Speeches

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP) moved for leave to introduce Bill C-363, An Act to amend the Holidays Act (Remembrance Day).

She said: Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to finally be able to introduce a bill whose adoption I have been advocating since April of this year. My act to amend the Holidays Act (Remembrance Day) would honour those who have sacrificed their lives for Canada by making Remembrance Day a legal holiday. I look forward to this bill's quick passage to honour those who have died serving our country.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)

I am delighted to be here today, both as the Member of Parliament for Hamilton Mountain (and the NDP critic for Seniors and Pensions), and as a member of the Income Security Working Group.

Let me take you back just a little bit to explain how I came to participate in this important community initiative.

As some of you may know, I have been politically active in Hamilton for quite some time. And you can’t be an aspiring politician without knocking on thousands of doors. Let me tell you, that what’s been happening behind these doors to seniors in our community is an absolute disgrace.

I am delighted to be here at Grace Villa today, both as the Member of Parliament for Hamilton Mountain, and as the NDP Critic for Seniors and Pensions.

It is a privilege to stand with Andrea Horwath, my provincial colleague from Hamilton East, who has led the charge at Queen’s Park in fighting for quality care in Ontario’s nursing homes.

Both of us are keenly aware that residents and their families often contemplate a move to nursing homes with great trepidation. Will our loved ones still get the care and attention they need? Will they be comfortable and safe? Will they be in caring hands?

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP) moved for leave to introduce Bill C-336, An Act to amend the Canada Pension Plan (arrears of benefits).

She said: Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to introduce legislation today that would allow for full retroactive payments plus interest when someone applies for benefits under the Canada pension plan.

The CPP is a pay-as-you-go contribution based program that is funded solely by employers and employees. It is absurd that a person who is late in applying for his or her pension under the CPP is only entitled to 11 months of retroactive benefits. It is not the government's money.

The Conservative Budget, and the Budget Implementation Bill that is before this House today, do absolutely nothing to address the profound environmental challenges that confront Canadians today. The silence is absolutely deafening. When it comes to climate change, we have essentially lost yet another year on this most critical issue. It is showing up on the pages of Maclean’s, the front pages of The New York Times, and across our communities. But it is not showing up in the Budget.

Let me turn first to health care. If health care is one of the government’s top five priorities, why was it barely mentioned in the budget?

If it’s so important, where is the plan? Where are the imperatives? How is the federal government going to work with the provinces? Where is that information? It certainly isn’t in the Budget Implementation Bill.

As I’ve said in this House before, people in my riding of Hamilton Mountain remember only too well the last time a Conservative Government turned its mind to health care. The last Conservative government in Ontario, of which the current federal Minister of Finance was a member, threatened to close the Henderson Hospital, jeopardized access to home care, and did nothing to address the unprecedented shortages of family doctors in our community. In fact, they laid the foundation upon which Premier McGuinty is now building his P3 hospitals and justifying the privatization of health care.

In my home town of Hamilton, one in five people live below the poverty line. 25% of those are children. But we all know that children aren’t poor; it’s their parents that are poor. Hamilton families need help now!

We need to invest in our manufacturing sector to ensure that we will continue to have decent paying jobs in our community. Yet Bill C-13, the budget implementation bill, is silent on this issue. It offers neither a steel industry strategy nor an auto sector strategy.

Nor does Bill C-13 do anything to provide funding for decent paying public sector jobs for professions like nurses or nurse practitioners who are so crucial to improving our health care system. Similarly, the doctors’ shortage remains unaddressed. In fact, as I’ll return to later, the entire Budget is largely silent on one of the top of mind issues for most Canadians: health care.

I had the privilege yesterday of seconding the introduction of Bill C-275, An Act to amend the Excise Tax (feminine hygiene products). It was brought forward by my good friend, the NDP Finance Critic and Member from Winnipeg North, who shares my belief that taxes on feminine hygiene products are discriminatory.

Charging GST on feminine hygiene products clearly affects women only. It unfairly disadvantages women financially solely because of our reproductive role.

Our bill would benefit all Canadian women at some point in their lives, and would be of particular value to women with lower incomes.

The first issue I’d like to raise is the elimination of the Goods and Services Tax on literacy materials.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I had the good fortune of seconding the introduction of Bill C-276, An Act to amend the Excise Tax (literacy materials). It was brought forward by my good friend, the NDP Finance Critic and Member from Winnipeg North, who shares my belief that literacy is a necessity, and therefore must not be subject to taxes. For many Canadians, the added cost of the GST can be a real impediment, and there are far too many barriers to literacy already.

Removing the GST on books and audio-visual materials for literacy training in fact compliments existing tax relief programs given to organizations that conduct literacy work.

At first blush, the budget documents that the Minister tabled on May 2nd seem to offer a faint promise of hope for parents and grandparents of children with physical, psychological or developmental disabilities. In fact, on page 105, the Budget states: “An important consideration for parents and grandparents of a child with severe disabilities is how best to ensure the financial security of their child, when they are no longer able to provide support. The Minister of Finance will appoint a small group of experts to examine ways to help parents save for the long-term security of a child with severe disabilities and provide their recommendations to the minister within six months”.