Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio. Welcome to Policy and Rights, the show about DOLCOM policy and human rights.
Good morning, good morning, good morning. Thank you, please, thank you. Good to see this cabinet and the staff together here.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, please, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Yeah, it's good to see you all. Particularly good to see my granddaughter sitting in the front row here. Hi fan, Hawaii, honey. For over two hundred years, America has carried on the greatest experiment in self government and history.
Of the world.
And that's not hyperbole. That fact where the people, the people vote and choose their own leaders, and they do it peacefully, and we're in a democracy. The will of the people always prevails. Yesterday I spoke with President elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and I assured him I direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That's what the American people deserve. Yesterday I also spoke Vice President Harris.
She's been a partner and a public servant. She ran an inspiring campaign and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect so much her character. She has a backbone like a ramrod. She has great character, true character. She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran. You know, the struggle for the soul American since our very founding has always been an ongoing debate and still vital today. I know for some people
it's a time for victory to state the obvious. For others, it's a time of loss. Campaigns the contest of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I've said many times, you can't love your country only when you win. You can't love your neighbor only when you agree something. I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Bring
down the temperature. I also hope we can later rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose. I also hope we can restore the respect for all our election workers who busted their next and took risks at the outset. We should thank them, thank them for staffing voting sites, counting the votes, protecting the very integrity of the election.
Many of them are volunteers who do it simply out of love for their country and as they did as they did their duty as citizens. I will do my duty as president. I'll fulfill my oath, and I will wanted the Constitution. On January twentieth, we'll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America. To all our incredible staff, supporters, cabinet members, all the people who are hanging out with me last four years.
God love you.
As my mother would say, thank you so much. You put so much into the past four years. I know it's a difficult time. You're hurting. I hear you, and I see you. But don't forget. Don't forget all the we accomplished. It's been an historic presidency, not because I'm president, because what we've done, what you've done, a presidency for
all Americans. Much of the work we've done is already being felt by the American people, with the vast majority of it will not be felt we felt over the next ten years.
We have it.
We have legislation, we passed it's just only now, just really kicking in. We're going to see over trillion dollars worth of infrastructure work done, changing people's lives and rural communities and communities that are in real difficulty because it takes time to get it done, and so much more. It's going to take time, but it's there. The road
ahead is clear, assuming we sustain it. There's so much, so much we can get done and will get done based the way the legislation was passed, and it's truly historic. You know, we're leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. I know people are still hurting, but things are changing rapidly. Together, we've changed America for the better. Now we have seventy four days to finish the term, our term. Let's make every day count. That's the responsibility we have to the
American people. Look, folks, you all know it in their lives. Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. We all get knocked down. But the measure of our character is, my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up. Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up. That's the story of America for over two
hundred and forty years and counting. There's a story for all of us, not just some of us. The American experiment endors. We're going to be okay, but we need to stay engaged, we need to keep going, and above all, we need to keep the faith. So proud to have worked with all of you. I really mean it, I sincerely mean it. Well, God bless you all. God bless America, and make God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Welcome back to Policy and Rights Here Depictions Media Radio. I'm your host, of course, Michael Cloggs. In this particular episode, as we know, Donald Trump has won the presidency. He won the election a couple of days ago, and there's a lot of talk about what is happening because of him winning. And there's a lot of people that are up in arms in the United States, but moreover, there's a lot of people up in arms around the world. One business people around the world are worried about Donald
Trump with his ideas of burners. And one of the things is is this is like tariffs. What could potential car tarriffs mean or look like to here in bc UH to the softwood industry, there are many many other industries that are going to be hit with towers according to Make America Great Again policy that what is Donald Trump going to start imposing. He made a statement in his his speech when he started talking about oil and
and things like that and other resources. He and he he kind of joking jokingly referenced it and he said, don't worry about the oil, Bobby.
I have that.
Because he was also referencing Robert Kennedy Jr. In In that statement. Also, and you're also gonna hear from the Minister of Environment as he made a comment about what some of the statements around oil and gas were made with in reference to Donald Trump. And the question I have is when he says don't worry about the oil or liquid gold, I think is that he may have
actually put it don't worry about it, Bobby. Does that mean that he's planning on UH using American resources only and he is actually going to rule out resources from Alberta. The Canadian sources are thinking that maybe he's going to buy the oil and gas from Canadian sources, but does it really mean that or is he going to or
is he going to cut Canada out? So there's a lot of question question marks around that, but also question marks around tarifs and what this could actually mean for the American people is that choices for products are going to become extremely limited in a market it is used to having a plethora of uh of choices available to
them from different places. The American public has gotten used to being able to click around on the Internet and be able to drop and drag into their into their shopping cards different things from around the world, not just American sources. So that means that Americans could be paying more for products than what they think that such a policy could actually raise the prices and raise debts, the average debt of the American citizen because they of the limited choices.
Because of the tariffs.
So that means it that they have to pay a higher rate of tax on anything that comes from outside the country. There's a lot more to be looked at with tariffs and how that is actually going to affect the end customer, not only how it is going to affect the industries are outside of the United States, are they going to be able to sell their products in the United States, Are they going to be able to
remain competitive? And what does competitive really mean to a group of people that are used to a multitude of choices and are willing to pay for those choices. So a lot of question marks on that.
I do like what.
