North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney is pleased with some developments in the last parliament on the social front, but she indicates more needs to be done in certain areas.
Blaney, whose riding includes the qathet region, said on the forefront of successes in the last parliament is dental care.
“I'm really excited that by the end of this year, seniors, people living with disabilities, and 18 and under children will be able to get dental care if you're making $90,000 or less,” said Blaney. “If you have no other coverage, you will get dental care.”
Blaney said as the NDP seniors critic, she has talked to many seniors and is shocked by how many have huge dental issues. She added that it has a profound impact on their lives.
Having a dental care plan will be good for the health-care system, because a lot of people are in the system because of their dental problems, and they will not be in the system anymore, according to Blaney.
Cost of living is also a big concern for the MP.
“In this day and age, we see the cost of living being a big challenge,” said Blaney. “I was pleased to see some of the taxes go up for the ultra-rich. It is still not where I would like it to go but we did see some steps in the right direction.”
Moving toward the fall parliamentary session, Blaney said for seniors, an issue she’s working on is adjustment to old age security (OAS).
“I know a lot of seniors who are 75 and older are happy to have a little bit of a boost in their OAS, but the seniors 65 to 74 still are not seeing it,” said Blaney. “That's disappointing. It seems there's two tiers of seniors now and that's really concerning, so we're going to continue to push on that.”
Blaney said she is also working with some single seniors who are advocating for some more tax fairness.
“It really shows us how the system is modelled on couples and not so much on singles,” said Blaney. “We want to make sure seniors who are on a fixed income have enough.”
Blaney said she will continue the work on the general cost of living for all people. In the last budget, the NDP pushed for getting more money to Canadians, she added.
“The Liberals decided to call it a grocery rebate, but it's GST,” said Blaney. “So, we got that increase because that's 11 million people across Canada who are struggling. We want to see a little bit more money in their pockets to help out with things.”
Blaney said the party will continue to campaign on food prices.
“Grocery stores are making some big profits, especially Loblaws,” said Blaney. “When people are really struggling, we've got to make sure we hold those corporations to account to make sure they're just being fair, and not taking the opportunity to say the cost of everything is going up and then taking it for themselves. I'm really concerned about that.
“It's not fair to people and you should not be making profit off of other people's suffering.”
In terms of continuing to support the Liberal government through the confidence and supply agreement struck between the Liberals and NDP after the last federal election, Blaney said as long as the Liberals continue to move forward and meet goals, the NDP will continue to support them on issues of confidence.
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