- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Victoria
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 61%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $127,392.53
- Government Page
Madam Speaker, I acknowledge the land that we are on. It is the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. Since today we are debating Bill C-35, the Canada early learning and child care act, as we acknowledge the land we are on, it is important that we acknowledge the ongoing injustice that indigenous people face.
We pause not only to remember and honour the indigenous survivors who were impacted by residential schools and the children who never made it home, but also we must collectively commit to a future where there is justice for indigenous people and where every child matters. A piece of this is supporting indigenous-led child care programming, committing to a future where every child matters and where indigenous children have the opportunity to experience high-quality, culturally rooted early learning and child care programming.
Bill C-35, the Canada early learning and child care act, has been a long time coming. I thank the child care advocates who have worked tirelessly for decades to make this happen. I say tirelessly because their advocacy has continued despite decades of broken promises. However, it is also important to note that so many of the people who have been pushing for national child care, who are parents, grandparents and educators, are tired.
Parents have been struggling to afford the unbelievably high costs of child care, paying monthly child care fees that are as much as or more than their monthly rent payments. They have been struggling to find child care spaces. They are struggling, and many parents, especially moms, have told me they would like to return to work. However, because of the impossibly high costs or because they cannot find a space, it is impossible for them to return to their careers.
I have spoken with grandparents who are generously stepping in to provide care, but who have worked hard their whole lives. While they are stepping up as much as they can, they are tired and they do not want to be full-time caregivers. I have spoken to educators, who give so much to our children, yet for decades have been underpaid and undervalued. There are educators who are leaving the field, because they cannot afford to make ends meet without a living wage.
Their stories highlight some of the reasons this piece of legislation is so important. I am glad the government is committing to funding. We are beginning to see that funding make an impact in my home province of B.C. The B.C. government has been reducing child care costs, creating more spaces and recruiting more early child care educators. Every parent and every child deserves access to high-quality affordable child care.
The bill would enshrine this vision into law and commit the federal government to long-term funding for provinces and indigenous peoples.
New Democrats pushed the government for this legislation. It is one of the 27 commitments outlined in the supply and confidence agreement. We were able to successfully push the government for the prioritization of public non-profit care, which would mean affordable, high-quality and accessible day cares for families who need them. That would ultimately mean better wages and working conditions for staff.
We also pushed to make sure the bill would contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and for the inclusion of a commitment to the right to child care, as recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I want to give a shout-out to my colleague, the member for Winnipeg Centre, for her tireless work on this file.
There are also ways the bill could be further improved, and as New Democrats we will not only be supporting the bill but also working alongside child care advocates, educators, unions and other experts in the field to strengthen it at committee.
We know that one of the major barriers to the expansion of affordable child care is staffing. We have been echoing the calls of unions representing child care workers that call for a workforce strategy that addresses staffing shortages in the sector. Early childhood educators in Canada continue to leave their profession due to the low pay, the lack of benefits, the lack of supports and the lack of decent working conditions.
Enticing new people into a field when they are facing these conditions is extremely challenging. The federal government must take a leadership role, commit to a workforce strategy and support amendments to this bill that outline explicit commitments to fair pay and decent working conditions for staff.
CUPE, which was my union before I became an MP, and also the union that represents over 12,000 workers in the child care sector, has stated clearly, “Until the child care staffing crisis is resolved, the promise of affordable and high quality child care for every family in Canada who needs it will remain unfulfilled.” It is constantly advocating for its members, reminding us that child care workers are highly skilled, trained individuals whose work is important. These are the people who are caring for and educating our children. They deserve respect and fair wages.
We will continue to push for a more unequivocal commitment in this bill for decent work for child care staff. We need clear language that explicitly mentions fair wages and working conditions.
We are also going to be pushing for stronger reporting requirements. The current language in the bill has a vague promise that the minister will report on progress, but there should be requirements to report on the number of new spaces built, the number of new child care workers being hired, and a detailed breakdown of federal spending.
We will also be pushing for stronger accountability mechanisms to ensure the provinces are spending child care money for its intended purpose. This is particularly relevant when we see in Manitoba the average cost of child care not going down, and when we see Ontario opening the door to and prioritizing the expansion of for-profit care.
Our New Democrat team is putting forward constructive proposals to improve the accountability and reporting mechanisms in the bill to ensure costs are reduced, child care spaces are created and child care workers are being hired, but we are also pushing for a workforce strategy and a clear commitment to decent working conditions and fair pay for staff.
A study that was released last year by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit provided the dos and don'ts when building a universal child care program. The researchers drew from studies both in Canada and internationally and concluded that, based on the best available evidence and on all we know about building the foundations for a publicly funded universal child care system, the best way for Canada to build an affordable, accessible, inclusive, flexible, equitable and quality early child learning and child care system is to use our public funds to prioritize non-profit and public child care.
