The Ottawa Citizen recently asked readers: “What’s the one issue that needs immediate attention from
Canada’s next leader
?”
Hundreds responded, and we drew up what we’re calling the Citizen’s Agenda: five questions for Ottawa-area candidates in the April 28 federal election. The Citizen reached out to the candidates for the four major parties in the Orléans riding to take part. Only one participated.
The New Democratic Party candidate, Oulai B. Goué, did not respond to emails or phone calls. The Conservative Party candidate
Steve Mansour
and the Green Party candidate Jaycob Jaques responded, but did not set up an interview in time to meet our deadline.
Here are Liberal Party candidate Marie-France Lalonde’s answers to the Citizen’s Agenda.
Marie-France Lalonde, Liberal Party candidate
How do you plan to improve Canada’s economic competitiveness?
If you look at what we are proposing from a national perspective, it is to keep Canada strong, to keep Canada sovereign, to keep Canada secure. It is most important in this economy situation that we have the best person to help us navigate these uncertain time and I believe Mark Carney, with his years of experience dealing with the economic crisis here in Canada in 2008 as the Governor of the Bank of Canada … also he fact that he has international like recognition and also knowledge of the circumstances of other nation and other countries. So that experience is definitely key to going forward.
We are talking about reducing the interprovincial trade barriers. That will be our mandate going forward as we are navigating these uncertain times with the United States. And we need to diversify our international trade partners.
I think we need to protect workers. It’s most important that we support our Canadian workers all throughout Canada, from various sectors. Here in Ontario, we talked about the auto sector being impacted….That’s why we’re proposing strong measures to make sure that not only are we protecting our workers, our Canadian workers, but we’re also going to continue and pursue our investment and buying Canadian products.
What is one locally-focused campaign pledge that you would implement as MP?
We have a large amount of public servants that reside here, and there was a pilot project to bring co-working spaces here. I want to make it bigger. We need to extend our footprint and create more spaces and make it permanent for our community here. Those are the key initiatives.
We are the first suburb to be opening a (Phase 2 LRT) station here. There is a pedestrian bridge over Regional Road 174 that the city operates, but one of the connections to the other side is missing. I’m proposing to work very closely with the City of Ottawa to get that pedestrian connection built faster. We had had numerous conversations with the city, and there’s lots of goodwill to go forward on that initiative. So I feel very confident that we’ll get to an agreement between the federal and the city, and hopefully the province will help out.
Orléans is one of the fastest-growing communities here in Ottawa. We have people who choose to retire here, so we have a seniors community, but we also have young people, young professionals, young parents. We need affordable homes for our first home buyers.
On the Francophone side, one thing that’s been asked here, and that’s a delivered already $36 million for a new infrastructure, and it’s called the MIFO. That’s $36 million in new construction. It will have child care component, it has music, it has a gym. So this is a huge things for our community that will all and everyone will benefit from, not only our Francophone community.
What are your thoughts on the current size of the federal public service?
I represent probably the most of them that are here in our national capital region, on the Ottawa side. And as I say to each of them, they have been the backbone of the work that has been done for years. But let’s not forget the pandemic because of their willingness and certainly hard-at-work perspective, we were able to deliver for many, many people in all the programs that was much needed during this pandemic. So I want to protect their job. I want to give them choices.
That’s why I was reflecting on the federal co-working spaces that we have here Orléans. It is a pilot project that’s been the most productive in Canada. I want to make it permanent. I want to expand on the footprint of our government. I want to improve their quality of life.
We need to modernize a lot of old systems — that’s been in the making. We need to fast-track this so my community can continue to work on delivering for Canadians, but also have the technology that they need to work more productively.
How do you propose helping fix the housing crisis in Ottawa?
We started a program, the Housing Accelerator Fund, and we’ve been working with the City of Ottawa as a real partner. We provided a little over $176 million to the City of Ottawa to bring affordable housing, to fast-track some of the projects in the work on the development side, and that will not stop.
But we need to do more, and that’s what I think Canadians are asking. We do have federal lands all within the city’s boundary. Let’s work to build more affordable houses for the people of Ottawa.
We need to cut that red tape, and I think the city acknowledges they want to deliver themselves. We are the only partner with the City of Ottawa that will help leverage their ambition, but at the same time, invest and help build more affordable homes.
The tax-free savings account was very important. Now we’re actually continuing on that by eliminating the GST for first-time home buyers on homes at or under $1 million, and that will be saving up to $50,000 back in the pocket of the person buying their first home.
We need to make sure that we work with our city and the builders in the private sector, but I also like the idea of co-operative housing. They work very well. They’re part of our ecosystem. Like I say, this is the time to go forward. This is the time for continuing on progress that we can make together.
What’s your favourite season in Ottawa? Why?
I’m a fall person. I love fall. I love the colours. I love to see the change of the leaves. This is something here in our landscape where we’re blessed. We have Petrie Island here, where the ecosystem between the turtles the beavers and everything in between seems to want to go into this space of comfort. And I always say the red maple leaf always remind me of my Canadian roots.
