Issues

HARPER GOVERNMENT ABANDONS HAMILTON’S POOR
NDP MPs’ forum to highlight local impact of government cuts

HAMILTON – Poverty in Hamilton is real. Nearly one in five Hamiltonians live at or below the poverty line. On any given night, 399 people seek emergency shelter – twice the number that did in 1995. Area New Democrat MPs Wayne Marston, Chris Charlton and David Christopherson will be joined today by Sault Ste. Marie MP Tony Martin, Hamilton East MPP Andrea Horwath, and local activists to look for legislative solutions.

Tony Martin, the NDP’s Social Policy Critic has been campaigning across the country on the NDP’s End Poverty in Canada campaign since last summer.

The Honourable Stockwell Day, P.C., MP
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
Sir Wilfrid Laurier Building, 13th Fl
340 Laurier Ave W
Ottawa, ON K1A 0P8
VIA FAX: 613-952-2240 (original to follow in mail)

Dear Minister Day:

I am writing to you to detail the events of Friday December 1 2006 when 50 mm of rain came down on the city of Hamilton and the surrounding area resulting in dozens of residents being forced to flee their homes. In some cases, inflatable boats were needed to bring them to dry land.

“The water was up to five feet high on some houses, submerging gas meters” said Chief Jim McKay of Emergency Services.

NDP FIGHTS FOR CONTINUED AIDS FUNDING
MPs Demand Federal Government Keep Its Promises on World AIDS Day

HAMILTON – Hamilton’s NDP MPs are pleased that the federal government has finally announced new money for HIV/AIDS but say that the announcement is just a first step.

The Minister’s announcement comes on the heels of a motion introduced by the NDP in the House of Commons on Wednesday urging the Conservative government to finally commit new money for the fight against HIV/AIDS and allow cheaper generic drugs to be produced for use in Canada and abroad.

“It is important that an announcement has finally been made,” said Hamilton Centre MP David Christopherson. “I was dismayed when our own Prime Minister refused to come to participate in the International AIDS Conference and even more so when no new funding was announced.”

STATEMENT IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

Mr. Speaker, this week Canadians will don red ribbons to remind us all of the continuing fight against HIV-AIDS in our communities and around the world. December 1 is Global HIV-AIDS Awareness Day.

As we look at fighting the HIV-AIDS pandemic, we must not ignore the need to protect the human rights of people living with HIV. To respond effectively to the HIV epidemic, we must respect and protect the rights of those who are most affected and most at risk.

The Canadian government must find a way to more effectively ensure drug treatments are flowing from Canada to the developing world. This includes fixing the fundamentally flawed legislation allowing the export of generic drugs and meeting our dollar commitments to the global fund in the fight against HIV-AIDS.

Mr. Wayne Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, NDP): Mr. Speaker, with a green plan that has environmentalists turning red, the federal government awash in billions of surplus dollars, the timing has never been better for the funding of meaningful environmental projects. An energy cogeneration facility at Hamilton's Stelco would reduce its production costs, massively decrease its energy consumption and reduce its greenhouse gas and smog emissions.

Will the finance minister finally show today that the government is committed to clean air and Canadian industry by funding this very worthwhile project?

MARSTON URGES FUNDING OF STELCO CO-GENERATION PLANT
Co-generation an immediate “Clean Air” measure for Hamilton

Ottawa –Wayne Marston, MP (Hamilton East – Stoney Creek) challenged the Conservative government to take immediate actions to fund the proposed Stelco co-generation plant. In letters to the Ministers of Finance and Environment, Marston urged the Conservatives to fund this important project.

“Stelco’s re-structuring bid included a commitment for federal funding for a co-generation plant. The Conservatives have ignored that commitment.” said Marston “With a toothless Conservative Clean Air Act that needs to go to an all-party committee to be improved so it can pass, the co-generation plant is an easy, short-term measure that would have immediate impact on cleaning Hamilton’s air.”

PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator
PAGE: A13
BYLINE: Lisa Grace Marr

Drop in prices casts a chill over nation's labour unions

A second straight monthly decline in the price of raw materials and manufactured goods is putting a chill over labour organizations.

Prices charged by manufacturers were down 1.6 per cent in September after a .5 per cent drop in August, while raw materials were down 5.2 per cent after a 3.7 per cent decline a month earlier.

Statistics Canada, which released the figures yesterday, attributed the drop in the price of manufactured goods at the factory gate to sliding petroleum prices.

HOUSE OF COMMONS Hansard

Mr. Wayne Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today and speak to Bill C-28 and express many of the concerns raised in the Hamilton community around the budget.

This spring's budget saw the Conservative government essentially continue the Liberal income tax cut. The government added cuts to the GST and business taxes. It simply left what I would argue would be the most important social responsibilities to the province.

On the spending side, the government has all but turned its back on the Kelowna accord with aboriginal people, with only modest funding for housing. The government's decision to go beyond the GST cut and to proceed with further personal and corporate tax cuts is troubling. This will cause a significant shrinkage in government's fiscal capacity to invest in the aspirations of ordinary Canadians. It betrays their hopes in many ways.

HOUSE OF COMMONS
October 23rd, 2006

Road Race to Kenyan Relief
Mr. Wayne Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, as a result of a chance meeting between Joseph, an elite Kenyan runner and a Hamilton school teacher, John Smith, a year and a half ago, the Road Race to Kenyan Relief was founded.

On Friday morning I hosted a breakfast for a unique group of students and their teachers from Glen Brae Middle School in my riding.

I met Carissa and Zarwa who, as grade 8 students, organized a one hour walk/run-a-thon in April 2005 that raised $3,125. I met teacher John Smith who, with his students this past year, organized a similar walk/run-a-thon and raised a total of $7,000.

Excerpt from the House of Commons

Not to pick on just the Conservatives, but maybe to throw a little fire across the way to the former Liberals, it was in the 1990s, as we will recall, that the Liberal Party ran on a platform in the 1993 election saying that it would not support the GST and would cancel it. It would not sign NAFTA. I recall a full page newspaper ad that had five priorities of things it would and would not do and those were the top two on that list. Lo and behold, what did it do? It kept the GST and signed the free trade agreement and again workers in my city were sold down the river.