Sustainability isn’t just about the environment. Our entire societal framework and our economic model need to be sustainable. A failure to consider sustainability in the broadest sense is to burden our children with a hidden tax. No ifs, ands, or buts.
As your representative, I will fight for:
Broad view of sustainability
Our environment is not the only asset that must be sustainable for future generations. We must realign our economic model so that it does not depend on an ever-growing population. Tax cuts today should not burden our children. And our social safety nets should be used as intended, abuse should be prevented, and they too must not burden future generations.
Societal stability
Sustainability requires looking far into the future. That is only possible in a stable society. Currently, every time we fight one fire, we’ve been starting another one: Pandemic > economic overstimulation > inflation/labour shortage > excess immigration > severe housing shortage. All this occurred in a span of 5 years! We need to be more proactive and less reactive. Every action we take should get us to a goal that we set for ourselves. We should be thinking 50 years ahead.
Affordable housing
“Economic growth” means nothing if people cannot afford to live. For years, this has been a recurring issue in Canada. We can make housing affordable again by reducing the population growth rate, easing regulations on new home construction, and adjusting policies to favor people who are purchasing their home over those who are looking to purchase solely for investment. Putting more money in the hands of the middle class instead of corporate landlords strengthens our economy by keeping funds circulating within the country.
Sustainable immigration levels
Immigration levels also need to be sustainable. An economy that is dependent on immigration requires more and more of it over time. A mathematician will tell you that the nature of that growth is exponential. Exponential growth of anything is not sustainable on a finite planet. Rather than boosting productivity to finance social services for its aging population, Canada has chosen the easier route by maintaining a high ratio of young people to older citizens. As Canada’s need for immigrants is growing, the world’s ability to supply them is diminishing as the majority of the world now has a below-replacement level fertility rate. Our economic model that requires a certain ratio of young people to old needs a rethink. For this reason, I will support measures to reduce immigration levels.
Economic resiliency
Economic growth is important, but it isn’t everything. We need an economy that doesn’t “catch a flu when the US sneezes”. This means strengthening domestic supply chains for critical materials, improving the flow of goods between provinces, and diversifying international trade.
Efficiency and lower emissions
Environmental progress and economic strength are not mutually exclusive. Hybrid vehicles, for example, reduce emissions, lower lifetime ownership costs, and boost economic efficiency. Similarly, initiatives such as installing heat pumps, upgrading rail networks, retrofitting buildings, and refining regulations offer low-hanging fruit that can provide significant benefits with minimal investment.
Social cohesion
For a multicultural society to be cohesive, people of all backgrounds need to feel as one. That means studying together, playing together, and working together; that also means more integration and more opportunities for exchange of cultures and ideas. People of different backgrounds can share common language and culture that binds them together.
And I will fight AGAINST:
The closure of CBC
Canadians consume their news from news outlets and social media. The social media landscape is almost entirely foreign owned. Among news outlets, CBC is the only major entity that is publicly funded. By allowing all news outlets to be privately owned, we open the door to all news outlets being owned by foreign entities. CBC is mandated to remain politically neutral, and robust mechanisms are in place to hold it accountable. Losing CBC is a risk we cannot take.
Abrupt changes to labour needs and supply chains
Over the past five years, we have witnessed a cascade of challenges: Pandemic > economic overstimulation > inflation and labor shortages > excessive immigration > severe housing shortage. Focusing solely on the supply side to solve the housing crisis will require construction and related industries to hire hundreds of thousands of new workers. Suppose the supply-side measures alone are successful at solving the housing crisis. From that point on, we’ll have a surplus of houses. Then, we will be forced to choose between dramatically downsizing the construction industry or dramatically increasing immigration. One leads to large-scale unemployment and the other leads us back to unsustainable immigration. That is why it is essential to address this issue from both supply (more construction) and demand (lower population growth) measures.
Destruction of our health, education, and safety nets
Our public health system is secretly a source of economic strength—freeing individuals from the burden of healthcare costs allows them to innovate and pursue new ideas. Likewise, all successful countries invest in a high-quality public education system. Lastly, a reliable social safety net enables people to live without constant anxiety. Our safety nets need to be funded properly, but at the same time, we need to prevent their abuse. They are not hammocks.