Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House today to speak in support of our NDP motion to fix Canada’s employment insurance system, and to help those Canadians who’ve lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):Mr Speaker, I’m pleased to rise in the House again to continue the debate on Bill C-44, An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code and the Employment Insurance Act and to make consequential amendments to the Income Tax Act and the Income Tax Regulation.
Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP) moved:
That this House call on the Conservative government to abandon plans to further restrict access to Employment Insurance for Canadian workers who have followed the rules and who will now be forced to choose between taking a pay cut of up to 30% or losing their Employment Insurance benefits.
She said: Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles.
Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Madam Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to participate in today's debate on the budget implementation bill, although I have to say that 10 minutes to deal with the 425-page bill is absurdly inadequate. It is impossible to offer a comprehensive analysis if the government is intent on giving me less than one second per page of the bill to articulate the concerns of my constituents. What happened to the government's commitment to accountability?
Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Madam Speaker, over the last two Parliaments, I think this is my third or fourth time speaking to the Canada-Panama free trade agreement.
I have to say this is an agreement that has not improved with age, nor has the debate on this issue, frankly. I continue to be struck by the inability of both the Conservatives and the Liberals to differentiate between free trade and fair trade. We in the NDP are not against trade.
