Canada's NDP issued the following press release on March 16, 2023:
TORONTO — As the budget approaches, Jagmeet Singh met with nursing students about recruitment problems in health care and the rising cost of housing. He called for the federal budget to include investments so that health care workers get the respect they deserve, and Canadians can find a safe and affordable place to call home.
“New Democrats believe we can rebuild the public system — to end the painfully long waits, and make sure care is ready when and where you need it. For that, we need more health care workers. But Pierre Poilievre and Conservative premiers want to open the door to American-style health care and Justin Trudeau is calling it innovation," said Singh. "For the NDP, it is crucial that all our investments are going into our public system and that we focus on retaining, recruiting and respecting our health care workers. They are the key to an improved health care system.
Private facilities will drain workers from ERs and ORs, cannibalizing hospitals and make waits much longer. The only thing that will fix health care is more health care workers. And New Democrats are going to fight with everything we have to replace private-for-profit schemes with a plan to staff up and rebuild public, universal health care.”
Singh also said that the budget must include investments and action to ensure everyone can afford a place to call home. In many places in this county, including Toronto, working conditions are good, but it is impossible to find an affordable place to live. The NDP believes we need to stop losing affordable homes to big corporate landlords that are ‘’renovicting’’ people. We need to build more homes faster and make it easier for people to buy their first home by levelling the playing field, so regular people are not competing against ultra-wealthy developers that use the housing market like a casino.
“A good job used to be enough to afford a good home, a fridge full of healthy food, and savings for the future. Justin Trudeau promised to make things better, but since he's been in office the housing crisis I has gotten out of control. The average rent now for a one room apartment in Toronto is a staggering $2500 per month. Add that to the prices at the grocery store and you have a lot of people losing sleep about how they will make ends meet," said Singh. “We can make life more affordable again, but the Liberal government will need to get serious in the next budget by announcing significant investments and actions to ensure everyone can afford a place to call home."
Jagmeet joined Toronto-Danforth NDP candidate Clare Hacksel to demand a Renters Protection Fund to protect tenants and keep existing affordable housing in our communities.
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Jagmeet joined Toronto-Danforth NDP candidate Clare Hacksel and NDP MP Matthew Green to speak about the implementation of the NDP national dental care program.