Thank you for listening to Pictures Media Radio. Welcome to Policy and Rights, the show about the government, policy and human rights. Welcome back to Policy and Race. Here in Depictions to Media Radio, I'm your host Michael Cloggs Jack Meek Singh in Halifax, he offers a press conference on affordable housing. Okay, so we keep hearing about this affordable housing over and over again. We hear on the federal level,
we hear on the provincial level. But the really big question, at least for me, is how are we defining what is affordable? Are we defining affordable by what the average family can actually afford according to going by one third of their income, especially when we consider that a lot of people are working, at least in this area, a lot of retail jobs, and those retail jobs they may
only be working eighteen to twenty hours a week. So if we're going to base affordable on a single income or two incomes from two single jobs that the person is worth that these people are working twenty hours a week at say about sev seventeen dollars an hour, then that's what we have to base our affordable income on. In which case, I mean, let's take a look, and we're going to pull up a calculator on our iPhone, of course, and we're going to say seventeen times twenty.
That's three hundred and forty dollars a week times four weeks and a month. We're talking that the income level is about thirteen hundred dollars a month, and if we divide that by three, then the then affordable housing should be based on approximately four hundred and fifty to five hundred dollars a month. And I'll tell you right now that that isn't. That isn't what's really out there. So
that's affordable housing based based on income. But no one seems to want to really define what affordable truly means. So we keep hearing this racing back and forth, affordable housing, affordable housing, but no one wants to define it. And that is what the real issue is. It is how do we determine what affordable is for the average Canadian so that they are paying a rent based on that. Well, we're gonna listen to what Jack Meets Saying has to
say about protecting renters and affordable housing. Uh, later on in the show, we're also gonna hear from Anita Anon as Minister Non makes announcements about investments into training trade and skilled workers. And it is that again is it is a very important issue that we should know how you know that there is education out there and that education is affordable, that where that where the society are actually putting money into getting people trained to do skilled labor.
This morning there was a CNN report about they have found bodies of the hostages in Gaza. Apparently apparently they have they found the bodies, they did not find any live hostages, as they Israeli Army UH rated a site in Gaza so arcandolences to the families who have lost loved ones h as a result of the hostage taking
in in god And on October seventh, twenty three. And we do have to say that that they need to come to some sort of a ceasefire in that area and also come to some sort of agreement where where a solution is met, where everyone can live in peace there so that there are no more hostage taking, there is no more mass destruction and attempts at genocide, that
everyone lives in peace. Because, let's face it, a lot of our global religions Judaism, Muslims as well as Christians have roots that come from that area that we do call Palestine, and that it shouldn't just simply belong to Israel. They shouldn't be they shouldn't have have strict ownership to it. That it should be distributed so that those who have strong roots in that area, that have they have heritage that leads back thousands of years should be also be
able to live there in peace. As we all share the land that is now called Palestine and that once was Canaan. So why don't we move forward and let's listen to what Minister a Non had to say about investing into skilled labor and.
Trades's announcement today in our facility. As you can see, it's a great facility.
We're proud of it.
A lot of it came from funding and from there I'll just pass it on to whoever's next.
And thanks, good afternoon everyone, Thank you so much for having us at the Mill Rights this afternoon. Always so great to have my friend Minister Anita on on here on Hamilton Mountain and right here in a neighborhood that's really a hotbed for the trades. And I think and thank you for you know, calling out the federal government.
Because I think I.
Find that our government is truly labor friendly. We were the government that as soon as we took power, we got rid of Stephen Harper's old anti union legislation. We've brought in measures so that trades people can claim it when they have to travel out of town for their work. We've recently brought in anti scablet so I you know, and all of those things happen when we have conversations with people like Braden and nol. So thank you so much for your time, for welcoming us here and having
such a great conversation this afternoon. Before we begin, I would like to acknowledge that we're gathered on the traditional territories of the Eerie Neutral Hero and whend At Hodna shone In Mississauga's land covers side the dish with one spoon wamp Them Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Hodna Shonee and the Honish Nabe to share and care for
the resources around the Great Lakes. We acknowledge that this land is covered by the Between the Lakes Purchase in seventeen ninety two between the Crown and the Mississaugas of the Credit firsts. You know, Hamilton really is the home of skilled trades. It's really important to the city, a city with a long history of manufacturing, and we really need to diversify the trades. We need to tear down
the barriers to entering the skilled trades. As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women in Gender Equality and Youth, has been part of my goal to encourage young girls and women to get into the trades. There's so many good jobs. You think about the mill rights. The first mill rights were the master craftsmen who made the water wheels work. And today you know, we walked through and saw the innovation and then the type of work you're
basically making. The people that make the engineers look good and so really important part of our community. And without further ado, I am so pleased again to welcome my friend Anita on On, the Minister for the Treasury Board, the President of the Treasury Board for our federal government and a true inspiration to all women in Canada.
