- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Port Moody—Coquitlam
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $129,260.13
- Government Page
- May/27/24 11:25:38 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the firewall manifesto envisions that decision-making processes that affect people's lives and freedoms flow through premiers' offices. This is exactly what the leader of the Conservatives wants to do when he says he will use the notwithstanding clause to pass his laws. The NDP is here to stop him. This right-wing ideology of Conservatives imposing their will on women and all Canadians is dangerous and serves only the corporate class who have controlled federal governments since Confederation.
This reality is so obviously true in housing. Governments at every level have overseen the financialization of housing. Instead of protecting our social housing stock for people, they have encouraged upzoning and gentrification in the name of density. Density dreams belong to developers, who have made millions and billions of dollars off the displacement of low- and middle-income Canadians. The financialization of housing is only working for the wealthy and leaving people behind. The well-being of persons with disabilities and seniors is sacrificed to millionaire CEOs.
Liberal and Conservative governments have ensured that truly affordable social housing has been sacrificed to create an asset class for the wealthiest people and companies across the globe. Right now in my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam, hundreds of affordable townhomes and apartments are being emptied and are sitting empty. There are entire blocks of homes boarded up, ready for redevelopment, and some of these homes have been empty for years. Developers choose not to fill them so they do not have to spend one cent on maintenance or pay tenants out when the time comes to begin their redevelopment. This is wrong.
During this housing crisis, governments have allowed wealthy developers to hoard housing, allowing perfectly good homes to sit empty to protect the profits of corporations over the well-being of residents. High-end sales centres for luxury condos exist in every neighbourhood across this country, right beside where low- and middle-income Canadians have been displaced. These corporate density dreams are not focused on local buyers; they are marketing their luxury product overseas. When a traveller arrives in the international terminal of YVR, they are enticed by posters of luxury housing to attract international investment.
The current housing crisis is a crisis of negligence in protecting precious housing supply that people call home. I hear the calls for supply in the community, but this is not what this bill is talking about. I need to clarify what that supply call needs to be: affordable housing supply. The federal government must put a laser focus on maintaining what is left of housing co-ops, purpose-built rentals and not-for-profit housing in the country. It has to put that before investment. The federal government needs to immediately reinvest in social housing, not in capital loans, which it so feebly continues to bring forward, but ongoing stable operating funds to get people housed now.
The need to act cannot wait, and the solution is not Conservative gatekeeping. Conservative policies are the ones that caused this problem. We cannot have one more person lose their home because they have been displaced by corporate capitalism.
Let me reiterate how Canadians got into a situation where homelessness is growing, rents are skyrocketing and property purchase is out of reach for an entire generation. Conservative and Liberal governments encouraged the financialization of housing instead of protecting our social housing stock. They encouraged upzoning and gentrification in the name of density and profits. Density dreams are for developers. The financialization of housing is only working for the wealthy, and the most impacted right now are renters. We are losing rental homes at a rate of 15:1. For every new unit the government prides itself on building, an unaffordable new unit, it has not protected 15 other renters, who now have to find themselves evicted or demovicted from their homes.
The government must immediately act to end the financialization of housing before more Canadians lose their homes, before more children are displaced from their schools and their friends and before more seniors lose services as they are forced out of the community in which they live. I can guarantee that what the Conservatives have proposed in this bill would not do that. As a city councillor in Coquitlam, I saw how these types of policies played out, with the trading of density happening in the corner offices, while seniors, persons with disabilities and single moms were losing their homes.
I am going to tell the story about 500 Foster, a redevelopment in the city of Coquitlam. I went to see those folks before a public hearing, only to find out they received a letter from the developer, even before upzoning, telling them to start moving out. There was a single mother with a child who has a disability and a senior over 70, begging me to find him what he called an “old person's home” to move into. This is going on in every community of this country.
I will close by saying that New Democrats that know housing is a human right and that we will continue to stand up for people and block the harmful ideologies of the corporate Conservatives, who are attempting to roll back the clock so that the Leader of the Opposition can continue to act like a high school bully.
