- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Port Moody—Coquitlam
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $129,260.13
- Government Page
- May/30/24 2:14:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, big airlines are raking in billions of dollars of profits off the back of unpaid work. In Canada, flight attendants, who are disproportionately women, work an average of 35 hours for free every month.
There is no reason that big airlines who make huge profits should be making their staff work for free, yet the Liberals have allowed big airlines to take advantage of workers.
Today, flight attendants are in Ottawa, fighting for their right to be paid for the work they do. They want the government to change the laws, to correct this unacceptable status quo and to ensure that when flight attendants are at work, in uniform, performing their duties, they are being paid. It is only fair. New Democrats agree.
The government must stand up to corporate greed and protect workers. Flight attendants deserve better, and today, I raise their voices here in the House of Commons by saying that unpaid work will not fly.
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- May/28/24 2:50:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, flight attendants, who are predominantly women, work an average of 35 hours a month unpaid. No worker should have to do their job without a paycheque, but the Liberals and the Conservatives have let the big airline CEOs get away with it. The Liberals have even given these airlines millions of dollars in handouts and, recently, the Liberals told flight attendants that they should simply file complaints with those same CEOs who are ripping them off. Why are the Liberals putting the burden on workers instead of holding profitable CEOs to account?
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- May/10/24 12:07:45 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I hear the member talk about regulations and that a few fines have been put forward, but it is not consistent. Enforcement is not happening. We heard that today, and I want the government to get better.
I also want to talk about the airports capital assistance program. One of the other things we learned is that the airports capital assistance program ranks accessibility of airports as the last priority on its list, actually below sprinklers. The result of accessibility being the last priority for the government is that there has been no funding for small airports in over 20 years.
My ask of the government today is this: Will the government immediately move accessibility up to the number one priority for the airports capital assistance program? It should move it up to priority one. It does not cost anything and it is a human rights need.
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- May/10/24 12:00:52 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today I had the pleasure to go to the first-ever National Air Accessibility Summit and hear from advocates and organizations on how we can better serve people with disabilities on our airlines.
The summit is a historic step towards improving accessibility for persons with disabilities in this country. Attendees heard first-hand experiences of navigating air services with different accessibility needs and barriers that exist in the current system, and ideas on how to solve them. What matters is whether the government was listening.
The government failed to listen to disability advocates and organizations, like its own advisory council, while it was developing the Canada disability benefit. In the consultation on that, the Liberals heard about the barriers that the disability tax credit posed and about how many low-income people with disabilities were unable to access it. They were told about the problem of potential provincial clawbacks and so much more. However, they acted on none of it. The current government does a great job of announcing that there are problems, but if the Canada disability benefit is any sign, it is not listening to the answers.
In February I asked the Prime Minister when he would get serious about holding airline CEOs to account to protect Canadians. While the Liberals will point to the summit today, there was nothing binding and we have seen nothing on the accountability for the corporations that were perpetrating human rights abuses. The Liberal government repeatedly makes bold announcements but does little. In fact today, the Minister of Transport said that he would leave it to the guys to solve this problem, instead of legislating it here in the House.
It reminds me of the previous Conservative government. It is the very same one that the Prime Minister campaigned against as not being transparent enough, yet he now seems to want to do nothing more than emulate it. Just like the Conservatives before him, the Prime Minister continues to have open arms and deep pockets for corporations and CEOs not following rules.
However, when it comes to people with disabilities who need support, following the law is not something that the government cares about. This is not right. Like I said to the Prime Minister in the past, the government's lack of action on holding airline CEOs to account is a failure. I ask again, when will the Prime Minister get serious about holding CEOs to account to protect persons with disabilities in this country?
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- Apr/15/24 5:11:44 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as my colleague from Edmonton Strathcona said, this has been important to the NDP. It has been important to our communities for a very long time.
I can only say that it is very unfortunate that the Liberal government and the Conservative government before it never put as high a priority on looking at foreign interference. Fortunately the NDP did. Fortunately New Democrats are the ones who have led the discussion that is happening now on foreign interference, and I am so looking forward to the study that is coming up from the foreign affairs committee, led by the member for Edmonton Strathcona.
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- Mar/22/24 11:15:38 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, Canadians want greedy CEOs and mega corporations to stop profiteering off the backs of unpaid work, yet the federal government continues to ignore this issue.
Over 17,000 Canadians called on the federal government to close loopholes that allow airlines to force flight attendants to work up to 35 hours per month unpaid. Six million people watched as the CEO of Canada’s largest airline refused to comment.
