Heather McPherson

Mr. Speaker, Positioning · 17 wordssteel is not just another commodity in a trade ledger. Steel is the backbone of our economy.Positioning Claims · 16 wordsIt builds our bridges, our transit systems, our housing, our energy projects and our manufacturing capacity. Positioning · 9 wordsIt is quite simply economic sovereignty in physical form, PositioningReasoning · 12 wordsand if we cannot make it here, we are not economically sovereign. Claims · 36 wordsSteelworkers were in Ottawa recently to remind the government of that reality, and they were very clear. They did not come for photo ops; they came for a plan. They came for a national steel strategy, Positioning · 9 wordsbecause steelworkers know something the government too often forgets: PositioningReasoning · 21 wordsWe do not build national economies by shutting out the people who actually do the work, the people who actually build. Claims · 92 wordsThe United Steelworkers are calling for a comprehensive national steel industrial strategy, one that invests in domestic capacity, that strengthens supply chains and that protects good union jobs across this country.¹ They are joined by the Canadian Labour Congress, which represents over three million workers who have been equally clear that workers must be at the table when decisions are being made about their futures.² Right now, that is not what we are seeing. We are seeing CEOs and political insiders included in advisory structures. We are seeing labour excluded or minimized, Positioning · 21 wordsand we are seeing the very people who built this economy treated as an afterthought in the decisions that shape it.Positioning Procedure · 7 wordsThat raises a simple question for me: ProcedurePositioning · 16 wordsHow can the government claim to stand with workers while locking them out of the room?Positioning Claims · 32 wordsWe have seen what happens when we invest in Canadian steel capacity. In Sault Ste. Marie, recent steel investments that were supported by the United Steelworkers and Local 2251 helped modernize production, ³Positioning · 6 wordsand that is a great step, PositioningClaims · 5 wordsbut it is a one-off. Positioning · 5 wordsThat is not a strategy, PositioningThe ask · 14 wordsand what we need in this country is a strategy to move us forward. Reasoning · 20 wordsWhen steel is strong, the communities in which steelworkers work are strong, and when steel is weakened, everything else follows. Procedure · 7 wordsI asked the government two simple questions.Procedure The question · 34 wordsWill it work with the United Steelworkers to develop and implement a comprehensive national steel strategy? Why has it excluded labour, specifically the USW and the Canadian Labour Congress, from the CUSMA advisory council? Claims · 102 wordsOf course, we were happy to see that Unifor was included in that, ⁴but for the three million Canadians represented by the Canadian Labour Congress, not having the CLC at that table is a very big oversight. We are in a period of extraordinary trade instability. Tariffs and trade disruptions from the United States are not theoretical. They are real, and they are already hurting Canadian workers. That does not mean things on a spreadsheet. That means people not being able to pay their mortgage, not being able to pay their bills and not knowing where their next paycheque is coming from. The ask · 28 wordsWe need to see more urgency, we need to see more action and we need to see the government recognize the impact this is having on Canadian workers.