(VICTORIA) – Canadians across the country will be sitting down to Thanksgiving dinners this weekend. However, approximately 13 percent of Canadians do not have reliable access to adequate amounts of safe, good-quality, nutritious food, according to Food Banks Canada.
Green Party candidate and Former All-Points West host Jo-Ann Roberts (Victoria) vowed to help lower-income Canadians with a National Housing Strategy and Guaranteed Livable Income. Roberts joined volunteers and staff to serve a full Thanksgiving dinner, complete with cranberry sauce, to hundreds who would have otherwise been hungry this thanksgiving.
“As a country that consistently ranks in the top 10 wealthiest nations, it is unacceptable that 4.8 million Canadians live in poverty while support systems and the patchwork social assistance programs continue to prove inadequate,” said Ms. Roberts. “The Green Party is the only party that has pledged to implement a National Housing Strategy and a Guaranteed Liveable income. I look forward to working with Green MPs in the next minority parliament to make poverty history.”
“Each month, almost 850,000 Canadians, one third whom are children and youth, turn to food banks for help,” continued Elizabeth May, Green Party Leader (Saanich-Gulf Islands), “This is unacceptable in a wealthy country like Canada.”
“There are many seniors, a disproportionate proportion of whom are women and Indigenous peoples, living in poverty. The Green Party’s plan for a Guaranteed Liveable Income (GLI) will make sure that no Canadian, young or old, lives in poverty,” concluded May.
Green MPs will:
· Establish a Guaranteed Liveable Income through our Council of Canadian Governments to ensure no person's income falls below what is necessary for health, life and dignity.
· Add Dental Care coverage for low-income youth under 18 as part of our universal medicate system; at a certain income level.
· Implement a National Housing Strategy to provide every Canadian with a place to call home. The Green Party’s plan will:
· Create a Housing First Approach to provide immediate support for chronically homeless;
· Increase access to co-operative housing for First Nations living on and off-reserve;
· Dedicate funding to the co-operative housing sector to enable more new affordable housing projects to proceed, while extending funding for co-ops whose contracts with the federal government are expiring; and
· Eliminate Stephen Harper’s Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program, which currently allows foreign investors to purchase Canadian properties and can drive housing prices up for Canadian families beyond their reach.
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