SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Member of Parliament

Richard Cannings

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of Parliament
  • NDP
  • South Okanagan—West Kootenay
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 61%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $128,729.57

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 141 - Dec/5/22
Mr. Richard Cannings (South Okanagan—West Kootenay, NDP)
  • Dec/5/22 12:33:03 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-32 
Madam Speaker, one thing I was hoping to see in the fall economic statement and in this bill was some added help for graduate students across Canada. These are our best and brightest master's and Ph.D. students. The money they are given by the federal government to do their work has stayed the same for almost 20 years, since 2003. They are living in poverty, below the poverty line. They are working for less than minimum wage. For the last year, the science and research committee has recommended their wages go up and nothing has been done. Can he explain why that is?
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Context: House Hansard - 139 - Dec/1/22
Mr. Richard Cannings
  • Dec/1/22 6:52:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the fact is that, for almost 20 years, there has not been any new money for these scholarship programs I have been talking about. These are our best and brightest young researchers, and they are living in poverty. I appreciate that the government has increased spending in some aspects of science. It supports science. However, it needs to support these students. More and more of them are leaving Canada for the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Many countries are providing better living conditions and studying environments than Canada. This brain drain costs our economy almost $1 billion a year, just in lost training dollar investments. The solution is simple: Increase the scholarship amounts and increase the number of scholarships. It would be a relatively small investment that would have an immense payback for our country and for the young researchers our future depends on.
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Context: House Hansard - 130 - Nov/18/22
Mr. Richard Cannings
  • Nov/18/22 10:24:36 a.m.
  • Watch
  • Re: Bill C-32 
Madam Speaker, if the member had listened to my speech, he would have heard that I mentioned both of those items. They are things that we support as the NDP, because they were literally our ideas, especially the dental care proposal that the Liberals voted against a year ago. However, we were very happy to see that being carried forward. We look forward to next year when it will be expanded to include seniors and people with disabilities, and in the third year to all Canadians who need dental care who do not have that coverage now. I am very much in favour of getting rid of the interest on student loans. It is something we have been calling on for a long time, because students are our future. That is why I care so much about the graduate student situation, where we are forcing our best and brightest to live in poverty. We should fix that right now.
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