous children. They know where their territory is under their feet, and I am so proud of them.
Honouring national ribbon skirt day on January 4 is important, and I look forward to supporting this bill.
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Madam Speaker, I remember an elder talking to me very clearly when I asked a question about colonization and the impacts of all the factors of colonization and what it stole from communities and indigenous people in terms of their traditions and knowledge. I remember the elder told me two things. One is that they worked really hard to maintain and hide what they needed to pass on to their children. On the other side, they believed fundamentally that children born into the earth brought back from the spirit world the traditions that were lost. I am wondering if the member could speak to that.
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- Dec/7/22 8:00:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a white woman who has raised indigenous children and has indigenous grandchildren, I always think about the day one has to tell their children and grandchildren how to be safe in a world that really wants to destroy them. I think that is a hard part of the reality of indigenous communities. They have to make those decisions.
When their granddaughters go to bigger cities, they have to make sure that all the aunties and uncles are watching them to keep them safe because they are that afraid. Then we get that call and we know what that means, not only for our own family but for our whole community in a country that continues to perpetrate genocide upon these beautiful precious bodies that we need home with us.
I think of my cousin Jeannine and her good friend Carla, who bring indigenous women together, and they bead. They bead earrings and monuments for indigenous women. They are called the Lil' Red Dress group. Do the members know what they do? They sell all of those so that they can put up signs when indigenous women and girls go missing. They fundraise to save the lives and to call for help because no one else will do it.
I am wondering if the leader could talk to us about how wrong it is to have indigenous people fundraising to save their families when the government does nothing.
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Madam Speaker, I always do my best to read people's minds. However, my response is simply that this is more than sad. This is an everyday reality for indigenous communities across this country. Until it is an everyday reality for every Canadian in this country, it is not going to stop.
I hope this government will actually get the resources into pockets and that we will also assist in searching for the bodies of these young people, of these women and girls. That is what we need to do, and I hope that the government does it.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very honoured every day to stand up in the House. Today, we are talking about the fall economic statement. Before I talk about that, I just want to take a moment at the beginning of my speech to recognize that the bodies of indigenous women have been found in Winnipeg and an alleged Winnipeg serial killer has been identified.
I think collectively in the House, and hopefully across all of Canada, we are sitting with the deep horror of that reality and what that means for all of us. It is shameful that we live in a country that still does not value indigenous women and girls and our LGBT community. We see it demonstrated repeatedly. I hope all of us are carrying this in our hearts and that we continue to carry it in our hearts and our minds every day until this stops.
Coming back to the fall economic statement, I want to talk about some of the concerns I have around this economic statement. We are all hearing from constituents who are struggling every day to afford the basic necessities in their lives. We hear about the increasing use of food banks. We also hear from so many families who are eating substantially less. Parents are acting like good parents and are not eating as much so their children can go to bed with full bellies. That is something that we should all be listening to.
We know that inflation is certainly a part of the problem. However, we also know that greed is a huge part of the problem as well. In my community, I hear from a lot of indigenous elders and they consistently tell me that greed is an illness. They have a lot of traditional ways of dealing with greed, because it is seen as a sickness that will hurt our communities at large. I wish that, in this place, we could also see it as a sickness that needs moderation. It needs systems in place to stop it.
We know that Loblaws has seen record profits. It is profit like it has not seen in well over five years. It is profit that is so substantial that we hear it is making $1 million extra a day. That concerns me greatly. As we are having this discussion, it is important that we recognize that this fall economic statement does not really substantively address that issue and I hope that it will soon.
We know that the Canadians for Tax Fairness have said that the costs from inflation are more than what is passed on to consumers. That means that inflation is passed on to consumers but more is added. In my opinion, that is simply greed. We need to address that issue so that we hold the people who sell us our food accountable.
I remember a constituent once told me, “Rachel, we are not consumers; we are Canadians.” Every day when I am in the House, I really try to remind myself of that as we look at our systems and recognize some of the challenges in them.
I also did not see a substantial enough increase for housing. I know that on November 25 in my riding in Campbell River, there was a conversation on housing. Many representatives from communities throughout my region were participating. I heard again and again, like I do so often, that housing is simply a crisis. If someone has a fixed income or a low income, it is getting harder to find a place to live. A lot of people are living outside. There is a lot of snow in my area, which is fairly rare, but it is having a huge impact.
We also know that a lot of seniors are couch surfing. When I get calls from people in their eighties who are moving from friend's house to friend's house and sleeping on couches, it just means there is something substantively wrong in this country. I want to remind Canadians that the federal government really has not been part of the housing strategy in this country since 1992. I appreciate that the government has put some money into it, but if we leave a wound festering like that for so long, it is really hard to fix it. That is what we are seeing here.