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- May/23/24 4:24:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I think about the fact that many of us in the House, even those who have been here a decade or more, are seeing things happening in the community that they have not experienced before: homelessness, a poisoned drug supply, lack of income and more than a quarter of Canadians with a disability. We are dealing with serious issues and serious problems. I know there has been much discussion about what is being funded.
When does the Liberal government start looking at the good ideas that are coming out? For example, if we talk about Quebec and child care, I know that Quebec has a livable income pilot going right now. When will the Liberal government start taking ideas that it knows are working for provinces?
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- May/9/24 8:44:32 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, it is good to be a New Democrat today and every day, as we stand in the House firmly on the side of the right to choose, and to treat the illegal toxic drug crisis with compassion and facts. This is the complete opposite of the Conservatives' ideologies that are harmful and their arguments that are lacking in facts and compassion.
Tonight as we discuss the fall economic statement, I am proud to stand here as a new Democrat with a leader, the member for Burnaby South, who is willing to name corporate greed in the House of Commons while the Liberals and the Conservatives continue to protect big corporations that are gouging Canadians at the cash register. That is a major driver of inflation and hardship for Canadians.
The Conservative opposition frames itself as an alternative to the Liberals, but the corporate-controlled Conservatives are no better than the sitting Liberals. They too believe the market will fix every problem, even though it is a fact that unbridled corporate greed is driving up the cost of food, housing and gas. When it comes to housing, this market-driven ideology has resulted in record displacements and homelessness across Canada, even among seniors who should be safely retired in their home.
There is no way to solve the housing crisis with market solutions alone. The federal government, in the mid-1990s, stepped away from producing non-market housing, and it has created a crisis that is accelerating and getting worse. Simply freeing up Crown land and handing it off to developers to do what they will is not going to solve the problem.
The finance committee heard from home developers, financiers and real estate people that the market is not going to solve the problem. That is not to say that we do not need more market housing, but it is to say that we want to see the government focus specifically on non-market housing, which has been neglected for years and absolutely must return in a significant way. We must do this; the government must do this in order for us to solve the housing crisis.
It is a problem with the current government and will be a problem with any future Conservative government because the parties share the same market-driven ideology. The Liberals must address corporate greed. The leader of the NDP has given them the road map through his bill, the lower prices for Canadians act. The Liberals need to act on it immediately.
Another thing the government must do is legislate corporations that want to invest in Canada and create jobs in Canada, particularly in the natural resource sector. The natural resource sector is experiencing a rebirth, and there is an expectation by New Democrats that it is going to be creating good union jobs in that rebirth. That is why I am very proud of the labour conditions that are attached to the investment tax credits in the fall economic statement. The legislation would implement those labour conditions for companies investing in Canada. This generation of young Canadians needs good union jobs. New Democrats want investments in Canada from companies that respect their employees and are prepared to pay their workers well.
Too often in Canada, the governments, both Conservative and Liberal, have accepted a situation where they are happy to have companies come in and compete on the cost of labour, have a competition about who can pay the least to do a job. I am very proud to say that with the legislation in the fall economic statement, we would be implementing for the first time ever, because of the NDP, conditions on an investment tax break that centres workers in the middle of it and has an apprenticeship requirement. In the long term, employers with foresight see the value of passing on training and knowledge and of creating a workforce they can avail themselves of, but we know there are employers that do not have that strategy, and that is why we need legislation.
I want to come back to housing because it is an important topic. In the fall economic statement, the recapitalization that was much touted by the government as its action on the urgent housing crisis was back-loaded, meaning it will not be coming for another two years. This is particularly shameful when we consider that the territory of Nunavut alone has been asking on an urgent basis for $250 million to address the housing crisis.
Since the economic statement was first tabled, the AFN has estimated that the infrastructure gap for the first nations, Métis and Inuit communities has reached over $400 billion. Alongside that, it was rumoured before the recent budget was tabled that the government was contemplating deep cuts at Indigenous Services Canada. New Democrats fought hard to prevent that, but investments by the government continue to fail indigenous peoples.
