Workers' rights abuses must be taken seriously by the City Council. With the upcoming municipal election, future City Council members need to be aware that this issue is one that needs to be on their agenda. The longer that the City of Vancouver takes to properly enforce its Ethical Purchasing policy, the longer it fails to support the rights of workers. For example, in 2021, the Workers Rights Consortium reported that two employees from Palm Apparel and Sewing International had died due to the companies' refusal to pay legally mandated medical benefits. One woman (and her newly born child) died due to lack of access to maternity care. The hospital told her that she would need to pay more than five months' wages for the care she and her child needed, all because Palm Apparel did not bother to pay its employees' healthcare coverage. The City of Vancouver has contracts with both Palm Apparel and Sewing International. However, due to the passive complaints-based approach, the City was not immediately aware of these infractions and therefore could not work with either company to meet the ethical purchasing policy in a timely manner. The lack of support (and seemingly awareness) for workers' rights internationally is disheartening. People should not have to die to bring attention to these abuses, and yet the City of Vancouver has not acted regardless of these deaths. The City of Vancouver must take a stronger and more pro-active approach to ethical purchasing.

Earlier this year, Premier Ford prematurely ended universal mask protections in Ontario. The result has been a catastrophe - an overburdened healthcare system, thousands of COVID hospitalizations, an increasing toll on the economy. [1,2] When school boards resisted the move, Ford stripped them of the ability to set their own COVID policies and forced them to end mask protections - needlessly infecting more kids. [3] Now, with cases still high and a fall surge looming - and in the total absence of any effective government response - school boards must be equipped to take care of their students. Doug Ford must lift the prohibition on school boards setting their own COVID policies, and allow them to reinstate masking and other protections for themselves based on conditions locally. Sources: [1] CTV: "The COVID-19 pandemic continues, and it contributes to Ontario’s growing number of health system crises," https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-science-table-to-be-dissolved-next-month-as-director-warns-that-pandemic-will-continue-to-be-a-daunting-challenge-1.6043546 [2] CIBC: "Dropping mask mandates may actually be working to prolong COVID's economic costs" https://economics.cibccm.com/cds?id=69e88cfb-7f52-4ff4-b8e9-f52fd983a1df&flag=E [3] CTV: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/03/11/tdsb-mandatory-mask-extension/

Poor housing and homelessness is costly for cities and taxpayers. The average monthly costs of shelter beds are $1,932, almost ten times higher than the average monthly cost of social housing of $199.92. In addition, homeless people and those poorly housed have a higher rate of illness. The monthly cost of a hospital bed is $10,900. Preventing eviction is often the most effective way to prevent homelessness. If the next Owen Sound mayor and city council chooses to continue to be inactive in addressing attainable housing and homelessness, they must be held accountable for the additional individual and societal costs to health and justice services associated with an increase in homelessness. Join the Movement! Add your voice to hundreds of neighbours and community members who want our next City Council to support a bold vision for solving Owen Sound's housing and homelessness crisis - starting with an Affordable Housing and Homelessness Plan.

To whom and all it may concern, There are many many reasons to go ahead with the Green Line and to have more bus routes, stops, and buses running more frequently. If you don’t have a car getting from point A to point B takes an enormous about of time, almost all day, and a lot of energy. Moreover, a more rapid way to get around leans to a reduction in violent crimes – less of an opportunity, and, likely, for the same reason, less sexual assaults committed by strangers. Furthermore, a greater, more efficient public transit system will hopefully inspire people to use their cars less. If this happens it will likely lead to a significant decrease in Greenhouse emissions, which helps the environment, and less traffic accidents, which would significantly decrease health care energy and costs related to car accidents. If those are not good enough arguments here are more... A more efficient, rapid, transit system gives many students more time to study, and thus increases the potential these students have to succeed. It gives more time for families to be together, it helps to enable people to get more done, it may even help many people not only get more done but significantly be more productive and work more conscientiously overall because people can get home earlier and therefore sleep more. As far as work in concerned, finally, it helps many people have more time to work at their job as it has the potential, for many people, to lower the frequency people arrive to work late. I’m sure there are more reasons but at the moment these are all I can come up with, and don’t think they are bad reasons. Thank you for taking the time to read this. May all of you stay safe and well, Michaelle Tuz-Atkinson

The Rideau Regional Centre was closed in 2009. At the city’s homeless shelters, some studies have found the percentage of long-term residents with a mental or developmental disability to be as high as 70 per cent. We can do better than that.

Children are being hit, smacked, kicked and pinched by their parents everyday in Canada. In other countries that have banned corporal punishment, new support became available for all parents to learn more safe and effective ways to discipline. In Canada, we wait until it is too late to support parents who are at risk of abusing children. We wait until children are struggling from trauma to support them. Canada is not proactive. We are failing families.

Our children's life is in danger!! The Taliban is the most misogynist regime on the planet today, committing large-scale human rights violations, establishing a system of total gender apartheid, and specifically targeting those they see as promoting “western” values. As Canadians, we must now hold our government accountable for the harmful consequences of their actions internationally and call on PM Trudeau, Minister Fraser, and IRCC to fulfill a moral obligation to save as many lives as possible.

