“Just 3 months ago, Justin Trudeau looked Canadians in the eyes and promised to tackle a housing crisis that has unfolded under his government,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. “This week’s Fiscal Update confirmed one thing — these were just more empty words. The ultra-rich are Justin Trudeau’s priority, not you and your family. New Democrats will continue to fight to make sure every Canadian can afford a place to call home.”
OTTAWA — The housing crisis is hitting hard and while house prices sore, the Liberals aren’t taking action to help Canadians find a home they can afford. It has been reported this week that the average selling price of a resale home in Canada last month was $720,850, beating the all-time high that was set in March of this year. It is increasingly impossible for people to afford a place to call home.
“Just 3 months ago, Justin Trudeau looked Canadians in the eyes and promised to tackle a housing crisis that has unfolded under his government,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. “This week’s Fiscal Update confirmed one thing — these were just more empty words. The ultra-rich are Justin Trudeau’s priority, not you and your family. New Democrats will continue to fight to make sure every Canadian can afford a place to call home.”
While the Liberals continue to protect wealthy speculators that drive up the cost of housing, New Democrats have proposed concrete measures to tackle the housing crisis. The NDP has called on the Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to immediately put in place a foreign buyers tax, implement a flipping tax and ban blind bidding. And to help families find a home they can afford, the NDP called for investments in building 500 000 affordable homes.
“Canadians need a government that recognizes that the affordable housing crisis is hurting every community across the country. The Liberals are failing to address the housing affordability gap for those who are experiencing homelessness, looking to secure affordable housing in the rental market or dreaming of owning a home.” said NDP Housing Critic, Jenny Kwan. “The Prime Minister keeps proving that he is all talk with no intention of taking bold action to make things better for people struggling to find a home they can afford. The housing crisis is only getting worse while the cost of living continues to go up. Canadians can’t afford more nice words from the Liberals followed by inaction. The NDP's priority is to treat housing as basic human right and make buying a home possible for all Canadians.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s immigration critic, said the UN report should come as no surprise to the government, as it echoes “what migrant workers and labour advocates have been saying for a very long time.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan says the power imbalance that leads to abuse is structural to the temporary foreign worker program, not just its low-wage stream. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
“The way the program is set up exposes workers to exploitation and abuse because they’re reliant on their employer to retain their status in Canada,” Kwan explained. “If they face abuse and exploitation and complain about it, they stand to lose their job, and—in the worst-case scenario—they stand to be deported back to their country of origin.”
Kwan said the government has taken a “haphazard approach” to addressing problems with the TFWP to date, focused almost solely on the low-wage stream, but—while misuse of that stream is “particularly deplorable”—she said the root of the problem is structural to the entire program.
“The government has to address the main structural issue, and that is the power imbalance that exists between the temporary foreign worker and the employer,” Kwan said. “The only way to do that is to ensure that the temporary foreign workers actually have landed status on arrival, then they are not dependent on the employer, and would not have to suffer potential abuses and exploitation.”
“It doesn’t matter what stream it is, all the temporary foreign workers programs subject migrant workers to potential exploitation because of that power imbalance,” Kwan said, adding, though, that the NDP supports calls to end the program’s low-wage stream.
While the government and groups like the Canadian Chamber of Commerce may reject the UN rapporteur’s characterization of the program, the recent Senate report found similar abuses within the program.
"People are rightfully furious and deeply concerned to learn that a man allegedly linked to a terrorist group and heinous terrorist acts was given Canadian citizenship by the Liberal government," she said in a statement.
"This alarming failure only adds to the concerns that Canadians already have about Canada's public safety and immigration system."
On Tuesday, a parliamentary committee agreed to investigate the case amid questions about the immigration screening process for both men.
The committee hearings, set to begin later this month, will likely zero in on Canada's immigration process, its security screening capacity and how security officials handle domestic threats.