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Question:
Minister Hajdu was first elected as a Federal Member of
Parliament, representing Thunder Bay-Superior North in 2015.
Prime Minister Trudeau appointed her to cabinet where she served
as Minister of Status of Women from November 2015 until January
2017, when she was appointed Minister of Labour. We asked, in
that time, what was she most proud of and why?
Minister Hajdu:
I've had the opportunity to work on historic legislation, harassment
and violence in the workplace, modernizing Canada's labour
standards, pay equity legislation, all of the money that we've been
able to secure through the various budgets for skills training,
restoring union relationships, all of those are ministerial activity,
and they've been the honour of my lifetime.
But as a member of parliament, what I'm most proud of is giving
Northern Ontario voice for the very first time in a really, really long
time. You know, this riding is on the map in a way that it hasn't
been, both in terms of our ability to attract investments from the
government, in terms of helping my colleagues understand the
power and potential of Northern Ontario, getting to know my riding
in every little niche, nook and cranny and it's a large one. Let me
tell you.

I [visit] each of my communities twice a year. So I actually have
real relationships now in these communities, unlike any other
previous member of parliament, and it's noticed and people know
me and they don't say, Who are you? when I walk down to the main
street. They're excited that their member of parliament's actually
coming to visit them in their remote part of Northern Ontario.
That's what I'm most proud of. This riding needed someone that
was going to stand up and sort of force people to take notice and
These are the kinds of things that we have to be talking about. We to take and to understand just the potential that we have as an
have to actually continue on the path of multi-year investment. economic region, as sort of a cultural driver, as a part of the
Something that the previous government also was highly averse province that's more than just mining and forestry.
to. You know how many organizations that I've spoken to as the
Natural resource extraction will always be part of our DNA here in
Minister of Employment who have received one-year funding, one-
Northern Ontario, but we have so much more going on and people
year funding, one-year funding under the previous conservative
know about that now. You know, they know about the diversity of
government that just couldn't give any long-term planning or labour
our economy, they know about the fact that we have innovation
force market planning. And I know that the building trades had
happening right here with Lakehead University and Confederation
been really active in trying to do some projections around what
College with their tech hubs, and that there's a biotech industry
communities will need and what different regions will need. You
and that there's a rich history of skilled trades people here and of
can't do that if you're funding short term project after project after
union movements. And all of that has been for me the honour of
project. These are the kinds of investments that we'll be continuing
my lifetime to represent this region and to be a minister, to get to
to make, that will continue to support our partners to make, so
work on those really important pieces of policy that are going to
that we can actually truly build up the workforce that we need.
profoundly improve the quality of primarily workers' lives across
The whole intent behind the UTIP funding on the stream one, which the country.
was innovation in training in the trade. You know, training is
changing all across all different sectors. And I've been privileged
as the minister to visit a number of training centers both in
colleges but also at union sites that are using all kinds of
technology in ways that can help people learn the skills in an
augmented way. I personally have, for example, virtually welded.
Not bad, my son says, but not good, so I'm some ways to go. And
so our government has heavily, heavily invested in innovation and
heavily, heavily invested in skills training that goes along with that
and we'll continue on that path.

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