Affordable housing is a top concern for Waterloo voters. Here's where federal candidates stand on the issue
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Reverse changes to two-tier Rent Assist: prof who helped design program
One of the designers of Manitoba's Rent Assist program a decade ago says changes made under the former Tories need to be reversed in order for the NDP government's homelessness strategy to work. The program was set up by then-NDP premier Greg Selinger in 2014 to support people transitioning from 'welfare to work,' while also increasing benefits for those who rely on government supports for their income, said University of Manitoba economics and labour studies associate professor Jesse Hajer. In the years since, changes to the program have seen benefits clawed back, which has made it more difficult for low-income Manitobans to make ends meet, Hajer said. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES University of Manitoba economics and labour studies associate professor Jesse Hajer says changes made to Manitoba's Rent Assist program under the former Tories need to be reversed in order for the NDP government's homelessness strategy to work. RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES University of Manitoba economics and labour studies associate professor Jesse Hajer says changes made to Manitoba's Rent Assist program under the former Tories need to be reversed in order for the NDP government's homelessness strategy to work. In a report released Thursday for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Hajer, who was on the planning and priorities committee of cabinet while Selinger was in power, noted the Rent Assist shortcomings will make it difficult for the NDP to meet its goal of ending chronic homelessness by 2031. The report calls on the province to reverse changes to Rent Assist made by the previous Progressive Conservative government that discriminated 'between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, by introducing higher benefits for those not' on social assistance. 2015 $806 2016 $852 2017 $877 2018 $912 2019 $947 2020 $982 2021 $1,000 2022 $1,030 2023 $1,080 2024 $1,149 — source: CMHC Rental Market Survey 'Rent Assist is an important benefit with a wide reach in Manitoba,' Hajer said in an interview. 'Low-income Manitobans have been hurt the most by high inflation in recent years, including rapidly increasing rents.' Manitoba's Your Way Home strategy, unveiled in January, relies on moving people from encampments into social housing, while moving those in social housing into the private market. If those being moved out of social housing cannot afford private market rent, the strategy risks housing some while creating homelessness for others, the report says. When Brian Pallister's Tories came into power after the 2016 election, they increased the proportion of net income that people were expected to pay towards rent to 30 per cent from 25 per cent. A few years later, after calls for a Rent Assist increase, the province increased the percentage of median market rent to which Rent Assist was indexed to 77 per cent for those on social assistance and 80 per cent for low-income workers, essentially creating a two-tier program. Hajer said reversing those cuts and returning to a model where maximum benefits are the same for all eligible Rent Assist recipients would help a large amount of people quickly. In Winnipeg, the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment has increased 35 per cent over the last decade, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Rental Market Survey shows. 'Until a massive amount of new social housing is built,' programs like Rent Assist are needed to keep the housing affordability crisis from getting worse, Hajer said. PC housing, homelessness and addictions critic Carrie Hiebert defended the stance of providing higher benefits to Manitobans not on social assistance. 'We are encouraging independence, resilience and empowerment,' Hiebert said in a statement. 'Our goal should always be to encourage a path forward for our families, friends and loved ones to make sure meaningful employment and secure housing are within their reach.' Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith was not available for an interview, but a prepared statement provided Friday said: 'Our government is investing in social housing, supporting renters, and ensuring Manitobans have safe, affordable, and dignified homes.' The statement noted the PCs cut Rent Assist while this year's provincial budget increased the program by $27.8 million. Hajer's report said in 2019, under the PCs, Rent Assist cash benefits to Manitoba's low-income renters increased to $140 million from $100 million, when the program was fully implemented by the NDP in 2016. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. The government said Friday that it has restored the renter's tax credit cut and blamed the PCs for selling off social housing units. (The Tories sold 387 units to for-profit companies, including 374 units at 185 Smith St. for $16.2 million and 13 units at 356 Assiniboine Ave. for $1.45 million). 'Expanding the supply of non-market housing needs to be the priority,' said Right to Housing Coalition member and University of Winnipeg chair of urban and inner-city studies Prof. Shauna MacKinnon. 'Rent assist should not be the default and it should not be expanded in the absence of strong rent regulations,' said MacKinnon. 'It is too easy for landlords to increase rates to Rent Assist levels, which we know is happening and especially problematic for the lowest income renters who end up paying ridiculous rents for substandard housing.' Rent assist report Carol SandersLegislature reporter Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol. Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Vancouver Sun
4 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
From hotels, to wine and candy: Canada spent $170K to bring back women who joined Islamic State
