On April 29, 2019, I rose in the House to speak to an Opposition Day Motion put forward by my colleague Daniel Blaikie:
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Parliament Video: Jenny Kwan speaks out on corporate influence over government
Mr. Blaikie (Elmwood - Transcona)
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That, in the opinion of the House, corporate executives and their lobbyists have had too much access to and influence over the Government of Canada, setting working Canadians and their families back by: |
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(a) encouraging attempts by the Prime Minister to undermine the independence of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the integrity of Canada’s rule of law; |
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(b) forcing Canadians to pay high prices for prescription drugs by blocking the establishment of a single, public and universal drug insurance plan; |
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(c) providing huge subsidies to large oil and gas companies, while putting corporate interests over the protection of Canada’s Pacific coastal waters in the Kinder Morgan pipeline approval process; |
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(d) motivating the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to give a handout of $12 million to a multi-billion-dollar corporation owned by one of Canada's wealthiest families; |
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(e) giving Canada's most profitable banks the chance to review and revise a report intended to shed light on anti-consumer banking practices; and |
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(f) leaving intact a host of tax loopholes that allow the richest Canadians to avoid paying their fair share for Canada’s public services like health care, pensions and housing; |
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and that therefore, as a first step toward addressing these failings, the government should immediately move to recover the $12 million given to Loblaws and reinvest it to the benefit of working Canadians and their families. |
