Chris's Posts

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 114
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted to participate in today's debate regarding the NDP motion calling on the House to implement a national anti-poverty strategy.

In a country as wealthy as ours, it is simply not fair that so many people must struggle constantly just to survive. One in six Canadians now lives in poverty and they are defying the stale stereotypes of the poor. About 1.2 million of those living in poverty are children. Many others are adults facing tough barriers to employment while a quarter of poor families have someone working full time for low wages.

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 109
Tuesday, February 12, 2007
Speaker: The Honourable Peter Milliken

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, this Thursday, yet another family is being deported from my riding of Hamilton Mountain. The Valencias have been in Canada for five years. Sergio and Blanca have established themselves in our community and have well paying jobs and family here. Their children are on the brink of success by excelling at their education.

I delivered petitions to the minister last week with thousands of signatures asking that the Valencias be allowed to stay. This afternoon, I am forwarding even more petitions and powerful letters of support.

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 105
Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, last Friday, my NDP colleagues in Hamilton and I hosted a community forum to discuss the local impact of the cuts imposed by the Conservative government. What we learned was disheartening and shocking. The government is failing the most vulnerable in our communities and it must stop.

Poverty in Hamilton is real. Nearly one in five Hamiltonians live at or below the poverty line. On any given night, 399 people seek emergency shelter, twice the number who did in 1995.

39th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
EDITED HANSARD • NUMBER 103
CONTENTS
Monday, February 5, 2007

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to table a petition today that was circulated by residents of the many housing co-ops in my riding of Hamilton Mountain.

As the House can imagine, these residents are incensed about the financial crisis caused in many co-ops by the cuts to subsidies as a result of a flawed section 95 program.

They are keenly aware of the fact that over two million Canadians are still in desperate need of decent, affordable housing and are petitioning the House to first, repay all law subsidies to section 95 housing co-ops; second, to provide new assistance so these co-ops can help low income residents thereby making up to 10,000 co-op homes affordable again for people in need; third, to build 200,000 affordable and co-op housing units, renovate 100,000 existing units and provide rent supplements to 40,000 low income tenants; and fourth, to extend the supporting communities partnership initiative, known as SCPI, that funds successful homelessness prevention programs.

Charlton Presses Government to Compensate OAS/CPP Recipients for CPI Error

OTTAWA – The Canadian government has unfairly short-changed ordinary seniors by more than a billion dollars, NDP Seniors Critic Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain) charged today in Question Period. Charlton demanded that the Harper government take full responsibility for a Statistics Canada error and re-pay Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security recipients back what they are owed.

“Average Canadian seniors have worked hard all their lives, they’ve played by the rules, and they have a right to expect that the government isn’t going to play keep-away with their benefit payments,” said Charlton. “A mistake was made. The government must take full responsibility and return to seniors what is rightfully theirs.”