The federal government spent more than $170,000 to bring Canadian women and their children back to the country after they went overseas to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, documents show. As first reported by Global News , the documents, which were released under access to information legislation, contain details of the costs incurred when eight women, along with their children, were brought home from Syria. They include costs for business class air travel and hotel bills in Montreal that include wine, candy and chocolates. A number of the women have since been charged with terrorism offences. On Friday, the Conservatives called for an investigation into the expenditures in a letter addressed to Jean-Yves Duclos, the chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Global News reported. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'With Canadians lining up in food banks in record numbers and struggling with housing costs, the Liberal government must answer for why they spent $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals,' the letter reportedly says. The Conservative party did not respond by press time to National Post's request for comment. The first round of repatriations, completed in October 2022, cost $10,863, according to the documents from Global Affairs Canada. Canadians Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay were returned to the country in that operation. Polman is facing terrorism charges and Chouay pleaded guilty last month to one charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group . The second operation, which occurred in April 2023, cost $132,746 in expenses for government staff and those returned to Canada. Not all the expenses are detailed in the documents, but the total cost includes $20,331 for 23 hotel rooms at the Marriott hotel at the Montreal Airport, including room-service bills and a catering tab of nearly $3,000. At the time, four Canadian women — three of whom were arrested upon arrival — and their 10 children were returned to Canada, The Canadian Press reported . Among that group was Edmontonian Aimee Lucia Vasconez, who was married to two different ISIS fighters, according to an affidavit filed in court by an RCMP officer. Another, Ammara Amjad, was also arrested and faces a terrorism charge . Individual bills show that one room cost nearly $1,100, driven up from the original room cost of $638 by purchases of $95 worth of wine, a $105 room-service meal and $87 worth of items from the hotel gift store, including chocolate, chips and drugs such as Benadryl and Reactine. That same room tipped $7 on an $8 coffee. Another room ordered $15 worth of children's ice cream, and a third ordered white, red and sparkling wine at $25 apiece. One room's food bill included two $24 smoked meat dishes. The third repatriation operation, done in early July 2023, cost more than $27,500 and saw a government of Canada employee purchase snacks, including goldfish and granola bars, from Costco, and Timbits from Tim Hortons, for the operation. Hotel rooms in Montreal cost a bit more than $2,300. Two Edmonton women, Dina Kalouti and Helena Carson, were among that group. Both have been sentenced to six-month peace bonds and they are required to continue counselling with the Edmonton-based Organization for the Prevention of Violence (OPV), which provides programming for people seeking to leave extremist groups. The documents redact a number of details, and 50 pages were not released, as they are under consultation. The documents do not appear to account for the costs of actually flying to Syria to get the women from detention camps; they include only the costs of transferring them within Canada. Global Affairs Canada did not respond to National Post's requests for comment by press time. A number of Canadian women travelled to the Middle East when the Islamic State seized territory in Iraq and Syria more than a decade ago. However, the terrorist group lost much of its territory, and Canadians who had been living and fighting with the Islamic State were held in detention camps. This led to a major push, particularly from the United States, to have nations repatriate their citizens who were held in Syria. In 2023 alone, the U.S. state department reported under then U.S. president Joe Biden, 14 countries — Canada among them — repatriated 3,500 citizens from where they were detained. Overall, the administration reported that nearly 7,000 family members of foreign fighters had been repatriated by 30 countries. The U.S. bureau of counterterrorism warned in December 2023 that more than half of those held in camps were under the age of 12 and if they remained, they would become vulnerable to ISIS recruitment, perhaps fuelling a resurgence of the terrorist group. — With addition reporting by the Edmonton Journal and The Canadian Press Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .
Calgary Herald
4 hours ago
- Calgary Herald
From hotels, to wine and candy: Canada spent $170K to bring back women who joined Islamic State
Article content The federal government spent more than $170,000 to bring Canadian women and their children back to the country after they went overseas to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, documents show. Article content As first reported by Global News, the documents, which were released under access to information legislation, contain details of the costs incurred when eight women, along with their children, were brought home from Syria. They include costs for business class air travel and hotel bills in Montreal that include wine, candy and chocolates. A number of the women have since been charged with terrorism offences. Article content Article content Article content On Friday, the Conservatives called for an investigation into the expenditures in a letter addressed to Jean-Yves Duclos, the chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Global News reported. Article content Article content 'With Canadians lining up in food banks in record numbers and struggling with housing costs, the Liberal government must answer for why they spent $170,000 on lavish costs to repatriate reported ISIS criminals,' the letter reportedly says. Article content The first round of repatriations, completed in October 2022, cost $10,863, according to the documents from Global Affairs Canada. Canadians Kimberly Polman and Oumaima Chouay were returned to the country in that operation. Polman is facing terrorism charges and Chouay pleaded guilty last month to one charge of participating in the activities of a terrorist group. Article content Article content The second operation, which occurred in April 2023, cost $132,746 in expenses for government staff and those returned to Canada. Article content Article content Not all the expenses are detailed in the documents, but the total cost includes $20,331 for 23 hotel rooms at the Marriott hotel at the Montreal Airport, including room-service bills and a catering tab of nearly $3,000. At the time, four Canadian women — three of whom were arrested upon arrival — and their 10 children were returned to Canada, The Canadian Press reported. Article content Individual bills show that one room cost nearly $1,100, driven up from the original room cost of $638 by purchases of $95 worth of wine, a $105 room-service meal and $87 worth of items from the hotel gift store, including chocolate, chips and drugs such as Benadryl and Reactine.
