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.
Joel Harden is running for re-election as the Ontario NDP MPP for Ottawa Centre.
Harden has served four years as Ottawa Centre’s MPP and was the Official Opposition’s accessibility and persons with disabilities critic for three years. He was also a member of the Standing Committee on Social Policy, instructed at Carleton University’s law and legal studies department and wrote a book about political activism.
He spoke with the Charlatan to discuss health care, climate change, affordable housing and Indigenous relations.
Health care
During his tenure, Harden and the Ontario NDP advocated for Voula’s Law, a bill to stop care homes separating residents from their caregivers during disputes over conditions of care. The Ontario NDP passed the bill with unanimous support on March 4, 2021.
“We did that as a rookie MPP office working with community members directly advocating in the legislature and we got a Conservative government to agree with us,” he said. “We’re very proud of that.”
Harden said increased health-care funding, especially for preventative health care, is the Ontario NDP’s top priority. This includes access to dental care and pharmacare. Harden added the Ontario NDP would “shore up” community health centres and hospitals.
“We’re going to be a government that funds medicare well, but also that keeps people preventatively healthy as well, by getting them the support they need.”
He said Ontario is the worst-funded health-care system in Canada on a per-person basis due to decades of Liberal and Conservative governments. Harden criticized Bill 124, which suppresses wages for health-care workers, and claimed the Ontario Liberal Party was responsible for firing nurses in Ontario when it was in power.
“We’re going to be a government that funds medicare well, but also that keeps people preventatively healthy as well, by getting them the support they need,” he said.
Climate change
Harden said environmental justice is one of his passions, adding he partook in a nationwide movement to stop the Energy East Pipeline before entering politics. He added he has also supported local food growers, markets and farmers in the past.
He said the Green New Democratic Deal is the Ontario NDP’s main focus for climate change and will transition Ontario’s gas-fired electrical plants out of service by 2030. It will require linking Quebec and Ontario’s hydroelectric systems, as Quebec’s systems produce zero waste and zero emissions, he said.
“We work for the people of Ontario, and we want to reduce our environmental footprint.”
Linking the systems would cost five cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), as opposed to the 19 cents per kWh Ontario currently pays natural gas companies, Harden said. It would also be more profitable for Quebec than selling its hydroelectric power surplus to the U.S.
“The natural gas companies are very angry about that, but we don’t work for them,” he said. “We work for the people of Ontario, and we want to reduce our environmental footprint.”
The deal also proposes retrofitting five per cent of Ontario’s housing stock a year, which he said would be “the biggest retrofit program in the world.” According to Harden, this program would create 100,000 jobs, reduce emissions and create better, more sustainable living conditions.
Harden also discussed the Ontario NDP’s plans for improving public transit. He mentioned expanding transit with 50 per cent shared funding between local municipalities and the provincial government, as well as working toward removing transit fares.
Affordable housing
In addition to his work as MPP championing rent stability, Harden said he advocated with the Ottawa non-profit ACORN for rent control and other issues affecting Ottawa’s working class.
He said the Ontario NDP is offering a two-pronged strategy for housing affordability. While the party supports building 1.5 million new homes, he said 250,000 of those homes will be co-ops and community housing under the Ontario NDP’s plan.
“We don’t think homes are investments. Housing is a human right.”
The plan also includes tenant-to-tenant rent control, according to Harden, meaning new tenants pay what previous tenants paid unless major renovations are done in the unit.
“When one tenant moves out of their unit, the new tenant moving in can be hit with a rent increase by whatever the landlord wants,” he said. “And we don’t think that’s fair.”
Harden noted the abundance of renters in Ottawa Centre, adding there are 22,000 empty units in the city due to investors.
“We don’t think homes are investments,” he said. “Housing is a human right.”
Indigenous relations
Harden said he has worked with Indigenous communities to ensure their land has been respected before and during his time as MPP. He cited his work raising money with the Algonquins of Barrière Lake to stop Copper One Inc., a Toronto-based mining company, from exploring mineral deposits on their territory without permission.
“It is absolutely shameful what we’ve allowed to happen. We want to make sure that we address those grievances with real action.”
Harden added equal access to housing and education for Indigenous communities to the list of priorities for the Ontario NDP.
Harden said the Ontario NDP will commit to ensuring every residential school burial ground in the province is found. He added the party is committed to providing potable water to every Ontarian, including those in Indigenous communities.
“It is absolutely shameful what we’ve allowed to happen,” he said. “We want to make sure that we address those grievances with real action.”
For more information on Harden, visit his campaign page.
Featured image provided by Kathryn LeBlanc.
