Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh wants to help fix the Northern Ontario housing crisis.
The party leader toured Timmins today and spoke with students, local businesses and Indigenous leaders about some of the region’s issues. Singh says one thing that he heard over and over is that something needs to be done to help the homeless population. He adds that this is something that is being talked about all over the country as well.
Singh says the federal liberals need to start rolling out a national housing strategy to help build social housing. “What they are proposing to do is asking Canadians to wait until after the next (federal) election (next year) before 90 per cent of the funding is flowed. We are saying we need that money now to immediately build non-profit housing and cooperative housing so we can provide some relief to people struggling in this crisis.”
Singh says he is asking for the liberals to allow at least 50 per cent of the money allocated for non-profit and cooperative housing to be released immediately. “I can’t imagine how many times people have said in their lives that they’ve had a crisis and then they’ve said okay I have a crisis but I’m going to wait two years before I do anything. I don’t think anyone would say that. We have a crisis in Canada and we can’t afford to be told to wait another year and a half to two years.” He says this is something he will continue to push for because it will help people and businesses.
Singh will continue his riding tour tomorrow with a trip to Kashechewan before coming back to Timmins for a meet and greet at Full Beard Brewery from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.