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Dec/6/21 5:04:54 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, there is no interpretation, and I wonder if that might be because my colleague is not wearing the headset required by the House of Commons, which may be a problem for the interpreters.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:04:54 p.m.
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Order. The hon. member for Drummond on a point of order.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:05:07 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

I too thought there was something different about the sound. I am not sure if the problem is because of the headset the hon. member is using. It does sound different at this end, so there is a problem with interpretation. The member might want to unplug his headset and then plug it in again to see if the computer is picking up the right microphone.

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Mr. Matthew Green

Dec/6/21 5:05:54 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, is this better now?

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:06:49 p.m.
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The sound is not good enough. I have some points of order to address. The hon. member for Battle River—Crowfoot.

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Mr. Damien Kurek

Dec/6/21 5:06:56 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I understand the member's frustration. I would simply ask for unanimous consent to allow him to switch places with the next speaker. That would give him 15 minutes or so to work with IT in order to figure out the technical difficulty and address it accordingly.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:07:25 p.m.
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I have another point of order before I go back to the hon. member for Hamilton Centre. The hon. member for New Westminster—Burnaby.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Dec/6/21 5:07:38 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, if we are not able to sort out the technical problems for the member for Hamilton Centre, we have the member for Courtenay—Alberni, who would be prepared to take his place and give a speech. We would not agree to passing on the NDP slot for this important debate.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:07:59 p.m.
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We are going to try one more time. The hon. member for Hamilton Centre.

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Mr. Matthew Green

Dec/6/21 5:08:45 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I appreciate your indulgence and the suggestion from the hon. member from the Conservative side. Is my microphone okay now?

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:09:04 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

No, it is not working. The hon. member will have to get a House of Commons headset. There is a point of order from the member for Don Valley East.

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Mr. Michael Coteau

Dec/6/21 5:09:21 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, can you explain what the problem is? I can hear him perfectly.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:09:25 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

The problem is for translation.

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Mr. Peter Julian

Dec/6/21 5:09:38 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, on a point of order, I would suggest that as the member for Hamilton Centre does his work to try to get a better level of sound, we simply move to the member for Courtenay—Alberni.

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The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)

Dec/6/21 5:09:51 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Because of where the time slot is, I will go to the hon. member for Courtenay—Alberni.

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Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)

