Forward Together: A Canadian Plan

Forward Together addresses three critical priorities to help our country recover and keep us safe in the future.

Replace Lost Jobs with Better Ones: With over 2 million jobs lost, we need a shovel-ready plan to replace those jobs with better ones. The government must kick-start local economies, by hiring people to build green infrastructure, to educate our youth and to care for others.

Strengthen Canadian Public Health Care: Make seniors safe by making long-term care part of public health care. Help families make ends meet by adding prescription drugs to Canada’s health care system.

Disaster-Proof our Social Safety Net: When the next economic disaster hits, we need to make sure Employment Insurance is there for everyone who needs it and we have a plan for child care that actually works for families. We need to invest in things that keep communities strong, like affordable housing.

We will pay for these changes by raising taxes on the wealthiest among us. The pandemic had winners and losers. Canada should raise taxes on wealthy individuals and the big businesses that made record profits in the pandemic, and use that money to help Canada recover and keep us safe.

FORWARD TOGETHER: REPLACE LOST JOBS WITH BETTER ONES

As summer vacation ends and kids begin the new school year, people are starting to return to their jobs.  Sadly, with over two million jobs lost during the pandemic, not everyone has a job to go back too.     

 o  In Toronto, the unemployment rate hit a high of 14.7%, in July, and continued with in August with an 13.9% unemployment rate

o   Service sector jobs lost in our community have been particularly hard hit.  We need the government to take action to help these workers recover from the economic lockdown, especially workers in the hospitality, airline, gaming and tourism industries.

o  Let’s replace lost jobs with better ones and put people back to work! The Government can support the service sector by returning laid off workers to their jobs, upholding collective bargaining rights, and providing legal guarantees that any financial support from the government will go first to support workers’ wages, salaries, and benefits – not corporate profits and bonuses.

FORWARD TOGETHER: LET'S MAKE CHILDCARE A PRIORITY 

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated just how essential child care is for working families in our community.   It is clear there can be no economic recovery without high-quality, accessible, affordable, public child care—it supports women in the job market, but is also an important source of employment for women and an economic driver itself.

In communities across Canada, our child care costs are among the highest in the world. On average, single parents spend 32 percent of their income on child care—that is often more than they spend on housing.

With the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, the stakes for working caregivers, the  majority of whom are women, have gone from bad to worse.

Let’s make child care a priority for the federal government.  Simply click here to send your Member of Parliament a pre-drafted letter. 

FORWARD TOGETHER: STRENGTHEN HEALTH CARE  

Let’s keep seniors safe by making long-term care part of public health care. Let’s help families make ends meet by adding prescription drugs to Canada’s health care system.

Canada’s workers know we need investments in public services – not austerity.This pandemic has shone a light on what’s broken and now we know what to fix.We need a national pharmacare plan and we need to make long-term care part of our public health care system.

o  First COVID-19 death in Canada was a long-term care resident