If Ontario government cannot be stopped from building the unnecessary Bradford bypass, which many Ontarians strongly oppose because of its irreparable harm to the huge Holland River/Marsh natural drainage, then the environmental damage must be mitigated by building it to best available technology (BAT) and therefore MUST USE ONLY THE LATEST LONG BRIDGE TECHNOLOGY DESIGNED BY STANTEC AND NOW EMPLOYED BY U.S. ARMY ENGINEERS FOR BRIDGING WETLAND SLOUGHS IN THE FLORIDA EVERGLADES. (See photo). We demand latest long-bridge tech as an environmental minimum for any Bradford Bypass project we otherwise continue to reject. WE ALSO SUPPORT THE EXTRA COST OF THIS ESSENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT, if the project is ever built. SEE: Shark River Slough: Bridges Help Bring Water Into Thirsty Everglades Park | WUSF Public Media

There's alternatives to short flight that have a lower carbon footprint and these alternatives should be used.

We look to the next Premier to lead us to climate solutions so we can inspire others, and create resilient communities across BC. As members of the BC NDP, we call on all candidates to sign this pledge, to commit to real climate action and to stand by this commitment as Premier of B.C. How this works: Leadership candidates who sign this pledge commit to enact these commitments once sworn in as Premier. NDP Members commit to only vote for a leadership candidate who signs this pledge before November 30th, 2022. If you’re not a member yet, sign up before September 4th, 2022 so that you can have a voice in this election and help choose the next Premier: http://bcndp.ca/join Email us at [email protected] with the heading “climate pledge” to sign up for the climate first voting bloc and stay informed. Note: Ashley Zarbatany is the chair of the BC NDP's Standing Committee on the Environment and Economy (SCOEE). The action items were prioritized and revised democratically as a committee with input from broader membership as well.

If you live in Ontario, this may be one of the most important petitions you sign this year... Only massive urgent transformational change can solve the climate emergency we are in. This will not happen on its own. It will take every one of us working together to push for critical change … but it can be done! The steep price of oil and gas has driven up the cost of transportation, food and other essentials, making life unaffordable. These same fossil fuels also worsen the climate emergency causing tornadoes, floods, extreme heat, droughts and wildfires. And they produce deadly air pollution which already kills 6600 Ontarians prematurely every year [1]. The clear and cheapest solution is green renewable energy. Unbelievably, the Ontario government instead is planning a massive increase in gas-fired electricity, burning even more fossil fuels [2] - an unacceptable move that will threaten all our futures. While Ontarians are struggling to put food on the table and find affordable housing, this government has been in lock-step with mega land-developers making multi-million dollar profits while they consume our dwindling precious farmland, green spaces and wetlands, ignoring protective regulations in some areas, to promote harmful unnecessary highways [3,4] and urban sprawl [5]. The result: fewer, oversized, expensive, and more isolated car-dependent homes consuming more fossil fuels and land for the few who can afford, while further deepening the climate crisis, fatal air pollution, housing shortages and food insecurity. It doesn’t have to be this way! The solutions for the healthy thriving future we all deserve already exist. If our government chooses to ignore solutions, it’s up to every Ontarian to pay attention, to stand up for ourselves and our loved ones urgently, and demand the Government of Ontario take urgent climate action while we still have time to secure a livable future: 1) Sign this petition to demand government accountability for an urgent climate action plan 2) Sign on to the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign (OCEC) at: https://www.ontarioclimateemergency.ca/individual-pledge and share widely — join over 250 diverse groups and individuals representing over 850,000 Ontarians to increase your impact in calling for positive urgent change to protect your future 3) Use your vote - every single election! And get others to vote for pro-environmental candidates in every future election. With the lowest voter turnout in history for the June 2022 Ontario provincial election, the current majority government actually represents only 18% of all eligible voters [6]. Local level decisions have a huge impact. Voting at every level of government matters to our everyday lives like never before - add your voice because your future is truly at stake and your vote can make the difference! Connect with the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign on social media! https://twitter.com/ocecampaign https://www.instagram.com/onclimateemergencycampaign/ https://www.facebook.com/ONClimateEmergencyCampaign Sources: [1] https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/healthy-living/2021-health-effects-indoor-air-pollution.html [2] https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/01/10/ontario-grid-faces-375-emissions-increase-as-ford-government-embraces-new-gas-plants/ [3] https://cal.streetsblog.org/2015/11/18/caltrans-admits-building-roads-induces-congestion-but-admitting-a-problem-is-just-the-first-step/ [4] https://www.thestar.com/life/2021/12/06/highway-disease-doctors-prescribe-saying-no-to-highway-413-development.html?rf [5] https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/2017-designing-healthy-living.html [6] https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/06/03/18-of-ontario-voters-handed-doug-ford-a-majority-government-whether-thats-a-bad-thing-depends-who-you-ask.html

Transport Minister Omar Alghabra: — ban private jets to protect our climate. In the last six weeks, Drake’s personal jet has taken three flights between Toronto and Hamilton — creating as many polluting gas emissions as the average person does each year [1]. If the federal government is serious about tackling climate change, Canada’s Minister of Transport Omar Alghabra must ban the super-rich from using private jets. Private jets emit more than the entire country of Denmark and are approximately 50 times more polluting than if Drake were to hop on a train instead [2,3]. The super-rich need to make massive shifts in their lifestyle if we’re to address climate change. 1% of the world’s population is responsible for half of the emissions associated with flying [4]. The ones responsible for making the mess should also make the biggest changes to fix it. Experts say we need to “stop bringing buckets of water when only fire engines will do” [5] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/29/drake-defends-short-private-jet-flights [2] See [1] [3] See [1] [4] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/17/people-cause-global-aviation-emissions-study-covid-19 [5]https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/18/heatwave-extreme-weather-uk-climate-crisis