Dec/6/21 5:10:09 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to speak to this important bill, Bill C-3. It is great to see both the Liberal Party and, it seems, the Conservative Party coming around to see the importance of paid sick leave. I have talked about this in the House quite significantly and so has my party. In fact, the leader of my party raised this 22 times throughout the pandemic. Here we are, 20 months after the top medical health professionals in our country decided that outside of social distancing and washing our hands, the top two things we could do to stop the spread of the virus and combat COVID-19 were to get vaccinated and for governments to implement paid sick days. It is really great to see that everybody is coming together today to do that, to protect workers, so that people are not spreading the virus. We talk about people going to work while knowingly showing symptoms of COVID-19 or being unsure whether they should go to work or not. For many of these people, their spouses have perhaps lost their jobs because of COVID-19 or are unable to work, or they are the sole breadwinners in their homes and are scraping to get by even at the best of times. Whatever their circumstances, they are worried about how they are going to pay their bills, like most Canadians. Fifty per cent of Canadians were within two weeks of insolvency prior to the pandemic. We can think about how many families were terrified at the beginning of and throughout the pandemic about missing any work at all and how they were going to pay their bills and feed their families. Paid sick days are absolutely critical. There is one thing we have not talked about a lot here. I was really honoured to be the small business and tourism critic for the federal NDP for the last six years, and to stand up and fight for small business. We do not talk about how important paid sick days are, not just for workers but also for employers and small business. I was always mystified when Conservatives would not support paid sick leave, because they say they are strong defenders of the economy and small business. I know Liberals were always patting themselves on the back throughout the pandemic on the important needs of small business, but throughout the pandemic, whether it be on the CERB or another program, we had to fight to make sure small businesses would be included. Initially, proprietors were not even going to be allowed to collect CERB. Initially, people were going to get $1,200. New Democrats were able to put pressure on the government so that people could get $2,000. We brought forward the idea of a commercial rent assistance program. Of course the Liberals bungled it initially. They made sure it was set up and designed so that people had to have a mortgage to be able to apply for rent support. It was landlord-driven instead of tenant-driven. It was a completely broken program. We found out that there were some Liberal insiders delivering the program for the government and we were glad to put pressure on the government to fix that broken commercial rent program. My colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby and I brought the idea to the government. I am glad to see that it finally fixed it. When it comes to paid sick days, people were going to work unsure of whether they had the virus or not. They were terrified and governments at different levels did not have their backs to make sure people stayed at home instead of bringing COVID-19 to the workplace and possibly infecting co-workers. Whether it is in the private sector or in government, it is extremely costly when people get sick and spread the virus in the workplace. One would think it would make economic sense to provide a social safety net, so that people who were sick would stay at home, not spreading the virus in the workplace or ending up having to close throughout the country and shut down government services to Canadians. We do not talk enough, not only about the workers, but also about the impact on businesses and the economy. That is a really important argument for why this is absolutely critical. As much as we appreciate the legislation before us, there are flaws that are apparent in it, such as a person having to work for 11 months to get access to the 10 paid sick days. The Liberal government said it would restore the cuts to the federal public services that the Conservatives made. I mean, we can look to Veterans Affairs as a great example. The Conservatives gutted one-third of Veterans Affairs Canada under the Harper government. As a result, the backlog has grown to over 40,000 veterans who have been injured serving our country. The Liberals said they were going to fix it. What did they do? They outsourced and brought people back in on temporary contracts instead of hiring people and sending the message to veterans that they are committed to them in the long term and are going to end the backlog forever and not just outsource for temporary jobs. The Liberals are notorious for this and do it all the time. They are outsourcing throughout the government, and this is creating a huge problem, because we have contract flipping going on. Obviously, we do not want this practice to continue. We want the government to hire people and make sure they have job security and benefits they can rely on so that the people they are serving, like veterans, can count on the services being delivered to them. We want to make sure the government is open to amendments that all federal subjurisdictional workers have access to the 10 paid sick days. It is very important that we cover that. The other thing I have not talked about is the fact that women are being disproportionally impacted. With a lot of the outsourcing and temp jobs in our country, women have been disproportionally impacted by COVID-19. Social services have failed people across Canada, and the lack of child care has had a huge impact. CBC reported that 100,000 working-age women have completely left the workplace since COVID-19, which is 10 times the number of men. We talk about having an employee work approximately a month to achieve one paid sick day, but this is disproportionally going to impact women if it takes 11 months to accumulate 10 days' sick leave. I really hope the government will consider amending this situation, because we know that people who have been working at a job need that security. Also, we do not want them coming to work sick. We do not want them spreading the virus. We are in the fourth wave right now, and we do not know what the omicron virus, which is spreading quickly, is going to look like. We want to make sure we have workers protected throughout. We also saw how fractured the health care system became throughout the pandemic. I could speak all day about the things we saw that were highlighted in the pandemic. However, when it comes to paid sick days, it is absolutely critical. This is a victory today for health care workers, workers across this country and professionals. We are going to continue to ensure that workers across this country have support from us as parliamentarians, but I question why it took so long. Why did Liberals and Conservatives sit on their hands against medical health professionals' advice? Members have heard me talk a lot about the government failing to listen to medical health professionals, like in the opioid crisis. The medical health professionals have made very clear and sound recommendations. Even the government's own officials are asking it to decriminalize and provide a safe drug supply, but it has not done that. The government does not listen to its health professionals when it comes to sick days or to the other crisis that is happening, which has taken more lives than we have seen in generations. However, I am hoping the government will act swiftly, start listening to its health professionals when it comes to developing policy, and act with much more urgency in the future.

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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)

Dec/6/21 5:19:44 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, a lot has been said today about the need for such legislation. However, given that it has come out of the rise of this anti-vax movement and people who are so dead set against accepting the realities of what is going on in our country right now, I have to be honest: I cannot help but think that some of it has to do with the fact that there are so many people out there who are willing to play footsies, so to speak, with the proponents of these conspiracy theories that suggest that their liberties are being taken advantage of. I am curious to hear the member's comments on what he sees as a leadership role when it comes to the anti-vax movement. How important is it for members of this House to stand up and say what is right and what is wrong, and how important is it to lead by example?

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Mr. Gord Johns

Dec/6/21 5:20:45 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, the reality is that we need people to get vaccinated, and not just to protect each other. For example, in this place I am thinking about all the staff: the security, the pages and the clerks who are here. It is our duty to protect each other. One part I really like in the legislation is about protecting health care workers at their workplaces so that people are not protesting outside of them. This is also about their patients and ensuring that people get safe access to the hospitals or where they need health services. It is absolutely critical that we stand up and defend each other, and make sure that people are getting vaccinated and that we are protecting health care workers along the way. I appreciate the point the member made.

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Ms. Sylvie Bérubé (Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, BQ)

Dec/6/21 5:21:49 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech. He mentioned that the bill is not quite good enough. I would like him to go into more detail about why it should be improved.

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Mr. Gord Johns

Dec/6/21 5:22:08 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-3

Madam Speaker, it is a good question. There are a number of improvements. We want to ensure that workers do not have to wait 11 months to access 10 paid sick days. As I said, this would disproportionately impact women, for sure, and workers who have been outsourced. With regard to ensuring that workers have access to their first day of sick leave after a continuous period of employment of at least 30 days, the goal of unduly delaying access to the first day of sick leave is not okay. The government needs to relax the requirement to provide a medical certificate so as not to discourage applications for sick leave. This has been supported by medical health professionals. We need to listen to medical health professionals. The Liberals continue to not listen to medical health professionals in a timely fashion and it is costing lives. If they mean to table this legislation so that it actually benefits those whom it is targeting, they need to make sure they are listening to health professionals and need to do it in an expeditious way.

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