Street Roots • July 20-26, 2018
Conversation
Page 5
TRUDEAU, from page 4
health and to safety at the center of our
strategy. All this will lead to the dignity of
having a safe and affordable place to live.
That’s an approach that is absolutely human
rights-based, but wording it as certain
people have advocated, I think, can have
consequences that could result in profound
affronts to human dignity.
J.N.: In your 2017 budget, you announced
investments of more than $11 billion over 10
years to make access to housing easier, but
most of that money will only start to be spent
in 2019, an election year. What do you say to
the 1.6 million Canadian households that are
still waiting for adequate housing?
J.T.: Announcing an investment and
spending the money tomorrow won’t help
anyone if we haven’t built new affordable
housing units first and if we haven’t restored
our existing, substandard housing stock. It
will take some time, and we’re making a
maximum of effort because we understand
that there’s a pressing need. We’re working
on speeding up that process. I think people
understand that if we spread the money
around immediately without having new
housing to invest it in, it will go straight into
the pockets of the landlords of existing
affordable housing units, without really
solving the problem in the long term.
I. R.: According to the international NGO
ONE, 130 million girls around the world don't
have access to schooling. One billion women
donft have bank accounts. Every day, 39,000
girls around the world are forced into
marriage. Even in Canada, women don’t
receive equal pay for equal work. You’ve made
ensuring women’s equality a priority for the
G7. What measures taken by the G7 will
change the lives of women?
J. T.: That’s a big priority for me. We’ve
created an advisory council for gender
equality that is bringing together leaders
around the world to advise us and
recommend actions that the G7 can take.
One of those recommendations is making
education accessible to girls, particularly
girls who are living in crisis situations, in
contexts of civil war and in refugee camps.
We know access to education will
transform their lives, their families, their
communities and our world. Therefore, the
G-7 is making investments of several
hundred million dollars around the world,
targeted toward the education of girls and
women in difficult or crisis situations.
That’s in addition to the measures we’re
taking to ensure equality and pay equity.
Despite the progress we’ve made in the past
few years, Canada is still far behind the
OECD (Organization for Economic
Co-operation and Development) average for
pay equity.
■
That’s why we’re making proactive
proposals for pay equity that will make a big
difference. The argument for women’s
equality and women’s independence is not
just a moral argument, it’s not just the right
thing to do. It’s also an economic argument;
it’s the smart thing to do. If more women
succeed, we’ll be better off economically and
have more economic growth for the
community. The solutions that will be
proposed will often be better solutions,
better decisions. It’s something we’re doing
M A R IO A L B E R T O R EYES Z A M O R A
L ’Itinéraire vendors Jean-Claude N ault (from left), Isabelle Raymond and Mostapha Lotfi interview Canadian Prime M inister Justin Trudeau, in his
Parliament office in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital.
for all sorts of reasons.
M.L.: Last year, more than 20,000 migrants
crossed the Canadian border - most of them at
Lacolle - to seek asylum. Everything indicates
that we’ll reach a new record this summer. In
Quebec, these people are putting enormous
pressure on the resources available to homeless
people, including housing, food banks, soup
kitchens and clothing outlets. What are you
going to do to help frontline organizations
respond to this wave of migrants? Will you
compensate the Quebec government for these
extra expenses?
J.T.: We all recognize that immigration is
a source of strength, of growth and of
benefits for our society. We have an aging
population, we have fewer and fewer
children being born, so we need to bring
immigrants here and have them succeed.
Having said that, we have a rigorous
immigration system and there are rules that
we apply when the irregular arrival of
people causes legitimate concern.
I can reassure you that any people who
arrive and request asylum will have their
claims reviewed to see if in fact they are
legitimate asylum seekers — that is to say,
fleeing war, terrorism, persecution or
violence. If they aren’t, they will be sent
horned We also have a (regular) immigration
system through which they can apply.
The asylum system exists for refugees.
Within that system, we recognize that
additional costs are created for our health
systems (and) for our housing systems. Yes,
the federal government is working with the
provinces to ensure that money (spent to
support asylum seekers) is not taken away
from other people in need.
J.N.: The Quebec government and the city
of Montreal have agreed to let local
organizations determine the priorities' of their
apologies, created com m issions o f in q u iry a n d
homelessness strategies. We don’t know yet
what Ottawa’s approach will be to respond to
the specific needs of communities. In
Vancouver, the needs aren’t necessarily the
same as the needs in Montreal. Can you tell us
if, before establishing new programs, the
federal housing strategy will ensure that
existing organizations are funded?
stated objectives, for example, in regard to
housing and drinking water. What concrete
problem will you have solved by the end o f your
first mandate?
J.T.: That’s a very good question, but I’m
going to correct you f i I’m not the only one
who has made indigenous peoples a priority.
All Canadians, across the country, have done
this. For non-indigenous Canadians, it was
J.T.: I can tell you that our strategy and
high time to become a part of reconciliation,
our approach is to work with the
to do something to establish a true
communities and to acknowledge that the
partnership with indigenous communities.
needs and the solutions differ from one
I’m very happy to be able to work on th at
region to another, from one city to another
Thousands of young people started this
and sometimes from one neighborhood to
past school year in new schools that we’ve
another.
built in indigenous communities. Housing
The real experts are the people who are
units, community centres and medical
on the ground, who do the work and who
clinics are being built We are also investing
know their community. These people are
in training and governance initiatives in
best placed to support empowerment and
communities across the country.
success and help people regain their dignity
As far as drinking water goes, between
and reintegrate into society, which is very
now and the end of next year, we will have
important for me. Blanket solutions
eliminated many of the drinking water
generated in Ottawa and applied
advisories in indigenous communities. We’ve
indiscriminately in the rest of the country
without listening to and fully involving
promised to eliminate them entirely by
community organizations aren’t real
March 2021, but already, at the end of 2019,
we will have eliminated many of them.
solutions at all,
I can assure you that the minister
One of the reasons why this is taking
responsible, Jean-Yves Duclos, and his
time is that drinking water advisories are
parliamentary secretary, Adam Vaughn, who
often linked to many different factors within
has always been an expert in homelessness
a community. To fix the problem
issues as a result of his work on the Toronto permanently requires investment in all sorts
City Council, have been heavily involved in
of things, like training, infrastructure and
governance, to be sure that a year later, or
this process.
We’re listening, working with, and, most
three years later, we don’t find ourselves
importantly, continuing to value the
faced with the same problem again. We
extraordinary work done by community
need to make the necessary changes to
organizations on the ground as well as social ensure the safety of these communities.
enterprises.
Translated from French by Ruby Irene
Pratka. Courtesy of Street Roots’ sister paper
I.R.: You have chosen to make indigenous
L ’ltineraire / INSP.ngo
peoples a priority. You have made official