Issues

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, tax cuts do not help seniors in poverty. Those seniors are not paying taxes. Canadian workers and failing or bankrupt companies like Nortel and many others need action to protect their pensions. Just last year the underfunded pension plan for CHTV employees in Hamilton wound up with an $8 million shortfall. This, while the executives at CanWest were given $41 million to top up their underfunded pension plan before entering CCAA protection.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak to Bill C-386, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers).

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, a year ago the House unanimously adopted an NDP motion calling for the government to allow Canadians to increase their CPP contributions. The government finally appears to have gotten the message, but what is missing from its plans is any effort to lift seniors out of poverty by increasing the guaranteed income supplement. The finance minister does not need the provinces to do that.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time this afternoon with the member for Windsor West.

It will not surprise members that I am speaking in opposition to the Conservatives' budget implementation bill at third reading. We in the NDP moved 62 amendments to the government's budget that would have immeasurably improved the bill by taking out the most contentious sections and allowing them to be dealt with in stand-alone bills.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Madam Speaker, although amendments are an important part of the legislative process, my amendments today would be superfluous if the government had not dumped a number of non-budget items into Bill C-9. However, it did, so I am moving an amendment to delete all sections from C-9 that deal with Canada Post.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Conservative everything-but-the-kitchen-sink budget is yet another giant step away from the promise of transparency that these supposed reformists rode in on.

This Trojan horse is stuffed with all sorts of measures the government does not have the courage to present to Canadians as stand-alone bills. It is an abuse of power taken straight from the Liberal playbook, and it is an abuse of the trust of Canadians.

If the government has nothing to hide, why is it burying so many nefarious initiatives in one omnibus bill?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 20, 2010

ATTACK ON PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS NOT HELPFUL, SAY NEW DEMOCRATS
CFIB should re-think public pension comments

OTTAWA – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) is wrong to label public service pensions as “generous,” say New Democrat Veterans Affairs Critic Peter Stoffer and Labour Critic Chris Charlton.

Local 6500 urged to be courageous at union meeting

CAROL MULLIGAN, The Sudbury Star

Striking Steelworkers are being urged to demonstrate the same courage now that their predecessors did when they fought, bled and even died for the right to assemble and demand a fair deal in the workplace.

A meeting like the one held Friday morning at the Steelworkers' Hall at 66 Brady St. would have been illegal in his grandparents' day, Hamilton Centre MP David Christopherson told 200 Steelworkers.

NDP bolsters spirits of Vale Inco workers as strike entering 11th month

Welland Tribune

Posted By CAROLYN MULLIGAN/QMI Agency

SUDBURY — Striking Steelworkers are being urged to demonstrate the same courage now that their predecessors did when they fought, bled and even died for the right to assemble and demand a fair deal in the workplace.

A meeting like the one held Friday morning at the Steelworkers' Hall at 66 Brady St. would have been illegal in his grandparents' day, Hamilton Centre MP David Christopherson told 200 Steelworkers.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, The very first Bill I introduced after being elected to the House of Commons in 2006 was a bill that would give wages and pensions super-priority in cases of commercial bankruptcy. Since that time, the government has adopted much of what was in my bill with respect to securing workers’ wages, and I am delighted that happened. But sadly, the government has not yet acted in any way to protect pensions in a similar way.