​The Liberals’ budget allocation of $2.3 billion over 2 years for affordable housing comes at a crucial time – when most municipalities housing budgets are stretched to breaking and still the demand for affordable housing increases.
 
The “What We Heard” report states “A National Housing Strategy will align the efforts and resources of all players – governments, stakeholders in the private and non-profit sectors and others – toward improving housing outcomes for all Canadians.” “Stakeholders” seems to refer to the government, the private sector and the not for profit sector. Are the people who need housing lumped with “others”? If so, then the Government has muted an important voice in a National Strategy – the people who need affordable housing.
 
The focus on rental solutions is concerning because renting tends to keep people reliant on subsidies and does not help them build up equity they can then leverage. (Ironically, CMHC got its start by building small single family houses for WW2 vets.) We, in our submission to the Government’s consultation insisted that home ownership be part of the mix of solutions.
 
There are some encouraging statements implying that the government heard some good ideas …

• “Adequate housing is the cornerstone of a successful society. Poor housing places great stress on families and individuals and inflates costs in healthcare, social services and policing.”
• “Include the people you are trying to help. We are the experts”
• “The strategy requires affordable housing targets for specific populations including low income families and others with high levels of core housing need. It should be paired with a long-term funding commitment to create and retain existing affordable housing and to support capital repairs so that governments, non-profits and the private sector can plan with certainty.”
• “Canada needs to work hard to decrease the gap between the rich and the poor, and increase the socio-economic diversity in all neighbourhoods.”

 
There were other good ideas too, such as building more environmentally sustainable housing; changing building codes and zoning bylaws to allow increased densification; and allow for mixed use zoning and modifications to existing homes.
 
Some of what the government heard implies that the public is unaware of the push of some provinces, like Ontario, to build homes that are much more energy efficient. Ontario is committed to increasing the energy efficiency of new homes by 15% every 6 years with the goal of requiring net zero houses by 2030.
 
Affordable housing is an essential, but not isolated, social good. The need remains for legislation to equate the minimum wage to a living wage. It’s unfortunate the federal Government has decided against doing that for workers (such as bank employees) in sectors that fall under its jurisdiction. 
 
The tendency of governments today to privatize utilities (eg, Hydro One in Ontario) drastically increases shelter expenses for all citizens. The people who pay the most as a result of privatization policies (especially the Hydro One decision) are those in rural communities such as Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound.
 

​I attended the last Provincial Council for the Ontario NDP. As the second day rolled around I was feeling somewhat frustrated with what seemed to be a lack of what a gentleman at the ON NDP’s Southwest Council meeting referred to as the “Bigger Story.” It was part of a question he put to Andrea Horwath and he added that we had to learn from our defeat in the last federal election (and the last Provincial election too).
 
At Provincial Council, a speaker was introduced as the new national director of the NDP. His name was Robert Fox. As he began to speak, the usual chatter which often occurs around tables at a convention was going on, but not for long. Within a couple of minutes everyone in the room was silent and fully attentive.
 
This man, in a calm and direct way then proceeded to communicate with what I will call the healthier part of me and, I believe, most of the people in that hall. His message was compassionate, clear and direct, full of purpose and determination. It gave me hope. It made me realize that I was not alone in feeling the need for courage to face the task of reining in corporate power and reducing the harmful tendencies that have grown to be a subconsciously accepted part of our society.
 
As he spoke, I felt the enthusiasm and revitalization of many others in the room who I think may have been feeling some of the same discouragement that I had been feeling.
 
When he finished many got up and expressed their gratitude and one man his regret that Robert was not running for the leadership of the Party. I couldn't agree with him more. If you get the chance, read what he writes and listen to what he says. Perhaps it will give you the encouragement that I got to carry on trying to make this country a better place to live.
 

​Payday loans. The Ontario liberals sought the public’s opinion on new regulations for payday loan companies. So we told them to scrap their minimum wage and legislate a living wage; and to authorize an institution to provide small, low interest loans. Our submission on payday loans is on our website. Just click here.
 
Under Ontario’s new Putting Consumers First Act the Province will deliver very weak changes to payday loan regulations. It will reduce interest charges on a $100-dollar loan by a whopping 3 points to 18% (from 21%) for a 14-day loan. They will also give you more time to pay it back and oblige you to wait longer before you can get another loan. This amounts to no real change at all and it gives the usury industry the colour of right. Neo-liberal incremental change doesn’t do the job.
 
It is vitally important to keep up the call for a living wage because, with the hint of a Basic Guaranteed Income (ON will start a pilot project soon), comes the temptation to let the government pay to eliminate poverty. In other words, BIG will become a public subsidy for private profit.
 
