By Staff
April 28th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington MP Karina Gould, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development in the Trudeau government spoke in the House of Commons on a number of public policy issues.
Responding to the comments made by a member of the opposition Gould said:
The current Liberal government believes in the right to strike and the Public Service Alliance of Canada didn’t let them down.
“Mr. Speaker, I think what is particularly concerning about what the member opposite is saying is that the public service grew at a time when Canadians were in their darkest hour. We are talking about a once-in-a-generation pandemic. We supported, and those same public servants supported, 8.5 million Canadians to access the Canada emergency response benefit. Those same public servants supported Canadians to receive the Canada emergency business account support. They were there in Canada’s time of need.
“We believe in collective bargaining. We believe in the right to strike, and we will get a good deal for the public servants and for Canadians.”
Burlington MP Karina Gould in the House of Commons while former US president of the United States Barack Obama addresses a joint session.
Later, on the same day, Gould said:
“Mr. Speaker, in difference to the Conservative members of Parliament, on this side we actually respect workers and we respect their rights. We are at the negotiating table right now to ensure that we get a fair deal for Canadian taxpayers, as well as for the hard-working public servants who have been there for Canadians, particularly in their moment of need, particularly during the worst economic and health crisis that we have seen in a generation.
“We are going to get a good agreement that is going to support our workers as well as Canadian taxpayers.”
It was a busy day for the Burlington MP who spoke about how they improved Canada’s child poverty rankings
“Mr. Speaker, it is a bit hard to take the Conservatives at face value when they talk about Canadians in poverty, because when the Conservative government came into power in 2006, it was 17th in the OECD when it came to child poverty rankings. By the time Conservatives left office nine years later, they had fallen to 24th. They had actually done nothing to alleviate people who were living in poverty.
“We came into office in 2015. We have helped 450,000 children get out of poverty. We have helped 2.7 million Canadians get out of poverty. We are going to keep being there for Canadians, unlike the members opposite.”
It’s not surprising the Liberals pushed through Bill C11 to take control of what we see on the internet so they can control the narrative.
Here’s some not so fun facts that Ms. Gould fails to mention. Her government has increased the cost of the federal bureaucracy by $20,000,000,000 (yes that 20 billion) dollars per year since the Harper government. For that majestic sum we now have slower passports (under her watch), slower/no nexus offices, slower approval of major energy projects, airport chaos, high inflation, no solution to indigenous boil water issues etc., etc., etc.
Now we have the biggest public sector strike in 50 years. I say bravo!
On this issue of poverty, I would suggest someone needs to audit those numbers. There is a baseline of improvement in poverty which is a result of capitalism since the industrial revolution, so history has shown that maintaining the status quo will reduce poverty.
What this government did was borrow more than all previous governments driving inflation to levels not seen since the 1980. No question some of this has gone to social programs to help, but they use out dated yard sticks of annual income (as one example) that have not been updated to account for inflationary forces.
If there is such an improvement in poverty, explain why foodbanks are seeing unprecedented demand and homelessness is at record levels in every Canadian city.
Gould’s claim does not pass the sniff test and homelessness and unprecedented demand at foodbanks was clearly not the situation under the Harper government.
If you say “hard-working public servants” enough times, some will begin to believe it. The truth is that our federal government has become bloated all at the same time as its’ service to Canadians (aka taxpayers) has deteriorated. Why did we have to hire a ‘truckload’ of civil servants to just get passports renewed within a reasonable amount of time (all on Ms. Gould’s watch)? Has anyone within the Trudeau Party of Canada thought of measuring or even improving its’ own government’s productivity? I guess that’s a moot question when there is no cost to you (i.e. you are spending someone else’s money). Progressive, indeed!
I want to know what the “member opposite” said to elicit this propaganda piece that MP Gould keeps using as her “response” versus an “answer” to every question. Thank You.