Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh visited communities in the Kootenay-Columbia federal riding last Friday and Saturday. His itinerary included a stops in Creston, Nelson and Salmo. Affordability and care for seniors were some of the consistent themes brought forward by Creston Valley residents. Singh’s solution to these issues is to re-involve the federal government in cooperative housing projects in order to create a consistency of care not just in cities but also in rural communities Canada-wide.
“The federal government got out of the business of building and investing in housing for the past couple decades, maybe three decades since the 90’s. So what I advocate we do immediately is, at the federal level, immediately fund building cooperative housing and non-profit housing right away.”
When pressed about the financial cost of such a large endeavor Singh says both rural and urban communities cannot afford the strain unaffordable housing brings.
“Well, we can’t afford not to do something about it because the cost of homelessness, the cost of communities not being able ability to house people is something that we can’t afford.”
As for where the money will come from, Singh does not hesitate to criticise the current federal government’s spending history.
“We can prioritize making housing something that’s priority as opposed to spending billions of dollars on a pipeline.”
Singh says there’s an economic advantage to having affordable places to live to support a growing workforce.
“Jobs are available sometimes, there’s employers that want to hire new employees, but they can’t actually bring in new workforce because there’s no place for them to live. So we know that we’re missing out on the economic advantage where companies want to grow and expand but they just simply can’t bring in talent because there’s nowhere for them to live.”
The opioid crisis is another key issue Singh wishes to tackle immediately with the support of the current Liberal government.
“This is a real crisis and we need to immediately declare it a national public health emergency. This would open up funding to help pop-up clinics and those front line healthcare providers who want to do something about the crisis.”
For a long-term solution, Singh is calling for a change in how the Canadian government deals with drug users by using a healthcare response rather than a criminal justice response. This is similar to the model Portugal uses, where addicts are not charged when caught with substances for personal use.
“Putting [a drug user] in jail or arresting them is not going to cure them of the illness, it’s not going to cure them of the addiction, it’s not going to deal with their poverty or their mental health. In fact it will probably make it worse.”
With the recent legalization of cannabis, Singh says he’s glad that there are safer avenues for pain management other than legally prescribed opioids which has the potential to lead to addiction.
For access to the full interview between the mycrestonnow.com newsroom and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, follow this link.