Well, thank you so much, Lisa, and hi everybody, especially Brad and Knowle. I made two friends today, in particular, learned a lot about the facility here, the role of a mill right in our country and the importance that this area of labor brings to the supply chain. And so thank you so much for our conversation and for all the work that you're doing. I just want to touch for a moment on a point that Lisa made just a moment ago, which is what our government stands
for in terms of unions. And since twenty fifteen, our government has been there for unions, including with the anti replacement worker legislation this year, and there are a number of other items and all along that process. We have been very committed to helping Canadians upgrade their skills and find new jobs. And the count is at over one million at this point.
In terms of reskilling and skilling workers and helping them find new jobs AOSC depu di these dim laxe a la parle san dica de pre de s Canadian ecayer in Manderetavind And so some of the things that we are focusing on now and that we've done really are implementing labor requirements in major tax credits to secure union wages and apprenticeship opportunities for Canadian workers in the clean economy, providing ten days of paid, six sick leave for all
federally regulated workers and banning replacement workers as I mentioned, but we do remain conscious of the realities of the workforce. That workers are aging and the inevitable surge of retirement is leaving us in great need of skilled workers, and what we need to do is to recruit, retain and train more apprentices. We need young Canadians at the beginning of their careers who will be taking Canada's green economy
into the future. And we also need to build more housing faster, which is why we need thousands more skilled trades people from framers to painters and every skill in between.
Today we are announcing an investment of more than seventy four million dollars in total funding for projects across the country and under the Investments in Training Equipment Stream one hundred and fourteen projects will help unions and training providers improve the quality of training through better equipment and materials
that meet the latest industry standards. And under the Innovation and Apprenticeship Stream ten projects will support unions to recruit and retain apprentices in red seal trades that was an issue we just discussed the importance of red seal and certification. Now With these investments, we are supporting a diverse cohort of apprentices, including women, newcomers, persons with disabilities, Indigenous peoples, and racialized individuals through mentorship, career services, wrap around supports,
and job matching. And even better news, we are investing over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars into three projects right here in Hamilton. I just want to take a moment and talk about those three projects for Hamilton. First, the mill Write Local nineteen sixteen where we're standing right now, is receiving funding to purchase materials for the weld shop and safety equipment to incorporate them into their training curriculum and into certification curriculum offer to all members within the
mill wright trade. And we were just so happy to actually see training in action on the floor as we walked here to this press conference.
Now.
Second, we are investing in the IBW Local one oh five to get new electrical equipment to enhance health and safety training, meet industry demands, improve the welding program's success and reduce its environmental impact while supporting workforce development in
the electrical industry. And then, third, the UA sixty seven Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee is getting funding to acquire a skyjack and telehandler to advance safety and skills training for all individuals, including under represented groups, to support workforce development in plumbing, in stream fitting or pipe fitting and welding. So the bottom line here, folks, is that this is a win for workers, this is a win for employers, and this is a win for our economy and the
labor supply chain now and into the future. Merciboku, thank youll right.
I'm Noil Contrudas.
I'm the business rep here for Milray Local nineteen sixteen and I'm also the vice president. First off, thank you for being here and allowing you to see Milray Local nineteen sixty the opportunity to showcase our training center and for continue supporting the unionized skilled trades with great programs such as YOUTIP. We had a five year plan that we're almost at the end of and we were fortunate enough to be successful in being approved for YOUTIP funding.
Without these fundings streams, our goal of creating elite training programs or purchasing the equipment and consumables needed would not have come to fruition. UTIP and other government funding gives us the capabilities to train our locals one thousand members to help stay ahead of the curve when it comes to upcoming technologies, equipment and training aids so we can remain as efficient and precise for our signatory contractors and
their clients. This gives them confidence and comfort knowing that our highly skilled and trained mill rights that our local hires and develops will execute on time and on budget.
We now also have the capacity to create and maintain partnerships through training and recruitment with organizations such as the Workplace Ready Indigenous Trades Experience Program or better known as the RIGHT Program from the AJUEWS Skills and Trades Training Center on the six Nations of the Grand River Reserve or on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, we hosted Trades Ready Youth, whose goal it is is to connect youth from the child welfare system to opportunities in the
unionized construction trades.
The support from UBC.