Electoral Reform. My submission had one main purpose: to prevent Mr Miller from claiming that everyone in this riding wanted to keep first past the post. That was the result he obtained from his own ‘consultation’ – a one-hour phone-in ‘town hall.’ No one on that call said they wanted change, but then no one with contrary opinions and who dialled in got a chance to speak. In two subsequent public meetings (one in Paisley and another in Owen Sound) all but one person said they did not want to keep first past the post. Most opted for proportional representation of some sort. You can view the submission to the federal government’s Committee on Electoral Reform on our website, or click here.
 
Karen Gventer (our Secretary) who was also waiting to be heard during Mr Miller’s ‘town hall’ wrote the media about that consultation which helped prompt a rather weak public response from the MP. Her letter was an important signal to the media that Mr Miller’s view does not always reflect his constituency. Letters to the editor help. The next time something outrages you, write a letter and send a copy to us at team@bgos-ndp.ca.
 
Affordable Housing. We responded to another federal consultation, this one on the future of public housing. There are a lot of good people with a great deal of expertise among BGOS NDP members and we tapped a couple for this exercise. Jacquie Schwan is a former Executive Director of Supportive Housing for Toronto and then Grey-Bruce. Gord Lawson, a contractor and home builder in the Bruce Peninsula, has a passion for inexpensive, but environmentally sound housing. And myself, a former member of the Board of Directors for Main-Gerrard Co-op in Toronto.
 
We pooled our combined 70 years of housing experience to come up with 7 recommendations. In a nutshell we argued for sustained funding from all levels of government and that governments should build co-op housing in fairly dense areas (eg, Hanover, Owen Sound, Meaford) but small, energy-efficient single units in rural areas. You can access our 14-page submission from the www.gos-ndp.ca website or by clicking here.
 
Trans-Pacific Partnership. The federal government held a long public consultation on this trade agreement. Our submission to the House Committee on International Trade focussed on Chapters 18 and 26 of the TPP – Intellectual Property (IP) and Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions. We agree with Jim Balsillie, the creator of the Blackberry, that Canada is not prepared to take innovative ideas into an international marketplace. We also discovered that Canada has not fared well in trade disputes and we give some examples of that.
 
We are not anti-trade; but we do want to maintain Canadian sovereignty from the threat of corporate trade suits. And we do not see any real economic advantage in the TPP. Our conclusion:
Given that our manufacturing sector remains sluggish in spite of our low dollar and the US recovery, this pivot [from trade agreements to building our own innovative economy] becomes even more important if the current government wants to get its own population back into well-paying jobs.
The first step in this process would be to refuse to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The second step would be for the federal government to create an ecosystem in which Canadian innovation can mature and bear fruit.
 
Check out our evidence and reasoning by clicking here.

​Review by Danuta Valleau

​The Illustrated History of the Chippewas of Nawash is essentially a graphic novel, researched, written and drawn by Polly Keeshig-Tobias, a member of the Chippewas of Nawash.
 
Published in 1996 it is both artful and unique in its telling of a sequence of historical events beginning with the 1836 Treaty to the trial of two band members in 1992 for exceeding their quota of lake trout. This is a story of belonging to the land and losing it piece by piece through coercion, oppression and theft. The book ends with victory in the courts: Howard Jones and Francis Nadjiwon are acquitted and Ontario’s fisheries management regime is overthrown. Now the FNs are managing the commercial fishery – as they have for the past millennium or so.
 
Polly begins with two teens who come home from school with an assignment to write an essay on a person or event in Canadian history. Their grandmother suggests they do a paper on their Band, the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, a history the two know nothing about since it’s not in their history books. The ask their Nokomis to tell it.
 
The 89-page book is well researched and the appendices provide the background to an engaging and troubling portrayal of the key events that led to the loss of tribal lands and economy (ie, the fishery). As each episode ends we return to Nokomis who starts another story.
 
We see how a growing population of settlers in the 19th Century wanted more land and how government agents moved to take over land and fisheries that only appeared to be unused. In reality, the land and the water had been managed intelligently for generations by indigenous peoples who knew from experience how to take care of the resources they depended on. 

​This history relates the stories of treaties written without the input of the chiefs; of Catherine Suttons and her fruitless journey to England to seek justice from Queen Victoria; of the 1992 vigil by band members on sacred burial grounds at 6th Ave in Owen Sound; of the loss of fishing rights to non-natives; and of the imposition of unjustified quotas that favoured the non-Native industry and discriminated against Nawash and Saugeen who had relied on fishing for their food and livelihood.
 
