- 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
- Mar/21/24 2:48:38 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, military civilian workers who support our troops on Canadian military bases are still on strike.
They cannot get a fair deal. Why is this? It is because the employer is allowing scab workers to replace them. This is shameful.
Liberals tell workers they are for anti-scab legislation, and then they look away when scabs are brought in to prevent base workers from fighting for better wages. The Liberals cannot have it both ways.
Will the Liberals stand up for striking civilian military workers, or will they keep turning a blind eye to these unfair labour practices?
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- Feb/12/24 3:09:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, those out-of-touch Liberals show time and again that they do not have the backs of brewery workers. The Liberals are set to drastically increase the tax on beer in April. This will hurt breweries, small businesses and restaurants, and their unionized workers risk losing their jobs. Workers deserve better.
Will the minister listen and reverse her decision to increase costs on those who are already struggling to keep their doors open?
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Mr. Speaker, although the hon. parliamentary secretary is not on this file, I appreciate his words, saying that the government is grateful to these workers. However, the government has to show it, not just say it. Why will it not get back to the table? Why would the employer threaten to remove their trailer when they need it in these winter months? Why, during the strike, would a government that stated it was so proud to introduce Bill C-58, the ban on replacement workers, now use Canadian Armed Forces as scab labour to do the work of the people of the SNPFCF? Why is it using scab labour in this situation? What is the explanation for that?
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- Feb/5/24 6:25:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, across the country, close to 600 PSAC workers are on strike.
The Non-Public Funds workers have actually been on strike for 22 days. They are the too often unrecognized figures, the workers within our defence community. The employees of the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services serve those who serve. They staff our Canex stores, feed our soldiers and support them with financial services and countless other essential supports.
At a time of unprecedented cost of living increases facing military families, we cannot forget that 40% of CFMWS workers are military family members. Those military family members have faced unnecessary burdens from the Liberal government. They are often underpaid and under-employed. They have dipped into their own pockets so many times to support our women and men in uniform, and they are proud to do so. They are proud to do this work.
Many are facing a rent spike this year to on-base housing. When military family members join the workforce, they are in a precarious position. Relocation and, at times, remote postings severely limit their employment opportunities. They need to be protected from employers that seek to take advantage of them.
However, that is not what they get from the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services. These workers are paid drastically less than their public servant counterparts. They are not being offered a national pay grid. They face serious workplace safety concerns as well. At the bargaining table, they are not asking for much: basic protections, a national pay grid and recognition of their essential role in our national defence.
I joined these workers on the picket line last week, and I heard from members that are struggling to make ends meet. When I asked the Minister of Defence about the strike last week, he said, “We support a resolution of this labour dispute at the table, and we will continue to support both sides coming back to the table.”
It is this minister’s department that has left the bargaining table and refused to return. Shortly after I was at the picket line, the employer served a trespassing notice to striking workers on the line. During the winter months, the employer has now demanded that workers remove the trailer they have on site by tomorrow. This trailer is being used for its washroom facilities and for workers to go back and get warm. It is February. It is cold out. This trailer helps to keep them safe. As an employer, the government should be aware of and concerned about that. Instead, the employer has said that, if they do not get rid of the trailer by tomorrow, the government would get rid of it at the workers' expense.
These workers are tired of the minister’s lack of awareness of not only their issues, but also their basic function under his mandate. When workers wrote to their local Liberal MPs asking for support, they were told that the minister does not believe they are even within his mandate.
The minister cannot plead ignorance here much longer. Long before this strike, I told the minister, over and over again, about the plight of the Non-Public Funds workers. When he was first nominated to this post, I told him about their concerns. I outlined them for him. When he and his department officials appeared before the Standing Committee on National Defence, I repeatedly told them about the concerns facing the Non-Public Funds workers.
I want to give the government one more opportunity here. Will it tell the employer to get back to the table, bargain in good faith and support the workers who serve those who serve?