Mill Rates Local nineteen sixteen has had a huge impact on the young people training in this program looking to get their start. So those are just a few examples of the positive impact programs like you to have on an organization like ours, and we are increasing the employability
of our members. That's our goal, increase employability of our members. Again, we thank you for being here and the support that you guys have been able to provide to not only the UBC mill rates, but also do the building trades unions in Canada. And we look forward to more success with our partnership in the future. So thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
To thank you NOL. I think I think your work here is a testament to why you're successful in this funding.
Is really important.
It's a really impressive facility, and I'd like to point out that it's not just men who are training to be mail rights here today. Before I turn it over to Haley for media, I just like to say it's too bad that HML isn't here today. Typically we would see them, and I think it's a sad week in our community that we have a smaller media presence here today.
Haley there you.
Follow yeaes. I probably to jump in how many apprentices will this funny impact and how many say that relations funny and real people with the race?
Maybe I'll start off for do you want to start?
I know we have two hundred and fifty apprentices just at this local alone and over thirteen. Yes, sir, I know speaking for a Miller Local nineteen sixteen that we have over two hundred and fifty apprentices active registered apprentices right now that this will just.
Okay. Next, we're going to hear from Jack meat Sing as he talks about affordable housing and protecting renters.
Hello, Welcome to this press conference with Canada's MVP leader JEDG. Meat Sing and Lisa Roberts NDP candidate for Halifax. After opening remarks, we'll be taking one question and one follow up. Please use the ray's hand function on zoom. Bonjour bien asset con France to press jug Meet sing A, Lisa Roberts CONDI dot do on Payday Poor Alifax, New Zealand, plondre un pestillon a un sueevie vee utilise la function leve le Maine to the zoom. Okay, over to you, Jig Meet.
Key for Halifax.
I'd like to start by acknowledging that I am and to meet and I are standing here into in mid Maggie, the unseated and ancestral home of the Migma. I'm running in the next election because I see how long waits for healthcare are hurting people, how the climate crisis is impacting our communities, and how the price of homes is crushing people's ability to build and even to dream of
a good life for themselves. I've knocked on hundreds of doors this summer, and I've met with seniors who fear being forced out of their apartments where they've lived and built community for decades. I've chatted with young families who feel like their dream of owning a home is.
Getting further away.
I choose to be on team toig Meet in this election not only because he sees and cares about what people are going through, but because he's here with solutions. Jegnet inspires us to believe that we can change things to finally put people first. It's my great pleasure to introduce the leader of Canada's NDP, jugg Meet Sing.
Thanks honesting, sir Well.
We're so honored to have Lisa Roberts as our candidate here in Halifax, and the people of Halifax will be so well served to have someone like Lisa fighting for them in Odiwa to make sure auto works for them. Before I get into my remarks, I want to just talk about the recent notice of lockout for CP rail workers and for CN Rail workers. I want to send
a clear message to Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. We will oppose any attempt of the federal government to intervene on behalf of the employer against the workers and what should be a negotiated agreement between the workers and the employer for good wages and safe or conditions. For too long, we have seen liberals and conservatives interfere in these type of labor disputes to the advantage of the employer to the detriment of the worker. That is wrong, and we
will oppose that. We know that liberals have done it and conservatives have done it. Your Democrats will always stand on the side of working people to get a fair deal for good wages and for safe work conditions, and that will remain our principled position. Today, I want to talk about something that I think a lot of us grew up believing that if you work hard, you could find a place to call home. You could buy groceries
and put food on the table for your family. You could save up for a rainy day and maybe take your family on a trip.
You could buy those special treats for your loved one. But that is not how things are today.
Sadly, people are so squeezed they can barely keep their head above water. I have a message. I want to make it very clear. This is not your fault. This is a result of a rigged system, rigged by liberals and conservatives to allow corporate landlords to rip you off, to renevict you, to jack up rents, to put in place fixed lease terms that again rip off tenants, rip off people. This is a rig system and Justin Trudeau has had nine years to fix this problem.
He hasn't fixed. The things have gotten worse.
In fact, seen hundred dollars here in Halifax. In fact, for the people that are struggling right now and not able to find a home, that are struggling with homelessness out of more than one out of five of those folks are on the streets as a result of either rendedictions or fixed term leases directly result of those policies. And what would Pierre Paul you have do well? Pierre Paul you have wants even less rules, wants to let his corporate buddies rip you off, even more, less protections
for you, more power for his corporate buddies. And why is that, Well, it's because those are his buddies. His chief strategists owns a company that is a major lobbyist for a large corporate landlord. His governing body for the Conservative Party is made up of lobby as many of those really stay lobbyists. And again and again we see that as big donors.
