Feds focus on the five I’s: Monsef
Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef spoke about the federal government’s five I’s Monday during the MP’s annual address to the Peterborough Rotary Club.
Infrastructure, inclusive growth, innovation, immigration and Indigenous reconciliation are the Liberal government’s top priorities, Monsef said.
The MP delivered her speech to Peterborough Rotarians over lunch at the Holiday Inn Peterborough Waterfront.
The government’s spending on infrastructure is working to ensure short-term jobs and safer and greener communities, she said.
Through conversations with mayors in municipalities across the area, Monsef said, she’s heard a common thread of a deficit in infrastructure that needs to be maintained.
The government also plans to tap into the trillions of dollars that exist in green infrastructure.
Inclusive growth means citizens from all walks of life benefit economically. To help make that happen, one of the government’s first investments was the Canada Child Benefit Plan.
That plan sees money going to the families who need it most, she said.
In Peterborough, 16,000 kids are benefiting from that investment and the money goes directly into the parents’ pockets.
“It ensures quality of life for the next generation and grows the economy,” Monsef said of the benefit plan.
In turn, that extra money is going right back into the economy, she added, contributing to the reason Canada’s economy is growing faster than any of the G7 countries.
The country’s first national housing strategy is also connected to inclusive growth. The government will be introducing legislation so that affordable, safe housing will become a human right.
In addition, the housing strategy, with an envelope of about $40 billion, includes 7,000 shelter units for those who’re fleeing domestic violence. While innovation often means new ideas, it doesn’t necessarily mean reinventing every wheel. That said, it’s important to think differently and to look at new solutions, Monsef said.
“Here in Peterborough, innovation is something that’s very much a part of our identity. We were the first city to have electric lights on our streets – that’s innovation.”
As of Jan. 1, the business tax rate for small businesses was reduced by one per cent and there’ll be another one per cent reduction in January 2019.
The federal government also reduced income taxes for the middle class while adding additional taxes to the “wealthy” one per cent.
“(That will) ensure that inclusion is happening so that those dollars to innovation, immigration, to infrastructure take place.”
To date, the federal government has announced about $104 million in Peterborough-Kawartha – that doesn’t include the $600 million spent on bettering the Trent-Severn Waterway.
Meanwhile, the government’s immigration plan is critical to Canada’s social and economic development, the MP said.
With Canadians having fewer children, the country’s labour force and needed innovation requires welcoming and successfully integrating immigrants, Monsef said.
The Liberal government has increased the number of immigrants expected over the next three years to about one million.
The immigration plan has also allowed Canada to ensure family reunification is back on track.
The MP reiterated Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s words that no relationship is more important to the Canadian government than that with the first peoples of the land.
An issue that Monsef said keeps her up at night is Curve Lake First Nation’s lack of clean drinking water.
She said she’s working closely with chief and council, as well as the government, to make sure this item on her list of campaign commitments is checked off by 2021.
“You can be sure that I’m one of those regular, slightly annoying faces in some departments ensuring that the Curve Lake case is heard.
Monsef also touched on the government’s gender-based violence strategy, which is the first federal strategy to address and prevent gender-based violence.
She said the strategy was in the works long before the “me too” movement began.
As the Minister of Status of Women, Monsef currently has an enormous responsibility and opportunity as conversations about gender-based violence, sexual violence and harassment are top of mind.
The gender-based violence strategy involves $100.9 million in federal spending on everything from data to research and ensuring organizations such as the YWCA and the Kawartha Sexual Assault Centre have the resources they need.