Two years ago, NDP MP Jenny Kwan protested that the federal Liberals were directing less than one per cent of their social housing budget to B.C., despite the province being home to 11 per cent of the nation’s population.
The stark imbalance has improved since Kwan aired her complaints.
“Since exposing that B.C. only got 0.5 per cent of the funding, I’m glad to report that more funds have begun to flow to B.C.”
The "supply-and-confidence" agreement struck between the governing Liberals and the opposition New Democrats could affect the kind of legislation Canadians can expect to see pass through Parliament between now and 2025.
According to the deal, those key policy areas are climate change, health care spending, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, economic growth and efforts to make life more affordable.
Two years ago, NDP MP Jenny Kwan protested that the federal Liberals were directing less than one per cent of their social housing budget to B.C., despite the province being home to 11 per cent of the nation’s population.
The stark imbalance has improved since Kwan aired her complaints.
“Since exposing that B.C. only got 0.5 per cent of the funding, I’m glad to report that more funds have begun to flow to B.C.”
“The City of Vancouver is providing real leadership with this significant change in policies,” NDP MP for Vancouver East, Jenny Kwan, told Canada’s National Observer in an emailed statement. She pointed to the heat dome that “shattered record temperatures and killed hundreds of people.”
Homes and other infrastructure in B.C. are generally not built to withstand such temperatures, and solutions like heat pumps and improved insulation help keep us cool and reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
Two other Canadian cities emerged as leaders in sustainability earlier this month.
OTTAWA – Earlier this month, NDP Critic for Disability Inclusion, Bonita Zarrillo, secured support from all Members of Parliament to put in place a Canada Disability Benefit without delay. Thanks to Zarrillo’s motion, the federal government has finally committed to bringing legislation forward before the end of June, to make this benefit a reality.
"People living with a disability in Canada who have felt ignored by this government are rightly frustrated. For years they have heard empty promises with no real action from the government," said Zarrillo. "People living with a disability make up 41 per cent of all those living in poverty in Canada. The pandemic created even more financial challenges for them and now, due to the rising costs of essentials like groceries and housing, people living with a disability are finding it even harder to make ends meet."
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan wrote a letter to Mr. Fraser and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in December, saying that she wanted to bring their attention to the law-firm employees stuck in Kabul and that they are facing “very credible threats” to their lives.
She said in an interview that the situation is “absolutely devastating.” Ms. Kwan said the group asked for assistance from the government in August, and the response has “been crickets.”
“Why haven’t these individuals whose lives are in imminent danger, who are hiding on a daily basis from the Taliban, have not heard from IRCC? How is this even possible?”
Ms. Kwan said she is concerned that the government will simply leave them behind, adding that she is drafting another letter and is calling on the government to commit to bring them to safety.
“I am troubled by the fact that there is no parliamentary oversight as to what these groups will be,” Kwan said to the committee. “There’s no process as to whether these groups will be fair, or how effective [the government] will be in selecting people who would provide economic contributions to Canada.”
“Without a transparent selection process where industries are able to provide formal submissions on which occupations are in need and an objective committee to determine the needs of these occupations, the process could become fodder for lobbying industries,” Kwan continued. “That’s not what we want. I think we need to have established criteria and a transparent process.”
This delay to ban Huawei has cost Canadian consumers. The national security and privacy rights of Canadians was put at risk without good reason. The Liberals were the only Five Eyes government since 2020 not to ban or restrict Huawei, bringing unnecessary friction with our information sharing allies. During this time, the domestic telecom market has also been severely impacted as they were left in the dark about the future of 5G in Canada.
New Democrats have been united over the past two years in calling for Huawei to be banned from Canada’s 5G network. The risks of not taking action on this important decision we’re clear, yet the Liberals chose to delay, and now Canadians have paid the cost. This government has said that ‘it wasn’t a race’ to make a quick decision but Canadians deserve a real explanation about why the decision to ban Huawei from Canada’s 5G networks took so long."
OTTAWA – Today, Liberal and Conservatives teamed up to vote down an NDP proposal to stop giving billions of tax payer dollars to profitable oil and gas companies and instead reinvest that money in Canadians struggling to make ends meet. The government’s rejection of the NDP plan to help Canadians comes on the same day that inflation reached its highest rate since 1991.
“Canadians have been getting crushed by the soaring cost of living. The price of food and gas is so high that people struggling to take care of themselves and their families,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. “What we proposed today is a way to get money back into people’s pockets to give them a little extra help to cover their growing costs. Its unthinkable that the Liberal government and the Conservatives teamed up to defeat our motion. They think public money should go to the oil and gas companies who are already making record profits instead of helping Canadian families. New Democrats know that’s wrong and we’re going to keep fighting to get people the help they desperately need.”
“Today is the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, a time to celebrate the progress that’s been made around the world to end discrimination against 2SLGBTQI+ people and embrace sexual and gender diversity.
Thanks to the tireless work of advocates and community leaders, we have come a long way in the fight for equal rights and against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia. But there is a lot of work left to do in Canada and around the world to ensure we're always standing up against the hatred and discrimination.
OTTAWA – As the price of gas reached over two dollars per litre in most parts of the country today, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is urging the Liberal government to help Canadians struggling with the rising cost of living. While Canadians are getting gouged at the pumps, big oil and gas companies are making record profits. In a Parliamentary motion, Singh is calling on the Liberals to stop giving billions of dollars of public money to oil and gas companies and reinvest those funds in renewable energy and solutions that make life more affordable for Canadians.
“Canadians have been through a lot in the last two years of the pandemic. They’ve been isolated from their loved ones and now, the price of gas is so high people are cancelling the trips they had planned to see their family and friends because they simply can’t afford the trip,” said Singh. “While people are making these sacrifices, oil and gas companies like Suncor and Cenovus are making record profits. Instead of helping Canadian families with the cost of living, the government continues to give billions of dollars in subsidies to oil and gas companies who are already making a fortune. It makes no sense. New Democrats are calling on the government to stop helping to maximize corporate profits and start defending Canadian families.”