I want to thank the Campbell River Community Foundation and the Campbell River and District Coalition to End Homelessness for all of their work on this particular file. We heard from small communities and indigenous communities. They are left out. The federal funding is not working. Indigenous communities are not getting the supports they need from the government and it needs to be better.
I also have concerns that we are not talking about GST on home heating. We know that this would help. It is not the biggest help, but put together with a lot of things, it would help hard-working people across this country be able to pay for their heat when we hit the cold season.
We still have not seen a meaningful windfall tax. That is such a gap. We need to have more structures in place. Again we will hear from the government on this, but it has not fixed the problem. It has done a few tweaks, but it has not taken that comprehensive look at the fact that people are making a lot of profit off the labour of Canadians and they are not paying their fair share. Ultrawealthy people are hiring accountants who can help them pay very little, but everyday people are paying all of their taxes. That is wrong and we have to fix it.
There are a few things that I am very much in support of in this bill as well. I was excited to read about the Canada recovery dividend. This is something that the NDP has been asking for. It is temporary and maybe we do not want temporary, but it is there. It is a one-time tax of 15% of taxable income over $1 billion, so it is getting at some of those profits. The other thing we know is that in this country a lot of corporations, after the pandemic, have done extremely well very quickly. In fact, many of them are making more profit than before the pandemic. We need to question that, we need to understand it and we need to make sure that they pay their fair share.
This dividend would also increase corporate income tax on banks and life insurance groups by 1.5%. That is getting some of that windfall tax and putting it back into the coffers. It is making sure that people in our communities get things like appropriate housing, dental care and a bit of support to help with their rent when they pay way more than 30% of their income on rent.
Those things will make a difference, but we also know that the Parliamentary Budget Officer has been very clear that if this Canada recovery dividend were put on big box stores and the oil and gas sector, we would see an increase of revenue to Canada of about $4.3 billion. We need to question this. Again, I keep coming back to this and the NDP will continue to keep coming back. When we see groups of people and big corporations making significant profits when other people cannot even feed their families and other people are living on the streets, Canada has an obligation to address this issue. Therefore, these are some steps in the right direction, but we still need to see more.
There is another thing that I am in support of and I am looking forward to seeing finally implemented. I know the NDP has been fighting and talking about this for many years. It is the removal of the federal portion of interest on student loans. We spend a lot of time in the House talking about young people and about the fact that they do not have enough to buy a house and that they are struggling, sometimes with several jobs in a very changing economy, to address the needs that they have and to have a future that they can believe in.
This is one step. It is not the only step that should be taken on behalf of young people. The federal government has to do more, but it is something that really would support a lot of young people and allow them not to have that burden. They go to school so that they can contribute to their community and to their country. If they have to spend all of their time trying to find a way to pay off their loans, then they do not get to do the things that will make all of us as Canadians a lot more substantive and healthy.
In closing, I want to say that I will be supporting this bill. I believe fundamentally in the fact that people need dental care, and I am really excited to see that come out the door. We know that we still have work. I am really excited to see next year that seniors finally get dental care. I do not know about the rest of the MPs in this place, but I have had a lot of seniors come to my door and talk about the fact that they cannot afford basic dental care and what the impact of that is in terms of their health and well-being.
I look forward to answering any questions.
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- Oct/20/22 7:39:22 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the member for Courtenay—Alberni is my neighbour back home and I thank him for his incredible work on mental health, dealing with opioid addiction and all of the challenges we are seeing across Canada right now.
The member mentioned something in his speech that is really important to me and the communities that I have lived in, which is indigenous mental health. We know what the reality is with all of the history that we have all been apprised of. Indigenous communities have a particular reality that they face every single day. We know that the deaths that happen by suicide in indigenous communities, especially by young people, are profound, far too numerous and leave a weight on communities.
I remember speaking to one chief who felt that he was not getting a good deal from a level of government and he told a representative when they were discussing this that if the representative wanted any agreement from the chief, they were going to go to the bridge where more than one kid, unfortunately, had hanged themselves. When we talk about that, we must recognize this particular pressure.
I am wondering if the member could talk about what resources are needed to be acknowledged in indigenous communities to make sure that these deaths stop, because they are happening far too often, and Canada is directly to blame.
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Madam Speaker, today, I will be sharing my time with the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands.
Before I start my speech, I want to acknowledge that today is June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day. It is a day that I recognize with a lot of love because of my beautiful granny. She went to residential school in Lejac between the ages of four and 16, and her strength and integrity keep our family strong. I also want to acknowledge my Auntie Dean from Stellat’en First Nation. Her traditional name is Hatix-Ka’wah, which means peace within the frame of a house. Because of the day, I wanted to acknowledge her as the lead of our family before I started.
