With Canadians heading to the polls on Sept. 20, 2021, the NOW has sent Q&As to each candidate listed in Burnaby South and Burnaby North-Seymour.
The same Q&A has been sent to each candidate and answers have not been changed or altered.
BURNABY SOUTH - JAGMEET SINGH - NDP PARTY OF CANADA
Question: What are your thoughts on the TMX pipeline project? Should it go ahead? Why or why not?
Answer: I've always been opposed to it. I remain opposed to it. I'm worried about what it means for tanker traffic, what it means for the whales, what it means for Indigenous communities, I have been opposed to it and I remain [opposed].
Question: What are your views on a snap election being called two years since 2019 and during the start of a 4th COVID-19 wave in Canada?
Answer: This is a really bad decision. This was the wrong thing to do and there was a vote in parliament in June or early summer, and the vote was whether we should have an election during the pandemic and in that vote, 327 MPs voted that we should not have an election in the pandemic.
And one person voted that we should have an election. Out of those 327 people that voted not to have an election, Justin Trudeau was one of them.
He himself voted and committed to not having an election in this pandemic and then he turned around and called an election. That is an example again of him breaking his word, walking away from his commitment.
Question: What will you and your party do to address the housing situation, especially in the Metro Vancouver area?
Answer: We can do something about this. So again, I mean, the problem is that we have got the evidence in front of us and this crisis is only gotten worse since Justin Trudeau came to power.
In the last six years, the national average price for housing has gone up by $300,000 since Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015.
What we've said is we've met people who tell us that they cannot imagine ever owning a home. It's just unimaginable and it's just not something they think they can do.
That to me is wrong. It shouldn't be that young people, young professionals just think that it's not in the books for them. I think that's wrong and on top of it, people can't even find a place to rent that's affordable.
We want to take this crisis on and we want to take it on because it's impacting people not just here in B.C. and the Lower Mainland, it's actually impacting people everywhere in the country.
Our plan is two big things.
One is we want to get the big money out of the housing. People are using the housing market to kind of flip and playing it like a stock market and that's wrong, that should not happen.
We also know that organized crime and money laundering are driving up the cost of housing.
So we would tackle those at the federal level which is the place to do it.
We would invest significantly and seriously to build half a million new homes that are affordable and in people's budgets.
Question: What are your views on climate change? What will you/your party do to address the worsening situation?
Answer: Justin Trudeau missed every single target he set. He said he was going to cancel fossil fuel subsidies and then he increased them by $900 million.
He's been the worst leader when it comes to climate crisis among all of the G7 nations. He is the only leader of a G7 nation who has increased emissions every year since he's been in power.
So we would do the exact opposite. We would fight this climate crisis. We would invest in people. We would create good jobs. We would invest in renewable energy and retrofitting homes. We would take on the biggest polluters.
Question: What do you currently think of the federal government’s COVID-19 response?
Answer: If they were doing it on their own, if they were left to their own devices, then it would have been a horrible response.
The only reason why the response was able to actually get help to people is because we were there. We fought to bring in CERB. The Liberals didn't want to do that. Then they started it at $1,000 and we said that's not good enough, it's got to be at least $2,000.
They started the wage subsidy at 10% and we fought to increase it to 75%, every step of the way, we fought to get more help to more people and because of us, millions of Canadians were able to get through this difficult time, millions of jobs were saved, we did that.
We brought in a federal paid sick leave and again, these were things that the Liberals weren't willing to do and we made happen.
Question: Why should voters vote for you? What would you say to those undecided and debating not voting at all?
Answer: If you want to make the billionaires pay their fair share and invest in a better life for people, if you want to tackle the housing crisis and if you believe that New Democrats will be there for you to invest in health care and make a difference in your life, to get any of these things, you need to vote.
It's not going to happen unless you vote. If you want something different, you've got to vote New Democrat.
You've got to make a plan, call a friend, set a date and just go out and vote.
