- Member of Parliament
- Member of the Subcommittee on Review of Parliament’s involvement with associations and recognized Interparliamentary groups
Deputy House leader of the New Democratic Party
- NDP
- London—Fanshawe
- Ontario
- Voting Attendance: 66%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $131,911.16
- Government Page
- May/9/24 11:17:02 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague across the way is my constituency neighbour in London. I also have to admit that his daughter is ridiculously adorable.
We were at an event a few months ago, and the hon. member was talking about some of the different innovations within housing. He was talking about mobile units potentially being built. I think he was in Alberta to visit a plant there. I had conversations about those mobile units with members of a firefighters union when they were here in Ottawa, and a concern was raised. We spoke about the construction of the units and how the firefighters are maybe not being consulted with respect to codes and so on.
Could the member talk about that? Innovation in housing is very important, but so is safety.
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- Nov/27/23 6:47:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I would note that they are not “our” indigenous people. I warn the member about that language; it is very important.
General Wayne Eyre specifically stated, right at the get-go of the study, “I see no real threat today to our territorial sovereignty; nor do I see one in the near future". Yes, we have to be aware of what is going on in the world. Yes, we have to be concerned, but, critically, what gives access to critical minerals, to the Northwest Passage, to communities in the north and to all of that is climate change. The opening up of the passage and of the seaways is the existential threat, and we are not doing anything to address that adequately.
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- Apr/18/23 3:12:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, since October, Canadian Armed Forces have been in Poland to train their Ukrainian counterparts to fight against Putin's horrific invasion, but, once again, the federal government has cut corners at their expense. Instead of sending military cooks to Poland, it tried to save a few bucks by telling troops to foot the bill. Military families have been forced to dip into savings to send money for food and some are still waiting to be reimbursed by the government.
Will the Minister of National Defence commit today to stop the cuts and ensure our forces have what they need to eat?
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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for the introduction of this PMB. I know it will mean a lot for members in my community in London—Fanshawe. He spoke about that coming together after the explosion in Beirut, and I really appreciate that. That hit my community so incredibly hard.
They have been asking what we can do now, what more we can do and how we can ensure that consistent building back for Lebanon, which is complicated but necessary, as the jewel of the Middle East, is brought forward.
What can Canada do?
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Madam Speaker, I was taking too much time and that was the next point in my speech. It was about those workers and how they have given to the EI system. However, because successive Liberal and Conservative governments have used it to pay off debt and make themselves look better in terms of their bottom lines, they have taken advantage of that money and, at the same time, restricted how workers can use EI when they need it. This is a huge fear, and it is what New Democrats have been fighting for in order to ensure EI fairness.
One of the things we want to do is introduce a service guarantee that will make departments responsible for establishing and publishing binding service standards for programs like EI. That would be a start, but ensuring we strengthen it to allow more workers to access it is really key.
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Madam Speaker, I will try to take no offence in the fact that my hon. colleague forgot to mention that I, too, was on that trip. I did get quite a lot out of it, of course. It was fascinating.
One of the things that our defence committee is studying is Arctic sovereignty and how Canada is investing into NORAD and its modernization and our role in that. We have heard a lot about how we can continue to be that partner in NORAD to help with the security that is at threat through the Arctic, to the Arctic and in the Arctic. While we are focusing as the defence committee on “through” and Canada's role in that, maybe the member could talk about some of the investments his government needs to make and has not made in the Arctic.
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- Oct/21/22 11:15:03 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, last week I had the honour of attending a groundbreaking ceremony at the largest affordable housing development in London’s history. Vision SoHo is a coalition of six non-profit affordable housing providers convened by the London Community Foundation, and they will build more than 650 units as a mixed-use community.
This is needed more than ever in my community as Londoners are priced out of their neighbourhoods. In the last few years, the average home cost has more than doubled in London. Home ownership is now only a dream for too many. The city’s list of individuals using homelessness supports grew tenfold, and more than 6,000 people are now on our social housing wait-list.
The financialization of housing in Canada has caused a crisis in my community, which of course started because the Liberal government cancelled the national affordable housing program in 1993. However, I want to thank my NDP colleagues for pushing for a study of this financialization in the HUMA committee.
I call on the government to take the real action needed to make housing a right, not a commodity.
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Madam Speaker, I agree with a lot of what my hon. colleague just spoke about. I agree that foreign credentials are a huge issue, as is the immigration crisis we are seeing through the IRCC. My office is constantly battling with the fact that we are only allowed to ask about five cases every day, which is absolutely ludicrous.
The member did not speak too much about international students. In my community, at Fanshawe College, there are incredible students coming forward, yet they are limited in being able to find a pathway here after they finish their degrees. If he could comment on that, it would be great.
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Madam Speaker, I sit on the defence committee and we heard a lot about the need of those in the armed forces who are struggling with the cost of living, with having to move all the time. Families are struggling with housing costs. One of the things that was offered up was a reinstatement of the cost of living differential for Canadian Armed Forces members.
I would like to hear the member's thoughts on how that would help.
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- Feb/17/22 7:51:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in my community I have received some complaints from folks who are upset because Confederate flags have shown up on their neighbour's lawn.
Going forward, after we can move past this convoy, ideally, and hopefully things settle down a little, where is the government going to go from there? How are we going to stop this from spreading in the way that we have seen it spread to communities, and prevent bolstering that hate and that horrible symbolism?
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