Madam Speaker, it is great to hear from my colleague from Essex on all of his great insights, and it is great to see him back in this place.

We are here to debate a motion of non-confidence in the Prime Minister and the current government, because the workers of Canada are hurting. Workers and Canadians are struggling. In the words of the leader of the NDP, “The Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people”.

The leader of the NDP also said, “The Liberal government will always cave to corporate greed, and always step in to make sure the unions have no power.” We agree, which is why we put forward this motion and why the NDP needs to stop propping up the Liberal government and vote non-confidence with us. That is what workers want. That is what Canadians want. They want a carbon tax election now.

We saw in the Statistics Canada report on Friday just how much Canadian workers and Canadians are suffering after nine years of the Prime Minister backed up by the NDP. StatsCan reported that Canada's GDP per capita has declined for six consecutive quarters. In other words, our standard of living is falling, especially when compared to south of the border. There is now a $33,000 per year difference in income per person between Canada and the U.S., according to the IMF. Add to this the punishing carbon tax in Canada, and those workers' paycheques are stretched even further.

Food bank use in Canada reached 2 million, and 18% of those are workers. That is shameful. The very inflationary tax policies of the Liberals, which have been supported all the way along by the NDP, have caused this cost of living crisis and are making Canadian workers and Canadians poorer. It is no wonder that in 2023 we saw the highest number of work stoppages and interruptions in Canada since 1983, which is 40 years, because when inflation is running rampant and the cost of living is out of control, workers rightly need more to get by, to support their families. They are fighting for better wages everywhere.

While statistics paint a damning picture of the economic carnage being inflicted on Canadians by the NDP-Liberal coalition, beyond the statistics are real people, real workers and their stories. I remember speaking to steelworkers on the floor of Stelco last winter. Of course, that is in Hamilton, and Hamiltonians have a reputation for grit, determination and hard work. It is the Hammer, after all, and nowhere is that more evident than on the floor of Stelco.

These workers work hard day in and day out to produce the steel that is so instrumental to our economy. It is hot, heavy work, but it should also be rewarding work. These are union workers, members of the United Steelworkers. A steelworker named Travis talked to me about how difficult it is as a young person to make ends meet. He has a good union job with good wages and benefits, but inflation, taxes and housing costs are taking an increasingly larger bite out of his paycheque. He also worries that his colleagues who have young families are in an even tougher spot.

Travis was not alone. Others that same day recounted the same story. The cost of living crisis has been a kick in the teeth, and they cannot afford to pay the increases they are seeing in their mortgage renewals, their rent, their groceries, filling up the truck or car to get to work, or heating their home.

Last month, I talked to union workers alongside the leader of the Conservative Party at the Boilermakers Local 128, as well as UA Local 67, which represents journeymen, pipefitters, plumbers and their apprentices. Their training hall is located in my constituency of Flamborough—Glanbrook. We also talked to LiUNA construction workers and others. These are the workers who build this country and are building our economy. Canada needs more of these skilled workers, but they need a government that has their back, which is why we introduced this motion today.

I think about my grandfather, who was a proud union member. My Opa Blok was a carpenter. He came to Canada from the Netherlands in 1949, at the end of the Second World War, in search of a better future for himself and his family. He braved a new land and a new language, and he came a year before bringing the rest of his family. My mother was five when they finally came. Opa worked hard and saved up. As a carpenter, he joined the union, because it offered him good wages and modest benefits at that time for him and his family. He was always a staunch supporter of the unions, because unions built the middle class. Our family is an example of that.

Opa was also a card-carrying member of the NDP for almost 30 years. I wonder what Opa would think today about the NDP under the leadership of the current leader. The NDP has unwaveringly supported a Liberal government that has violated workers' rights to strike, that is increasing the cost of living for that middle class. I think it is safe to say the NDP under its current leader is no longer my grandfather's NDP.

My mom was also a union member, for her entire 45-year career as a registered nurse in Hamilton, working at various hospitals. My brothers and I were fortunate to grow up in a middle-class household. While we did not always get everything we wanted, my mom's union job as a nurse and my dad's work in the trades as a bricklayer allowed us the middle-class dream of Canada.

I contrast that to the conversations I had on the floor of Stelco that day and in the union halls in the Hamilton area in the time since. The middle-class dream of Canada is slipping away for workers, for people. What is ironic about the leader of the NDP is that he talks a big game, saying, “the Liberals are too weak”, yet he is the one keeping the Prime Minister in power. He is the one supporting the very policies that are making life so unaffordable, especially the carbon tax, which the NDP has supported 24 times.

When workers, through their unions, demand more to pay their mortgages and their rents, to pay for their groceries and their gas, to sustain that modest middle-class living on their hard work, when they also fight for safety and the gains they have made in safety, as the Teamsters did this summer, the Liberals have shut down their strikes, shut down their job actions.

While the NDP leader has called this out, that same leader and his caucus voted confidence in the Liberal government twice earlier this fall. With the motion we have brought forward today, the NDP has a chance to do something about it. Let us vote down the government.

Dan Muys

$608,573.00