Olivia Chow's Budget Speech

http://www.oliviachow.ca/2012/06/budget-bill-read-olivias-speech/

The Conservatives are pushing their Trojan Horse budget bill through Parliament in a reckless manner. But worse than mocking our democracy is the devastating effect this bill will have on families, Olivia Chow points out in her speech.

Olivia on the Conservative Budget:

What does a job mean to the average Canadian? It means earning a salary where food can be placed on tables. It means the rent can be paid, it means the mortgage can be met on time.

It means that families can earn enough to provide subsistence to their children.

When a person loses a job, it can be devastating. For some people, a loss of self confidence, self esteem. A loss of friends, a community of working colleagues.

In the Conservative budget we are debating tonight, we are really talking about the lives of the 43,000 Canadians who will lose their jobs because of this budget.

43,000 Canadians, workers, who will no longer have money to contribute to the economy. They will suffer the humiliation of being laid off. Some will lose their houses, other will suffer depression. A few may not recover from being unemployed, or ever be able to find a job again.

Some lives will be destroyed.

43,000 Canadians are the causalities of this terrible budget.

43,000 is the number quoted by the parliamentary budget officer in his analysis of this budget. On April 26th, the parliamentary budget office confirmed that this budget will slow Canada’s economic recovery. He confirmed that when combined with prior cuts there will be a total of 103,000 jobs lost. About a third from this number are from the public sector, the rest from the private sector.

The PBO’s numbers point to the fact that this budget will create a significant drag on our economy.

We are talking about the lives of over one hundred thousand workers.

This budget will induce an overwhelming increase in unemployment doing little to create jobs

What are the implications of this budget?

It is a job cutting budget.

It is a job reduction budget.

It is a job loss budget.

In addition, the employment insurance clauses in this budget will make matters worse.

The poor soul who lost his job will get a few e-mails a day, in fields that are not related to his experience, for job offers that are nowhere near his community. To add on to the stress of not being guaranteed a job, the job that he may have previously been doing could easily be offered to one of the 200,000 temporary workers coming into this country every year.

These temporary workers will be paid 15 percent less than the community rate. So instead of 10 dollars an hour, the temporary worker will get paid 8.5, depressing the wages for everyone else.

This budget also repeals the Fair wages and Hours of Labour act, which will allow employers to undercut good wages for construction workers engaged in projects funded by the federal government. An act created in the 1930s to set minimum standards for wages and hours of labour. That is now gone.

There are 1. 4 million Canadians out of work. The number is much worse for young people. At this time, on this day, thousands of young Canadians are looking in vain for summer jobs, for any jobs, but there aren’t just enough jobs out there.

The jobless rate for young Canadians are at a high of 14 percent. This means that one or two out of every ten individuals looking for a job will not be able to find one.

Then there are those who have given up hope of finding a job.

If you are a woman, who may have raised a family and wanting to come back to the employment market, good luck. Or if you are a new immigrant trying to find your first job in Canada in your own field. Good luck. Or you have a slight disability, you are going to have a tough time in today’s poor labour market.

The result to this budget that has just amended the employment equity act so that it will no longer apply to federal contractors, is a direct attack on the four designated groups in Canada that includes Aboriginal peoples, women, visible minorities and persons with disabilities.

We know that the 100,000 Canadians who will lose their jobs are the losers of this budget. This means that there are 1.4 million of unemployed workers who will continued to struggle looking for a job.

Who then are the winners of this budget?

Certainly the CEO of all the oil and gas companies are big winners.

Like the CEO of Suncor, Richard George, who earned $9.1 million last year, on top of his $ 3 million of bonuses and shares of his company.

And when he retires, he gets… wait for it, how many millions for his pension?! $26.6 million.

So average seniors who have to wait two more years for their pension, losing thousands of their tax dollars when they need them the most, but not the top 1 percent. The top CEOs salary when up 6 percent in 2011, and 13 percent in 2010. An average of over $5 million increase in salary alone.

They will earn even more because this budget gives them even more – more profit and shares as they don’t have to worry about the environmental degradation they inflict.

These multinational companies don’t even have to do any environmental assessments. They don’t have to go to the national energy board and submit reports and facts and data, because the conservative cabinet will just give them card blanche to develop as much as they want.

In fact one third of this so called budget bill is dedicated to environmental deregulation. It repeals the Environmental Assessment Act, it gives minister discretion over major pipelines. It will certainly help the Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniels who racked up $8 million last year.

The environmental degradation caused by this budget is going to be so bad, that the government doesn’t even want the public to find out. That’s why the Environment Round Table is eliminated. That’s why the Kyoto Implementation Act is repealed so Canada is no longer required to report on its emission.