Stephen Gilbert says about we are not Canada is not a carbon copy of the United States, that they are their own sovereign country and they will do things the Canadian way, So that in of itself is a plus. That there are also other question marks around the world that when I talked to sources in Lebanon that will his attitudes towards the Middle East actually stir more trouble
than it solves. Mister Trump said in his victory speech that he is looking to put an end to the wars rather than create new wars, and there's a question
mark of how he's going to actually accomplish that. So it's a what and see sort of thing in January, and it is also a hurried up sort of thing for mister Biden and Miss Harris to get some business accomplished and do something that positive for especially for the Middle East and as we heard in the earlier episode about people like me a Shim who were held hostage and are trying to get their friends safe and home from out of the Hamas tara Uh tunnels where torture, darkness,
and despair are happening.
So there's a lot to.
A lot is lying on on on on the table. A lot of things are at stake and how things are going to roll out need needs to be figured out.
So moving things back to Canada, we're going to hear from ndp MP and she is going to talk about the housing crisis, and she's going to make some pretty bold statements about how maybe the housing crisis has been engineered and guided along to the point of where it is by past governments, and that some of the government policies that regulate foreign investors domestic investors into the real estate market are actually having effect on the housing market
itself that actually may have caused this crisis and caused the rents to be what they are so that is not affordable to the average person. Along with that, since we're to still have Donald Trump in the foreground, as policies are going that in the software industry, if a major group of clients across the border in the US can no longer buy softwood because it's not affordable for them to buy the softwood from the British forestry industry.
That how does that affect the pricing here in Canada when they can't sell in one direction but they have to make up the profit and the production here in Canada and only in Canada that they can't be shipped. That the a major major buying source has now disappeared. What does that actually mean? Something else to think about that, how is the software industry in British Columbia going to
survive tariffs? Because tariffs is something there that become extremely important because you're not selling to a consumer, you're selling to other businesses. The software industry goes. It's nearly completely business to business and if those businesses can achieve their goals and and build without your materials, they will do so.
So how is how is it going to be negotiated so that the software industry of British Columbia stays competitive with the US forestry industry and supplying building supplies to the American market as well as the Canadian markets. So housing industry or building houses here in Canada at an all time crisis. It's not a matter of just simply building the houses, making those houses so that they're built in an affordable way.
If they if.
The building supply manufacturers have to raise their prices, that means that it feeds into the unaffordability of the housing market and makes it even more difficult for people to find a home to live in. So something else to talk about. We're going to also hear from the United Nations as their statements made that we should be calling a genocide a genocide if that's what it is. So listen all the way to the end and hear some UN comments about what is happening in Middle East and
what genocide could really mean. So off we go, and let's start off with comments from the MP's as they were going into caucus in Ottawa. There's a lot lying
on the table in a lot at steak. We're gonna hear also from Ottawa as a NDP MP makes comments about the housing market, and she's gonna make some pretty bold comments about how past governments, liberal and conservative governments may have actually engineered the housing crisis to what we see now by their own actions, and that mister Trudeau and mister Polvier are still continuing on that same path that is creating housing markets that are unaffordable to the
average person. If we add in the the potential terrorists that could be on the way by mister Trump to the softwood industry. Now, remember the softwood industry is strictly a business to business industry. So that means that if the softwoid industry way of tariffs is no longer competitive in the marketplace in the United States, that means that they have to sell their products only to Canadian sources or mostly Canadian sources in other and a few other
sources around the world. That it will actually have an effect on the housing prices because they're going to have to raise the prices of the soft wood in order to make up the profits that they need need to achieve for running their own business without a major buyer that to to supply that the software industry in itself would would have to raise his prices to Canadian sources, and that means that Canadian housing now goes up, the cost of housing goes up again. So we're gonna hear
hear more about that. We're also going to hear from the United nations. As a speaker asks us to call a genocide a genocide, and it means that if we listen closely, we'll hear a little bit about what it means to have a genocide. What are those steps that actually cause a genocide, and how do we react to them and put a stop to them so that a genocide does not happen and that we all find equal
human rights in our world. So let's start off with the NPS at Ottawa as they talk about the effects of the Donald Trump victory as he becomes the next the four seventh president of the United States and what it actually means to Canada.
And mister Geepoll, what do you make of trump swing yesterday? How are you going to deal with a US president that's combative own environmental issues. He's going to roll back a lot of advancements that Bidy administration made.
Well, first, I mean Canada and the US have the long history of collaboration on a number of different issues.
Number one.
Number two, what I would say, and I said that to some of your colleagues this morning. If you look at, for example, the Inflation Reduction Act the IRA, some people are saying, oh, he's going to cut that. Actually, the vast majority of those investments are in Republican states. Billions of dollars being invested in Republican states, thousands of jobs being created in Republican states. So you'll have Republican governors, senators, members of Congress. So we'll say, hold on a second.
This is good for us, This is good for our economy, this is good for jobs. More and more, the issue of the environment and specifically climate change in the United States and around the world is viewed in the eyes.
Of a security issue.
How do you get access to certain critical components, critical minerals. The US Department of Defense is investing in Canada because they want to reduce their dependencies on China for many of these components. We will be a partner of choice for the United States, as we are for other of our like minded allies around the world.
You do sound very optimistic here. This is a president that said drill, baby, drill.
I'm not saying there won't be challenges, and let's see what the agenda the president will be, but I'm saying we've worked with them in the past. We've worked with a Republican administration in the past. We've worked with the Democratic administration in the past, we can do this.
