Downtown Eastside residents have struggled for over a decade to get the site at 58 W. Hastings for social housing for low-income community members. Led by Indigenous women community organizers, residents and supporters have marched through the streets, organized two tent cities including the 2010 Olympic tent city and 2016 tent city, guided tours with BC's new NDP Minister of Housing and Minister of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, held countless public meetings, demonstrations, and more. About 1,200 homeless people and 3,000 SRO residents live in the Downtown Eastside with no decent housing available for them at rents they can afford. Homeless people have about half the life expectancy of other people in society. Indigenous people, women and children fleeing violence, and other marginalized communities are more likely to experience homelessness. SRO living, where residents share washrooms with everyone on their floor, is not adequate: residents do not have private kitchens, have numerous rodents and bugs, and are often subject to abusive management. SRO residents and homeless people need decent, dignified social housing they can afford. Yet the Mayor and City of Vancouver are planning to reduce the amount of social housing from the promise 100% down to 30%. The plan to build over 200 units of housing in the DTES, with only 70 of them planned to be at welfare/pension rate, is a waste of good housing and further contributes to the gentrification of the DTES. A “social mix” building which includes expensive rentals will exacerbate market pressures on the neighbourhood, create higher rents for SRO residents, and generate the displacement of even more low income people from the DTES. On August 2, 2016, Mayor Gregor Robertson signed a commitment to build 100% welfare and pension rate, community-controlled social housing at 58 W Hastings. Since then, the city has reneged on its promise. Instead of a project that would provide over 300 units to low-income people, the city is moving along with a project that could provide as few as 70 units at a time with record high homelessness. Read more about the Our Homes Can’t Wait Coalition and our community vision for housing on 58 W Hastings here: www.carnegieaction.org/ourhomescantwait/

In a shocking move, on the eve of the transfer of power, while four of six Tsilhqot’in communities are evacuated due to raging wildfires, and while the communities have engaged in brave efforts to fight for their very survival, the Clark led British Columbian government has granted controversial drilling permits over the objections of the Tsilhqot’in. The Nation is outraged that the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines has issued permits to allow Taseko Mines Ltd. to conduct extensive pre-construction exploration for the New Prosperity mine proposal. This mine cannot be built. It was rejected twice by the Harper-era Federal Government in 2010 (Prosperity) and 2014 (New Prosperity) due to strong opposition by the Tsilhqot’in Nation and unacceptable environmental and cultural impacts. Chief Russell Myers Ross- “I am speechless at the timing of this insulting decision. It defies compassion that while our people are fighting for our homes and lives, BC issues permits that will destroy more of our land beyond repair. As a Nation, we have wasted enough time and energy in conflict. The project has been rejected twice federally. It is time to move on. As Tsilhqot'in, we are moving forward by establishing the Dasiqox Tribal Park based on our governance and values. The Provincial decision to permit further drilling is insulting. It demonstrates a serious attack on meaningful reconciliation. It is our responsibility to protect Nabas for our future generations.” Chief Joe Alphonse- "This is a typical move by the Liberal government. They are a dead political party trying to mount a dead horse and hoping to ride it to a come back." To learn more watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwjCeWF4rfM

Howe Sound is magical. Visitors and locals alike are drawn here by its wild natural beauty, recreational opportunities, and the vibrant communities we call home. However, Howe Sound is under threat from Woodfibre LNG, which proposes to construct and operate a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility on the previous Woodfibre Pulp and Paper Mill site located approximately 7 km west-southwest of Squamish. Why is Woodfibre LNG a problem? The project is owned by Sukanto Tanoto, an Indonesian billionaire that has been found guilty of tax evasion and human rights violations. LNG tanker traffic puts Howe Sound residents, Vancouver residents, and Victoria residents at risk, and the potential conflict between recreational sailors and LNG tankers has not been adequately addressed. Increased local air pollution will affect human health, particularly the elderly and kids with asthma. Underwater noise and light pollution will affect salmon migration routes, herring, and marine mammals. Locally, Woodfibre LNG will create nearly double the greenhouse gas emissions of all of Squamish. Woodfibre LNG's local and upstream greenhouse gas emissions are equivalent to adding 170,000 cars to the road. If Woodfibre LNG goes ahead, it will result in 24 new fracking wells per year in northeast B.C. My Sea to Sky is aiming to double the number of signatures we have on the Howe Sound Declaration by March 31st, so we can make Woodfibre LNG a provincial election issue. Please sign the Howe Sound Declaration now and ask your friends and family to sign too.