I want to come back to the question of the role large corporations are playing in driving up the cost of living in Canada. A report from the Parliamentary Budget Officer as recently as December 2021 said that 1% of Canada's population owns and controls 25% of all the wealth in this country, and the bottom 40% of income earners in Canada share just 1% of all of the wealth that is produced in Canada. This is not fair.
What has happened since the year 2000 is that the proportion of wealth controlled by the top 1% has increased exponentially. That needs to change. The big hole in government revenue comes from the people in the top 1%, who are walking away with much more of Canada's overall wealth than they used to because they pay significantly less tax than they used to. Their tax rates are unrealistically low. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have let the people at the top off the hook from having to pay their fair share. That inequity needs to be fixed.
I will close by saying Canadians are working hard, playing by the rules and doing everything right, but life is getting harder. It does not have to be this way. New Democrats are working for the people. In the bill, there are stricter competition rules that would lower food prices, investment tax credits that would drive higher-paying jobs and measures that would lower rents, with a $16 billion investment in affordable housing funds and apartment construction loans.
It is not as strong as the investment the NDP would make, but so much much better than what the Liberals would have done on their own, and the Conservatives have shown over and over again that they side with their wealthy donors and give them the tax breaks they lobby for.
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- Feb/1/24 2:49:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, rent is due today. For workers in Port Moody—Coquitlam, that rent will cost over 50% of their monthly paycheque. Some seniors are facing renoviction and homelessness because corporate investors are buying up their affordable homes. The out-of-touch Liberals created this mess alongside the cut-and-gut Conservatives, who work for greedy corporations. Why are the Liberals dragging their feet when Canadians desperately need affordable rental homes now?
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- Dec/14/23 6:57:37 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the cost of living is past the breaking point for many people in my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam and the government's lack of action to build affordable homes is pushing more people to be homeless this winter. Many shelters are at full capacity across the nation and Canadians are unable to find adequate housing solutions in their communities.
Sequential Liberal and Conservative governments turned their backs on affordable homes across Canada for 40 years. Some 800,000 affordable homes were lost under the former Conservative government alone and the Liberals did not replace them.
In the greater Vancouver area, homelessness just continues to go up under the shadow of luxury condo towers, many used as investment vehicles and Airbnbs. The inequity and injustice of this reality is a result of Liberal and Conservative bad policy decisions.
In my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam, luxury towers continue to reign and those people whose affordable housing has been displaced by the insatiable appetite of luxury condo builders are struggling to find new homes. They simply cannot afford a place to live because of unchecked corporate greed. Market-driven policies that the Liberals and the Conservatives before them started and perpetuated are not working for people. People cannot afford housing. Seniors are feeling the affordability gap more and more. The average 70-year-old, who is dependent on their well-earned government benefit, spends about 78% of their income to rent a one-bedroom apartment in B.C. This leaves them with very little at the end of the month. Many seniors are left to choose which one they can afford: groceries, rent or medications. The same is happening with persons with disabilities and anyone on a fixed income, who simply cannot absorb these enormous rent increases. With increased renovictions driven by corporate profit and greed, my community members are suffering.
Not-for-profit organizations are pleading with the federal government for better investments in affordable housing. The government must act and invest in housing solutions that meet people's needs now. Will the Liberals front-load their investments into purpose-built rentals, including more investment in co-op housing and immediately match the B.C. rental protection fund to save affordable housing in the most expensive region of the country?
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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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- Oct/26/23 2:31:28 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the minister keeps talking about solutions that are not going to happen for this winter.
As my colleague from Edmonton said, people are already sleeping out on the streets. Students are sleeping in tents, couch surfing or living in overcrowded conditions because they cannot find affordable housing. It is beyond unacceptable. The lack of affordable rental options for students in B.C. is leaving them vulnerable to exploitation and homelessness today.
However, the Liberals and the Conservatives are too busy blaming each other and other levels of government instead of getting to work. When will the Liberal government invest in affordable and safe student housing for today?
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- Oct/23/23 6:53:10 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am rising tonight to talk about the rising rates of rents in my communities and the inability for people to find a home to rent.
