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Canadian Press: As NDP gathers to talk strategy, MPs vow to keep Liberals at their word on pharmacare

"We'll absolutely be watching very carefully to see where the government is at, and whether or not they are going to honour their word," NDP caucus chair Jenny Kwan said Monday.  Before the holiday break, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh threatened to pull out of the agreement if federal action isn't taken to improve health care, which the party sees as a national crisis.  Kwan said pulling out of the agreement remains an option.
"We're going to have to wait and see how things unfold. I mean, our agreement is very clear to say what are the items that the government needs to deliver on," Kwan said.  Cost-of-living policies the Liberals passed last fall, including dental-care subsidies for children under 12 in low-income households, one-time rental supplements for low-income renters and a temporary doubling of the GST tax rebate, had been NDP priorities.

MEDIA RELEASE: Canada’s NDP calls on Trudeau to take a stand for Canadian health care

Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada’s NDP, responded with the following statement to Premier Doug Ford’s decision to hand part of Ontario’s health care system over to for-profit corporations

MEDIA RELEASE: Human Rights Watch report confirms the Liberals are failing Indigenous communities

The NDP critic for Indigenous Services, Northern Affairs and Crown-Indigenous Relations, MP Lori Idlout (Nunavut), and NDP critic for Women and Gender Equality, Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre), made the following joint statement

MEDIA RELEASE: Liberals are standing by while cellphone giants make huge profits off of Canadians

NDP Innovation, Science and Industry Critic Brian Masse made the following statement on Canadians' sky-high cellphone bills

MEDIA RELEASE: NDP calls for automatic compensation when Canadians’ flights are delayed

Bachrach calls on minister to stand up to big airlines, overhaul passenger protections

Politics: ‘Slow as molasses’: Rollout of $4B housing accelerator fund criticized amid housing shortage

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan said it was disappointing that the fund wasn’t getting rolled out sooner.

“It was disappointing even last year,” she told iPolitics on Wednesday. “It’s slow as molasses. Per usual, the Liberals always make promises and then they are always short on delivery. In the meantime, we’ve got a housing crisis.”

Kwan said the government needs to learn from the rapid housing initiative — another program aimed at boosting the housing supply — to ensure funding gets to municipalities and projects as quickly as possible. She also suggested that the HAF needs to be stackable with other housing programs and funding to ensure projects move forward.

Kwan said she would also like to see more focus on affordable housing and setting targets to help those who really need a home.

MEDIA RELEASE: NDP statement on extremism within Israel’s new government

NDP Foreign Affairs Critic Heather McPherson made the following statement

Globe & Mail: Immigration to Canada hits record high in 2022

The federal government has said immigration is crucial for the economy, and that it accounts for as much as 90 per cent of labour force growth in Canada. But critics of the plan have raised questions about the effects of higher immigration targets on the country’s already-unaffordable urban housing markets. And it is unclear whether Ottawa’s plan will help make up for shortages of labour in low-paid fields such as accommodation, food services, retail and health care assistance.
NDP immigration and housing critic Jenny Kwan said the federal government has missed an opportunity to give temporary foreign workers and undocumented workers permanent resident status. This would give them access to taxpayer-funded health care and allow them to live and work anywhere in Canada, indefinitely. (Temporary foreign workers are typically restricted to one employer and not allowed to switch jobs.)
“The government must stop relying on vulnerable workers and give them the protection of permanent status and ensure their rights are respected,” Ms. Kwan said in an e-mailed statement.
The flood of new permanent residents is expected to bring new homebuyers and renters to communities across the country. That could increase activity in the residential real estate market, which has slowed since early last year, when borrowing costs jumped with a rise in interest rates.

New York Times: Do You Want to Buy a House in Canada? Not So Fast.

Jenny Kwan, a member of Parliament who represents Vancouver East and the housing critic for Canada’s opposition New Democratic Party, said the law is missing the real culprits in the housing crisis. “The government must target real estate investment trusts,” or companies that invest in real estate for profit, she said. “We need to curb the financialization of housing.”

Canadian Press: As critics push Trudeau on China interference, Liberal MP says he has become ‘target’

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said the Liberals need to take the allegations of interference more seriously.  “What has created a vacuum on the details of the information, in my view, is not the media but the prime minister himself,” the Vancouver MP said in an interview.
Kwan, who was born in Hong Kong, said the allegations “go to the heart of our democratic system” and argued that Trudeau and his ministers have given contradictory statements about them.  She noted that security officials have briefed Vancouver’s former mayor about possible Chinese influence in last fall’s municipal election. 

“The threat is real. Something is happening; we don’t know exactly what,” she said. “If the Liberals persist in hiding this information, they are not helping to clear the air.”