It is important not only to our people but to all Canadians who live under the poverty line giving those who need the financial security the motivation to make and do more allowing people the safety net allows for low income families to put better food on the table, takes the stress off some mentally and allows all canadians equal playing fields. Lets not forget that it will greatly reduce the strain on our financial assistance programs freeing up money that could be better allocated into health,education and other aspects of the government mandates. This program was attempted in the 70s and recieved great reviews and proved for some time the benefits of having guranteed income . PEI and Ontario both stated they would be rolling out pilot programs to aid in research of it and to see if it benefits in the long run . Ontario seems to be the only Province of the two taking it seriously and PEI being one of the poorest provinces in the country stated they would and now its time they do because i believe seeing impact in PEI is crucial to a national roll out of the program.

Last week, hundreds of TD bank employees blew the whistle on a toxic, predatory, and unethical sales culture within the bank. In a shocking CBC report, TD employees admitted to breaking the law by signing customers up for products they didn’t want, without their consent. Multiple sources within TD agree the problem starts at the top, with upper management pressuring bank employees to meet impossibly high targets, forcing TD employees to choose between breaking the law, or losing their job. [5] One employee described her manager standing behind her three times a day, pressuring her to sell more. Another employee said "I'm in survival mode now because it's a choice between keeping my job and feeding my family … or doing what's right for the customer." It’s time for government to step in and investigate TD. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) regulates national banks, but they only launch investigations in response to complaints. If thousands of us sign a petition calling FCAC to investigate TD, we can file the biggest complaint they’ve ever seen -- and trigger a massive investigation into TD’s shady practices. Sign the petition calling on our banking regulators to investigate TD now!

Canada Revenue has been selectively targeting over 4000 First Nations individuals in biased and unfair collection practices. Most of the individuals affected are women who were largely earning minimum wage, working under an employee leasing program that supplied personnel to work in off-reserve Native non-profit agencies that served the urban Aboriginal population. Over three quarters of these 4000 individuals are sole support mothers with modest incomes while the overwhelming majority worked in the off-reserve non-profit sector. Legal steps to clarify a Status Indians right to tax exemption has been going through the courts since 1983 and there is a last remaining case currently before the Federal Court of Appeal. A Remission Order Application under the Financial Administration Act has been filed with the Canada Revenue Agency where processing has unfortunately been stalled. In the meantime, pursuant to an aggressive tax collection policy mandated by the former government, Revenue Canada officials have been making significant and onerous demands on these First Nations individuals. Examples of actions against these individuals include: - Seizing $23,000 of a lump sum pension from a woman with cancer who's only other source of income is CPP. - Forcing a former Native Leasing Services employee to take out a $62,000 mortgage on her home to satisfy a tax bill that started out as $10,000. - Garnisheeing the CPP of a 68 year old widow who is currently on sick leave from her job at a Native Centre. - Forcing a 60 year old Dryden area woman into bankruptcy over a $2000 tax bill that ballooned to $21,000 with interest. Canada Revenue collectors even went to her bank in an attempt to broker a loan to pay off the tax bill. - Clawing back GST and child tax credits from a legally blind woman and her husband whose tax bill is nearly $100,000 - mostly interest.

