News

By: Sarah Simpson, The Citizen

Jean Crowder doesn't want the workforce to get "dinged" for making environmentally conscious decisions.

The Nanaimo-Cowichan MP supports Bill C-466, a proposed change to the Income Tax Act, aimed at facilitating green commuter choices for Canadians by making employer-provided benefits for transit, carpooling and bicycle commuting tax-free at the federal level.

She said currently if an employer offers incentives or benefits to their staff, the employee has to claim it on their federal income tax forms.

Today New Democrats across the country mark the National Day of Mourning and honour those men and women who have been injured or killed on the job.

Since the Canadian Labour Congress first created the Day of Mourning in 1984 we have seen successive governments pledge to support workers. In addition to new legislation on workplace safety, the government needs to provide the resources to enforce these laws.

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Madam Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the budget. I will be splitting my time with the member for New Westminster—Coquitlam.

I want to spend my brief 10 minutes talking about two different aspects of the budget. I want to talk about how it affects people who live in my riding of Nanaimo—Cowichan, but in my role as the aboriginal affairs critic for the NDP, I also want to talk about how it affects first nations, Métis and Inuit throughout the country.

Are you the proprietor of a community-based not-for-profit organization? Are you involved in promoting tourism to our beautiful community? Is your organization involved in protecting Nanaimo-Cowichan’s environment? Most importantly, do you need extra help this summer and don’t have the resources to hire someone?

If you answered yes to one of these questions, you may be interested in learning more about the Canada Summer Jobs 2010 program.

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Timmins—James Bay.

There are a couple of issues I want to raise in the course of this debate. First of all, we are debating right now a motion on time allocation. Earlier today we saw a shameful vote in this House on closure, which has actually shut off our ability to have a fulsome discussion on this particular piece of legislation, Bill C-62. Once the procedural motion is voted on this evening, we will be forced into a very limited debate on Bill C-62.

Even though this only applies in Ontario and British Columbia at this time, there are British Columbians and Ontarians who live and travel across this country, and what we are consistently hearing from them is that they do not like this HST. In fact, one of my constituents called it the “hated sales tax”.

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Mr. Speaker, in his speech the hon. member for Outremont touched on the whole issue of pensions. New Democrats have put forward a proposition for how to deal with pensions in this country. I wonder if the member could specifically address the fact that often there are employees, from coast to coast to coast, who for all of their working lives, 30 or 40 years, have worked for one company. Now the company is in trouble and is looking at filing for bankruptcy or protection.

There are pensioners who worked at a pulp and paper mill in my own riding and who are looking at the fact that their pensions may be substantially reduced. They may get only 40% or 50% of what they are currently getting. Often we are talking about workers in their seventies and eighties. These are not men and women who can go out and find another job. They have established a lifestyle based on what they could reasonably expect to get from their employer and their pension contributions.

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Madam Speaker, I am rising on a question that I raised in the House on June 3 of this year with respect to employment insurance. It was about the fact that the Catalyst Crofton pulp mill was laying off workers and it was in the context of a lot of other forestry sector workers that were being impacted. Specifically, I indicated that there would be no severance package for Catalyst workers and, instead, the employer was negotiating a plan to top up EI benefits, as had been done in Sudbury. I asked the minister to explain whether these sub-plans would trigger clawbacks. It is ironic that I am now raising this question again in the House.

The answer I got from the minister did not indicate what the government would be doing about the clawbacks for these laid-off workers. Since that time things have not been a lot better in the forestry sector, at least in my riding and other parts of British Columbia.

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Welland.

I want to begin by indicating that New Democrats will be supporting this bill in principle. We have been advocating the need for changes to the Employment Insurance Act, including self-employment, for a very long time, and we look forward to sending this bill to committee in order to consider it fully and recommend some potential changes to the legislation.

For Canadians who may be tuning in, I want to cover some of the key points in this piece of legislation. Many people are self-employed and this will only deal with a very small group of them.

Specifically, this legislation would allow self-employed Canadians to opt into employment insurance programs dealing specifically with maternity benefits, up to a maximum of 15 weeks; parental and adoptive benefits, up to a maximum of 35 weeks; sick leave benefits up to a maximum of 15 weeks; and compassionate care benefits up to a maximum of six weeks. We see this as being a positive step.

Ms. Jean Crowder (Nanaimo—Cowichan, NDP): Mr. Speaker, of course New Democrats are here to make Parliament work, but we also have a responsibility to our constituents to ensure that legislation that is brought before the House is good legislation.

By: Jean Crowder

British Columbia has lost 65 sawmills, four pulp mills and 20,000 jobs in the forestry industry since 2001. With a spinoff effect of about one to three, this means a loss of 60,000 jobs.

That is tens of millions of dollars of revenue that is no longer being sent to government coffers to help pay for health care and education.
Jim Sinclair, head of the BC Federation of Labour recently said that forestry contributes close to 40 percent of B.C.'s exports and 25 percent of our GDP.