This publication is a good read. The illustrations are wonderfully executed and the information it contains remains current. As the late Dr. Basil Johnston said: “This book deserves to be in classrooms.”

​Michael McLuhan, EDA President
This past month, I have been travelling about in Australia. It is frightening to see so many similarities with the situation in North America. The neoliberal agenda is alive and well here. There is also the Australia First Party, with a blatantly racist agenda. These movements are gaining traction everywhere. Unless we’re vigilant, it won’t be long for Canada to have one. The Liberal Party here is right wing; the Labour Party occupies the centre right. The Green Party has the left to itself. There is no equivalent to the NDP.
 
With Conservative radicals like Kellie Leitch running for that party’s leadership, it is a short walk down the garden path to a Canada First party – or a more radical Conservative Party. This is not alarmist. Trump’s victory has given the alt-right a new voice unopposed by the more moderate elements of the right. We must not allow intolerance to become normalized, or excused, or allow to go unchallenged. It is more important than ever to spread the NDP message.
 
So how are the Liberals doing in Canada? Here is a fun, useful nonpartisan website:  https://www.trudeaumetre.ca/. It attempts to keep track of how they are living up to their pre-election swagger.
 
And you can see our collection of Liberal backsliding on twitter at #NBisSOB (New Boss is Same as the Old Boss – apologies to the Who).
  
On the climate portfolio, Don Martin of CTV news points to their commitment to climate change, especially now that the Liquid Natural Gas line, andthe Trans Mountain pipeline and Enbridge’s Line 3 approved in BC will swamp any gains Canada makes with the phase out of coal and a new carbon tax. Increasingly, it looks as though, contrary to Mr Trudeau’s balancing act between the economy and the environment, he will not be able to have his cake and eat it too.
 
Even the National Post (well Andrew Coyne at least) is starting to point at the gap between what the Liberals say and what they deliver.
 
One area of big concern is how they are squandering the opportunity to set things right with First Nations: failed consultations on development on treaty lands, disparity in education funding for kids, to name just two. More than a year after taking office, children are still being denied the educational resources that non-Native Canadians access everywhere. Mr Trudeau, that is not good enough. It is a continuation of the systemic racism fostered by the two ruling parties for over a century. Enough!
 
Thanks to Charlie Angus, these things are not falling off the table and rolling out of sight. I am pleased to hear that he might run for the NDP’s leadership.
 
On electoral reform, they say there is no consensus even though most of the submissions they’ve received favour proportional rep. A recent Angus Reid poll shows almost an even split between those who want to keep first past the post and those who want change; the change they want is prop rep. Now Minister Maryam Monsef is saying no reform until enough Canadians want it. Remember, the Liberals promised 2015 would be the last year for First Past the Post – they were elected, in part, on that promise. Is that not referendum enough? Citizens in Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound have held at least 4 public forums on electoral reform in the past year or so. At the two most recent forums, only one person said they wanted FPTP to continue.
 
And speaking of consultations, we have submitted 4 papers to Liberal governments in response to their calls for public consultation on payday loans, the need for public housing and on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. See below for details.


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On Nov. 15th, some 200 people from Saugeen FN and Southampton met at the bridge over the Saugeen River to show solidarity with Standing Rock.
​David McLaren and MaryAnn Wilhelm walked with them.
Finally, I just want to say I stand with Standing Rock. We have only a little time left to get off fossil fuels (about 17 years) before we pass a point of no return – when global warming goes into an unstoppable, self-perpetuating loop. The assembly of tribes from the US and First Nations from Canada in North Dakota might be the last wake-up call we’ll get. If you want to know what’s really going on (you won’t find the whole story in the mainstream media) here are some sites. Click on the names to get there:

• Life in the Sioux camps & some action at head of pipeline.
• The battle on the bridge during a frigid November night.
• The legal issues behind the dispute favour the Dakota Sioux.
• The money behind the Dakota Access Pipeline is huge and includes Canadian banks.
• The twitter feed (because facebook is taking down posts): #NoDAPL.
• Standing Rock in the context of world indigenous struggles to protect the land.
• Contribute to the legal defence fund (some 500 people have been arrested so far).
• Help sustain the main camp of the Dakota Sioux. (over $2 million raised so far)

 The army has said it will close the camp on December 5th which happens to be the birthday of General George Armstrong Custer. Local police are already preventing supplies from entering the camp. Over 2000 US veterans are planning on joining the Water Protectors in solidarity. I hope for the best, but fear the worst.