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Mr. Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, NDP)

Feb/1/23 2:31:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when one or one's loved one falls sick, or one's mom needs a surgery, one needs nurses in the hospital to provide that care. When the Prime Minister was elected, the shortage of nurses was 5,800, and the shortage of nurses is now 29,000 positions. The situation has gotten a lot worse, not better. The Prime Minister promised to hire more nurses but has not done that. When Conservative premiers want to privatize, for profit, our services, he encourages it and celebrates it. Why has the nursing shortage gotten worse and not better with the Prime Minister?

103 words

Context: House Hansard - 151 - Feb/1/23

Mr. Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, NDP)

Feb/1/23 2:33:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, when the Prime Minister took office, there was a shortage of 5,800 nurses. Things are now five times worse. He promised to hire more nurses, but he broke his promise. He thinks the provincial premiers' move to privatize our health care system is innovative. Why is the Prime Minister making the crisis worse instead of improving our health care system?

63 words

Context: House Hansard - 151 - Feb/1/23

Mr. Alexandre Boulerice (Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, NDP)

Feb/1/23 6:50:26 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-239

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his persistence on this one issue, which keeps coming up. I would note that, in 2021, he told the Standing Committee on Finance that 2,332 of the Canada Revenue Agency's 5,300 employees in Quebec would remain employed. That means 3,000 people would lose their jobs. The NDP cares deeply about what happens to workers, especially unionized workers. My colleague mentioned the labour shortage and the unemployment rate. That is true in general in society, but what about the federal public service? In 2015, there were 260,000 federal public servants. In 2020, there were 300,000, and, in 2022, there were 335,000. That means 35,000 people were hired in the space of two years. The NDP is happy about that because we want good public services and we want them to get even better. However, given that the government just hired 35,000 people in the past two years, where is it going to put those 3,000 people?

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Context: House Hansard - 151 - Feb/1/23

Mr. Alain Therrien

Feb/1/23 6:51:25 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-239

Mr. Speaker, 3,000 is not even 10% of 35,000. First of all, this can be done over several years. Second, I think the hon. member, who sits with us in the House, understands when the government repeatedly tells us that it cannot provide services because there are not enough public servants. It turns out that it is giving all the work to McKinsey. I do not think we need to dig any further to realize that, although the public service has increased in numbers, it still is not big enough. It does not take a genius to figure out that when there is a labour shortage that translates into a shortage of services, it means more workers need to be hired. However, when there is a labour shortage, it is difficult to turn to the labour market because we are at full employment and everyone is chasing the same people. Employers are even putting on shows to attract people to come and work for them. We are not suggesting that 3,000 workers should be laid off. We are not using 20th century language. We want to reallocate these 3,000 workers to where they will be even more useful, and it will not cost anything because they are already being paid. Who can oppose that?

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