In our clinical experiences we regularly see patients burdened by the cost of medicines and unable to fill their prescriptions. We know how aware of this you are from your medical practice too. We are shocked by how medication costs are determined in Canada. Canadian physicians, residents, and medical students expect healthcare policy in this country to be evidence-based, and we have placed our trust in you to do this. We have the evidence now that a National Pharmacare Strategy would be cost effective, eliminating a long standing barrier to implementation – the belief that a universal publicly funded pharmacare plan would be too expensive. The landmark 2015 article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal builds on an already robust literature base articulating the need for a National Pharmacare Strategy. The findings of this cost-benefit analysis are that universal public drug coverage would reduce total spending on prescription drugs in Canada by an estimated $7.3 billion [link to study]. Citizens need provincial and federal buy-in for a pan-Canadian solution. As you have said, we need to do things differently. We need to bargain more effectively and revisit our relationship with Big Pharma, not accepting price inflations that are then offloaded onto third party insurers and out of pocket payers. We need to purchase smarter through national bulk purchasing strategies in order to secure lower, more reasonable drug prices. We need to use the best available evidence under the guidance of objective academic drug detailing programs and harness our purchasing power to bring costs down. During the election, as doctors of tomorrow we sought federal leadership that would return to undertaking pan-Canadian healthcare responsibilities. We have new CMA leadership from a long-serving rural physician, Dr. Granger Avery who, at the Canada 2020 Summit on a new Health Accord reiterated the need for a National Pharmacare Strategy. The CMA has identified that Universal Pharmacare is an integral component of a high performing system that cannot be ignored; it is a tenet underpinning every area of healthcare and would have the most substantial impact of any changes made to our system. With the billions saved, funds could be redirected towards home care, care of the elderly, care of Indigenous populations, and comprehensive mental health services. Consistent with the universality and equitable accessibility promised by the Canada Health Act, a National Pharmacare Strategy would be the epitome of action to fulfill Prime Minister Trudeau’s words of establishing strong national unity. As you have said, the last time a doctor was the Minister of Health was perhaps nearly a century ago. We appreciate your efforts to take steps towards lowering costs that Canadians face for their medications. This includes working to install regulatory changes to the way drug prices are set in Canada, and working with the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. It is actionable steps like this that will pave the way toward Universal Pharmacare in our future. Yet, in order to most effectively move towards a goal, it needs to be stated with clarity and conviction. The current medico-political climate is unique, Dr. Philpott. We have informed physicians in leadership roles with awareness of evidence, relationship-building capacities to forge new alliances, and abilities to mobilize changemakers. We need to be bold and “think big” to make real change happen. Thus, we urge you to draw on your courage, seize this critical time in our Canadian history and commit to a National Pharmacare Strategy. If you don’t, who will? #makecanadianuniversalmedicareuniversal Visit a recent CBC Fifth Estate episode on Canada's Drug Problem (http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2016-2017/the-high-cost-of-phamaceuticals-canadas-drug-problem) and Minister Philpott's full interview (http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/blog/full-interview-with-minister-of-health-jane-philpott). See http://pharmacare2020.ca/ for additional information. Additional Reading: - Canada is the only country in the world that prides itself on universal healthcare, yet contradictorily does not have universal medication access. Canada has 19 publicly funded drug plans and over 1000 private insurance programs: a fragmented, non-equitable patchwork that leaves many uncovered. We spend 30% more on drugs than nations with Universal Pharmacare programs! - Canadians spend more than $700 US per capita for prescription, non-prescription, and personal health supplies, whereas the average per capita expenditure for OECD countries is $500. - In a recent Angus Reid Institute national survey nearly 1 in 4 Canadians did not take a prescribed medicine because she/he could not afford it. Food and shelter costs undermine medication costs when it comes to day-to-day survival. Inadequately treated chronic disease inevitably decompensates. Hospital admission for acute disease management then culminates in hefty inpatient costs. - Our generic drug prices are dependent on patented drug prices, established as the median of seven comparator OECD nations. This list includes the four places on the globe where drugs are most expensive. - Prices for the same medicines vary depending on province or territory of residence. In order to make drug prices more appealing to provincial and territorial governments, pharmaceutical companies artificially inflate prices to present the government with a “discount price,” whilst channeling the cost burden to third party insurers (10% higher costs compared to government costs) and most significantly to out of pocket purchasers, many of whom are the working poor. - Take the price of the common cholesterol medication, atorvastatin, which is cheapest in Ontario and costs 31 cents. Compare this to that same pill in New Zealand, which costs 2.6 cents!

