SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Rachel Blaney

  • Member of Parliament
  • NDP
  • North Island—Powell River
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 65%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $145,542.18

  • Government Page
  • Apr/29/24 5:31:04 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I appreciate the work I do with the member on the veterans committee, so my question is going to be around that issue. We have done a report in this place around marriage after 60. We know that many veterans who find love after 60 cannot leave a pension for their survivors. We also know that in 2019, the government made an announcement saying there was $150 million it would be sharing with women who were already in that circumstance. There are many very impoverished women who looked after veterans during the hardest parts of their lives and got absolutely nothing upon their passing. I was saddened to see there was no mention of that in this budget. When is the money from 2019 actually going out to these vulnerable women?
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  • Nov/9/23 2:50:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when women were invited into all military operations in 1989 and submarine services in 2001, they entered an environment not made for them. Trailblazers, these women endured through discrimination and lack of support, and the physical and mental outcomes they dealt with were not documented. Now, as veterans, they are often underserved because of the lack of documentation. When will the government honour servicewomen and make it right?
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  • Jun/14/23 11:37:43 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-35 
Madam Speaker, when we look at the country overall, the poorest population is senior women. I find it interesting how many people at the doors I have knocked on in my riding and how many people who come into my constituency office have talked to me about them being women and the fact that by the time they pay for their child care, they hardly make anything. It seems to me that we have a cycle. Does the member not agree that by creating affordable child care, not only will it support families, not only will it support women having the ability to make choices about their futures in terms of employment, but it will also address the issue of poverty as women age?
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  • May/15/23 2:51:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, women veterans feel invisible. The Liberal government does not hear their experiences, stories or pain. Virtually no research is being funded about military women's health issues, including mental health. While New Democrats welcome the recently announced mood and anxiety treatment guidelines, the unique challenges of female veterans must be considered. Will the minister commit, today, to including women veterans in creating these guidelines so that women who bravely served our country could finally be seen?
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  • Apr/17/23 7:35:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am fairly disappointed with that response, because we know that these women have suffered. We know they have had their pensions clawed back. Now, what we are saying to them is that, after all the indignity they experienced just by serving their country, they have to do all the work on the other side to get back what was theirs in the first place. I still do not hear anything that says the government is actually going to pay back the money it has, in my opinion, been stealing from these women. Hopefully the member can say something that actually addresses that serious concern.
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  • Jan/30/23 1:33:34 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-35 
Madam Speaker, in my riding we are really struggling to find health care providers. One of the things that we have heard loud and clear as the biggest challenge is child care, and a lot of people in the health care industry are women. I am wondering if the member could speak a little about the impact this could have on women to open doors for them to enter the workforce and the very clear example we have seen in Quebec.
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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 10:35:09 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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