Government Accountability

MEDIA RELEASE - Liberals continue to rubberstamp oil projects, fail to invest in workers or solutions to the worsening climate crisis

Just days ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a scathing report warning people that we cannot continue on our current path if we are going to have any chance of addressing climate change.
The reality we are facing could not be more clear: bolder action is urgently needed.
But today, we learned the Liberals are going ahead with a new fossil fuel project and will continue to hand out billions of dollars to oil and gas companies.

MEDIA RELEASE - We must fight against the spread of fake news for the safety of Canadians

“Canadians want reliable information about public health–especially during this pandemic. Unfortunately, the spread of fake news online has compromised the reliability and quality of the information people are getting. It has also created a space to feed online hate. People expect their government to help fix this problem.
Furthermore, the unfair competition from web giants is decreasing the revenue of media outlets that people depend on. The lack of a level playing field is leading to the closure of many local media outlets and making the spread of fake news a pandemic of its own threatening the safety of people, particularly racialized and Indigenous communities.

MEDIA RELEASE - Canadians need homes they can afford

A media outlet reported this week that the Liberal's housing strategy isn’t delivering the affordable homes people need despite the worsening housing crisis across the country.
Families aren’t finding homes they can afford in the communities where they live and work because rich investors are hiking up rent to maximize their profits. Nearly all the government​'s funding ​allocation under the Rental Construction Financing Initiative (RCFI) ends up in the pockets of for-profit developers who often have ​little interest in offering homes people can afford.
This Liberal government has been telling people that they are building more affordable homes, but the reality doesn't match the rhetoric. What the government deems affordable is way over the market price — families just can’t afford it. Currently, for many of the units created under the RCFI initiative, the rent is somewhere between 30 per cent and ​120 per cent above market rent​. ​It's laughable for the Liberals to claim that this is affordable. The NDP has been calling this out for years now and the program needs to change.

IN THE NEWS: Hill Times - As Conservatives decry end of accountability at committees, NDP MPs say nothing has changed

“I will continue to advocate and hold the government to account and pursue different issues on the two respective committees that I sit on,” she said. “From that perspective, this agreement changes nothing for me.”

“With or without the agreement, it does not steer me from holding the government to account, pushing the government in delivering for the people,” she said. “I’m going to be as helpful as I can, but I am going to be hard in holding the government to account to push them to take the necessary actions.”

She said she will continue to ask “tough questions,” including when Immigration Minister Sean Fraser (Central Nova, N.S.) appears.

Kwan said in cases where filibustering takes place, the NDP would assess if it is helpful or impeding the work of the committee.

She said she foresees that there will continue to be opportunities to work with other opposition parties.

IN THE NEWS: Toronto Star - As MPs return to Hill, some still worry about safety despite enhanced security

Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver East, said she opted in to an expert security assessment of her home and it made her feel safer knowing the measures are up to par — not just for herself but also her family.

“For me, this is particularly important because in previous occasions, I’ve had threats where people came to my home and threatened my family, including my children,” said Kwan.

IN THE NEWS: National Post - Jagmeet Singh says NDP prepared to withold votes in Parliament

The NDP announced Thursday that its caucus had elected MPs to fill key jobs, including Vancouver MP Jenny Kwan who will serve as caucus chair and Blake Desjarlais, a two-spirit Metis leader newly elected in Edmonton, as deputy caucus chair.

IN THE NEWS: Globe & Mail - Trudeau flies to Tofino for a vacation with family as Canada marks first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh attended a local event in Vancouver. Mr. Singh went to the Orange Shirt Day walk and ceremony, outside of the Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre, along with NDP MPs Jenny Kwan, Don Davies, Peter Julian and MP-elect Bonita Zarrillo. Orange Shirt Day, which also falls on Sept. 30, is a commemorative day to honour Indigenous children who survived residential schools and remember those who did not.

IN THE NEWS: The Record - When COVID goes, so goes our hybrid Parliament

In the hybrid system, a corporal’s guard of MPs from each party, masked and socially distanced, physically attended each day’s sitting while most members tuned in remotely from their homes, offices or wherever they happened to be. They were able to ask questions, to join debates and, once the bugs were out of the technology, to vote.

By the time MPs went home for the summer (and an anticipated election), they had become familiar, if not comfortable, with the changes born of necessity. Most seemed to feel the system had worked as well as could reasonably have been expected in such unprecedented circumstances. But there was no clamour to make the digital experience permanent.
Jenny Kwan, the NDP member for Vancouver East, said the hybrid system was “the best that we could do. There were times you would spend so much time getting everything functioning technically, and by the time you do, you have no time to do the actual work.”

OPEN LETTER to Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion

I am writing you today to request that your office undertake to address the delays and technical errors that my constituents are experiencing with the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB), and the new temporary changes to Employment Insurance (EI).
I have heard from two different constituents who received the same error message, COV-26, while attempting to apply for the CRB. The error apparently appears because CRA deems that the applicants have an active EI claim within the last 52 weeks which prevents them from accessing the CRB. However, both my constituents have not received any EI benefits in the last 52 weeks. They applied for EI when the pandemic first started and were transitioned to CERB as that was the policy in place.