JAGMEET SINGH NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY

COMMUNITIES across Canada have been left without services like high-speed internet and intercommunity transit. With more people working from home, rural communities are attracting more people. The need to support families in these communities will grow. I will deliver. With a new public company, we will deliver quality, affordable telecom to every community, and ensure public transit services that connect rural areas. We’ll help graduates stay and work in rural and northern communities and provide stable, long-term funding to help build and protect rural communities. Our universal pharmacare, dental, long-term care and child-care programs will ensure a standard level of service in all communities.

AS PART of ensuring there are 1.7 million new and updated homes everyday people can afford, we will build 500,000 new homes. By giving CRA more resources, we’ll fight money laundering in real estate, drive out big foreign investors with a new federal speculators tax, and help firsttime home buyers and renters so everyday families can look for houses on an even playing field. We’ll waive federal taxes on the construction of affordable rental units, work in partnership with provinces and municipalities to set up fast-start funds for community, co-ops and affordable housing providers. CANADA CANNOT be an economic success if workers don’t share in the prosperity. When the pandemic began, businesses had to close. The NDP pressured the Liberals to increase the CERB to keep money in the pockets of workers and create the wage subsidy to allow businesses to keep workers on the payroll. Without these and other supports, many Canadians and businesses would have defaulted on loans, missed rent and failed to make ends meet. Our planned expansions to Canada’s health-care services will also attract more businesses and make it easier and less expensive for them to attract and hire workers.

Questions and answers have been edited for length.