Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I rise on the same point of order. I just wanted to make a point that the New Democratic Party would like to reserve the right to come back to speak to this issue at a later date.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, rising food prices are putting pressure on families. Edmonton's Food Bank has had to cut the amount of food in its hampers by 25% to meet demand, and 40,000 Albertan kids who get lunch at school will go without once the school rises for the summer. Grocery CEOs are making millions in surplus profits, and the government is doing nothing to help Canadians. While the Prime Minister and t…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I am standing today representing my constituents and the constituents of Alberta. I want to tell a bit of a story. In May 2020, amid COVID-19 shutdowns, on the Friday afternoon before the May long weekend, Alberta's United Conservative government quietly revealed that it was rescinding Alberta's coal policy that had protected the Rocky Mountains and the eastern slopes from exploration…
Read full speech →Adjournment Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I have three additional questions from that response. One is this: Does the minister not understand the damage coal mining does to the mountains, whether it is metallurgical or thermal? The minister before the current Minister of Environment and Climate Change promised they would assess every single coal mine. We also know that there is no way of him knowing what the selenium outcomes…
Read full speech →Statements by Members
Mr. Speaker, the international development sector in Canada is led by incredible women like Lauren Ravon and her team at Oxfam Canada, who shared their work on how to improve the lives of paid and unpaid care workers in Canada and around the world; Anna Vogt and the international program representatives from the Mennonite Central Committee, who are in Ottawa to share MCC's work building peace glob…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one of the things I have been very concerned about is whether our sanction regime is actually being enforced. The easy part of sanctions is to put people on the list. The hard part is to actually enforce those sanctions and to make sure that they are transparent and enforced, as well as that we are following through with action. We know, because we heard testimony from the RCMP at t…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Mr. Speaker, it is 2023 and we are in the House again debating something that should not be up for debate: Bill C-311. While the member for Yorkton—Melville claims that this bill is about protecting women from violence, no organizations that actually work to support and protect women from violence are endorsing this bill. Why is that? It is because the people who care about violence being perpetra…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my problem continues to be on the implementation of our sanction regime. Of course, there should be no one in this House who wants people who have been sanctioned to be able to come to Canada, such as people who have committed human rights abuses or perhaps taken part in the illegal war in Ukraine and the genocide against the Ukrainian people. However, the problem is that the bill w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, this is the first time I have been able to stand up and speak since one of the member's colleagues brought up time allocation. Therefore, I want to make the point that, when the Conservatives were in power, they used time allocation 115 times. In fact, they made a cake to celebrate the 100th time. I just wanted to make that clear. However, the member talked about a lot of hypothetic…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have worked very well with my colleague, both in and out of the House. We have had meetings together on Zoom. We have been very effective that way, too. Even today, we were able to talk in the lobby together about some of the work that we are doing to push the government to bring Afghan MPs to safety in Canada. What I want to say to the hon. member is that it is hybrid Parliament …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this is the difficult challenge that we found this sector in. This is in fact exactly where we are at, with millions of people who are dying and millions of people who are at risk. There are also principles of humanitarian development and humanitarian aid that are core principles under which we need to do this work and this bill pits those two things against each other. That is the pr…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, we hear from the Liberals that they think they are back. I was not a member of Parliament or a politician in 2015 when the Prime Minister stood up and said that Canada was back. He tapped his chest and did that little thing he does when he is trying to make people think he really means it. We all thought he did. The Prime Minister said all of the right words, all the right things that…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague is correct that we worked very well together on this legislation. I will be speaking to it directly after him. As he mentioned, I have worked in this sector for over two decades, and one of the main concerns I have with this bill is that, in effect, it criminalizes international development work. Instead of saying that we will tell organizations when we do not want them t…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Albertans have made it very clear that they do not want coal mining in the Rocky Mountains. Coal mining in the eastern slopes threatens our land and our water, it is not good for our planet and it is not good for Albertans, yet the minister is fine with an Australian coal mining company carving out more than 500 hectares of Grand Mountain. Based on my private member's bill, this gover…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, my colleague from British Columbia is absolutely right. She really could not be more correct about these burdens added to organizations that are already underfunded. Remember, these are organizations facing a 15% cut in official international development assistance. These are the same organizations that have lived through decades of neglect, starting with Stephen Harper and continuing…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, this comment goes back to what I was saying before. As much as I think all of us in this place want to get aid to the people of Afghanistan as fast as possible, and I honestly believe that all of us in this place want that, the difficulty of being a lawmaker is that we have to look at the long-term implications of the laws we put forward. What happens if this means there are women and…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell members a little bit about our foreign affairs committee. It is an interesting committee. Of course we have people from all parties. It is probably one of the most important committees that we have in the House of Commons, particularly considering the war in Ukraine, what we see happening in Afghanistan and Sudan; conflicts that we have around the world that Canada coul…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I wanted to point out during my speech that, when Rachel Notley was elected as the premier of Alberta in 2015, she put in a pilot project for $25-a-day child care. That contributed to cutting child poverty in half in the province of Alberta during the time she was the premier. It was a pilot, and I think $10 a day is a much more reasonable cost. We heard from chambers of commerce an…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, like the hon. member for Winnipeg North, I am very worried about the people in northern Alberta. I am very worried. I think of my friend, Chief Allan Adam and the people in Fort Chipewyan, who have been evacuated from Chipewyan Lake. I am very concerned about them. I appreciate the concern the member expressed. However, I do have to say that my worry, always, with the Liberals is th…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately the member is going to be upset when I quote another politician to him. He is a member of Parliament from Alberta, as I am, so I just want to flag for him that in 2021, Danielle Smith, the Premier of Alberta, wrote before she was premier, “‘How could we sign a deal like this?’