Week in Review: April 14 – 18
“Unprecedented” has become the word to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. Saturday, April 11 was no exception, when the House convened on Holy Saturday for the first time in Canadian Parliament history. As MP Jenica Atwin attended the House on March 24 to pass the first COVID-19 Emergency Aid legislation, it was now MP Elizabeth May’s turn to travel to Ottawa.
This Saturday brought good news. Bill C-14 passed to expand the wage subsidy from 10% to 75%. When the Liberals first announced the 10% wage subsidy, Green MPs knew it would not be enough and immediately started calling for more. The expanded wage subsidy is not perfect, but it is a huge improvement. Greens were also pleased to support a motion by Unanimous Consent (UC) to include more vulnerable groups in the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The CERB will soon cover ”students, owner/operators, those who continue to receive a modest income from part-time work, royalties and honoraria for volunteer emergency service”, and “essential workers who receive low wages.” Other expansions agreed to in the UC motion concerned Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs): ”support measures for Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises, which will be partially non-refundable, with the primary objective of maintaining jobs and reducing debt related to fixed costs, while maintaining access to liquidity in the form of loans…” You can read the full text of the UC motion here.
During the Saturday sitting, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland thanked MP Paul Manly for connecting her with the CEO of the Harmac mill, in his riding of Nanaimo-Ladysmith. Harmac Pacific supplies producers in the United States with crucial materials to make surgical masks. When the United States President Donald Trump threatened to halt the shipping of essential supplies to Canada, MP Paul Manly pointed out that the US needed supplies from Harmac mill. Read more here.
During all of these developments, Green MPs have continued to press for Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI). They have continued to remind their colleagues from other parties that, if GLI had been in place, the people that are currently falling through the cracks would be covered. As well, Green MPs have kept climate change in the conversation during the pandemic. Greens are advocating that bailouts go to oil and gas workers, not the oil and gas industry. Canada needs these workers to help clean orphaned oil wells and transition to a green economy.
When the House was first suspended on Friday, March 13th, MPs planned to resume on April 20th. At the time, it seemed like a lifetime away. Now, it is just around the corner. Clearly, we are still in the middle of the pandemic, and the House cannot resume as per usual. The government and the Opposition are currently in negotiations surrounding reconvening with a virtual Parliament, or resuming a semi-regular schedule with a reduced number of MPs.
Key Moments
Petitions
Good Sunday Morning – January 24
January 24th, 2021
Good Sunday Morning – January 10
January 10th, 2021
Good Sunday Morning – Jan 3
January 3rd, 2021
Good Sunday Morning – December 13
December 13th, 2020
Good Sunday Morning – December 6
December 6th, 2020
Good Sunday Morning – November 29
November 29th, 2020
Green Party calls on government to declare housing and homelessness national crises, clamp down on commodification of housing market
February 10th, 2021
Greens raising alarm on rapid erosion of public transportation across Canada
January 25th, 2021
Green Party urges focus and collaboration as MPs return to Parliament
January 24th, 2021
Greens join in multi-party press conference to mark the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons coming into force
January 21st, 2021
Green MPs Elizabeth May and Jenica Atwin recognized in Maclean’s 12th annual Parliamentarians of the Year awards
January 13th, 2021
Green Party condemns steady erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong
January 6th, 2021
‘Twas just weeks before Christmas…
December 9th, 2020
Elizabeth asks Environment Minister to close Basel Convention loophole
December 9th, 2020
Elizabeth’s statement on the 50th anniversary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women
December 7th, 2020
Green Caucus letter to Mins. Bains and O’Regan re: Small Modular Reactors
November 9th, 2020
Green Caucus stands in solidarity with pro-democracy protests in Bulgaria
September 14th, 2020
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