Hello Eglinton-Lawrence!
On Saturday a gunmen entered the Tree of Life Synagogue and attacked the congregation during Shabbat services killing 11, and wounding 6 others including 4 police officers. Words cannot do justice to express the anguish felt by the Jewish Community after the mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh that led to the death of 11 innocent people. I stand firmly in solidarity with the Jewish community during this extremely difficult time and am praying for the victims, first responders and the entire community after these unspeakable acts of violence and antisemitism. Watch my statement in the House of Commons here.
This Sunday I hosted a roundtable discussion with the Minister for Seniors Filomena Tassi at the Columbus Centre. Hearing from members of the community about the issues that matter most to them led to an important conversation about how we are improving retirement security, healthcare, home-care, housing and other services for our seniors. Thank you to Minister Tassi and all those who participated.
This weekend, I was delighted to attend the North Toronto Group of Artists’ exhibition at Blessed Sacrament Church. We are fortunate to have many talents local artists in our community. On Sunday, I was honoured to present awards to recipients at the Filipino Centre Toronto’s 12th Annual Students Awarding Day. It was inspiring to see the amazing work being done by students at all stages of their education.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Environment Minister Catherin McKenna, and Finance Minister Bill Morneau were in Toronto last week to announce that Canadians living in Provinces that refuse to accept a price on carbon will be receiving tax rebates to help them transition to a cleaner, greener future. You can watch the full announcement on the Prime Minister’s Facebook page here.
Our Government knows that pollution is not free, and putting a price on pollution is one of the best tools we have to combat climate change. This is only one piece of our plan. We’re phasing out coal, protecting our oceans, and making investments in renewables and public transportation. Our Government remains resolved in combating climate change, and fighting for our children, and their grandchildren.
On August 21st, the Canadian Government launched the first ever National Poverty Reduction Strategy. This plan aims to achieve the ambitious but realistic goal of a 20% reduction of poverty in Canada by 2020, and a 50% reduction by 2030. Furthermore, we’re legislating the first ever national poverty line so that we can measure our success. We’ve already taken steps to achieve this goal by improving the CPP for the first time in 20 years, increasing the GIS, CCB, and OAS which will result in about 650,000 Canadians being lifted out of poverty by 2019
As always, my constituency office is open and here to help! Feel free to drop by, Monday-Friday from 10am-4pm OR call 416-781-5583