.... It's not too late to change course”. Of course, after she was in the election campaign rece…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, I have some concerns, and I think my colleague from the Bloc just addressed some them. It is the access and the workers that I am most concerned about. What would the member suggest should be done for northern and rural communities where access to child care staff is not available, where child care workers are not available and where we have seen that there is a lack of access to qual…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for highlighting the changing reality of the working lives of women in this country. One thing I do want to point out to the member, gently if I could, is that she brought up the idea that we had used closure or that closure had been used to shut down debate on the bill. However, I am sure she knows the difference between closure and time allocatio…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank all of the members who are in the House today contributing to this very important debate. I am delighted to be here, representing the people of Edmonton Strathcona. I come to this debate from a place that I think many of us do. I am a parent. I am a mother. I know exactly what it was like to try to get child care for my children. I remember going to centre afte…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, boy, that is quite a question. I spoke about the importance of protecting the workers who work within our child care centres. I talked about how this is fundamental for allowing women to go back to work or letting them go back to work. When the member brings up a question like this, what he is really trying to ask is why there is not money for the for-profit centres. He is asking wh…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is an excellent point. It made me a little sad after COVID, after we were recovering from COVID economically, and that was when people were paying attention to child care. People have been saying for decades that child care is a vital piece of our economy. The fact that it took a global pandemic for people to say that this is what will restart our economy was a little sad, but it…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, the back and forth is entertaining me, at any rate. I wanted to bring up something around the environmental disasters that we see happening time and time again. Interestingly enough, I met Linda Duncan, who was the member for Edmonton Strathcona before me, when we were both working on cleaning waterfowl that were impacted by a derailment right outside of Wabamun Lake, one hour west of…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
moved for leave to introduce Bill C-338, National Indigenous Teachers Day Act. Mr. Speaker, today, during Indigenous History Month, it is my great privilege to table this very important piece of legislation, the national indigenous teachers day act, which would designate February 22 of each year as national indigenous teachers day. I want to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for seconding this …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, anything that we can do to help with some of those equity initiatives is very important. I have a bit of a concern. For example, one of the things brought forward in this budget is the recognition of the need for a national plan for murdered and missing indigenous women and girls. I would also say that the government has promised money since 2019 and has not followed through with sp…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it felt like there was some dishonesty in the member's speech. He started out speaking about the dishonesty of the Liberal government, but then he spoke about how this was almost an omnibus bill at the end, as if the Harper government was not renowned for its omnibus bills. He spoke about how we should have learned from history, but in World War II, one of the things that we saw was…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, it is always so enlightening for me to listen to this member speak. He wanted to speak a bit more. He asked for unanimous consent and, of course, that was not possible. However, I wanted the member to talk a bit more. We know that this bill does not go far enough with regard to indigenous housing. It does not go far enough with regard to the support for the missing and murdered indi…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, one of the things that, of course, I am most proud of in this bill is the dental care and the expansion of dental care. Obviously, dental care is something that New Democrats have been fighting for, for a very long time. It is very good that the Liberals have come on board. This bill expands that to be for more than just children. It expands it to those under 18 and to seniors. I am…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for all the work he did on this bill. It was a pleasure to work with him on this. One of the amendments the NDP brought forward at committee regarding this bill was to have a human rights strategy in place. Of course, it is very difficult to measure how the government is doing on human rights if there is no strategy to measure this by. Unfortunatel…
Read full speech →Emergency Debate
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for his intervention today and for providing us with information about what is happening in his region. Today, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about people in Alberta, of course, my home province, and certainly about the indigenous groups in northern Alberta, such as Chief Adam and the group in Fort Chipewyan. We know that people in rem…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, my colleague's question is a good one. I would go back to what I said in my speech. This is not a perfect piece of legislation, and it is not what the New Democratic Party would have brought forward. However, when I look at seniors in my riding, I know how much it is going to help them to have dental care be part of our reality in Canada. I know how much it is going to help seniors …
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, to be clear, I was only throwing shame at one party in the House of Commons. I was not passing it around equally. I have children; I have teenagers. One of the things I want desperately is for them to want to stay in Alberta. I want them to want to raise their families in Alberta. I want Alberta to have a strong economy, a strong health care system, a strong education system and a s…
Read full speech →Private Members' Business
Madam Speaker, I thank colleagues of mine who have spoken to Bill C-281. The New Democrats will be supporting this bill at third reading. I would like to thank the member for Northumberland—Peterborough South for bringing it forward. It has been a real pleasure to work with him and his team on this bill over the past few months. The reason for this bill is that we want to make sure Canada's laws p…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, of course, it always a delight to stand in this place representing the incredible constituents of Edmonton Strathcona. This is the first day I have been in the House since the Alberta election, and I did want to send my congratulations to Rachel Notley. Of course, it was not the outcome we wanted, but I think it is important for all of us in this place to recognize the significant w…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, I have to say I would be hesitant to accept that the Conservative Party would support that carve-out, only because of the shenanigans that the Conservatives have gotten up to in the last two days, during which they have not let anything be passed. They have not even let us have a debate on wildfires, which is so urgently needed. However, I want to agree with my colleague on one thin…
Read full speech →Government Orders
The misinformation came from the premier.