I have to one last question, Kay, how can you are you going to rethink the oil and gas emissions capital given the fact that we have now a president elect. This is drill, baby drill, and Canada's oil and gas industry is going to be looking at that quite closely.
No.
I mean the Canada is independent from the United States, and we adopt our own laws and regulations, we will.
Count less competitive for businesses to do business in Canada compared to the US. It says jill, baby drill.
We are put in place draft regulations to cap the pollution of the oil and gas sector, which shows that they can increase their production by sixteen percent by twenty thirty while reducing pollution by thirty five percent and more more United States, the US doesn't have carbon pressing.
We have carbon pressing.
We have different there there are many different things that we do differently between the US and Canada. We're not going to We're not a carbon copy of the United States and we won't be, thank you.
Bok minister Ian.
Will we talk to you about the US election and what that means for women's right, Well, we were prepared for either outcome. And that's why I've been so vigilant with regards to women's rights. And you have noticed that last week within the Wayans and Means motion, I table
legislation on pregnancy crisis centers. And it's to make sure that they're doing the right thing and making sure that they let Canadian women know exactly what they're offering and not offering, or are they risk losing their charitable status. This is something that we're vigilant about. So we'll keep watch, we'll keep doing what we do, what we were prepared for for either outcome.
We've been working really hard over the border.
Why did the impact here in Canada from your.
Respect, Well, we know that there are women that try to come to this country. When that happens their border cities, we see numbers going off, and so this is why it's so important, you know. It's I sometimes think about the questions that I get and people will say, well, women have you know, freedom of choice here, women have all these things.
Why do you even think this is important?
And I say, well, the women over there thought they had that freedom too, and so we should never ever be asleep at the switch.
We should always be vigilanting.
Are you do anything to prepare for those women to starting to come over the border?
I mean, are you.
We're always preparing and we're always looking at various scenarios. But as I said, we've prepared for either outcome, and we have for a long time.
Reproductive rights is a priority for women over the possible looking. America just had a chance to elect them across on the issue of reproductive rights, and they chose not to.
I think there was a lot there. It wasn't just about reproductive rights.
In the States central part of their campaign, and they targeted women.
You know, they did really really well in the midterms when they did. I just think times are tough, and when times are tough and prices are high, that kitchen table issues are important and they become more important. People are having a hard time feeding their families and that's the number one issue. You know, they're talking about crime and safety of their family and friends and neighborhoods. That's an issue. It's not just one thing, it's several. There's several parts.
What do you think that Trump presidency is went to This is a big question for the world, for the conflicts we see and for how Canada wants to see them resolved.
All of the American people has spoken. I mean, I think from our Canadian perspective, we'll be respectful of that, but we'll also look at what this means for Canada. Obviously, we have to stand up for Canadians, we have to send up for Canadian issues and values, but we have to work together. So this is going to be an interesting thing, and I think that extends beyond our borders of Canada and the US as well. We work well with Americans around the world.
I mean I.
Travel a lot foreign affairs. I travel the.
World, counts on the Americans to be what it's about security, but it's about international aid and development. So we will be working with them and finding a way to do this. We've been there before, you know. We show that we can get good value for Canadians and our relationships with the Americans, and we'll continue to do that. I think I think the Prime Minister's ready and I think you'll do it well.
Are you concerned what it means for a country like Ukraine? I mean Trump was in before you crack, but there was a lot of war in the Middle East. There was a lot of war in Ukraine, and mister Trump has some pretty strong opinions on how he wants so to end.
I know where we stand on Ukraine. WILL stand for an independent, sovereign Ukraine with territorial integrity, and we will speak with our G seven partners about that.
All the time.
We will stand united and will stand with the people of Ukraine and making sure that they have what they need to defend themselves.
As a Liberal, I was gonna say, as a liberal, do you have any takeaways yet from what happened in the United States? I mean American contacts, the American context, Canadian contest, Canadian but some of the concerns that Americans went to the polls are shared here in Canada. So as a Liberal, as an member of an incomic government, any takeaways from last night?
I think we have to listen all the time. I'm listening to my voters in don Vally West, the residents of times Very West. I grew up on a border town in sus Saint Marie where we related every day with the Americans, and there are differences and there's similarities. I went to school and Cargo. I have a sense of what Americans values and priorities are. We have many similarities and we share our content. We have to get along. But also I know that Canadians are worried about jobs
and prosperity. They're worried about cost of living, so we'll listen to them.
There's going to be a transition team put in place very soon. Now, do you or the minister have any intentions of traveling to the US in the coming days weeks.
We travel to the US all the time, and I haven't heard any yet, but of course we'll be uh.
We have relationships with governors and states across the mainland as well as Alaska and Hawaii. We have relationships with Congress, both in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and we have relationships in the White House and with NGOs and everybody, so we'll foster those relationships. We showed a team Canada approach worked the last time to ensure Canada got the best benefits we need. This is an important trading partner and we'll be there.
I think of that team.
Canada approach absolutely.
I hope you.
Haven't the Conservative to be part of that Team Canada Approach.
Absolutely. I hope that the Conservatives recognized this is way beyond partisan politics. All of us need to stand up for Canada's defense, Canada's security, and I would just take a moment to remind Canadians that Pierre Pauly I should get a security clearance.
We can be part of every conversation.
With your part.
Learners are showing for the Liberals in what sense?
Well, you saw democrats lose. I mean there's questions about did they connect with the working class? I mean, liberals have a lot in common with the Democrats. Do you take any lessons from what you saw last night?