With all that has been said, the Budget Bill C-38 is a bad bill all around. It is a bill that will kill jobs, ruin the environment, punish the unemployed and senior citizens while all mean while making those who are rich even richer.

New NDP Ad Released

See the ad here:

Toronto Star: New NDP TV ad emphasizes continuity over change
“Throughout his public life, Tom Mulcair has a proven track-record of fighting for people,” said NDP National Director Chantal Vallerand in a statement. “These ads will help reach out to all those Canadians who have been abandoned by the Conservative government. Our message is quite simply that unlike Stephen Harper, Tom Mulcair will fight for you.”

Mulcair's Views Very Similar To Layton's

Many NDP members were worried during the leadership campaign that Mulcair had some extreme views on some issues. Not so. Here is a great piece by Leftist Jab touching on a couple of these issues. Read that post for the details.

Some people feared that Mulcair would break from working with some key NDP members who had differing opinions. But, during Mulcair's interview with CBC's Peter Mansbridge, shortly after the election, Mulcair said that he was proud and glad to see that Libby Davies got up on stage with him when he made his acceptance speech, and that he said he would like her to continue to be the deputy party leader. He also said that he will continue to work with Brian Topp. 

And, regarding the speculation that a new leader could drastically change the core policies of the NDP - rubbish. During the convention, Peter Mansbridge spoke with Olivia Chow and Stephen Lewis. Both of them reminded Peter of what all NDP members should know: that the leader does not make the policy, the party members set the policy at their conventions and the party and leader follow those policies. Thomas Mulcair has shown time and again that his core values and the NDP's core values are one in the same. 

In conclusion, Leftist Jab writes:

There is no break with tradition and I think the most revealing aspect of his approach to leadership was when Peter Mansbridge read out the talking points that the Conservative Party of Canada had about him. He dismissed them ably and when asked whether he would take out advertisement to counter them, he said he wasn't initially inclined to do so but he'd discuss it with his caucus and the NDP strategists if this was a necessity.

It wasn't about him and he'd much rather put the spotlight on the many missteps by the Conservatives than make his leadership a personal pissing contest between him and Stephen Harper. However, if the Conservatives would be able to define him as they have previous Opposition Leaders, he would do what's necessary to bring back the focus on policy issues.

An even-handed and thoughtful approach.

I'm confident that Thomas Mulcair will win the confidence of all New Democrats with his leadership and hopeful he'll do likewise with the majority of Canadians come 2015.

A message of support from Olivia Chow for Andrea Horwath

A message of support from Olivia Chow for Andrea Horwath - YouTube
NDP momentum is spreading. Don't let them tell you it can't be done. Put people first, vote NDP!

A message of support from Olivia Chow for Andrea Horwath

The NDP has a national public transit strategy

National Public Transit Strategy Still Missing from this Election - Torontoist
The Torontoist published this misleading bit of journalism today. Again, like most MSM, they only count the Conservatives and Liberals when speaking about the election. The Torontoist did include a mention of the NDP, who do have a national public transit strategy. So, why the misleading title of the article?

Excperpts from the article:
In addition to the FCM, the Canadian Urban Transit Association has called for a national transit strategy—something that the NDP’s Olivia Chow had put forward in the form of Bill C-615,
which had its first reading on February 3, 2011. The bill (aptly named
an Act to Establish a National Transit Strategy) called for all levels
of government to work together to establish and maintain permanent
federal funding mechanisms for public transportation.
Sadly, as we've already noted, a full slate of urban issues, including transit, is not getting very much airtime in this federal election.
...
As mentioned, the NDP is calling for an additional cent of the gas tax
to be dedicated to cities, which could be used for public
transportation. However, they are also calling for a National Public
Transit Strategy, and, given that Olivia Chow had proposed a bill
establishing this before parliament was dissolved, we can assume they
are taking this seriously.


Sadly, what is missing is not the platform items and the attention of parties, but the lack of coverage and the lack of attention given to certain topics by the MSM, and sadly, by the alternative media like Torontoist, along with the total discounting of the NDP, who, by the way, are now 2nd in the polls.
I expected better from Torontoist.


