- May/24/24 12:15:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to rise and present three petitions today on behalf of the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country and the region. I will be very brief.
The first petition is calling on the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada to make available a specialized permanent residency pathway for Ukrainians currently in Canada under the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel provisions. This pathway would not require them to have a Canadian citizen or permanent resident family member in Canada.
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- May/24/24 10:58:27 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the government has quite a trend of doing great photo ops and making lots of announcements, but the follow-through is really not great. We see that time and time again.
I have the letter that was sent by Canada's Building Trades Unions to the Prime Minister. It is very to the point about their concerns, which have not been eliminated or addressed. The government continues to deflect and be evasive on this issue. It is not being transparent.
As I mentioned, a number of my colleagues at different committees, including at our committee, have tried to get information on the contracts in order to protect workers. If the government really had nothing to hide, why would it not be disclosing these contracts?
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Mr. Speaker, what I find comedic is that the NDP member is not acknowledging that he is actually part of the government. He is in a coalition agreement with the government.
Mr. Blake Desjarlais: Answer the question.
Mrs. Tracy Gray: Mr. Speaker, he is tripping me up right now. He will not even allow me to actually answer the question.
This is the trend from this particular member. It is unbelievable that the member is in a coalition yet is actually asking that type of question.
As I referenced, we have Bill C-58 in front of us. That is what we are debating here today and what we will be voting on soon. That is what is before us.
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- May/24/24 10:54:59 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's concern about my being informed. Of course I have read the legislation, and I sit on the committee that dealt with it clause by clause. I am very involved in the legislation.
I clearly gave examples of other ways that workers could be replaced, whether through external contractors and consultants, as I outlined in my intervention, or through foreign replacement workers, a term that was actually used by building trades in their letter to the Prime Minister. There are other ways that replacement workers can affect workers. That is what I was referencing in my intervention.
It is a way of replacing workers, although in the legislation, it is a very specific way of deeming it.
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- May/24/24 10:53:30 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member sits with me at committee. I am unclear about what she is referencing, because we had committee days that were set to hear from witnesses on this. There were absolutely no delays.
I am really not sure what she is even referencing. We asked witnesses questions. We had clause-by-clause that went very expeditiously. I think the member is trying to create a story that is not there.
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Mr. Speaker, I can speak to the legislation that is before us today, Bill C-58. We have had healthy debate in the House of Commons over the legislation. We had a lot of testimony at committee, and it went through all the processes there. We had some amendments that made the legislation even better than it was before. I outlined a couple of them in my intervention.
Here we are today with the proposed legislation, which affects federally regulated industries. As I mentioned, we have supported the legislation and have worked toward making it better, in particular with the labour board. As I mentioned in my intervention, it was good to hear from the board and get a lot of our questions answered as to their internal operations. In that way, we could better understand how they deal with the different applications that come forth and what they are going to do moving forward in order to improve their processing times.
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- May/24/24 10:49:51 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, absolutely, this is a concern. I outlined in some of my intervention here how we brought this up at committee. Unfortunately, the minister was very vague. The information the government had initially given on this was that it is a very small handful of people. We found out that this is factually incorrect.
It is very concerning. If the government does not have anything to hide, then it should absolutely disclose what the arrangements are.
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Mr. Speaker, I think that was a statement, as opposed to a question.
All I will say is that we have Bill C-58 before us here today. As I mentioned, we have been working the proposed legislation through the parliamentary processes. We had very good testimony at committee. We had some recommendations that were approved of through amendments, and here we are today at this stage. That is what we are debating.
As I mentioned, Conservatives support the amended legislation before us.
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Mr. Speaker, we are here today debating Bill C-58, which is in the final stages in the House. What I can say in reference to the specific bill, which is for federally regulated workers, is that it has gone through all the processes. I did not speak to all the amendments here today, just due to time, but we did have a number of amendments that came through at committee, that were approved and that are now in the legislation. Therefore, we look forward to moving forward with the legislation so that it can move to the next stages in the parliamentary process.