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, Canada's corporate watchdog is responsible for ensuring that Canadian companies act ethically abroad, yet in five years, with an annual budget of millions of dollars, no investigations have been done to protect indigenous people, the environment or human rights. This failure allows bad companies to act with impunity. This harms Canada's reputation, and it makes Canadian companies comp…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Madam Speaker, in Edmonton Strathcona, the number of francophone immigrants is increasing. We are very happy about that. These new francophone Canadians bring so much to our community. As the member knows, Edmonton Strathcona is the heart of the Franco-Albertan community. I would like to see more francophone immigration to my riding. However, the Government of Canada has not met the francophone im…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, I am a mother and if my daughter ever needed an abortion, I would do everything possible to make sure she had access to the full range of reproductive health care, yet the government has done nothing to ensure equal access for Canadians. Only one in six hospitals in the country provide abortion services. The Liberals are all talk, but women in rural communities are suffering. Abortion…
Read full speech →Government Orders
Mr. Speaker, there have been consultations, and I hope that if you seek it, you will find consent for the following motion: That, notwithstanding any Standing Order, special order, or usual practice of the House, following the disposal of Government Business No. 25 later this day, the House shall resume consideration of the privilege motion standing in the name of the member for Wellington—Halton …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I have some concerns about how we are going forward with this discussion and how we are building a stronger democracy in Canada. I know the member to be very thoughtful. Can the member speak about the circumstances where we have to keep things private? Regarding national security, we know not everything can be public. I am struggling right now. I am sure many people in this House ar…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, I want to start tonight by saying that I hope my colleagues will indulge me in taking a moment to send all of my best wishes to Alberta right now. There are 30,000 Albertans who have been displaced by the wildfires affecting our communities. We know that there are a number of indigenous and Métis communities that are particularly hard hit. We also know that the firefighters have stepp…
Read full speech →Statements By Members
Mr. Speaker, George Whitney was a dedicated civil servant, a committed conservationist and one of the most interesting, most curious and most entertaining people I have ever met. Among his many roles, George was the superintendent of Algonquin Provincial Park and the director of fisheries for the Government of Ontario. His last position was with the Canadian International Development Agency in Zim…
Read full speech →Oral Questions
Mr. Speaker, more than 30,000 Albertans have been forced from their homes because of wildfires, and there is a serious lack of information about where they can get help and when. In the absence of provincial leadership, can the Minister of Emergency Preparedness reassure the thousands of Albertans, particularly indigenous and Métis communities that have been affected by wildfires, that the federal…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, this is, of course, a very serious issue that I am glad to see the government has finally acted on. However, my concern is that it took weeks of pressure from multiple parties. It took weeks of the member for Wellington—Halton Hills asking for action from the government, yet we did not see this diplomat expelled until just now. I am wondering if the member for Wellington—Halton Hills …
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Mr. Speaker, my colleague always speaks so eloquently, and I learn so much from his interventions. One of the things he talked about was the fact that the interference in our elections and the interference in our political system are not just happening from one country or another. I think that it is very important, when we stand in this House, to be very cautious and very careful with our language…
Read full speech →Routine Proceedings
Madam Speaker, I joined my colleague on the trip he mentioned to Taiwan. I believe it was the Doublethink Lab he was referring to when he was speaking about civil society and the role it played in dealing with misinformation and cyber-attacks in Taiwan. When we were in Taiwan, we could see that there was a very all-of-government and all-of-society approach to dealing with misinformation and interf…
Read full speech →