Workers are being exploited by billion-dollar companies, and the government is letting it happen. At Air Canada, the CEO earned over $12 million last year, while flight attendants struggled to pay rent and buy groceries.
Thanks to CUPE components across this country, workers are fighting back with a campaign called “Unpaid Work Won't Fly”. The NDP stands with these flight attendants and is calling on the government to protect all workers and stop the exploitation by greedy CEOs.
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- Feb/26/24 2:54:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, everyone deserves fair pay and to be treated with respect by their employer, yet flight attendants have to work up to 40 hours a month with no pay. That is three months a year. All of this is while the CEOs of Canada's biggest airlines rake in millions of dollars, plus bonuses. The Liberals are doing nothing about it, letting CEOs get rich off the backs of unpaid work.
Will the government stop the exploitation of workers and address unpaid work in the airline industry?
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- Feb/7/24 2:54:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians with disabilities are being treated unfairly by big airlines, and the Liberal solution is another gentlemen's meeting with a CEO who cares only about his own bottom line.
This is a slap in the face to passengers who have had their human rights violated, having to drag themselves off a plane. Like with the greedy grocery CEOs, the Liberals are just letting Air Canada get away with it.
Will the Prime Minister get serious about holding these CEOs to account to protect Canadians?
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- Oct/27/23 1:18:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, my colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley has been doing a lot of work around this exact topic and has been advocating better rules and responsibilities for corporations and airports around passenger safety and passenger customer service. I think there is a lot of work to do here. I would leave it with my colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley, who has been doing incredible work in this space.
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- Oct/27/23 1:15:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, certainly, a noise pollution caucus is a good idea. As it relates to airlines, I think we would get a lot of community input from that.
I just want to highlight simply the amount of and increase in cargo traffic. We now live in a society where people want things delivered to them from across the world in a day. This means that more air traffic needs to be flying around. In B.C. alone, we are shipping crab and cherries overseas more and more because we can get such a great price for them. They go by air. We are just in for more and more noise pollution as it relates to air traffic.
I think we need, as the member said, to get a caucus together to advance some of these new regulations.
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- Oct/27/23 1:13:58 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would like to just say a bit about ground transportation because that would not be covered by the bill. When persons with disabilities travel, it is not just the airline or the train that they need to spend excessive amounts of time planning for; they also need ground transportation. In Canada, this is not always available to them. They cannot always actually get accessible transportation when they land at their destination, whether it is in an airport or in a train station, so more work needs to be done on accommodation and equity in travel, not just in airplanes, on boats and on rail.
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- Oct/23/23 6:59:57 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I really hope that the member and I can work more closely together and that we can go out together and look at some of those sites in my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam. There is a lot of opportunity, but unfortunately, the supply crisis where I live in my community is driven by the loss of affordable units. It is 15 to one that we are losing affordable units.
When we talk about those units that are along transit or close to shopping, those used to be affordable units, but now they are luxury condos, up to 50 storeys tall. According to some of the housing data that is collected, almost a quarter of them are sitting empty. That is why the Government of B.C. recently brought into place a ban or limit on the Airbnbs, because those units were actually built to be Airbnbs. They are displacing long-term residents, who have rented for a very long time, with luxury units that they can no longer afford.
Yes, let us get together. However, could the member please tell me how we get those conversations started earlier with the federal government?
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- Oct/21/22 1:46:27 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would really like to thank the member for London West for highlighting some of the gaps in the national housing strategy and for putting forward this motion. It really does go to show why it is so important to have folks who have worked with housing in community.
My question is around the mention of repairing housing, and I just wondered if the member could expand a bit on how the government can do more of that.
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- May/10/22 1:33:48 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member spoke about neutrality, and this place is not neutral for anyone who comes here in a wheelchair. When a person in a wheelchair arrives in this place and wants to sit in the House, they cannot get to a seat. They could not get to the seat I am sitting in. It is not accessible.
I would ask the member to speak a bit about the physical barriers that he sees in this place.
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- Feb/28/22 10:52:43 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I thank the member for the comments around doing everything they can. Certainly the travel visas and release of visas is very important to the communities of Port Moody—Coquitlam, Anmore and Belcarra. Many families there are very anxious and awaiting the release of that visa qualification.
I want to talk about another thing that people in my community are concerned about. That is the airing of RT today on the Canadian broadcast system. I wonder if the member agrees. Although some of the suppliers are removing that from their airwaves, should the CRTC take the steps to say no more RT will be aired in Canada?
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