The NDP National Transit Strategy:
    * Provide a permanent investment plan to support public transit
    * Establish federal funding mechanisms for public transit
    * Work together with all levels of government to provide sustainable, predictable, long term and adequate funding
    * Etablish accountability measures to ensure that all governments work together to increase access to public transit.
(From the bill tabled in parliament by NDP's Olivia Chow this past winter)
See:
http://www.ndp.ca/press/new-democrat-tables-national-transit-strategy
http://www.ndp.ca/press/new-democrats-outline-new-national-transit-strategy
Also, from the NDP platform:
* We will enact a National Public Transit Strategy in order to maintain and expand public transit across the coutnry, with a clear mechanism for sustainable, predictable and long-term funding
* We will immediately allocate another cent of the existing gas tax to public transit funding for municipalities
* We will encourage transit use by providing a tax exemption for employee workplace-based transit passes

NDP fighting for Childcare

New Democrats reintroduce Early Learning and Childcare Act
April 29, 2009:

OTTAWA – Today, New Democrats took a major step forward for
children and working families through the reintroduction of landmark
legislation designed to build quality childcare for future generations.

New Democrat Childcare Critic Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina)
reintroduced The Early Learning and Child Care Act in the House of
Commons today.

“The legislation builds towards the creation of a universal, high
quality, affordable and non profit childcare program in Canada,” says
Chow. “The Canada Health Act helped define Canada as a country, and
after years of empty promises to Canadian parents, an act to enshrine a
national childcare system in Canada is long overdue. Canada simply can’t
do without childcare,” she added.

During the last session the Act was voted on twice, passed the
Standing Committee and was awaiting third reading when the election was
called last fall.

The re-introduction of the New Democrat Early Learning and Childcare
Act comes in the wake of several reports that ranked Canada last of all
industrialized countries in early childhood education and care
investment. A recent Senate report also points out that Canada does not
have a comprehensive national childcare strategy.

Olivia Chow - Supporting families, children and youth

Olivia Chow:

• Introduced – and Parliament voted in favour twice – a historic bill to build a national, high quality, affordable and universally accessible early child hood education and care program for Canadian children.
  
  
• Launched the Children’s Health and Nutrition Initiative to
  provide all children with a healthy breakfast, snack or lunch in schools
  and community centres. The second component of the Initiative calls for innovative ways to
  protect children from manipulative marketing messages that encourage
  poor nutritional habits. The NDP also introduced a private member’s bill
  to ban all commercial advertising directed at children under 13 years
  of age.
  
• Launched a Youth Safety and Crime Prevention Plan which
  focuses on enhancing year-round youth employment programs and building
  strong neighbourhoods.

Standing up to Stephen Harper

Olivia Chow » Standing up to Stephen Harper
While Olivia Chow and Jack Layton’s New Democrats have been standing up
to Stephen Harper and getting results for you, Harper—with help from the
Ignatieff Liberals—have been making decisions that hurt Canadians.

See the chart at the link for a few examples

It’s time for real leadership on the issues that matter most to you.
Olivia Chow and Jack Layton’s New Democrats will continue to push for a
stronger Canada Pension Plan and an increase to the Guaranteed Income
Supplement; we will keep up our efforts to increase the number of
trained family doctors and nurses and we will take steps remove the 5 %
federal sales tax from your home heating bill. You can count on Olivia
Chow to get things done for you.

Better Health Care

New Democrats will work to train and hire more nurses and family doctors
and take steps to reduce the cost of your prescription drugs.

Standing up for Seniors

New Democrats will strengthen the Canada Pension Plan and increase the
Guaranteed Income Supplement to make life more affordable for seniors.

Making Life More Affordable

New Democrats will take the 5% federal sales tax off of your home
heating bill, re-introduce the eco-renovation tax credit, and fight
consumer-gouging practices like usage-based Internet billing.

Jobs and Education

New Democrats will invest in post-secondary education and make practical
job training more accessible and affordable to every Canadian.

Olivia Chow endorses Joe Pantalone for Toronto mayor

Last night, at a dinner with supporters in Chinatown, Olivia Chow announced her support for Joe Pantalone in his run for mayor of Toronto. Jack Layton, and Mike Layton (who is running in Joe's old Ward 19 riding) have also endorsed Joe for mayor.
Olivia said of Pantalone: "Mr. Pantalone, he works hard, sometimes behind the scenes. He just get things done in his quiet, effective very serious way. And that's in stark contrast to what Mr. Ford is offering."

Two things seem to be holding Joe back in the campaign -  The fact that he is soft-spoken, and that most mainstream media just want to cover Rob Fords's antics. Even when Pantalone was the only one invited to take part in the Labour Day Parade, the media focused more on the parade-crashers Rossi and Thompson, than on Joe.

Pantalone is campaigning on his steady-hand-at-the-wheel experience in Toronto municipal politics, and collecting more and more endorsements, while the media rarely mentions him. But, as the front-runner Ford makes himself out to be more and more of an ignorant buffoon, and the other right-wing candidates continue to show themselves as Ford wanna-bes, I think Pantalone will shine through. I think people in Toronto have enough smarts to see through the jesters in the campaign to the one serious candidate.