OTTAWA – On Thursday, NDP Critic for Housing, Jenny Kwan (Vancouver East) and NDP Critic for Indigenous Services, MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut) secured $287.1 million for National Indigenous Collaborative Housing Incorporated (NICHI) to address the housing crisis for Urban Rural and Northern Indigenous, Metis and Inuit people leaving away from their home community. Under the Liberal government, Indigenous people are now 11 times more likely to use a shelter or live in inadequate homes than non-Indigenous people.
New Democrats have been relentlessly pushing for the government to close the funding gap. Today's announcement wouldn’t have been possible without New Democrats who forced the government to act by including support for Indigenous housing in their Confidence and Supply agreement with the Liberals.
“In my riding of Vancouver East, we have the third largest urban Indigenous population in the country and we have had multiple homeless encampments. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately represented among the unhoused population, yet this government has dragged its feet in providing a For Indigenous By Indigenous housing,” said Kwan. “While this is the step in the right direction, there’s more work to do.”
This announcement, pushed by New Democrats, delivers on one of the NDP’s key promises on a For-Indigenous, By-Indigenous Housing Strategy. NICHI brings together Indigenous-led housing, homelessness, and housing-related organizations to provide long-term solutions.
Canadian Press: NDP calls on federal government to allow open work permits for temporary workers
The committee’s report found that system creates conditions that can lead to exploitation and abuse.
NDP MPs Jenny Kwan and Matthew Green say the government needs to take this a step further by allowing all temporary workers access to open work permits in an effort to prevent abuse.
“The reality is, if you’re tied to one specific employer, you are really at their behest to do what they demand of you,” Kwan said.
“No matter what the abuse is, no matter if you’re faced with wage theft, with harassment, with violence, for women, with sexual harassment — you just have to live with it.”
She said the least the federal government can do to curb abuse in the temporary worker system is end the closed work permit system.