That is not to say that we ignore or exclude the current for-profit child care providers. Instead, it argues that the most constructive way forward is a three-point plan. The first point is to maintain funding and the existing supply of regulated public, non-profit and for-profit child care. The second is to ensure more vigorous, publicly managed regulation, including affordable provincial parent fees and wage scales that ensure decent staff compensation. The third is that any future public funds aimed at the expansion of the supply of child care should prioritize public and non-profit providers, while simultaneously pursuing new public strategies for developing early learning and child care services for when, where and for whom they are needed. This is the road map to a national child care system that provides parents, children and educators with the support they need.
I want to end with a few comments about the gendered impacts of our policy decisions. We know that a national system of affordable child care helps advance gender equality by making it easier for women to re-enter the workforce after having children on their own terms. Unpaid household and family child care responsibilities disproportionately fall on women, and investing in affordable, accessible and inclusive child care is essential if we want women to have equal opportunities.
It is important to note that there is little data on the particular challenges faced by racialized women in accessing child care. If we want to ensure that the most marginalized women do not slip through the cracks of a new child care system, it is essential that we bring the voices of under-represented women and gender-diverse people to the forefront of these policy discussions.
It is also important to remember that, professionally, the child care sector is one of the most feminized job sectors in Canada, and early childhood educators are some of the most undervalued workers, with low pay, low retention rates, low levels of job satisfaction and, unsurprisingly, labour shortages. Investing in affordable, accessible, high-quality child care, where child care providers are paid a fair wage, is good for gender equality, good for the economy and good for our children. Let us make a more prosperous, equitable, affordable and inclusive Canada for all.
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Madam Speaker, I want to thank the member for his ongoing advocacy for autistic Canadians. I really appreciated his comments.
I was hoping he could expand on two points that he touched on briefly. One is how we ensure this piece of legislation adheres to the principle of “nothing about us without us”. The second is the need for tangible investments to improve the services and supports for autistic Canadians, families, service providers and caregivers.
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Mr. Speaker, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip has been calling for amendments to this proposed legislation to ensure that, if established, the enforcement watchdog would employ indigenous people as both decision-makers and complaints investigators.
This was one of the recommendations that came out of the House committee study on systemic racism in policing. I am curious if the member will push his government to ensure that indigenous representation is top of mind, that these amendments are put forward and passed, and that indigenous investigators are probing complaints when it comes to indigenous people's files.
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- May/31/22 5:24:20 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member mentioned that he recognizes that there has been discrimination in the past, but he says that we cannot swing the pendulum too far the other way. I am surprised. Since women, people from racialized communities and indigenous peoples are still under-represented, does he think the pendulum has swung too far back now?
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- May/31/22 5:10:01 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this motion seems to be based on a faulty understanding of who gets appointed. There is an assumption that when affirmative action policies are in place, it means that a less qualified candidate is put forward. In fact, what it actually means is that we get a larger pool of qualified candidates and that we are removing barriers for those people who have traditionally been marginalized.
I would love to hear the member's comments on that.
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- May/31/22 4:38:14 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have to say that I am just furious, and disappointed, hearing the arguments from my colleagues today. We are talking about initiatives and policies that correct the under-representation of marginalized groups of people, and the Bloc wants to take away those policies. It wants to continue to marginalize and continue to push for the under-representation of these groups. I heard the member speak a bit about how some groups do not want to go into certain fields. I really think I would caution him in his assumption. We, as members of the House, should be working to increase diversity and increase equality in our institutions.
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- Nov/25/21 5:55:17 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, having the option for a virtual hybrid parliament is a no-brainer in a pandemic, so rather than start off my speech describing the obvious reasons why we would want to protect our fellow members of Parliament, our staff, our families and our communities, I am going to talk about some of the other reasons why a virtual parliament could be supportive in the House.
I am the MP who represents the beautiful riding of Victoria in British Columbia. I am also a new mom to the light of my life, my daughter Alora. She is seven months old. From door to door, our commute is about 10 hours. There are no direct flights. Mostly we are lucky to take two flights, but the past few times there have been three in a row. Travelling back and forth with a seven-month-old is not easy. In the past few months, she has been on 12 different planes. In normal times that would be exhausting, but in a pandemic it is also nerve-racking.
Beyond the big worry that flying here might put her at risk, I have also been thinking about what happens when she gets a cold. Last month, she got a really bad cold, then my partner and I got it and we were coughing for about two weeks straight. Luckily, our multiple COVID tests were negative, but we would not have been able to get on a plane if we needed to because we were symptomatic. Anyone who has raised little ones knows that they are constantly getting runny noses, coughs and mild fevers. Also, their immune systems are still developing. Babies who are teething often get fevers. Alora's two front teeth are just starting to come in, and if she has a fever we cannot fly. We would be stuck in Victoria, far across the country on Vancouver Island. A virtual Parliament for me would mean I could still work, even if I was stuck in Victoria unable to fly because she is still breastfeeding, has caught a mild cold or has a teething fever.