In my riding of Port Moody—Coquitlam, rent is rising at an alarming rate. As of October 2023, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Coquitlam is $2,465. This is a 23% increase compared to the previous year. Rentals are priced beyond what many people can afford. With the prices of homes being even further out of reach for many, rental is their only option.
The number of people who have not been able to secure safe and affordable rental housing is now causing a homelessness crisis in the Tri-Cities. In Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, there has been an 86% increase in homelessness. The Tri-Cities Homelessness and Housing Task Group released its records this month. The local figures show that 160 people in the Tri-Cities indicated that they are homeless. We have seen their affordable housing being taken down and replaced with luxury condos that are unaffordable to most of our community.
Families are being pushed out of their neighbourhoods. Seniors and persons with disabilities are unable to find a new place to live as their long-term housing has been taken down. We have seen this government promise to invest in affordable housing, but its approach is just not working. The lack of affordable housing is hurting people, especially those living on fixed incomes.
Something has got to change, but this government has only just started talking about housing affordability and, really, there has been no talk about how we get people into affordable rentals now. Our communities do not need more expensive condos. They cannot wait for the much-needed GST rebate. The housing accelerator fund is not helping renters fast enough.
Will this government step up and work now to get some affordable housing in the community of Coquitlam?
I will close with another question. Right now in my riding, there is new development happening almost every day, and there is a large development coming up in my riding. I am wondering how we can get the federal government to come to the table early, to start the discussions on how we can get more affordable housing replaced in my community.
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- Oct/23/23 3:11:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the City of Coquitlam has had to foot the bill to save affordable homes because the federal government is missing in action. Renters in my community are being displaced at alarming rates as their homes are being sold off to for-profit developers. Homelessness in Coquitlam is soaring. We cannot afford to lose more co-ops and rentals. The Liberals are turning their backs on local governments that are doing their best to protect low-income renters.
How many more people need to go homeless before the Liberals take this housing crisis seriously?
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- Oct/18/23 3:15:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, homelessness in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody is up by 86%. Community leaders from the Tri-Cities Homelessness & Housing Task Group are calling for political courage. I agree. People being unable to find a home is past the point of a crisis, and with colder weather on its way, action is needed, but the Liberals are out of touch, and their lack of concern is appalling.
What are the Liberals going to do to get people into affordable homes before the winter?
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- Apr/27/23 7:15:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, that is probably not a good question to ask me, because no, I have not. Even though there has been investment in my community, we have lost housing at a rate of 15 to one. Affordable housing has come down, and luxury condos have gone up. Up to 20% of those condos are sitting empty, and our homelessness rate is rising, our mental health impacts are rising and our opioid overdoses are rising. We cannot sit in this House saying we are doing A, B and C, when the results are not happening on the ground, and I will say that the National Housing Council just came forward with a report that said the national housing strategy is not working.
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- Oct/21/22 2:08:29 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the law is clear that adequate housing is a human right, but many of the 22% of Canadians with disabilities are being left behind.
The National Housing Strategy Act embeds Canada’s international human rights obligations to implement the right to adequate housing, but as this motion points out, the national housing strategy is missing recognition of the additional barriers to housing faced by persons with disabilities.
The motion has the opportunity to correct that. Article 19 of the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities notes the equal rights of all persons with disabilities to live independently and to inclusion in the community. That is not happening under the government. The Government of Canada is failing to live up to its obligation to ensure adequate, accessible and affordable housing.
We see the housing crisis manifesting in communities across this country. There are people in Canada suffering, and the government has a responsibility to fix it, to build homes, to have affordable homes, to stop the homeless crisis in Canada and to recognize that persons with disabilities have even more barriers to housing.
Canadians with a disability are greatly overrepresented in the homeless population. Forty-five per cent of Canada’s homeless have a physical or mental disability, and core housing need is at least 16% higher for persons with disabilities. In British Columbia alone, nearly 4,000 people living with disabilities are on a wait-list to find an accessible home. Housing demand far exceeds availability. Only 5% of units in B.C. are targeted for accessibility despite the fact that 15% to 20% of Canadians live with one.