I am here specifically to speak to Bill C-21, an act to amend certain acts and to make certain consequential amendments in regard to firearms. I want to start by thanking the member for Cowichan—Malahat—Langford for his hard work on this file. It is not an easy one, and these discussions are always rife with conflict as we try to navigate our way around this issue. I will say that I am ready to support this bill getting to committee. I also recognize that I still have a lot of questions, and I am hoping the committee will be able to work through some of those questions to get me answers.
I represent a rural riding. I grew up in a household where several of my family members were legal gun owners. They followed the rules, and I was taught gun safety at a very young age as a matter of respect. I grew up eating wild meat, and hunting was a significant part of my family's life.
I have met with many legal gun owners in my riding who have talked about the frustration they feel about the rules always focusing on them, rather than addressing some of their legitimate concerns about illegal guns and how they get into our communities. That is an important part of our conversation today, and it should continue to be. Those conversations do concern me greatly. My riding also has a high level of people retiring from the military who maintain their skills as a commitment to their years of service. It is important for us all to recognize those who use firearms to protect and serve our communities.
I have also heard from constituents who are very, very concerned about gun violence in their communities and in our region. There have been, sadly, several examples in my riding over the past few years, which has resulted in my office receiving more concerns about gun safety than we have ever seen before. This is especially concerning when it comes to cases of domestic violence where guns are used. In 2020, 160 women and girls were killed in Canada. One woman or girl is killed every two and a half days in this country. Therefore, as Canadians are seeing an increase in gun violence across our country, I believe that all Canadians do want to see this addressed.
About three years ago, a constituent in my riding invited me to come to the shooting range with him. He wanted to showcase this for me, so I would understand the rules and how he followed them. I agreed so that I could learn more about the realities of these folks living in my region. Of course, he was also a retired service member for the military, and I always take an opportunity to spend time with people who served us, and who served us so well.
The first thing he told me was that I would have to come to his house and ride with him because he could not stop on the way through town to pick me up. The rules in Canada meant that he had to go straight from his home, not stopping for anything else, and go to the range. At his home, he was able to show me the way he stored his guns separate from ammunition, with everything locked away and secured. He also showed me how he transported the guns and how that was done safely.
I learned a lot, and I really appreciated his effort to take that time to educate me. He also shared that he was concerned about the gun violence in Canada and what that did for him as a legal gun owner and as somebody who was really practising safely. He knew of things that had happened across the country, and he knew that people were more fearful.
These are important conversations to have, especially at that community level where we can have those open conversations and discussions about how we can come together. My constituent did feel that the majority of gun owners followed the rules very carefully, but he was also concerned that there are legal gun owners who do not always follow the rules, and he wanted to make sure that those issues were addressed. Of course, he was also very concerned about the fact that we do have illegal guns in this country, and those folks can really make a bad name for people who are doing their best to be safe.
The facts are that, in Canada between 2019 and 2020, there were notable increases in rates of firearm-related violent crimes being reported, especially in places like southern rural British Columbia, which had an increase of 34%; the northern rural part of Ontario, which increased by 32%; rural Alberta, which increased by 32% in the north and 31% in the south; the Northwest Territories, which saw a 23% increase; and Nova Scotia, which increased by 22%. Handguns were the most serious weapon present in most firearm-related violent crimes.
Over my seven years here, I have heard two things repeatedly from constituents: one is that we need to look at gun policy in Canada, focussing on illegal guns and how they get to our country; and two is that we need more education in Canada about the strong rules that we do have and how they work. I believe these are important areas to discuss.
I have also heard a lot on this bill specifically about concerns from the airsoft community that Bill C-21 would prohibit imports, exports, sales and transfers of all replica firearms, which would include airsoft guns that are designed or intended to look exactly like or resemble a real firearm.
This does concern me, because there is the safety issue on the one side that we should consider carefully. We have heard stories of people using these to emulate real guns, and that is a safety concern for all people who are involved in that situation. We also hear the other side, and that it will impact paintball retailers and facilities, as most rely on income from both airsoft and paintball use.
I understand that in this country there are very few regulations, and I think it is something we need to look at. We have heard from this sector that they have not been meaningfully consulted. We want to make sure that when we further the discussions, we could address that.
I have learned that people have successfully altered airsoft weapons to hold real ammunition, and this really surprised me. I had no idea that that was even possible. Unfortunately it is, and it is a growing concern. We need to work with this sector to make sure that we look at the realities they are facing, and make sure the solution is workable, so they can continue their practice and not have a huge impact on their income. However, we also need to make sure the safety of Canadians is addressed.
Illegal guns are a huge concern for my constituents, as I mentioned earlier. This bill does not offer what I would like to see on measures for gun smuggling. I represent 19 Wing Comox. Its crews do tremendous work on our coastline to keep our community safe. They have found people trying to ship things illegally across our borders, whether it be guns or drugs, and they have stopped that. I really appreciate their work, but I am concerned there is not going to be the amount of support needed to continue that work and to expand that work.
