- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Port Moody—Coquitlam
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 67%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $129,260.13
- Government Page
- Jun/4/24 3:14:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians with disabilities are struggling to keep up with the high costs of food and housing, and the Liberals' measly $200 plan will leave people with disabilities living well below the poverty line.
The government has an obligation, legally, to uphold human rights and to ensure an adequate standard of living for everyone. Shamefully, the Liberals are failing, just like the Conservatives before them.
When will the Liberals get serious about ending poverty for persons with disabilities?
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- May/30/24 2:31:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, a landmark report this week exposed that women with disabilities are more likely to visit the emergency room during pregnancy, because reproductive care is not accessible. It is impacting their mental health during pregnancy and postpartum. People with disabilities have had enough of the Liberals' half measures. The Liberals are all talk, no action, just like their Canada disability benefit that is nowhere near enough to live on.
What is the government going to do to address the unacceptable barriers to care for pregnant women with disabilities?
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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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- May/9/24 2:50:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if someone has to negotiate for dignity, then dignity is lost. That is what we heard today at Canada's first-ever air accessibility summit.
Forcing people to drag themselves off planes or to be taken out on food carts is what's happening under the Liberals. Today, the minister said he could intervene, but he prefers to leave it up to big CEOs or, as he called them, the “guys”. That has not worked for the last 20 years.
Why will the Liberal minister not make sure that people with disabilities are treated with dignity?
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- May/8/24 4:30:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 20th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in relation to the motion adopted on Monday, May 6, regarding the Canada disability benefit.
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- May/1/24 3:18:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadians with disabilities have been ignored by Liberals and Conservatives for decades. The result is that they can no longer keep up with the cost of living, and the Liberal solution is $200 a month. That is not even enough for groceries. Meanwhile, Canada's richest CEOs are still receiving $60 billion in corporate handouts started by the Conservatives. With the Liberals and the Conservatives, Canada's ultrawealthy get richer and people with disabilities get crumbs.
Why has the Prime Minister abandoned Canadians living with disabilities?
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- Apr/18/24 10:02:50 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to present, in both official languages, the 18th report of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, entitled “Briefing with Air Canada on Services Offered to Travellers with Disabilities”.
Pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee requests that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
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- Apr/17/24 3:18:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, $200 a month is what the Liberal government thinks Canadians with disabilities are worth. The Liberals said that their long-overdue Canada disability benefit would end poverty for persons with disabilities, but what they have offered is not even enough for groceries for a month, yet the Liberals did manage to keep giving $60 billion to rich corporations, just like the Conservatives before them. It is unacceptable.
Will the Prime Minister use his power and increase the Canada disability benefit immediately?
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- Mar/19/24 3:32:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is on my mind is persons with disabilities. What is on my mind right now is the fact that persons with disabilities are not receiving the Canada disability benefit yet and that persons with disabilities are experiencing very high levels of housing need, rent and food pricing.
I wonder if the member from the Liberals could share why the government is holding back on the Canada disability benefit and why it refuses to tax outsized profits from those large organizations that are making money hand over fist while persons with disabilities suffer.
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- Feb/13/24 9:51:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are here today because without immediate intervention by Parliament, the expansion of medical assistance in dying to individuals whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental disorder will come into force on March 17. That is only a few weeks away, at a time when this country is experiencing a mental health crisis, the isolation of seniors, toxic drugs poisoning people in communities across Canada, inadequate OAS increases and still, unfortunately, and hard to imagine, no Canada disability benefit in place for people living with disabilities who are also living in poverty. The necessary safety social nets are missing, yet we are having a debate about an extension to medical assistance in dying.
Why is the fact that the social safety net not in place so important? People in Canada deserve the dignity to live healthy lives and to live lives where they are not in poverty.
I want to talk about the Canada disability benefit because the budget is coming. The next budget is coming very soon, and it is the expectation of the NDP and the expectation of Canadians that the Liberal government will live up to its commitment, its promise made in 2015, that there would be a Canada disability benefit. Too many people in the disability community are waiting for this disability benefit to lift them out of poverty. When I say too many, even one is too many.
I am encouraging the Liberal government, which I know is listening closely to this debate, to actually do something and to get the Canada disability benefit into the pockets of the people who need it in this country so that we can start to have serious conversations about how to advance medical assistance in dying. We certainly cannot do it in the middle of a mental health crisis, while our communities are being poisoned by toxic drugs and while people living in poverty with a disability have no social safety net and no reliable income.