Are again corporate lobbyists.
So he has no interest in changing a system that makes his buddies lots of money. The current system makes rich developers, corporate landlords lots of money, but it does not work for people.
So we want to change that. Our plan is, let's change.
The rules so they put people ahead for once. We can change the rules to ban renevictions. We can ensure that we ban fixed term leases. We can change the rules and tip the scales to advantage every day folks, to tip the scales to advantage people.
That's our vision, that's our plan.
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I'm just wondering if you could speak a bit about the specific ways that you're going to protect renters that you're party, you know, if it forms government and the next federal election plans to protect renters, as the sign here says today.
Yeah, so there's lots of ways we can do it. One concrete example is the.
Federal government gives UH Insurance c mac so government backed insurance to large coroporate landlords, gives them a special tax treatment, gives them direct financial assistance. We're saying not a cent of that money will go to a company that rips off rent, not a cent to that public money would go to someone that renevents. And we know that these companies, these corporate landlords, take federal support and then go out and renovents. We'll go out and jack up rents or
bring in fixed urn leases. That's one concrete thing. The other thing is, in general, there's lots of excuses. If a federal leader wants to find an excuse, you can find an excuse for jurisdic hit. But I believe leaders don't look for don't look.
For excuses, they look for solutions.
And some of the solutions are we could We could leverage the federal resources that we have, the agreements we have with provinces and municipalities, leverage those those agreements to say you need to ban you need to better renevictions, you need to ban fixed term leases, and we will work with provinces and municipiuses make that happen.
But we really need to get serious.
About changing the rules that have been set up for so long to rip off renters, to rip off people. We've got to protect people, and that's what we're proposing to do that to follow up yeah.
On the topic of housing and homelessness as well. One potential solution that's been suggested by fellow MP Andy Fillmore is to convert some of the Canada Post Lands here in Halifax into housing for those who can't afford housing. I don't know if you've spoken much on that specific suggestion, but would you care to share your opinion on that suggestion.
I believe we should be using every piece of federal land that is available to develop affordable homes. My concern with the Liberals they have started using some federal land, but the majority of what's being built on that federal lands, land owned by the public, owned by all.
Of us, is not affordable.
They're using federal lands to build market housing, which is not going to help someone who can't afford even some of the good job can't afford what the.
Going rate is for our condo, our house right now.
So we need that federal land, whether it's Canada Postline or any other federal land in cities across our country. Every square meter a federal land should be used for strictly affordable housing. And I'm talking about affordable housing. I mean people should be able to pay the rent and have money left over to buy their groceries, to pay their bills, to save up. Not the situation where we see people are spending over half of their income on
their homes. That's not affordable. So we should build on federal land absolutely, but we need to have strict guarantees that we're building affordable homes on that land. That's something that neither Justin Trudeau has talked about, and frankly, Pierre Poliev talks about building, but he doesn't talk about building affordable. So he's talking about helping out his rich developers. Every time you year him talk, he's talking about building for
rich developers and rich investors, not for people. We're talking about building for people, affordable homes.
Lisa is going to add a couple comments on this as.
Well, thank you. Just specifically on the Canada Post site at Almond Street. You know that is relatively closed to Winter Park, which is a federal D and D site where multiple former private members' quarters which are one hundred percent occupied right now, have been torn down under this government.
There's lots of federal land available which.
Is in currently providing good jobs in our community where frankly, building could start tomorrow. We also have the Shannon Park site which has sat undeveloped during this entire Trudeau government, while the housing crisis, which is really a product of the rules as they have been, has just gotten more and more acute. So I think there's there are many opportunities that have shorter timelines and which would be.
More easily.
More easily pursued in partnership with non market housing providers and federal crime corporations and other agencies directly enter the control of the federal government.
It's great.
Now we will take questions on zoom. First you'll start with Salari Amache from Radio Canada.
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Next your find Tomoti from the National Post.
Yeah, good morning interesting. I heard your comments on the rail strike off the top, but I just wanted to ask. I mean, given the economic impacts of a strike like this, is there any sort of federal intervention that you would find acceptable?
First all this this is these are very important workers. Their work is very important as well.
I would say the only appropriate federal intervention is to force the employer to get back to the table and negotiate fairly with the workers.
That's not something we see from the federal government.
They often tip the scales against workers in favor of the employers, and that is absolutely wrong.
The federal government should be there to defend workers. Should not be tipping the scales for big bosses again and.
Again to the point that they know that they're just going to come in and tip the scales and they're not going to be workers aren't going to be able to get a fair deal.
