WARNING: RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
This article contains mention of residential schools and resulting deaths. Those seeking emotional support and crisis referral services can call the 24-hour National Indian Residential School Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419.
Shelby Bertrand is running in her first provincial election as the Green Party of Ontario (GPO) candidate for Ottawa Centre.
Bertrand is pursuing a master of philosophy at the University of Ottawa and was formerly a public servant and member of the Animal Protection Party of Canada.
She spoke with the Charlatan to discuss health care, climate change, affordable housing and Indigenous relations.
Health care
Bertrand was born with Crohn’s disease and, after what she said was an early misdiagnosis, was later diagnosed in an emergency room. She said she hopes to reverse Ontarians’ “overdependence on acute and urgent care,” citing a lack of primary care resources and too much hospital traffic.
“People like our nurses and [personal support workers], they deserve fair pay [and] they deserve to be in work environments that are properly staffed with mental health resources,” Bertrand said.
She said the GPO will provide burnout-combating resources, fair benefits, living wages and better work environments for health-care workers. It will also scrap Bill 124, which suppresses wages for health-care workers, and implement rapid training programs for health care.
“People like our nurses and [personal support workers], they deserve fair pay [and] they deserve to be in work environments that are properly staffed with mental health resources.”
Bertrand said the GPO will divert funds away from incarceration and criminal justice efforts, and toward safe injection sites. It will also form a mental health and addictions ministry and add mental health coverage under OHIP.
Climate change
The GPO will raise carbon prices by $25 a tonne annually until 2032. Bertrand added not relying on a cap-and-trade program will encourage transparency and inquiry about how much carbon allowance the government gives people.
“Because most Ontarians are not huge polluters, most people are going to break even from that amount that’s returned,” she said.
The GPO will also incentivize home retrofits and revise Ontario’s Building Code to make all new structures environmentally-friendly. A first step, Bertrand said, will be making public transport-friendly communities and combating urban sprawl.
“It costs a lot more money and it’s a lot less convenient to keep building these neighbourhoods that are kind of 1950s-style, simply filled with single-family homes,” she said.
The GPO will also incentivize electrifying public and private transit and improve the pay, benefits and working conditions of transit employees, Bertrand said.
“It costs a lot more money and it’s a lot less convenient to keep building these neighbourhoods that are kind of 1950s-style, simply filled with single-family homes.”
Other priorities Bertrand mentioned include building more coherent bicycle paths for practical and leisurely use and reducing waste by relying more on local manufacturers. The GPO will also double the size of the Greenbelt to add a Bluebelt that protects watersheds, basins and river systems and preserve greenspaces to improve mental health.
“Greenspaces are taken for granted or they’re just seen as opportunities for profit,” she said. “But the irony is that [to] invest in the well-being of people … it is important that people in the community have greenspaces.”
Affordable housing
The GPO has a 60-page affordable housing plan to combat the financialization of the housing market. Bertrand said the GPO also plans to tax the 20,000 vacant units currently raising Ottawa’s housing prices.
She said this will discourage foreign developers and cash parkers from investing in properties around Ottawa. The GPO will protect aging and privately-owned buildings that house people on benefits like ODSP and will also help house newcomers to Canada and give non-profit buyers the pre-emptive right to purchase property, Bertrand said.
“The people most suffering from the affordable housing crisis right now … They’re not looking for single-family homes,” she said. “They’re renters [and] they tend to be from the very struggling segments of societies.”
She said the GPO will double social assistance packages and promote universal basic income to support Ontarians at risk who are trying to access housing. It will also promote a mental health plan.
“We would not have people [drowning in] debt leaving the stage of life when they’re supposed to be excited for starting their career and making something of themselves.”
To offset costs for students, the GPO will make the first stage of post-secondary education, including bachelor programs, trade apprenticeships and college degrees, free or publicly funded.
“We would not have people [drowning in] debt leaving the stage of life when they’re supposed to be excited for starting their career and making something of themselves,” Bertrand said.
She said the GPO will further reduce living costs by building walkable communities, as well as form a registry for monitoring local developments and assess short-term rental value on a case-by-case basis.
Indigenous relations
Bertrand processed residential school sexual abuse files while working for four years at Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (now Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada and Indigenous Services Canada).
“That gave me an appreciation for intergenerational trauma,” she said. “Targeting the roots of that is a big point of strategy in how I want to help this demographic in Canada.”
She said the GPO will require mandatory cultural sensitivity training for public-facing professionals to better support and foster positive relationships with Indigenous peoples.
“We would actively be trying to give leadership roles [to Indigenous peoples] in the services that they consume and make as many culturally-relevant services available as possible.”
Taking a case-by-case and self-determined approach to Indigenous land consultation and avoiding homogenization are also GPO priorities. Bertrand said the GPO will implement age-appropriate Indigenous education from kindergarten to Grade 12, as well as add more Indigenous language instruction at schools.
“We would actively be trying to give leadership roles [to Indigenous peoples] in the services that they consume and make as many culturally-relevant services available as possible,” she said.
For more information on Bertrand, visit her campaign page.
Featured image by Katrina Joy Pizzino.