That's a bit of a comparison of apples and oranges, I think, I mean, certainly there would be some more shared values between the parties, but I think to try to take the American context and apply it to the Canadian or vice versa, does a little bit of a disservice to the types of things that we need to
be focusing on here. So certainly it was interesting to watch, and there may be some takeaways for us that can be applied to the domestic situation here, But I think we have to be careful about making broad comparisons betueing the American Canadian country.
Are there any takeaways that stick out to you.
Well, I mean you've been covering politics for I got something in my hair, Yeah, covering politics for a little while. I mean, you know, you don't come to a conclusion on an analysis within twelve hours of a result.
You have to take some.
Time to reflect, and right now we're focused on what's happening here. Obviously, the election, regardless of whether it's a Republican or a Democrat president, impacts the work that we have to do because the nature of the relationship will change with a new administration. So we have to focus
on those things. In terms of the political lessons, whether there are any there that's something that can take place over time, and you really have to make sure to do a thorough analysis, and I'm sure that campaign folks will be taking that time that's necessary to see whether there are some things that we can draw.
Are you concerned about what a Trump president presidency might mean for jobs, for your constituency, for the economy in Canada?
The job of the Canadian government is always to look out for the best interests to Canadian people. So we've been through a Trump administration before, and we've also been through other American administrations where there's been a bit of a growing isolation as sentiment. This is something that both
major political parties in the United States were espousing. So there's going to be a necessity for us to evaluate the different policies that they put forward, but that will take some time, and of course, until the new president is sworn in during inauguration in a couple of months from now, there'll be a bit of a transition period where I think we get a sense of the direction that they're headed, and then we will have to adjust accordingly.
But ultimately, the Prime Minister is very well positioned, I think, to be able to work with the new administration because he's been there before. A lot of the race relationships still exist, a lot of the understanding of matters to Americans and what matters to Canadians will be tapped into, I think more easily than perhaps they would otherwise.
Be all right, okay, thanks.
Are you concerned about what a truck presidency means for the war?
Gaza Canada has a strong relationship with us, and it's really very important that we work with the new administration to make sure that we fight for Canadians and uh the situation in I think a lot of innocent people have been killed, and it is on the mind of a lot of my constituents. And I will keep on advocating for the Palestinian people, Lebanese people. Everyone had to know we're seeing the falls of time.
You gotta expect, you gotta you gotta respect the decision of the American people. Every real professions in Canada.
I think I think.
We're we're well positioned to deal with them. But it's there's there's there's no clear answers. I think that will become clear in the fullest of time. And I'm a long way from the circle in which those decisions are made and from the.
Strategic point of view for the liberals to see that the Americans had that desire of change in their country and to here some Canadians asking for change here what lessons can be taken?
I don't know, I really don't. I mean, you ask ten people, you'll get twenty opinions. I think we just have to take it a day at a time and and stay focused on the things that matter. And I don't I don't have a clear sense of how this is going to impact. You know, there's there's there's lots of challenges in this country as as there are there and I'm it's it's it's a hard it's a tough reread. I've thought about it a lot and I wish I had a clear answer for you.
But I didn't.
You know, thinks today Yeah, yeah, yeah, but.
I thought about it before.
You know, what will the impact be? And I couldn't predict what it will be? And it's no clearer today.
Thank the Prime minister is able to handle a second Trump presidency.
Don't trust them?
Oh yes, yes, yes, yes, he's been there, been there, done that. Yeah.
He clearly knows what we're in for.
And uh and has already started the groundwork to be able to deal with it. And I mean, I can't imagine if if Pierre Pouliev was in his seat, how bad it would be. I think the experience that he had in Trump one point always going to service all.
Well, is this an opportunity for mister Trudeau to maybe talk to people like constituents of yours who say maybe it's time to go, that he can show them maybe he still has some fight left in him. Maybe is this an opportunity for the Prime minister?
You think absolutely?
And seeing that you know, the Democrats change their leader and they couldn't get re elected.
Is that I don't know.
Is that not a good sign for the Liberals?
I'll leave that to the pundits. Okay, the same answer.
I don't know, And I.
Couldn't even speculator.
He said absolutely to the question of if this isn't what what what can mister Trudeau do right now? What can you do to show the constituents that he still got it with If this is an opportunity, that'll be up.
To the constituents to just to assess his actions. I can't foretell the future on that.
But every every big.
Challenge that comes before the country that he faces is another opportunity for him. This one will be no different.
Are you saying that because you feel that mister Trudeau likes to fight like to you know, have a clear ad, you.
Know, I think that's pretty clear.
What you make is also yesterday that we've seen they do this.
Oh, I don't know. There's much for me to make of it. That's the situation. And now we as Canadians have a job to do. We've as a government, we've we've been there before and representing a community close to the border. I know we work well with the United States, and regardless of who the president is, we'll.
Continue to do that.
You've talked a lot about disinformation misinformation. What do you make of this reality in the States and do you think it had to have played a role in that election.
We'll speak to it in regards to Canada because that's what I'm accustomed to, that it is a reality in our electoral system, and that we're seeing it not only from political parties in this country, but foreign foreign actors as well.
It's having an impact here that's well reported on.
It's something that we have to keep an eye on and keep working in terms of regulating, of regulating of big tech giants.
Thank you from your constituents about Town's presidency.