That is wrong.
We're only in this position because the company that both companies have failed to negotiate fairly with workers, in fact, have not shown good faith. If they negotiated in good faith, we would have a fair deal that gives good wages and safety for the workers, which means safety for citizens. We know that rail safety is a very serious question. We've seen the impacts when we don't consider rail safety. If we don't take that seriously, the impacts are very devastating.
So this is important for the workers. This is important for Canada to get this right and safety for the workers.
And in the event that the government decides to bring in either back to work legislation or binding arbitration, would that impact the Supply and Confidence Agreement.
We've made it very clear that we would oppose both of those. We oppose those vehemently.
The government should not be tipping the scales in favor of the big bosses again by signaling any sort of intervention that favors.
The big bosses in the case the employers in the s case, that's wrong. We would oppose that every step for the way.
Next, we have Avan Dyer from the CBC.
Either I heard your comments opening comments about the potential rail strike, but I'm just wondering. You've been talking about affordability, and you know one of the issues there is the price of groceries and so on, and any kind of a major interruption of rail delivery would cause those things the spike. Do you not have concerns about the effect that is strike by fairly well paid workers at places like CN and CP would have on low income Canadians who have to buy groceries.
I would not be pitting workers against each other. This is about a big boss that's making massive profits, that's not cheating the workers scarely and are not negotiating in good faith. If they negotiated in good faith, the Cprail and Cnrail negotiating good faith, there would be a settlement, and the settlements about making sure workers get paid a
decent wage. It keeps up with the cost of living, something I frankly think every worker should get, as well as keeping the worker safe, because keeping workers safe directly impacts overall safety of the rail system, and that is something that we've seen under the Conservatives. When we erode rail safety, there are serious disasters and that cannot happen again. So this is really about the cnrail and cprail, big profitable corporations trying to exploit workers, and we should stop
that from happening. There should be a fear settlement negotiated and the federal should not be intervening to tip the scales towards these big companies.
Again, that is wrong and we will oppose that. And actually, just one second piece.
Our big concern a on the Costic groceries is that big corporations are ripping off Canadians. Again in that area, we saw the bread price fixing where they made billions of dollars, it turns out ripping off Canadians, and the biggest fine that they were awarded or the biggest fine against them for one of the major players, there was only fifty million dollars for Canada Bread Company.
So how is that going to deter them from doing it again.
That's what I mean when I talk about the rules that are rigged against people and in favor of these large corporations. When they have very little jeopardy they're facing and they can make massive profits ripping off people and breaking the law.
What's to stop them from doing it again? They already did it. That's what I'm saying.
We got to change the rules to protect people from being exploited and.
Gouged by these corporations that have already done so. And that's what we're talking about when we talk about affordability.
And I heard you say you don't want the federal government to put its finger on the scales on the side of the employer. But why would sending this dispute to binding arbitration, for example, be taking the side of the employer. Wouldn't that simply be putting it into a venue where it could be decided independently and fairly.
Well, it takes away the rights to negotiate, and fundamentally, the rights to negotiate is about fairness in fact, for both parties and workers in all cases would rather negotiate fairly at the table rather than be forced to going to binding arbitration, which could go either way depending on the arbitrariness of the arbitrator. It could be something that hurts the workers, it could favor the employer.
We don't know what is more fairest.
To negotiate at the table, and binding arbitration is something that the employers want to.
See happen for some reason. It must benefit them.
And so what we want in all cases is workers built to negotiate their their settlements, their agreements in a fair way, their settlements, their agreements in a fair way. The companies that we want to take advantage of the workers, that's wrong. They should negotiate fairly, in good faith and come to settlements.
We believe in that. That is our principle.
We will always find ways to encourage fair settled agreements, negotiate agreements. That is who we are as a party. That's our belief and will continue to support that every step of the way. You'll see liberal's waiver on us. You'll see conservatives jump to the help of big corporations to rip off Canadians.
That's not us. We believe that a workers should be there is a workers experience, and so.
We want to always defend the right for working people to get a fair deal when they come to getting a fair deal with their employer.
Seeing no other questions acting to me.
Thanks so much, appreciate it. Thanks every dy for being here.
Really honored to be able to stand with our candidate at Lisa Roberts, candidate for.
Halifax and your next Thank you for listening to policy rights today. I've been your host, Michael Cloggs. I do want to say that we do need to find peaceful solutions around the world, put it into war and find ways to negotiate peacefully so that we all come to a way of living that is without violence. Please find a subscribe button wherever it may be. Give us some support so we can help share the love around the world so we all live in peace. The show has
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