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MEDIA RELEASE: New Democrats Force the Liberals to Act: Wins for Everyday Canadians

Whether it’s sky-high rent and housing costs, gas pump gouging, or record-high grocery bills – working families are feeling the squeeze of inflation as big box stores and CEOs earn massive profits. At the NDP caucus retreat in Halifax last week, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh reiterated ​urgent calls for inflationary relief measures ​to address the affordability crisis.
New Democrats used their power in the minority parliament to get wins for everyday people, forcing the Liberals to finally agree to ​take action on a historic expansion of Canada’s healthcare system through the establishment of a dental care program for families earning less than $90,000 without insurance and an increase to the Canadian Housing Benefit – real measures that will help household budgets. 

IN THE NEWS: Van Sun - Ottawa bumps up social housing funds for shortchanged B.C.

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.”

IN THE NEWS: New Canadian Media - Canada doesn’t appear to have a plan to welcome climate migrants

Federal NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said Canada has a responsibility to increase the number of accepted refugees and asylum-seekers. “Instead,” she said, pointing to new numbers released this month, “the government is reducing the numbers, so it’s going in the opposite direction.”
“The work of lowering emissions and transitioning the energy sector must happen while supporting communities on the frontlines,” Kwan said. “[These changes] have to happen simultaneously because people are being displaced right now.”
Coming out of COP27, Kwan says she is not seeing the urgency from the Canadian government that is required on this issue. In addition to pushing to end oil and gas subsidies immediately, and to stop pursuing pipeline expansion, Kwan says the NDP is demanding the government sign on to an environmental bill of rights — for people and nature. 
“We need public accountability, truth be told,” she said. “We can’t trust the government on this issue. They say nice words, but they don’t match that with action. We need independent oversight with regard to climate action.”
What that means for Canada is making significant financial contributions to a fund for countries experiencing the ravages of the crisis right now.
“We must respond to what is happening in the global community,” Kwan says. “Climate migration is already happening. People are already dying as a result of it.

IN THE NEWS: CBC - After spending billions, federal government doesn't know if it's reducing chronic homelessness: AG

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the party's housing critic, said Tuesday the government's "level of incompetence is breathtaking."
"The Liberals have spent billions to build homes that Canadians can't afford," she said. "What's worse, they don't even know if this money is reducing homelessness in our communities.
"People are dying on the streets. The Liberals have turned their back on them."

IN THE NEWS: Toronto Star - ’Surprising and scandalous’: Take migrant detainees out of provincial jails, critics tell Ottawa

In the House of Commons on Monday, NDP MP Jenny Kwan asked when the government would “put an end to this odious immigration detention practice.”

“Canada has a robust and fair refugee system and immigration detention is a measure of last resort,” replied Liberal MP Pam Damoff, the parliamentary secretary to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, who is responsible for the CBSA.

“While we’ve made significant progress, there’s more work to do.”

IN THE NEWS: Globe & Mail - CMHC won’t reveal where billions of dollars in rental construction loans are going

Canada’s federal housing agency is lending billions of dollars to boost construction of rental homes without routinely disclosing the recipients of the money or where the units are being built, shrouding in secrecy a program designed to address the country’s housing shortfall by providing developers with low-cost financing.

The Rental Construction Financing Initiative is one of Ottawa’s major efforts to boost home construction. It was announced in 2016 with $2.5-billion in funding, which has grown to more than $25-billion, making it the largest program in the government’s National Housing Strategy, a bundle of different initiatives intended to improve access to affordable units.

Indo Canadian Voice: Liberals fail to fix major problems in Canada’s immigration system: Federal NDP

Kwan noted: “Decades of Liberal and Conservative governments expanded Canada’s reliance on temporary foreign workers—without ensuring protections to their health and safety. For many years, these workers have been subjected to exploitation by employers who use their temporary status to drive down wages. The Liberals’ plan fails to ensure that these workers get the protections they need by not giving them permanent status, as the NDP has been calling for.”

MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals fail to fix major problems in Canada’s immigration system

“While the NDP welcomes the government’s plan to bring 500,000 new immigrants to Canada by 2025, we cannot ignore that the Liberals miss the mark on several key immigration streams with their plan.
 Decades of Liberal and Conservative governments expanded Canada’s reliance on temporary foreign workers—without ensuring protections to their health and safety. For many years, these workers have been subjected to exploitation by employers who use their temporary status to drive down wages. The Liberals’ plan fails to ensure that these workers get the protections they need by not giving them permanent status, as the NDP has been calling for.

IN THE NEWS: CITV - NDP 'Greedflation' motion calling for grocery pricing probe gets unanimous support from MPs

An NDP motion calling on the federal government to take steps to tackle "greedflation," and investigate grocery chain profits, received unanimous support from MPs on Monday. 
The motion called out grocery store giants for making "massive profits in the last year," while the cost of groceries keeps rising. It also calls on the government to "recognize that corporate greed is a significant driver of inflation, and to take further action to support families during this cost-of-living crisis." 
While not binding—meaning the federal government is not forced to act, but will have to take note of the House of Commons' unanimous request—the motion calls on the Liberals to:

•  Force CEOs and big corporations to "pay what they owe" by closing tax loopholes;

•  Launch an "affordable and fair food strategy" to tackle "corporate greed";

•  Ask the competition bureau to investigate grocery chain profits; and

•  Support a previously-agreed upon House committee study calling grocery CEOs to testify about "high food prices and the role of 'greedflation.'"

“After standing by for months, the Liberals and Conservatives finally agreed today that corporate greed is a problem,” said NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh in a statement following the vote.  

IN THE NEWS: Prominent Afghan women's rights activist denied refugee admission into Canada, upsetting sponsors

In one of the latest disappointments in Canada’s efforts to aid Afghan refugees, a prominent Afghan women’s activist has had her temporary resident permit application denied, seemingly because of a bureaucratic mistake.
Bessa Whitmore and Sharen Craig have been working for seven months to bring Farzana Adell Ghadiya to the safety of Ottawa.
As sponsors, they had agreed to open their home to Ghadiya and provide her safety once she was able to make it to Canada.
For more than a decade, Ghadiya has fought for women's rights in Afghanistan, starting schools and working with the United Nations. She's also Hazara, an ethnic minority targeted by the Taliban.
Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for East Vancouver, told CTV National News that many “feel that this practice is discriminatory.”
“The reality is this: the government is not offering the same or similar immigration measures for Afghans and they are being left behind.”

IN THE NEWS: Canadian News: Cap on international students' working hours should be lifted permanently: advocates

NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan is also pushing for a more permanent change.
"This change is absolutely necessary, and is necessary for the students' survival," Kwan said in an interview.
International students face tuition fees that are as much as three times those of domestic students and must still support themselves while they're studying.
Kwan said she welcomed the news about the pilot, but worried about the motivations behind it.
When the government changes immigration measures, Kwan said, "it's never really to support the people who need the changes, but rather, it's always driven by the economy, or by industry."

IN THE NEWS: Canadian Press - Federal immigration committee to discuss allegations department misled a judge

The House of Commons committee on immigration has called an urgent meeting next week to discuss allegations that the department and former minister misled a federal judge during a trademark infringement case — an allegation former immigration minister Marco Mendicino has categorically denied.

The allegations stem from the creation of a new college to regulate immigration consultants in 2020.