- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- NDP
- Hamilton Centre
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 65%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,250.15
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- May/21/24 5:26:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, as the very proud spokesperson for employment and workplace development, I am baffled that the parliamentary secretary stands to deliver the comments he did in his speech. Just last month, provincial and territorial labour ministers united across all parties and coast to coast to coast to call an emergency meeting to decry the $625-million cut to workforce development programs for people across the country. This would imply that, somehow, in a just transition, we do not need labour training anymore.
Could the hon. member, the parliamentary secretary for this file, please explain to those provincial premiers why the government made cuts to those very important programs?
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- Apr/8/24 12:55:59 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, moments like this give me much joy, because the hon. member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan spoke of the parasitic private class sector of consultancy, in which he perfectly describes Marxist historical materialism, outlining, quite effectively, I might add, the central role of capitalism's use of exploitation of the workers.
What the member for Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan referenced is the Marxist theory of surplus value of labour, wherein those who actually create the value are exploited by their employers in which, through unpaid labour, is pumped out of their direct producing, so that the capitalist consultant class gets the opportunity to basically profit on work that it does not actually create value in.
For my new Marxist comrade from the Conservative caucus, what other sections of Das Kapital, Volume III would he like to reference for the good and welfare of the House?
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Madam Speaker, when I asked the hon. member about the commodification of the production of labour, we were clearly talking about the commodification of wages. I would love for him to answer that question. It was a good, fair question, one that underscores much of his argument. I would like him to determine whether he agrees with that statement.
Second, does he agrees with the analysis that “the long cherished freedom of competition has reached the end of its tether and is compelled to announce its own palpable bankruptcy.”
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Mr. Speaker, we heard the Minister of Natural Resources reference the just transition, the transition to a renewable economy and we heard him reference the VW deal.
As a New Democrat, and recognizing today is May Day, one of the things I think is incredibly important in this conversation is the idea of equivalency. That when workers in the oil patches of Alberta are being transitioned, that they are not just being sent to some job retraining centre and they are actually given prevailing wages and equivalency in their work.
I have not quite heard the government tell Canadians, tell working-class people, those who are currently in a carbon economy, what its plan is to ensure that, when announcement like a $13-billion deal is set for a corporation, it is the workers who are not left behind.
I will say this on May Day, on international labour day, that it cannot just be about talking about jobs. It needs to be talking about good work, good unionized work with benefits and pensions and the security a collective agreement provides. Can the hon. Minister of Natural Resources please enlighten us on the government's plan to make sure the billions of dollars it is sending to corporations actually make it to the tables and bank accounts of working-class Canadians?
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- Oct/20/22 2:14:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as a proud Hamiltonian, it is an honour to rise in the House and report that the “spirit of '46” is alive in the NDP caucus. We continue our fight for workers' rights to collectively bargain with their employers and, when necessary, withdraw their labour in order to push back against a tax on their wages, working conditions, pensions and benefits.
For decades, the New Democrats have introduced anti-scab legislation in the House to ensure that during labour disputes the use of scab replacement workers does not undermine the ability of workers to negotiate fairly or hurt labour relations. Scabs prolong strikes and lockouts and give employers little incentive to reach a fair deal. In the past, Liberals and Conservatives teamed up and voted against our anti-scab legislation.
Today, I am proud to also report that we have not stopped fighting for workers and have used our power in this Parliament to force the Liberals to include legislation to ban replacement workers. That includes not just strikes but lockouts as well. We will always fight for more democratic workplaces, democratic economies and to improve the material conditions of working-class people in our country.
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- Sep/23/22 11:29:57 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Canadian Labour Congress met with the Bank of Canada this week, the CLC warned them that with rapidly rising interest rates, everyday people pay the real cost of inflation, with job losses and mortgages and personal loan payments jumping hundreds of dollars overnight.
What was the Bank of Canada's response? With the economy on the brink of a recession, it continues attacking workers by encouraging companies to drive their wages down. It is disgusting.
Does the Liberal government agree with the Bank of Canada's call to drive up unemployment while pushing down people's wages, or will they join the New Democrats and the CLC by actually standing up for workers in Canada?
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- Mar/31/22 1:49:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, working people have been struggling since the beginning of the pandemic, but the Conservatives have made no gains for working people. Not surprisingly, the Conservatives have a history of standing up against workers' rights by undermining EI programs and protecting big bank profits. They are also against our NDP efforts to eliminate tax evasion by the ultrawealthy and big business.
While the hon. member listed many groups marginalized by the economic violence of capitalism and spoke at length about the impacts of inflation, she never mentioned a word about the impacts of austerity, stagnated workers' wages and cuts to their benefits. Will the hon. member acknowledge that the government has a role to play in helping our most vulnerable people, and that doing so requires revenue and increased labour rights and protections for workers?
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