We know that this bill would increase the maximum penalty for trafficking, smuggling and other firearms offences from 10 years to 14 years. It would require the commissioner of firearms to give the minister an annual report. It would allow proactive information sharing between the RCMP and local law enforcement agencies for the purpose of investigating or prosecuting firearm trafficking offences, and it would also provide eligibility for wiretapping on additional Criminal Code firearms offences.
What it does not include in a meaningful way is more support for the Canadian Border Services Agency. We know that, under the previous Conservative government, over 1,000 positions were cut. Under the Liberal government, some of those folks are back, but definitely not the number that is required to actually address the guns that are being smuggled into our country illegally.
We also know, as our leader wrote to the Prime Minister in 2018, that we need to see more changes within our policies in this country to support the root causes of gun violence in some of the more vulnerable communities. We need to address things such as poverty. I was at an event just a few days ago in my community, and I was very surprised by how many people talked to me about the increasing homeless population. They spoke of how more and more people are really struggling to make ends meet and how often they are going towards violence because they cannot feed themselves. They are not safe in their own area.
We need to make sure there are supports provided to our communities to address these key issues because the more poverty grows, and the more people are disenfranchised, the more violence is the result. We need to look at these things as correlating numbers.
I am here to discuss this. I hope that all of us in the House can have a meaningful conversation, because these things are important to our communities, and if we do not address them in an open and transparent way, it will lead to more conflict.
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- Jun/20/22 2:15:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Alberta Billy was an influential leader and elder from the Laich-Kwil-Tach speaking people.
Her passing fills me with a deep sadness, and it will have a profound impact on our riding. The gentleness of her spirit called everyone around her to be their very best self. She was a significant leader who educated Canadians about the deep and painful impacts of residential school. In the eighties, with friends Thelma Davis and Stan McKay, she worked years to inspire the United Church of Canada to take ownership of the part it played, which it did, becoming the first religious institution to apologize to indigenous peoples.
She did not stop there. She worked with Kathi and Meredith to educate people on the impacts of residential schools with an experiential training through The Village workshop series. She would say to me, “We do it because we must.” Her words give me strength in challenging times. The world a much sadder place without Alberta. I am so honoured to have known and loved her. I wish her husband, Daniel, and her family much love in this profound time of grief.
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Mr. Speaker, one of the questions I have around the implementation act is about the fact that, again and again, we hear the government promise to address the issue of clean drinking water on first nations reserves, and we continue to see that pushed further and further away. I see it is mentioned very briefly in this implementation act, but I have also heard the Minister of Indigenous Services talk about capacity, saying that once first nations have the capacity, we will get them their clean drinking water.
Does the member agree with the NDP that clean drinking water is an essential human right, that every person in Canada should have it and that the urgency of this issue needs to be addressed today, if not sooner, rather than five years away?
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- May/4/22 11:22:03 p.m.
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Madam Chair, as we sit here in this place, and we talk about indigenous women and girls and the realities that they face, and how many of them go missing or are murdered, I think of the many constituents I have in my riding who tell me the reality they face every day because they do not know, in one case for 35 years, where their sisters are. They just always have that haunting sort of history in their mind: What happened? Is she okay? Is she dead somewhere? How do we find her?
We are here in this place. We have calls to action. We know the pathway that we need to take. What we need to see is for the government to actually invest resources into that pathway so that we can move forward and so that, finally, indigenous women and girls can be valued the way they should be.
Could this member talk about how important it is to actually see those resources so the actions can happen, and so that the women do not have to have this experience anymore?
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- May/4/22 10:59:10 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I know that my granny went to residential school in Lejac from the age of four to 16. Unfortunately, when she was 16, the nuns arranged for a marriage for her and she was married to a 50-year-old white man.
When he passed away not too long after, of course, she was rejected by the family and lost her status and was not able to go home.
When I think about the history of Canada and how unsafe it makes indigenous women and girls, I am wondering this. Could the member talk about how this history continues to repeat itself?
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- May/4/22 10:35:09 p.m.
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Madam Chair, in my riding of North Island—Powell River, a couple of indigenous women have gathered many indigenous women together to bead red dress earrings and pins. What they do is fundraise so they can support families that have lost indigenous women and girls. They fundraise so they can put up billboards of missing indigenous women and girls so that people know the faces of those who are lost from their families forever.
Can the member speak about how important it is that we not ask people to be charitable in this, but ask government to be responsible for the actions it takes in making sure that we find these women and girls?
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- Mar/21/22 3:34:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today I am tabling a petition from residents across my riding who are asking for Canada to address the urgent climate emergency that we are all facing.
I want to thank the Council of Canadians from my riding, which brought me this petition. It focuses specifically on human and workers' rights, respect for indigenous rights, decarbonizing housing and increasing public transit. It is a plan that includes rural and remote communities that are so essential, especially to my region.
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