Mar
27
MP Report
By Denise Savoie
As another cruise ship season begins I have heard from representatives of James Bay about the on-going air quality concerns in the neighbourhood. I have taken this up with the Minister of Transport and conveyed the residents' desire for regular air quality monitoring and for the data to be more accessible to the public. James Bay is fortunate to have volunteers who have worked hard to keep this issue alive in the interest of ensuring the health and safety of residents.
I was reminded last month of the huge volunteer resource in our community when I hosted my annual celebration of International Women's Day. The Belfry was filled to capacity and I was heartened by all of the energy and inspiration in the room. There is still so much work to be done. The fight for equality is not a thing of the past. Women's bodies are still used to sell cars and beer, and violence against women remains a serious domestic and global problem.
The women who spoke at the event, which this year was titled Change-Makers, spoke about the pressure for industrial agriculture to take over all growing of food and about the pipeline breaks that already exist and that can be expected if a pipeline is allowed to carry oil across hundreds of British Columbia streams and through hundreds of kilometres of our fragile pristine coastline. They told us that if we're going to solve the complex issues that are before us then it has to begin in the way we listen and relate to each other, in a more compassionate way than what I experience every day in the House of Commons. If you missed this event, most of it is available to watch via my website at .
I was also honoured to speak at this year's annual general meeting of the Victoria Restorative Justice Society. Victoria is fortunate to have several active restorative justice groups. I learned once again about the large number of cases that are referred to restorative justice and are satisfactorily settled for both victims and offenders. It is unfortunate that this proven method to help victims find peace and rehabilitate offenders does not receive the investment it deserves in the Conservatives' crime legislation that was just rammed through the House of Commons, against all the experts' warnings that it will not make our communities safer.
It is also disappointing that the Conservatives' tough-on-crime agenda does not extend to the crime of elections fraud. Elections Canada has limited resources and a full-scale public inquiry is most certainly warranted on an issue that affects the foundation of our democracy.
As I write we are a couple of weeks from the next federal budget and we have just learned that the government will eliminate habitat protection for our oceans, that retirement security for future generations is at risk and that the successful eco-retrofit program has been cut. All signals point to more corporate tax cuts. These have not produced the promised jobs and are only serving to ensure the growing inequality in our society. My New Democrat colleagues and I will continue to work in the coming months to hold the government accountable for its poorly-conceived policies and its refusal to listen to Canadians.