Speeches

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to rise in support of Bill C-279, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (amounts not included in earnings).

As members will recall, I had the privilege of tabling a motion on behalf of the NDP caucus which called for immediate and comprehensive EI reform. That happened on March 5 of this year, and the motion was voted on and passed by the House on March 10.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to rise today and join my NDP colleagues in speaking against Bill C-20, the nuclear liability and compensation act. In fact, we are the only party in this House that refuses to give the government a blank cheque on this inadequate reform to the limits of nuclear liability.

Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be participating in this evening’s debate on motion M-300 which calls on the government to enhance access to, and the level of, GIS benefits for Canada’s poorest seniors.

Let me say at the outset that I fully support this motion.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise in the House today to support motion M-294, which has been introduced by the hon. member for Vaudreuil-Soulanges. There is absolutely no doubt that Canada's federal Labour Code needs to be amended to include a ban on replacement workers or scabs during strikes and lockouts. In fact, it is way past due.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have a second opportunity to respond to the budgetary policies of the Conservative government.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Before I came to the House, there was this notion that the Canadian House of Commons was described as Disney on the Rideau. I was never sure what occasioned the first use of that moniker, but I am certainly starting to understand why it has persisted. There is something fantastical about what happens in this place, unfortunately not in the sense that the deliberations here are fantastic but, rather, that often they appear based in fantasy. I feel like I am part of such a debate now.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today and participate in the debate on Bill C-51, An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts.

At the outset, that I will be voting against the bill at second reading. I am taking this position for a number of reasons, including the view that it may open the door to direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals, that it gives an inordinate discretion to the minister on a number of fronts and that it may be a thinly veiled attempt to bring natural health products under the rubric of drugs.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to be participating in this morning's debate on Bill C-490, An Act to amend the Old Age Security Act (application for supplement, retroactive payments and other amendments) on behalf of the NDP caucus and as the critic for seniors and pensions.

Let me say at the outset that I fully support this bill. In many ways it is the companion piece to my own bill, Bill C-336. Whereas my bill seeks to enhance the ability of pensioners to access their CPP benefits retroactively, the bill before us today deals specifically with the guaranteed income supplement. Both are fundamentally about fairness for seniors and both are long overdue in their adoption.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak on the EI provisions of the budget implementation bill. My riding is part of steel town, Hamilton, the city that was built on a vibrant manufacturing sector, where industrial workers earned family sustaining wages.

Unfortunately, today those decent paying jobs are disappearing. They are being replaced by minimum wage, service sector jobs with no job security, few if any benefits and certainly no defined benefit pension plans. In that regard, Hamilton is a microcosm of what is happening in the country as a whole. We have lost 350,000 manufacturing sector jobs in the last five years alone and we are still hemorrhaging 300 additional jobs each and every day.