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Mr. Speaker, it is always an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Kelowna—Lake Country. I rise today to speak to Bill C-58, an act to amend the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Industrial Relations Board regulations. This legislation passed at second reading with support of the Conservatives and was recently scrutinized at the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities, termed the human resources committee, where I am proud to serve as vice-chair on behalf of the Conservative caucus.
I would like to thank all Conservative members, but in particular I would like to thank the Conservative member for Dufferin—Caledon for his work on this legislation and for attending our committee meetings on this. The human resources committee heard from a wide variety of relevant witnesses to this legislation and to the issue of replacement workers at large. The committee heard from many labour representatives and business industry stakeholders.
We heard testimony from the Canada Industrial Relations Board, whose work will be affected by this legislation. From my observations, there seemed to be a lot of interest from all parties to ask questions and to delve into the work it does and how this legislation could potentially affect its workload and operations. I had a much better understanding of its internal processes once its representative had answered all of our questions.
Many witnesses at committee spoke of the importance of the board. The federal government is responsible for the national Canada Industrial Relations Board. While the legislation before us intends to encourage faster decision-making at the board, ultimately it is on the Liberal government to ensure it is properly operating to resolve labour conflicts that come before it and to meet the needs of those involved. Representatives of both employers and labour said that the Canada Industrial Relations Board needs to be operating faster now and moving forward. In fact, an amendment at committee, which is now in the legislation, would reduce the number of days required for the Canada Industrial Relations Board to render decisions.
One other point I will note in this legislation is that there was an amendment at committee, supported by all members, to move up the coming into force date for this legislation. I would like to bring to the House some of the important feedback we heard from various stakeholder witnesses on Bill C-58. Several points were raised during the committee's study of this legislation. While the Liberals may trumpet this legislation as focusing on replacement workers, they themselves have been replacing workers in government workplaces with Liberal-friendly external contractors.
It is a fact that the government has spent more on expensive external outsourced contractors than ever before. We know this affects workers in many ways. For example, the president of the Customs and Immigration Union appeared before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. He said, when it came to the role of the disastrous $60-million ArriveCAN app, “we believe the goal of the app is to replace officers”.
He spoke to how he believes that, had his workers been listened to during the ArriveCAN process, instead of being replaced by a two-person IT firm at the cost of $60 million to taxpayers, then, “a great deal of what happened would not have happened.”
At the human resources committee's study of Bill C-58, we heard from labour representatives how outsourced contractors and consultants were a concern for their workers. The Liberal government says it stands on the side of labour, yet it actively sidelines its hard-working public service workers and, worse yet, replaces their work with expensive, outside, outsourced consultants and contractors at the cost of billions to taxpayers. We also heard from labour representatives that outside consultants and contractors can be demoralizing for their workers when someone has been hired from outside as an external contractor to oversee these duties or do the same duties.
The Liberals have hired a lot of public sector workers during their time in government. These workers surely have the needed experience and expertise, but then, behind closed doors, the Liberals choose to not trust them with major government initiatives. Instead, they replace their work with that of high-priced, Liberal-friendly contractors and consultants, at the cost of billions of dollars to Canadian taxpayers.
One of the things Bill C-58 would do would be to amend the maintenance of activities process to “encourage employers and trade unions to reach an earlier agreement respecting activities to be maintained in the event of a legal strike or lockout”.
Our committee heard from many stakeholders on the types of implementations that typically arise when identifying these essential activities. One of the challenges identified was what qualifies as work that is in the national interest, public safety or critical infrastructure. While these may be easy to identify as essential activities in some workplaces, we heard of some challenges of identifying essential activities in often limited windows of time.
Lastly, while I spoke earlier about the concerning trend of the Liberal government endorsing replacement work through outside contractors and consultants inside the government, I would also like to speak to the government's record of replacing Canadian workers with international workers as part of multi-billion dollar agreements with major corporations.