That is now. When I was pregnant this past year, if it had not been for a virtual Parliament, I would not have been able to work for months in the latter part of my pregnancy when I was unable to fly. Instead, I was able to continue working into my ninth month of pregnancy. Not every woman wants to do that, but every woman deserves the choice. Women deserve the choice to participate. They should not have to face institutional barriers. I am sad to say that despite the gains we have made, we still face many of them. The vast majority of the members of Parliament here are men. The House of Commons was built by men, for men, and we have a long way to go if we want equal access, equal participation and equity for Alora's generation.
If we want to encourage more young women to run, one important step is to make sure that Parliament is more family-friendly. One small example is that there is one family room here at Parliament. There are at least three moms with babies. Because of COVID, only one family can be in the family room at a time. That means when one of the other moms has booked that room, I breastfeed and pump in the quiet room: the room for meditation and quiet reflection. There is no lock on the door to the quiet room, so I have had MPs come in even though I barricaded the door. It has been awkward and funny, but there are small changes that we could make that would make life less challenging for new moms. It would be great to have more family rooms. It would be great to have a private place to change into my pumping gear or to take my baby when she needs a nap, and a fridge to store breast milk in. Those would be small changes that would make a small difference.
Do members know what would make a huge difference? The option for a virtual Parliament. Women in every sector have taken on more during this pandemic. Whether through the loss of employment, additional child care challenges, increased unpaid labour at home or increased care for elderly family members, women have borne the brunt of this pandemic.
We need to address the barriers that women face across Canada. We need to especially address these barriers for women who face additional barriers: women who are single moms, indigenous women, racialized women, trans women, queer women and women with disabilities. We need these women in Parliament to help us make laws because we know that representation matters. It is not guaranteed, but people who have lived the experience of barriers are much more likely to fight to reduce those barriers.
Every chance I get, I encourage young women to get involved in politics, to put their names forward to run for elected office. However, when I am talking to women about running to be an MP, it is a hard sell to women with young kids, women from B.C. I have to be honest with them about the challenges. Being a mom is a demanding job, and that is just on its own. Being an MP is a demanding job just on its own. Doing them at the same time is beyond challenging. I accept that and am committed to rising to those challenges, but what is unacceptable to me is that MPs could make the House more family friendly but they choose not to.
What is unacceptable to me is when I hear MPs in this debate say that those who want a hybrid Parliament want it because we do not want to come to work. I want to come to work. I want a hybrid Parliament so that when my daughter gets sick and I am stuck in Victoria, I can still participate. I want a hybrid Parliament so that pregnant MPs have the choice to keep working. I want a hybrid Parliament so that when I am talking to young women, I can tell them honestly that things are changing, that MPs in the House are working to make Parliament more accessible and more family friendly.
I want to take a moment to express a huge thanks to my partner James. Without his support, love and incredible parenting, I would not be here. I also want to thank our parents, Alora’s grandparents, and our community. It takes a village, and I would not be able to do this without them.
I want to thank my campaign team and my staff too. Running in an election with a baby and being an MP with a baby are tough, and I am so lucky to have amazing people on my team and in my community.
My partner James is also a huge advocate for a hybrid Parliament. He is on parental leave and is caring for our daughter. He is bringing her to Parliament for breastfeeding or just so I can see her in our 14-hour days when we have emergency debates and late nights. He wants a hybrid Parliament because it would maybe give us a bit more time in Victoria. When we are in Victoria, we have a community supporting us, with grandparents' support and someone to hold the baby when he needs to sleep because he has been up all night with her. It would give us the option of a bit more balance. It would give us peace of mind about making choices to reduce risk to my daughter.
I have heard some members in this debate speak as if the pandemic is over. However, while we are making great progress with vaccines, the pandemic is not over. We have continued to see outbreaks, and countries in Europe that are facing rising cases and hospitalizations are once again implementing lockdown policies. Having a hybrid Parliament in place right now would ensure that whatever happens in the coming weeks and months, Parliament can continue to function.
The pandemic has had devastating impacts. COVID-19 has killed around 30,000 people in Canada and five million people around the world. We should all pause and reflect on these victims. We should reflect on how we can work together to take every measure possible to end the pandemic.
This motion is a continuation of the measures that have already collectively been taken by members of Parliament, measures that were taken unanimously because we all understood that we are in a public health emergency. It is the right thing to do to keep everyone safe; to protect not just members of Parliament but their families, their staff and the employees on Parliament Hill; and to protect the communities that we go home to.
Without a hybrid Parliament, someone who might have symptoms of COVID, tests positive or needs to quarantine will not have the chance to bring concerns forward. I am worried that without hybrid Parliament, they may to be tempted to show up anyway and put other MPs at risk, put their families at risk—
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