Steady stream of cabinet ministers visiting the area
Another day, another federal minister in Windsor and Essex County. Minister of Families, Children and Social Development JeanYves Duclos came to Windsor on Wednesday to announce an increase in the Canada Child Benefit. He was the fourth federal minister, in addition to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to come here in less than two months. Trudeau toured Highbury Canco in Leamington on Canada Day, the day his government imposed tariffs on a raft of American products, including ketchup, in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. Then-Minister of Infrastructure Amarjeet Sohi followed on July 17, attending the ceremonial groundbreaking for the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Detroit.
Health Minister Ginette Petitpas-Taylor met Aug. 8 with Mayor Drew Dilkens, police chief Al Frederick and Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed on the opioid epidemic. Five days later, Finance Minister Bill Morneau met with local business leaders and toured Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor Assembly Plant. Though most of the topics were significant, the events were not. But Canada is heading toward an election year, and the federal Liberals see opportunity here. Duclos’ announcement wasn’t new. The government announced last fall that it would increase the Canada Child Benefit. It’s now indexed to inflation. The maximum annual benefit is now $6,496 per child under age six and $5,481 per child ages six to 17.
Nine out of 10 families in Canada, including 25,000 in Windsor, receive the benefit, a campaign promise that the Liberals implemented in 2016. It replaced half a dozen similar Conservative initiatives. The benefit differs from the Conservative initiatives in that it’s more generous, is geared to income and is tax-free. The average family receives $600 a month, $200 more than it did before 2016, Duclos said. The benefit was supposed to rise in 2020, but the government increased it two years earlier because “it has led to stronger economic growth the last two years,” claimed Duclos, a former economics professor at l’Universite Laval. “We need to continue growing the economy, given there are clouds not far from this area in terms of economic uncertainty and challenges,” he said, referring to NAFTA negotiations and a brewing trade war with the U.S. Duclos also claimed that the benefit has cut the number of children living in poverty in Canada by 40 per cent. The reduction in Windsor, where almost one in four children were living in low income households in 2015, the highest rate in Canada, has “probably been even bigger,” Duclos said. “Undoubtedly, the CCB has lifted some families and their children out of poverty,” said United Way chief executive officer Lorraine Goddard, “but what isn’t clear is how many.”
Updated local data isn’t available yet, she said.
Duclos made the same announcement in Brantford on Monday and London on Tuesday. He said he came to Windsor because this city is “a very good example of a middle-class region.”
“Our ambition is to grow the economy by growing the middle class and giving Canadians who don’t belong to the middle class a chance of belonging to the middle class,” he said.
Windsor and the surrounding region could have a growing profile because they’re strategically important to the government, said University of Windsor political science professor Lydia Miljan. Windsor’s position on the border with the U.S. and in the auto industry means it faces the biggest impact from the renegotiation of NAFTA and further, threatened American tariffs.
It could also be a leading supplier of recreational marijuana when it becomes legal Oct. 17.
The government is also building the largest infrastructure project in the country here, the new bridge, key to trade with the U.S. “There are a lot of reasons why there’s more attention in Southwestern Ontario,” agreed Doug Sartori, president of the party ’s riding association in Windsor West. But there’s also a political reason. “It’s fair to say the federal Liberals see opportunity in Southwestern Ontario,” he said.
There are no Liberal MPs south of London. But thanks to the Ontario Liberals’ overwhelming defeat in June, a lot of the party’s talent is out of a job, and they’re migrating to federal politics, he said.
At the same time, the NDP, from whom the Liberals pulled a million votes in the last election in 2015, are seen as weakening. New leader Jagmeet Singh’s performance has been “less than stellar,” said Miljan, and seven incumbents have already announced they won’t run again. The party has only 17.5 per cent support in the polls and, if an election were held today, it would lose 13 seats, predicts CBC poll analyst Eric Grenier.
With three NDP MPs here, the Liberals “are probably trying to test out whether there’s any vulnerability,” said Miljan.