I also think it is a disgrace, at this point in time, that the Liberal government is not considering the impacts of these clawbacks on persons with disabilities and anyone who is living on the poverty line, who are relying on social benefits, which they are entitled to, from the federal government, which are being rolled back. I think specifically about CERB at this point in time. We know that many Canadians, in good faith, applied for the CERB and got the CERB. We now have a federal government that has decided it is a good idea to start targeting people already living in poverty to get their CERB back.
They know these people are living in poverty. They know the incomes of these people and they continue to go after them. At the same time, they are giving free rides to corporate CEOs who are taking home millions of dollars a year in salaries and bonuses, and not looking at the way they took wage subsidies and gave them away to their shareholders and in their own bonus packages.
I think about Air Canada specifically. The government decided to give it a bailout during the pandemic. Air Canada said that the government could have it back because the government is not allowing it to give it to its executives as bonuses. These are the choices that the federal government is making. It is giving CEOs and large corporations the regular free ride while targeting people living in poverty.
Today, I was reading the report from the federal housing advocate. Human rights are being violated right now. We are talking about the expansion of MAID for mental illness as the sole condition, and I put a big blame on the Conservatives here because I have been sitting in a number of studies in HUMA, on housing. We know that the Conservatives walked away and lost 800,000 units of affordable housing in this country.
Conservatives are the instigators of the problem that is manifesting on the ground right now that the Liberals did not fix when they came into power. The housing advocate said that Canadians' human rights are being violated because they do not have access to housing. It is despicable. If our country cannot use our natural resources to make sure that people are not living in tents outside the airport in Vancouver, that is totally unacceptable. I blame both the Conservatives and the Liberals because they know what has been happening, that it has been happening for decades and they have done nothing about it.
The housing advocate told the government that a national encampment response plan needs to be in place by August 31. I am sorry to say that, based on the speed at which the Liberal government moves, that is highly unlikely. I hope it takes up the challenge from the federal housing advocate, because no one should have to live in an encampment without access to clean water, waste removal and garbage pickup. We would think the federal government could at least support cities with respect to garbage pickup so people have access to clean spaces when they are forced into a tent encampment. I would ask the Prime Minister and any of the Liberal MPs to walk down Wellington Street, the ByWard Market or Sparks Street. They walk by these people every single day and do nothing.
We know that the health ministers across the country are concerned about this bill before us today. We also know the Liberal government is playing snail mail on pharmacare, the pharmacare that can help people with their mental health and help people take their medication properly so they can be healthy. The Liberal government has decided that is something that is going to snail along. Again, the deadline is very short on that.
We are talking about these social safety net pieces the Liberal government is moving at a snail's pace on, and the Conservatives are to blame for the conditions of the housing market and housing for people in this country right now. I want to highlight that Conservatives also voted against every single social program and initiative that came out in the fall economic statement and the budget. They say that they care about people; meanwhile, they are voting against everything that would help people, including food. They have decided they do not want to support a national school food program. How do we expect to have debates that matter to people in Canada when we cannot make sure that kids are fed and people live in homes? That is what the Liberals and Conservatives have done.
I want to read something that I received from a mental health worker in my riding who reached out to me. She said, “I implore the government to reconsider this expansion...and to engage in a meaningful dialogue with mental health professionals to safeguard the well-being of...Canadians, especially the most vulnerable”.
I implore the Liberal government, and the Conservatives who continue to try to stall social programs and initiatives the NDP is working to advance in this House, to take this seriously. We know that, as we stand here in this House today having this debate, we have a toxic drug supply in this country that people are reaching out to because they do not have the medications they can afford as there is not a national pharmacare program in this country.
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- Feb/6/24 2:49:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, yet Canadians living with a disability have been deplaned on a catering cart or forced to get on their hands and knees to crawl off a plane. Some of these dehumanizing experiences happened under the watch of Air Canada's CEO, and the Liberal government is doing nothing about it. It continues to give CEOs a free ride, even handing them billions of taxpayers' dollars.
Will the Liberals stop protecting rich CEOs and start protecting people with disabilities?
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- Dec/6/23 7:32:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I can feel that there is support and desire there, and I really appreciate that. However, the problem is there are people who are unable to pay their rent and unable to pay for food and medication. With the cost of living, they cannot wait any longer.
The government is hiding behind consultation, trying to scare people by saying that the success of this benefit is tied to how long it is delayed, which is a cop-out. There has been plenty of consultation, and the number one pillar that persons with disabilities expressed to the government over years of consultation is the need for economic support. They need it to uphold their human rights and for us as a country to uphold our commitments on the rights of persons with disabilities.
