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."
OTTAWA – When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Canada, all levels of government had to respond to keep all Canadians safe. People deserve to know why certain decisions were taken, what mistakes were made and if their government acted appropriately. In order to ensure accountability and transparency for Canadians, today NDP Health Critic Don Davies called on the federal government to launch an independent public inquiry into Canada’s COVID-19 preparedness and response under the federal Inquiries Act.
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’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.
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.”
“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 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.”
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."