I haven't chatted with any of my constituents today about about what happened.
But this is democracy, right. People get to.
Choose who who runs their their their provinces and their countries and their territories and their nations. And might be challenging for some of us who disagree with with certain policies, but this is democracy and.
We respect them any lesson for that.
You take away as being a liberal to see what happened in terms of Donald Trump being re elected. Canada is not the US, but it's not so dissimilar any lessons you take.
I think it's early for lessons.
I'm looking forward to to Kamala Harris's speech. I'm sort of digesting some of the some of the staffs that we've all seen with respect to voter turnout and who voted for whom.
But uh, I mean, it's a it's a it's quite a time, right.
We're all processing these results and results from other elections around the world, and I'm.
Going to stay focused on Milton because that's my job.
My job is to defend Canadian interests, promote our exports and our innovation and all the opportunities that exist here in Canada. I'm also really, really confident that this government is capable of promoting and defending Canada's interests. Did a good job between sixteen and twenty. If anybody is interested or excited about renegotiating KUSMA, NAFTA two point zero, or however you'd like to refer to it, those.
Sentiments are coming from the United States.
I think that only suggests that they weren't happy with the deal they got. The first time, and I think I think we got a pretty good one.
I'm hard to interrupt.
Some people say that it might be a sneak peek up. What's going to happen in Canada.
What's your reaction to them. I have no reaction to that.
You think it's for the Liberals to stop criticized all the episodes.
What do you make of the fact that, you know, the Democrats changed their leader and they couldn't win, So what to say about some of your colleagues that would like to change leader.
I haven't analyzed any of that. I think it's like a little bit of a step. We have our own challenges and our own issues. We have our in Canada, we have our own opportunities, and you know, we've also demonstrated an ability to cut interest rates more quickly. Our inflation has gotten down to a lower spot. Our job numbers are pretty good. I had an interview this week on the radio about economic optimism.
I think it takes time.
Like it's not as though like inflation comes down and immediately everybody feels better.
Right, We're still remembering the fact.
That, like, okay, but let us was four ninety nine, like a month ago, like that's too expensive when our price is going to normalize, And I think we can't just constantly be saying, you know, don't worry your wages have kept pace with the rate of inflation. That doesn't really mean anything to your average Canadian, particularly if they haven't experienced a raise in the last six or twelve months. So stats are important. Facts are important, but so are
how people feel. And I'm trying to meet my constituents where they are and identify solutions that are unique, perhaps to Milton's community. We're one of the fastest growing communities in Ontario. So you know, a lot of people have housing concerns, a lot of people have job concerns with respect to you know, the assumption that everybody that's going to live in the GTA is going to commute into Mississauga, Toronto to work.
So I want to build up the economy.
I got involved in politics because you know, I was was raised in public housing in a co op in Oakville, and back in the nineties, various governments in Canada decided to stop building community housing.
We don't have a lot of community housing.
There's not very much nonprofit housing in Canada, and the result is The reason is because governments in the nineties decided not to invest there. And this is the first government in thirty years that has put co ops back into a budget, and we've seen one point five billion dollars of investment in new co ops. The reason I'm so ardent about co ops is my mom's worked in the industry, in the sector, and I grew up in a co op myself.
My mom retired on Sunday after.
Twenty six years running the same co op in Mississauga, and the people that I talked to at her retirement party, I talked to ten who all in the last ten years or so, left the co op and bought a house.
And you know, I didn't.
Stop because I wanted to get super political. But I did a speech about co ops once and the Conservatives called it Soviet style housing. I didn't grow up in Soviet style housing. My mom escaped Soviet hungry in the fifties. We grew up in safe, affordable housing. And I'm going to keep doing this work so that we build more safe community housing that people can afford, so they can save.
Up and pile You get about housing, did you hear from your constituents about mister Puliev's proposal on the housing what did you what have you heard from your constituents.
I haven't chatted with them too much about it. Like, my concern is.
That if like I'm in favor of lower taxes, but it's a question of how you pay for it. And the Housing Accelerator Fund has benefited Milton to the tune of twenty two million dollars. It's going to enable housing people to find solutions. That's in the non market space, that's in the affordable space, and the supportive space on the shelter side.
It's going to help.
And if we're going to you know, subsidize million dollar condos by cutting taxes on you know, and cutting taxes, but then paying for it by taking away from social programs that are supporting the most vulnerable, I don't think that's the way to build communities.
Thanks guys.
Thoughts, how you're probably going to handle the immigration.
Potma that Trump's.
Look, I'll leave it to Mark to do is sorry for the sun?
Yeah, Look, I think we're we've been planning for a number of months for whatever inevitability may arise from the American election. But of course our interests of Canadians is what's going.
To determine the path forward.
There's obviously different policy decisions that will be taken by foreign governments of different partisan persuasions, and those can have an impact. But my sense is by collaborating with the American administration to ensure that we can continue to have an open trading relationship, we can communicate that it's in our collective interest to manage the border appropriately but at
the same time embrace cross border trade. But when it comes to the specivics on the immigration portfolio, I've got a colleague who's got things well on that.
Thanks folks cringing at.
It, okay, I will say that what's really important is that the world can you stand with Ukraine. And I know that the Ukraine's are not only fighting for their own freedom and democracy and for their own survival, but they're also fighting for US.
If Russia wins, then they won't stop at Ukraine.