To ask again, why does the government—
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- Dec/6/23 7:24:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, persons with disabilities are continuing to live in poverty with no relief from the government. We have seen rents soar over the last year, pushing many Canadians out of the housing market and into being unable to afford safe and adequate housing.
For persons with disabilities, accessing housing that meets their needs is nearly impossible. Add discrimination on top of that, and more and more stories are coming out from across Canada about the reality of persons with disabilities having to live rough. In Duncan, British Columbia, Jon Harry was forced onto the street to sleep on a tarp when he lost his housing. He and many other persons with disabilities are forced into homelessness because of the lack of affordable housing options. Organizations, including food banks and shelters, are at a breaking point because more people are relying on these services. Many persons with disabilities also do not have the level of income due to discrimination. Many persons with disabilities are currently paying 80% to 90% of their income on housing. In British Columbia, that leaves many people with less than $200 for all of their monthly expenses.
I tabled a petition earlier this year, and very recently I tabled a petition brought by the community around a disability emergency relief benefit. This week, the government responded that, given its limited resources, rolling out an emergency relief could have an effect on delaying the Canada disability benefit. That response from the government is an insult to persons with disabilities because it is the government that is delaying the rollout of the Canada disability benefit.
Canadians need support now, and without a clear timeline of when in 2024 this Canada disability benefit will be rolled out, persons with disabilities are left with questions, not solutions, and deteriorating living standards. The government must deliver, with the Canada disability benefit, an adequate and timely benefit.
While the government is holding back on rolling out that benefit, and even during the rollout of the benefit, it must be building more affordable, accessible homes. I will take this moment to recognize the member for Nunavut, who continues to stand up in the House to talk about the absolutely devastating conditions of housing in Nunavut.
Without adequate income supports for persons with disabilities, they are being legislated into poverty by the current Liberal government and the Conservative governments before it. Federal support was needed yesterday, as I mentioned in the House already this week in question period, and persons with disabilities cannot wait any longer.
My question to the minister is this: When will the government deliver the Canada disability benefit it promised? It has been seven years of promises, and it is still not here, which it is hurting people.
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- Dec/6/23 2:55:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in Canada, over half of women with disabilities are living on less than $10,000 a year. They cannot afford the medication they need, nutritious food or housing. Women with disabilities who are facing intimate partner violence cannot afford to get away or to move out of their homes.
The Liberals have failed these women. Will the Prime Minister stop endangering women with disabilities by releasing the Canada disability benefit now?
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- Dec/4/23 3:10:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people with disabilities are being renovicted and priced out of their homes. Disproportionately, it is women, who are also at risk of gender violence.
Over half of women with disabilities are living on less than $10,000 a year. This is not sustainable or safe. The skyrocketing costs of housing and food is hurting persons with disabilities. They need the Canada disability benefit yesterday. Will this Liberal government end its unnecessary delay and release the Canada disability benefit immediately?
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- Oct/30/23 2:50:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today Air Canada announced obscene quarterly profits of $1.2 billion. At the same time, another passenger was forced to drag themselves off an Air Canada flight, because the necessary wheel chair and staff were not in place. It is degrading and a violation of human rights.
Under the Liberals' watch, Air Canada has been allowed to mistreat Canadians while making billions in profits. When is the minister going to do his job and make sure travellers with disabilities never face discrimination again?
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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/27/23 1:12:52 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, when we are talking about human rights, let us talk about the human rights of persons with disabilities. We cannot leave that outside regulation or outside legislation. We know there are international standards of how persons with disabilities should be respected and treated, and how they should have their human rights upheld in the transportation industry, so I think it is fairly obvious, and I am surprised the Liberals did not see it, that the bill cannot be discriminatory.
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- Oct/27/23 1:11:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, what we know for sure is that greedy corporations are putting profits before people. This is driving a number of these problems. When I think about persons with disabilities, this is an area we know about and that corporations know about, but they have done nothing to correct it. I say that until we start regulating, because corporations are not going to regulate themselves, we are not going to get change. The regulation needs to be done thoughtfully and in consultation with our communities. That is why the NDP would like to see the bill go to committee, so we can hear from people.
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- Oct/27/23 10:25:04 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I very much appreciated that the member went into the realities of persons with disabilities and their inability to travel equitably in this country. My question relates to further discrimination in this bill in relation to persons with disabilities. The climate change plans use international standards, but the government has not asked for international standards to be used for persons with disabilities. Why is there unequal treatment?
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