It has been said that the only true disability is the inability to accept and respect people’s differences. Living up to the legal obligation to protect human rights means understanding equity and addressing long-standing inequities. How can those inequities be fixed if the decision-making tables are missing those perspectives?
This motion seeks to begin to correct that. That lack of representation at decision-making tables is also contributing to poverty. There are links between poverty, homelessness and living with disabilities. According to one IRIS report, people living with disabilities are twice as likely to live below the poverty line. In fact, living in poverty is likely to increase instances of disability.
While there are no concrete numbers on how many people experiencing homelessness in Canada live with disabilities, we know that there are many. The Center for Justice and Social Compassion estimates that 45% of all people experiencing homelessness are disabled or diagnosed with a mental illness. Given that the Canadian survey on disability showed that 13% of Canadians self-identified as having a disability, this shows just how overrepresented people living with disabilities are in the homeless population.
Street Health Toronto found that 55% of people experiencing homelessness had a serious health condition, and of those, 63% had more than one. In a report by the Daily Bread, it was reported that almost 50% of people frequenting Toronto food banks have a disability, and that includes persons with invisible disabilities.
Invisible disabilities, such as anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, are not always seen out in the community, but it does not make them any less limiting in this ableist world. Long COVID, for which there is no single test and with symptoms varying from person to person, joins the list of invisible disabilities with very real impacts. This reality needs to be addressed and investments in supports and benefits are required from the government.
Accessing those supports and benefits must be easier. Accessing benefits has always been a barrier. Complicated processes and confusing paperwork are all too often more challenging for persons with disabilities. In The Globe and Mail, Michael Prince wrote about how people with severe and prolonged disabilities face many challenges when trying to get their benefits and appealing decisions when their applications are rejected. Prince claims that the system is “structurally flawed” and asks:
Who suffers? The clients and their families, who confront new obstacles to access [programs] vital to their well being and financial security.
When the very systems put in place to support persons with disabilities are themselves exclusionary and unaccommodating, it is no wonder that these people are living in poverty and falling through the cracks, and when that system is keeping them from housing, their basic human right is being violated. The government needs to stop this violation and build the accessible, affordable homes required.
When I was first elected, I asked an Order Paper question about accessible housing. I asked about what accessible housing we are losing each year in this country. CMHC came back and said, “CMHC does not collect data on accessible units that have been lost or decommissioned.”
I also requested some stats from CMHC about federal funds used to build accessible units and to convert existing units to accessible housing. Its response only included the national housing strategy program, even though I asked it for data since 2010. This meant that no data was collected on accessible housing until 2017, and for the first three years, from 2017 to 2020, there was nearly no data. Only in the last two years, 2020 and 2021, was there any data of any measurable consequence.
Liberal and Conservative governments have failed to deliver on housing for all Canadians. How could they not, if they were not even collecting the data?
The need to act cannot wait. We cannot have one more person with a disability forced into a tent on the street like the ones we see every day on our way to the House of Commons here in Ottawa. As the motion says, we must “prioritize the creation and repair of accessible units through [the national housing strategy] programs”. The government cannot move fast enough on that.
Let us not forget how Canadians got into a situation where housing is unaffordable and inaccessible. Conservative and Liberal governments have overseen the financialization of housing. Instead of protecting our social and accessible housing stock, they encouraged upzoning and gentrification in the name of density, forcing persons with disabilities living in poverty out of their homes. Density dreams are for developers and investors. The financialization of housing is only working for the super-wealthy and is leaving the rest of Canadians behind.
The National Housing Act has legislated that the Government of Canada’s housing policy is required to recognize that the human right to adequate housing is a fundamental human right affirmed in international law and that housing is essential in the inherent dignity and well-being of the person. The government must do better.
The housing minister must live up to his words, and has committed:
that...every single project that seeks to get money from the federal government to build housing, whether it's private sector, government, another order of government or the non-profit sector, we have minimum accessibility requirements. Unless they fulfill accessibility requirements from our government, they don't get a single dime from us.
He also said, “barrier-free housing for Canadians with disabilities is a priority of the national housing strategy and always will be”. Even if M-59 does not pass, the NDP will hold the government to those words.