A lot of implutent won't stop at Ukraine, and it'll be Canadians, Americans and Europeans will be next in defending ourselves against Rusian aggression. So we need to continue to support with the Ukraine with everything that they need to win this war and will continue to work with our allies to make sure that happens.
But if Trump doesn't, you know, supported effort going forward, what will that mean from the war?
Well, I don't want to speculate us to what you know President elect Trump will decide to do. But it is in the interest of Canada, the United States, and Europe and the entire democratic world that Ukraine witness war. And my hope will be that the United States continues to support Ukraine together with Canada and or European aalyistintil That's my hope.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for.
Good morning. My name is Nikki Ashton.
I'm the Member of Parliament for Churchill, Kiwait and Okaski
and the NDP critic for tax Fairness. I'm joined here today with my colleague alexand Bouleris at the MP for Rosemond La Petit Petri and the NDP critic on housing, and we are honored to be here with Katrina Miller, who's joining us online, the executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness, as well as Sharon Katz, member of ACORN, the National Tenants union that represents low to moderate income Canadians, often in rental housing, experiencing our national housing crisis firsthand.
We have a housing crisis in Canada.
Many young Canadians, working class Canadians families are worried they will be forever priced out of the housing market. All the while they're seeing rich investors outbidding them for family homes, and they know that the housing market is rigged against them. Twenty twenty three was a record for the growth in income inequality between the richest and the poorest in Canada,
and the housing crisis is fueling that divide. The top one percent pay only twenty three point six percent of their income and taxes, enjoying the lowest tax rates of anyone.
The rich in Canada today have never had it so good.
We can't solve the housing crisis without understanding how it was created, and we must be clear that this housing crisis didn't just happen. The report put out by Canadians for Tax Fairness is shocking. It points to how successive liberal and conservative governments brought us to this point, that they in fact engineered the housing crisis we face today.
It's been a crisis in the making, not just for the last ten years, but over the last thirty years, it's liberals and conservatives who wrote the rules and built a housing market that is great for rich investors, great for billionaires, that makes billions in profits, but it doesn't work for Canadians. Liberals and conservatives encouraged the financialization of
the housing market. In other words, they allowed housing to turn into cash cows for corporate investors and rich investors instead of homes for Canadian families who desperately need them. Not only that, but they also let rich developers get away with paying very little tax by handing out billions of dollars in tax breaks to wealthy real estate giants.
Successive liberal and conservative.
Governments priced working class Canadians out of the housing market. The disastrous capital gains tax exemptions that allowed billionaires to get out of paying taxes have led us to this point. I'm proud of the work that we in the NDP have done to use our power to fix part of this problem, but the reality is we desperately need to see political will from the liberals right now when it
comes to fixing the full problem. Instead of having the government build housing, liberals and conservatives have outsourced the job to rich developers people like Donald Trump, the Canadian version, whose surprise, surprise, only care about their bottom line. On the other hand, we have Pierre Poliev who likes to pretend that this is just a recent problem, that the housing crisis just happened.
But the truth is that the housing crisis has been.
Decades in the making, including when he was the Housing Minister as part of the previous Stephen Harper government. It was under his watch when he was a cabinet minister where he continued the tax breaks to corporate developers that have squeezed Canadians when it comes to housing. While rents
spiral out of control. The real estate sector collected fifty point four billion in profits in twenty twenty three, fifty point four billion dollars in profits, shocking at a time when so many renters cannot afford their basic necessities.
We need to be clear that this didn't just happen.
Working Canadians have been outbid by corporations who've turned around flipped houses just to make a quick buck, and this was encouraged by liberal and conservative decisions. The reality is that the majority purchasers of multifamily dwellings are banks, not Canadian families. This is a structural issue. Housing should be treated as a human right, not a way for rich investors to make a quick buck while Canadians are pushed
out of safe and affordable homes. For us in the NDP, we will treat housing for what it is, a human right, prioritizing the need for affordable rents for affordable homes instead of making housing an issue of cash cow for the rich. We in the NDP have proposed a bold plan building a different type of housing market, one that puts people before profits. And this report put forward by Canadians for
Tax Fairness makes one thing very clear. We cannot solve the housing crisis by giving more tax breaks to the rich, to rich developers helping the banks.
As housing costs rise.
The rich are getting richer and working Canadians are left behind. It's time to rethink the way we treat housing in Canada. Canadians are asking for us to rethink enact urgently when it comes to housing in Canada. We need to start by closing the tax loopholes and stop the financialization of housing that has created this crisis in the first place, and we urgently need to invest in public and non market housing units including co ops, housing operated by not
for profit provider providers and social housing. We need to have broad, implementing implemented rent control policies, including vacancy control, and we need to limit ownership of rental housing by large corporate landlords as is done out swear. At the end of the day, the n d P stands ready to fight for these bold changes to stand up for Canadians who are living.
The housing crisis.
Now we're going to hear more about these solutions, and I want to call on my colleague alexand bouleris our housing critic, to share some words.
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Let's see Alexand next we will go to Katrina Meller, the executive director of Canadians for Tax Fairness who released this groundbreaking report. Hello Katrina, Hello, thank you Nikki, and it's a pleasure to be with all of you today on this important issue. We did release report that clearly showed that our tax system and the tax breaks that it offers fin for financialized landlords, is hurting our goal
of having affordable housing in Canada. In twenty twenty three, we saw our rents rise by eight percent, while our inflation rate and.