When the Liberals signed agreements that provided $44 billion in taxpayer money to massively profitable corporations in exchange for building electric battery plants in Ontario, they promised that that would create Canadian jobs. When Conservatives pointed out that these plants would be built with international labour instead of Canadian labour, both the Liberal employment minister and Liberal industry minister tried to downplay the number, saying it would only be a small handful.
Conservatives did not believe the Liberals, and neither did Canada's building trades unions. Union members wrote a letter to the Prime Minister outlining how foreign workers are displacing Canadian labourers at the NextStar construction site, all while 180 local millwrights and ironworkers were unemployed and available to perform the necessary work.
The Canada's Building Trades Union president wrote a letter to the Prime Minister. He said, “Canadian workers are now being replaced by international workers at an increasing pace, on work that was previously assigned to Canadian workers”. He used the word “replaced”.
The Liberal ministers were also not truthful when they said this was only a short-term issue that required foreign replacement workers who had “specialized knowledge”.
As the letter from Canada's Building Trades Union points out, “This is the brazen displacement of Canadian workers in favour of international workers, by major international corporations thumbing their noses at both the Government of Canada, taxpayers, and our skilled trades workers.” The Liberals say that they want to ban replacement workers, yet they have allowed Canadian workers to be replaced in favour of the demands of internationally profitable organizations.
During the labour minister's appearance at committee on Bill C-58, we asked him why he had not demanded a memorandum as part of the deal to guarantee hiring Canadian contractors for the Stellantis plant. The minister said he did not view this as his role, and that it was a matter of provincial jurisdiction, even though potential foreign workers coming to Canada is a federal responsibility.
Workers cannot trust these words or the promises of more jobs supposedly outlined in these agreements with Stellantis or other deals. If the Liberals wanted to regain workers' trust, they should simply make the commitment for Canadian jobs outlined in these agreements public, but they refuse to do so.
At other committees, Conservative members tried to get access to the contracts. However, Liberal and NDP members filibustered to protect the government and prevent workers from hearing the truth.
In addition, Conservatives were pushing the Liberal government to release details of its agreement with Honda Canada on building its electric vehicle operations in Ontario. Such disclosure is necessary to ensure Canadians get all the jobs in this multi-billion dollar project. Yes, the NDP, the party that calls itself a friend of workers, is joining with the Liberals in hiding contracts from Canadian workers and the Canadian public.
Another thing I will bring up with respect to workers is the just transition legislation, which has been renamed. An internal government document disclosed that 2.7 million workers would be affected by the legislation. There is a lot of uncertainty with this. There is concern as to what this means, and it is creating stress for workers in the country, particularly those in the energy sector. This lengthy government document outlines some other potential jobs. However, they are nowhere near the same level for pay and benefits. There is concern among workers in this country, and legislation such as this certainly does not put people's minds at ease.
It is one of the great privileges of my role as the shadow minister for employment, future workforce development and disability inclusion to travel this country and speak to many workers. The input I have received from them has really been very meaningful. I appreciate those conversations and hearing what a lot of their issues and suggestions are.
Conservatives have been supporting the proposed legislation along the way and continue to do so. However, it is clear the legislation before us today alone will not resolve all the issues with respect to workers being replaced in many different ways.
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- May/23/24 2:52:18 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister, more Canadians are hungry and homeless. The government promised to end chronic homelessness in Canada by 2030. The Parliamentary Budget Officer found homelessness is getting worse, with chronic homelessness up 38%. The vast majority of homeless individuals in Canada, 80%, are homeless based purely on affordability reasons. The Prime Minister is just not worth the cost.
How can the government spend so much with such failing results?
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- May/10/24 11:33:23 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after nine years, the Prime Minister is just not worth the cost. For families with variable rate mortgages with fixed payments, it is even worse. Median mortgage payments will increase 60% by 2026. Working-class paycheques have been shredded by the NDP-Liberal government. Common-sense Conservatives will bring in a dollar-for-dollar law to find a dollar of savings for every new dollar spent. This is how families run their households.