I must point out, though, that I am not sure the government has an achievable goal here, as we are still waiting to hear what the government means by the word “accessible”. In the HUMA committee, I asked specifically for information around the government's definition of “accessible” because I have experienced that it is very hard to get the market to build accessible housing.
When the response came back from CMHC, the word “accessible” was only written once, and the accessibility definition was not included. The government needs to do better to identify what definition it is using in its commitment to accessible housing.
In closing, I appreciate the member for London West's highlighting the gaps at the decision-making tables around housing and in the national housing strategy and the need for a more inclusive understanding of housing needs in Canada. With the failings of the government in providing accessible and adequate housing for indigenous people, people with disabilities and more, I encourage the government to do better and to start realizing that one size does not fit all, and adding to that the aging population.
We need a better approach to accessible, affordable housing in this country, and the debate today is an important step for all of us to think about how to solve the problem of a home for everyone in Canada in a more inclusive way.
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Mr. Speaker, hopefully we can bring the debate back to Bill C-30 and the income support gaps that are hurting people right now in Canada.
These are short-term emergency income support gap measures that the New Democrats support. We know people need help with rent and food. I want to ask the member specifically about the long-term measures that need to be taken, because more Canadians are falling into poverty and homelessness. I speak specifically about persons with disabilities right now. Is this House going to see Bill C-22 come back this week?
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Madam Speaker, before I begin discussing Bill C-30, I must stop to recognize that indigenous women and girls continue to be violated and marginalized at rates much higher than those in the general population.
Today is the National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. New Democrats add their voices to the collective call to bring an end to the injustices suffered by Canada's indigenous women and girls. I raise my hands to the members for Winnipeg Centre and Nunavut, who continue to advocate and bring understanding to this House of the causes of the systemic abuses that indigenous women and girls continue to experience and to hold the Liberal government accountable for its lack of action.
Bill C-30 is here at a very critical time for Canadians. There are too many struggling with the rising cost of living and the challenge of keeping rents paid and food in the fridge. The fact that there is a need for immediate financial support for millions of Canadians is not an accident. It is a result of bad Liberal and Conservative policies. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have prioritized tax breaks and subsidies for the wealthiest in this country while intentionally eroding the social safety nets that support the well-being of the majority of Canadians. Poverty and homelessness are growing in this country, and they are a reality in every city and town.
While fossil fuel companies and big corporate grocery chains are bringing in billions of dollars in profits, people are falling further and further behind. It is far past time the Liberal government needs to close the long-standing tax loopholes for the superwealthy and finally make large corporations and the largest polluters pay their fair share. It is no secret that corporate greed is hurting Canadians, and it has only increased and magnified like so many other things during this pandemic. While the Liberals and Conservatives protect the profits of the wealthiest corporations, persons with disabilities, single moms, seniors and families on fixed and low incomes are not able to afford to purchase fresh fruit, cheese or meats. Some of the moms I have spoken to in Port Moody—Coquitlam are limiting their meals to one a day so that they can afford to feed their kids.
After too many years of consecutive Liberal and Conservative governments making decisions to put corporations above everyday people, our social safety net is eroded. The social safety net that supports the well-being of Canadians has been eroded to the point that we are here today trying to put patches of immediate support in place.
New Democrats are here to act on this immediate need. We are using our power to get the government to send financial support out to people with Bill C-30 and Bill C-31. I include Bill C-31 because the two bills are connected. They are both offering immediate investments in the well-being of people, investments that never would have come from the government without the pressure from New Democrats.
New Democrats will not stop fighting for people even after these immediate benefits kick in. We will continue to force the government to do the right thing and put people first. We will continue to stop fossil fuel subsidies from going to the largest polluters, close tax loopholes for the wealthiest, stop the exploitation of workers and get our health care system back on track. The health care system is broken. We see it in our communities every day. A broken health care system is hurting people. Nurses have worked tirelessly, as well as doctors and hospital staff, to the extent that they are burnt-out and people who are sick are not getting access to the care they need.
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