Wages only went up a book at five As mentioned, during that same year, the real estate sector walked away with fifty billion dollars in profits. That's forty percent higher than its pre pandemic norm. And what we're seeing in our research is that these real estate investors that are financialized firms like real estate investment trusts or equity firms, are using capital gains as an increasing source of income for a couple of reasons. One, they have a tax
break on capital gains. Two, some of these firms, particularly real estate investment trusts, have an exemption for any corporate income that they gain. So these two tax breaks in particular are driving these financialized landlords to buy up more and more of our housing stock and to use it as an asset, increasing rents in order to both increase the income they get from rents as well as the
ascid price when they decide to sell. These financialized landlords now own a quarter of all our purpose built rental and are the major purchases right now. So unless we close down these loopholes, we're going to see these financialized landlords own more and more of our housing stock and drive our rents to more and more unaffordable prices. This
is why we have three recommendations for the government. One is to fully close the capital gains loophole and include all capital gains income as taxbile income that's inflation adjusted, especially for the real estate sector. The second is to end the exemption that real estate investment trusts get right now on their corporate income tax. For example, Canda seven top real estate investment trust companies transferred one hundred million
dollars of income tax free to their investors. Neither the corporation nor the investor paid any tax on the one hundred million dollars in twenty twenty two, and that was by using both the capital gains tax break and the real estate investment trust tax exemption to basically grab that income from Canada with no taxes paid. We need that revenue back in order to pay for our affordable housing plans in order to build non market housing. These tax breaks don't help build housing.
Reads don't build housing.
They simply buy housing that's already been built, increase its value in order to sell it at a higher price. If we want to have a tax system that benefits our affordable housing plans, we need to shut down these looples.
Thank you, thank you so much, Katrina, and next we'll hear from Sharon Katz from ACORN.
Good morning, Thank you for inviting Acorn to speak today. My name is Sharon Katz and I am a member of ACORN Canada. ACORN is a national independent organization of low to moderate income people. Our members are largely tenants who are bearing the brunt of the housing crisis, which is getting worse by the day. Many of our members live in housing that is owned by rates or other
types of financialized landlords. Financialized landlords are maximizing profits for the few by squeezing tenants out of the only affordable housing that is left. These big corporations earn huge profits through increased turnover rates, meaning replacing long term tenants with new ones at higher rents. Once financialized landlords by apartment buildings, they often allow them to fall into disrepair so that they can force the existing tenants out by using tactics
like renevictions, dum evictions, major rent increases, and others. If a tenant is forced out, they have nowhere else to go. Data from CMHC shows the share of affordable units for low income housing households is less than five percent in major city centers, one percent in Vancouver, and almost zero percent in Ontario cities. Canada's public, non market and affordable housing stock is now among the lowest of OECD countries at three point five percent. Families and individuals end up
making larger and larger sacrifices to pay inflated rents. They spend less on groceries and medications, neglect paying other bills, dip into savings, or go further into debt. If a tenant resists and is able to say, it doesn't mean they're lucky. What we're sering on the ground through daily door knocking and phone calls, surveys and regular tenant meetings is that long term tenants with lower rents are less likely to get repairs or maintenance. They are also forced
to live with bed bugs, cockroaches, mold and more. Rent increases every year come consistently, especially in Ontario, tenants report getting above guideline increases back to back. Tenants often express stress and anxiety, negative impacts on themselves and their children, fear of displacement, and the inability to find adequate housing. Reats shouldn't be getting preferential tax treatment for making things worse for tenants. This is why Acorn Canada is demanding
the following to reign in these routs. One the federal government must stop apartment sales to corporate landlords. In Berlin, for example, corporations cannot own more than three thousand apartment suites. Two Ensure the acquisition funds set up by the federal government is adequately funded and enables land trusts, co ops, tenants, and nonprofits to purchase affordable rental buildings when they come
on the market. Three Ensure write a first refusal for land trusts, co ops, tenants, and nonprofits so that they have the first opportunity to acquire apartment buildings that are for sale.
The City of Montreal.
Exercises the right of first refusal, which grants the city priority to purchase certain buildings and land ahead of other by this should be nationalized.
Thank you for your job.
Thank you so much, Sharon Katz from ACORN. What you've heard clearly today is that this housing crisis didn't just happen. It is the result of liberal and conservative policies that have not only failed to invest in public, non market housing, but have also created tax incentives to allow for billionaires, rich investors, trust funds, the banks to take advantage and shape a housing market that benefits them at the expense
of working Canadians. At the expense of young people, at the expense of Canadian families who are living the housing crisis right now. We are calling for concrete changes, very much rooted in the report that you've the roundbreaking report you've heard about here today from the Canadians for Tax Fairness, and very much reflective of the message we've heard from ACORN that there that there is a crisis that demands urgent action now and that there are tangible solutions UH to look to.
What we need is political will.
And with that I'd like to open that up to any questions from any of our panelists.
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Thank you so much to our participants.
Katrina Meller from Canadians for Tax Fairness, Sharing Katz and all of acorn.
Thank you very much. Let's the Alexander.
