Chris's Posts

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, my hometown of Hamilton is being hit by a tsunami of job losses, not just in steelmaking but in manufacturing, health care and just about every other sector of employment.

This is the time that workers need to draw on the employment insurance that they paid into all of their working lives, but instead of helping workers to access what is rightfully theirs, the minister responsible for the program hurls insults by saying, “We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay at home and get paid for it”.

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, the Supreme Court of Canada recognizes the rights to free collective bargaining for public servants, yet the government will not.

It has unilaterally capped public service salaries instead of bargaining those salaries at the negotiating table. It has rolled back negotiated wage increases for the RCMP, and other government workers fear the same.

These workers are not fat in the system. They are essential to the safety and security of Canadians.

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.

The Hamilton Spectator

Hamilton Mountain New Democrat MP Chris Charlton, her party's deputy finance critic, was disappointed the government did not provide an economic stimulus package, and moved to do away with the taxpayer subsidy for political parties.

"Every other leader in the world is taking this economic downturn seriously, ensuring that jobs are being created," she said last night. "Our leader, instead of attacking this recession, is attacking democracy."

Mountain MP calls on Finance Minister to address labour shortage in economic update

OTTAWA – In difficult economic times, it is incumbent upon legislators to do everything we can to help Canadians secure work. That is the message Hamilton Mountain MP Chris Charlton brought to Parliament as she re-introduced her bill to help reduce the costs faced by tradespersons who travel to temporary job away from their primary residences.