Can the minister explain how Canadian families are supposed to come up with hundreds or thousands of dollars more a month just to keep their homes?
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- May/10/24 11:32:13 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, after nine years of the NDP-Liberal government, deficit spending caused skyrocketing inflation, which caused higher interest rates, which are causing higher mortgage payments. The Bank of Canada confirmed that the Prime Minister's wasteful spending is keeping interest rates higher for longer. Now the Bank of Canada is warning, when compared with origination, that the median mortgage payment will rise more than 20% in 2025 and 30% in 2026. Families cannot afford this.
Will the government stop its deficit spending so families can keep their homes?
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- May/9/24 2:54:24 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, according to the most recent data, since the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister took office nine years ago, sadly, opioid overdose deaths across Canada have increased 166%. In B.C., overdose deaths are now the leading cause of death for youth aged 10 to 18.
Addiction doctors came out saying that legalized drugs were being diverted to youth. Unbelievably, today, the Minister for Children refused to answer if she was standing up for children against her government's wacko drug policies.
The Conservatives are calling to end taxpayer-funded narcotics, which are being diverted to our children. Will the Minister for Children stand up for children and vote for our Conservative motion?
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- May/9/24 2:53:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the crime, chaos, drugs and disorder.
B.C. families have suffered under the Liberals' wacko legalization of deadly hard drugs, like crack, cocaine, heroin and meth. This wacko hard drug experiment should be ended, not expanded to Toronto, or Montreal or anywhere else.
The Conservatives have a motion to end the legalization of deadly hard drugs and ensure that the government denies any active or further applications, and redirect money to treatment and recovery.
Will the minister support the Conservative motion to end the government's radical failed drug policy experiment?
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- May/7/24 2:57:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, that minister is still supporting hard drug legalization.
Here is how it is playing out in our communities. A resident from my community just told me about an incident she witnessed at a local clothing store, where a man threatened the two ladies working there, screaming, stomping and overturning displays.
I was on the phone the other day with another resident, who works at a street front office, and I could barely hear her due to the screaming just outside her window, and yet the minister clings to parts of her wacko legalization policy of fentanyl, meth and crack.
Again, on what day will the Prime Minister completely end this failed drug policy experiment?
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- May/7/24 2:56:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the crime, chaos, drugs and disorder.
The Liberal minister responsible for the legislation of hard drugs, like fentanyl, meth and crack in British Columbia, is still clinging to parts of the Liberal's wacko hard drug legislation experiment. Public open drug use is rampant in our streets. People are even afraid to take their dogs out to walk around their own neighbourhoods.
On what day will the Prime Minister completely end this failed radical drug policy?
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- May/6/24 2:59:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, after nine years, the NDP-Liberal Prime Minister is not worth the crime, chaos, drugs and disorder. The B.C. government sent the Prime Minister all the information he needs to end his wacko drug policy experiment. In his 10 days of inaction, it is estimated 60 British Columbians' lives have been tragically lost to overdoses. Wacko drug policies have the RCMP citing government-supplied drugs being diverted and open drug use of crack in hospital rooms, meth in restaurants and fentanyl in parks and playgrounds.
How many more days will it take the Prime Minister to end his failed drug policy experiment?
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- May/3/24 11:34:42 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the member thinks that the B.C. experience with open public drug use is so great, then why is she not advocating for it in her own province?
I was talking to a resident from my community just a couple nights ago who told me that she came around the corner from her apartment to be faced with something that burnt her eyes. People were openly using drugs on the street. She is rightfully concerned about what she is being exposed to. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
After nine years of the Prime Minister, enough is enough. Why are the Liberals not being honest with Canadians and just end their drug policies?
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- May/3/24 11:34:18 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, if the member thinks that B.C.'s experience with open public drug use is so great, then why is she not advocating for it in her province?
I was talking to a resident just two days ago from my—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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