I would like to start by reading the remarks I started with. Yes, surely, as I presented my fifth report as a Special Opporteur to the Third Committee of the General Assembly in a year in which I was turned into a reluctant chronicler of genocide, I feel compelled to start by paying my respect to the victims and survivors of all genocides past and present, including the Native Americans like the Lenape people, who are neually regional stewards of
the land on which this institution stands. Certainly, the ongoing struggle of Native Americans and indigenous peoples everywhere to again and maintain their rights on their ancestral land like the Palestinians, would be less challenging if institutions like this one, premised upon equality and freedom of all and self determination for all, were actually committed to addressing and unraveling the colonial past, beginning by confronting the prevailing col only al amnesia that
affects many of them, and as Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi reminds us, it is the emsia of the past and the risure of its victims. That allows history to repeat itself.
And why did I.
Start by reading this again and again, It's because history is repeating itself. Yesterday I presented my second report on genocide. Why so, why do I insist in calling it genocide because it's so difficult to prove intent. Why don't you go with war crimes and crimes against humanity because it's genocide. Because if you go to a doctor and you have cancer and you are diagnosed with with FEVA, you have
a problem, a big problem. It's the same with the people who's being genocided, because it's not about the collection of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Is that the Palestinians are experiencing, they have experienced through their entire life
as a people, war crimes and crimes against humanity. But nowadays the situation is different, and it's very important that we understand what is genocide and why this is to be recognized as a genocide because in the same way as the international community has failed to protect the victims of genocide in the case of the Jewish people in Europe, and then the Bosnians in former Yugoslavia, and then the the Tutsi in Ruanda in the same way we are
failing the Palestinians. And I want to express all my respect and solidar with the Palestinian people because it's a torment to be here as a Palestinian and having to tell all of us about the genocide that their people are experiencing. Because the people is.
Like a body.
You chop one arm, you chop one limb, the entire bodies offer and this is what the people is. It's something organic and the same thing is the relation between the people and the land. For indigenous people, the lend is not the place where they live. The lend is who they are.
And this is why we need to.
Understand the bigger design behind what's happening in Palestine today. On the fourteenth of October, when together with other special rapporteurs, we started to denounce to raise the alarm that what Israel has art to do might be genocide and there was a serious risk of genocide. And then as of the November thirty of us I've said a genocide is unfolding. I also said on the fourteenth of October, under the fog of war, Israel accelerates the force displacement of the Palestinians.
And I do say that out of the scholarship that I've produced, because the way I know the question of
Palestine is through the firs displacement of its people. Since even before the State of Israel was was created, Palestinians have been kicked out of their land amid the destruction of their villages and everything they had from nineteen forty seven, forty nine and in nineteen sixty seven, and it continues, and what's happening today it's much more severe because of the technology, because of the weaponry, but also because of the impunity that has been granted to the State of
Israel over seven twenty six years. The ubris that has led Israel to attack not just the Palestinian people or the Lebanese to also and to the lebanesels goes my solidarity in this moment. But United Nations this year has also marked an attack against the United Nations physically, symbolically, in terms of functions. Israel has damaged in any way, bombed and targeted and heat seventy percent of Andrei infrastructure
in Gaza. It has launched a campaign as mere campaign against against Andra since which intensified a pattern that was already established, and it has skilled two hundred and thirty UN staff members, colleagues of many of those who work in this institution. And it has targeted the humani tarian capacity of Andra, and it has even targeted UN peacekeepers, and it has targeted the UN Secretary General and independent experts,
and it's very lustrous assembly. No one has been spared, just among the Palestinians and the Libandies, even in the United Nations. And it's because of debt, on top of the genocide, and on top of the fifty seven years of a lawful occupation that I say it's time to consider suspending the credential of Israel as a member states. I understand the sensitivity because none of you is really has really clean ends when it comes to human rights.
That's okay, but no one else has maintained an unlawful occupation, violating decades of UN Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Counsel, International Court of Justice decision and resolutions. As Israel has done enough enough. And the last point genocide. While this is genocide, genocide is a very insidious crime. It's a process, it's not an act. And there is a significant jurisprudence,
but still incipient jurisprudence, thankfully. And the critical element to the termine genocide is the intent behind the acts of keeling an infliction harm and creating conditions of life leading to the destruction of a group. As such, there is the intent and the discussion I hear, including from scholars, well, it's difficult to prove the intent. The intent is not a motive, it's a different thing. It's intent is the
determination to destroy through criminal acts. Motives can vary. One can commit to genocide because of what the developed to will, the determination to commit genocide to stay in power, or to liberate the hostages, or to commit other crimes. But the moment there is the determination to destroy, that the intent of genocide is formed, then you don't even need to have genocide unfolding to intervene. We have already failed
the Palestinians. Genocide has already been committed. But we need to first of all intervene, stop and punish the perpetrators, and then to stop it because it's expanding to the spankan is Jerusalem. No one, no Palestinians is safe under Israeli rule. And the other element and with this, I will conclude what is critical is the responsibility of the state. We cannot apply the same threshold for alleged perpetrators, so criminal responsibility.
To a state.
Otherwise, if we have to guardan look at the paradox, preventing genocide would be an impossible mission. If we have to wait until the guarantees that a fair trial afford to alleged perpetrators are satisfied, we will never prevent genocide. But here the responsibility of a state is evident, especially especially in a self proclaimed the rule of law system which has checks and balances. It's not just the executive,
it's the parliament and the judiciary. What have these bodies done in Israel to prevent genocide?
Nothing?
Not only this is not the result of action of some members of the government. This is a collective responsibility of the State of Israel. And because of that I say this is the first settler colonial genocide to be litigated in human history. The cry for justice behind this case will resonate across the globe and will make a difference also for other indigenous people that have never seen a day of justice. Thank you very much.
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