TD Bank should be transparent in what it does with the money of its customers. I have deposited my hard earned money at TD Bank for many years and only recently discovered that TD Bank is using my money to support DAPL

Canada has to take action now to end its unfair and polluting subsidies to oil, gas, and coal companies. Canada's $3.3 billion in fossil fuel subsidies undermine the Paris Agreement’s climate change goals, and they even counteract attempts to put a price on carbon. Trying to put a price on carbon while still subsidizing fossil fuel production is like pouring water on the fire with one hand, while spraying gasoline on it with the other. It just doesn't make sense. The Trudeau government can act immediately with a commitment and a plan to get rid of these subsidies by 2020. Four years is more than enough time to wind down polluter handouts. Instead of subsidies that favour the wealthy, we need public investment that helps us move more quickly to sustainable solutions. Let’s put an end to fossil fuel subsidies.

I'm very curious about something and it has my mind boggled. Switch over parking from one side to the other and parking tickets. So today I get a ticket in my car at 9:10am as I am walking to my car. He is ticketing all cars that haven't moved to the other side. So I speak with him and say why would you be doing this when it is 9 in the morning and some people haven't even got up yet... Work schedules etc. He says don't ask me... Thy tell us to and then you can go down and get it cancelled. I'm confused at this point and he says yup. You have a valid parking tag in your windshield and if it's before noon you can have it canceled. So at this point I become increasingly angry (not at him) because basically what he is telling me is that they are pumping out these tickets at 50 bucks a pop and you only need to send it in or go there to have it cancelled. How many tax payer dollars are being wasted on this pathetic practice?! Let's see. There are thousands of cars being ticketed every switch over morning and hundreds or parking enforcement officers doing it and then the car owner can go get it cancelled so there is manpower there doing that side of it. He shook his head and said it makes no sense as bylaw says ticket and city says we will cancel it. What the actual heck??? This is insane to me that our tax dollars are being spent on staffing this. Absolutely nuts!!! It says right on the site that you can have a noon grace to have it cancelled. Doesn't anyone fine this infuriating?!?! Place a noon deadline bylaw and no forgiveness. The end!!! Unbelievable ... Millions of Tax dollars wasted! And we sit back and allow this to happen!! Outrageous!

Chinatown is under siege. A proposed market rate development on 105 Keefer Street threatens the cultural and economic fabric of Chinatown. “Our Chinatown is being bought up by developers. What’s going to be left in Chinatown for people like me when the dust settles?” protested Ivy Su, a resident in the neighbourhood. Ms. Su’s concerns are real. Vancouver Chinatown was not-so-honoured to be designated a Top 10 Endangered Places List according to the National Trust for Canada. Intense market development pressure has pushed small businesses out and housing costs up. Chinatown is really under siege. And now, to add insult to injury, Beedie Group proposes desecrating the cultural heart of Vancouver Chinatown with a dominating luxury high rise development at 105 Keefer Street. How is the 105 Keefer site at the heart of Vancouver Chinatown? It is surrounded by the culturally significant Chinese-Canadian war veterans and railway workers monument, the Chinese Cultural Centre and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. The site is close to the National Historic Site where important heritage buildings such as the Chinese Benevolent Association and the Chinese Freemasons are located. A luxury market development at this site would violate/disrespect Chinatown's distinct character as well as the livelihoods of the people living here. Gentrification is already severely overrunning the entire Downtown Eastside and the plan by the Beedie Group to build a complex at 105 Keefer will only worsen this problem, which we and groups dedicated to saving Chinatown have been battling against for the past few years. On the contrary, Chinatown residents and organizations are proposing the site be used for low-income seniors housing and an intergenerational community space. Ms. Su offers a brighter future: “We hope that the government will purchase the land to provide housing for us so that we are not without homes”. Ms. Su continues, “We’ve seen Chinatown change so much over the past years, but the changes are overwhelmingly for the higher income people moving in. We need more developments that meet our needs for affordable housing and for spaces to socialize with each other.” We can’t afford to lose more of our precious Chinatown! (Photo Credits: Christina Lee)

CETA is not in the interests of the Canadian People.