Fisherman's Road

 I gave the following speech today (Sept. 29th) in the House of Commons on a New Democratic party motion to give the Speaker power to force the government to provide relevant answers during Question Period. Thank you Mr. Speaker, Soon after I was first elected and came to the nation’s capital, rookie Members of Parliament were called to this very chamber, this very esteemed chamber, for a 101 introduction on how Parliament works. A crash course on how to be an MP. The analogy, the lesson that I took away that day above all others was this: Ottawa is the moon, and a riding, including my riding of St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, is planet earth. What I took that to mean, Mr. Speaker, is that Ottawa is not the real world. Ottawa is a bubble. So much of what happens here does not resonate at home. People don’t always pay a whole lot of attention. But they do pay some attention, Mr. Speaker. They pay particular attention when what happens here directly im...

 I posed the following question today (Sept. 25th) during Question Period in the House of Commons. Mr. Speaker, It's amazing - the policy banning factory ships has just vanished into the Consevative air from the DFO website. Let's get this straight, the minister OKed this huge trawler coming into the Gulf of St. Lawrence just months after Atlantic Canadian fishermen rallied to stop her attack on fleet separation. It's like she's trying to do through the back door what she couldn't do through the front door. Mr. Speaker, Why is the minister making policy for well-connected Conservative friends like the Sullivans, instead of protecting the fishermen and families of Atlantic Canada?

 I posed the following question today (Sept. 23 rd ) during Question Period in the House of Commons. Mr. Speaker, The fall food fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador has been officially underway since Saturday, but there hasn’t been much activity on the water because of the poor weather. The food fishery is only 8 days long – forcing people to either risk their lives in dangerous conditions to catch what they can before it closes … Or else go without. People have died, Mr. Speaker. Will the Conservatives take poor weather and people’s safety into account? Will they agree to extend the fall food fishery?  

I gave the following one-minute statement today (Sept. 18th) in the House of Commons. Mr. Speaker, Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil industry has turned our economy around. Oil has replaced the codfish as currency, although we must never turn our backs on the fishery. While Alberta owns the oil beneath its soil, the Government of Canada holds ownership of oil beneath the sea. But the Atlantic Accord outlines how Newfoundland and Labrador is to be the principle beneficiary of the offshore oil and gas industry off our shores. Only we are not the principle beneficiary. To date, the Government of Canada has realized a profit of almost $1.7 billion from its 8.5 per cent stake in Hibernia. The province has offered to buy Ottawa’s stake, but this government has shown no movement. The Atlantic Accord is clear, Mr. Speaker – Newfoundland and Labrador is to be the principle beneficiary. When will this Conservative government start living up to that princi...

I gave the following 10-minute speech today (Sept. 18th) in the House of Commons on Bill S-3, An Act to amend the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act.   Mr. Speaker, As one of seven Members of Parliament for Newfoundland and Labrador representing the east coast Newfoundland riding of St. John’s South-Mount Pearl, I make sure to take every opportunity to speak on our once great fisheries. To speak on what were once the richest fishing grounds in the world—in the world, Mr. Speaker; The fabled, the storied, the legendary Grand Banks of Newfoundland. When Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, Canada was elevated from 14 th to sixth place in the world as a fish-exporting nation. In his 2013 book, Empty Nets, How Greed and Politics Wiped out the World’s Greatest Fishery , Gus Etchegary writes how Newfoundland presented Canada with the golden gift of her fisheries. Today those fisheries are but a shadow of what they once were.   I wrote an endorsement on the back of...



 I gave the following speech in support of reinstating the National Minimum Wage today (Sept. 16 th ) in the House of Commons. Mr. Speaker, I’m proud to say that, as many Canadians know (this isn’t a news flash), Newfoundland and Labrador is a have-province. In 2008, for the first time since Confederation in 1949 (that’s almost 60 years), we hit a milestone in that we stopped receiving equalization. Where for years we were seen as a drain, a poor cousin of Canada (although that’s most definitely debatable, I would say it was never the case, Mr. Speaker), today we officially contribute more to the Confederation than we get back. Our confidence, our self-esteem as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, as who we are, has improved. We’re not cocky. We’re not uppity. We look down on no one. The memory of hard times isn’t that far off (and it never seems that far away), and there are still far too many people who aren’t benefiting from the have status. It feels ...

I posed the following questions in the House of Commons on Monday, Sept. 15, in relation to Bill C-22, the energy safety and security act. New Democrats supported the bill at second reading , but were against it at third reading because government ignored proposed amendments. Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Hamilton Mountain for the way she summarized the shortfalls in the legislation. She was very thorough and she was eloquent in her speech as well. I have also spoken on the legislation, and some of the immediate weaknesses in the legislation in terms of the absolute liability is the fact that it is not enough. As the hon. member pointed out, there will be an increase in absolute liability from $30 million to $1 billion. That is a substantial increase, but when we compare it to other jurisdictions, as the hon. member pointed out, like the United States, for example, which has an absolute liability of $12.6 billion and where the case of the Deepwater Horizon , the 201...