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- Jan/30/24 3:14:14 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, today I joined the hundreds of workers on strike at the Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services. Their key demands are fair wages, better job security and respect, but the Liberal government refuses to even sit down to negotiate a fair deal. These are workers who support our military with critical wellness services. When they wrote to local Liberal MPs asking for support, they were told the minister did not know that these 4,000 workers were his responsibility.
Will the Minister of National Defence finally accept his obligation to these workers and get back to the bargaining table?
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- Nov/27/23 6:51:12 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, absolutely, and I think that this ties in to a lot of the things that I just answered before with my hon. colleague for New Westminster—Burnaby.
Of course, the question of how we treat our people as workers, how we treat them on the front lines, how we treat the men and women who volunteer as Canadian rangers and our search and rescue, is all very important, and the investment in the people who are doing that incredible work is a key component of what I was trying to bring forward today.
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- Nov/27/23 5:00:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, hopefully the third time is the charm, because the hon. member did not actually answer the questions of my last two colleagues. I too listened to the hon. member's speech. She did not really speak a lot about the bill in question. Yes, the cost of living is rising but, again, this bill will help ensure that workers have the ability and the power to negotiate as equals with their employers.
Again, will this member and will the Conservative members of the House support this bill and support workers' rights when dealing with potential replacement workers?
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Madam Speaker, I would like to give the hon. member a bit of a redo. He said that nobody was doing much of anything during COVID. I would argue that there were some frontline workers who were doing significant things.
In addition, I would like to talk more about the fact that this FTA enhances some protections for workers. The Conservative Party has talked about how incredibly supportive it is of workers. However, this is a perfect example of how we could strengthen and enhance workers' rights around the world, such as the right to join a union and the right to strike, as an important part of this free trade agreement.
Is that too woke for this member?
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- Jun/8/23 10:31:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I understand there are lots of other issues with this bill and wanting to change some things within committee is key.
One of the things I am concerned about is the safety of workers not being accounted for within this piece of legislation. About a year ago, I was talking to folks from IBEW, workers on CN, who put their very jobs on the line because they were so concerned with the safety of their work on the rail line.
The national supply chain task force talked about rail safety for workers, the exhaustion levels they face and the fatigue. They made recommendations that are not in this bill. The transportation committee made several recommendations that are not in this bill.
Could the member talk about the workers' safety and the importance of that? I would really love to hear his thoughts on that.
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- Jun/8/23 8:58:38 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I know that about a year ago, several CN workers were on strike. They were signal and communications workers. These workers deal with a lot of safety issues and were concerned about their own safety and the safety of their comrades. The fatigue that a lot of train operators talk about was one of their key concerns, and they went on strike to fight for it. They had to fight for their own safety.
I know that the national supply chain task force report from last year had six recommendations about worker safety. The Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities had four recommendations on safety. None of those are in this bill.
I would like to hear the member's response and reaction to that.
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- Apr/19/23 2:50:57 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, PSAC workers who serve the people of London are on strike today demanding a fair deal from the government. These workers deserve respect.
People in London are looking carefully at what the government will do next. Will it do what it usually does and show its Conservative colours, or will it listen to workers' legitimate demands and commit to not introducing back-to-work legislation?
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Madam Speaker, I am very excited today to rise in the House to discuss the bill. I had put forward Bill C-311, which is a lot of the base, I would like to think, of the present bill. I worked off of the work of many other members of Parliament, such as New Democrat women like Denise Savoie and Olivia Chow, to name a couple.
However, part of my bill, I would like to specify here, is about the workers within the child care system, these incredible people, who are often women. Some strengthening needs to happen within the bill for training and professional development, and to ensure their hours of work are protected. A lot of the unions within this field have called for that, so I would like to hear the hon. member talk about that.
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Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for all of his work on this file.
This is really key and something that New Democrats, for a long time, have been fighting for. We have been trying to ensure we are protecting the deferred wages that workers are putting into that system, so they know they are there and they will be allowed to access them when they need them. Those are the key things. It is not about ensuring that governments can use them to prop up what they consider is a balanced budget.
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