 |
 |
|
Winter 2000
Dear Constituents, On November 27th, I was honoured to have been re-elected as your Member of Parliament for a third term. I am very grateful for the opportunity to continue to represent your interests in Ottawa and to serve your needs through my constituency office. I intend to continue to work hard to earn your respect and to make you proud of your Member of Parliament. On the cover, I am pictured with Rhonda London on the set of her daily TV talk show on the CTS Network. Not too long ago, we did a call-in show about the issue of child poverty. This continues to be a priority issue in Parliament and have included a substantial section inside. Your input would be much appreciated. Environmental concerns, particularly on air quality, have been expressed to me for some time. The coal burning at Lakeview generating station and the proposed new gas-fired plant in Clarkson have drawn the most attention. In view of recent developments, I have decided to host a major Public Information Meeting on Tuesday, January 23rd. More information is provided inside. I hope you will plan to attend what I believe will be a much needed forum to provide you with the information you should know about the health and environmental issues in Mississauga South. In addition, you will also find a section on how a Member of Parliament can best represent their constituents. In a political context, the subject comes up often. I therefore decided to put together a few thoughts in a section of this householder which I hope will catch your interest and give me some feedback. I always assume that constituents will let me know how they feel about issues of importance to them and although one call or one letter may not be compelling, dozens do have an influence. Your thoughtful input and constructive criticism is welcome. It helps me to more fully appreciate the issue and to do a better job. Your view may be just the information I would need to influence a Cabinet Minister or use in a speech in Parliament. Due to the election, I was not able to get this householder out before Christmas. However, I do hope that you and your family had a safe and happy holiday season. Reflecting on the year 2000, most of us will wonder how quickly the time has gone. Remember the millennium bug? Needless to say, we are grateful the problems were minor. Despite the time away from home, my work continues to be challenging and very gratifying. I therefore want to thank you again for the opportunity to represent your views in Ottawa and to provide assistance to you and your family. Sincerely, Paul Szabo
About 20 years ago, I was the President of the Huron Park Homeowners' Association, and the big issue facing the area residents was the dumping of flyash from the Lakeview generating station into the Domtar quarry at Dundas at Mavis. Since that time, I have been involved in a number of other environmental issues in our community such as burning PCBs at St. Lawrence Cement and increased emissions from the PetroCanada refinery. In my experience, environmental issues have been the most difficult ones for residents because they may affect their health and the safe enjoyment of their homes. During the election, I found that environmental concerns continue to be a high priority. Residents told me they were concerned about the high frequency of cancer and respiratory problems in their neighbourhoods. Some told me about the need to replace windows in their home because the glass had been damaged over the years by whatever was in the air. Others shared their concern about global warming and the negative consequences of growing levels of greenhouse gases. In Mississauga, we have the Lakeview power generating station which burns coal to produce hydro. This provincial facility is operated by Ontario Power Generation and although many have urged that it be converted to gas, that is not in the plans. There are also two new gas-fired plants proposed for Peel. One in Brampton and one in the area of Southdown Rd. and Lakeshore Rd. W. These are projects of Sithe Energies Canadian Development Limited under the hydro privatization of the Province of Ontario. Recently, the Ontario Minister of the Environment made a decision that there would not be an environmental assessment on the Sithe projects. At the same time, homeowners groups have worked hard to inform residents and to urge that all possible steps be taken to address the environmental impacts. In addition, the City of Mississauga has decided to hire experts to assess our ambient air quality. A number a public meetings have been held in recent months but it appears that many concerned residents are not fully aware of what is proposed and what impact it may have on the air quality in our community. A healthy environment is the responsibility of all levels of government and in an effort to inform interested residents, I have decided to have a Public Information Forum on Tuesday January 23rd at the Port Credit Secondary School Auditorium. More details are provided on the following page. The purpose of this meeting is to provide an opportunity for Ontario Power Generation, Sithe, ratepayers groups, health authorities, environmental groups and all levels of government to provide handouts and other relevant information. The main parties will be given a brief opportunity for opening remarks but the majority of the meeting will be dedicated to allowing residents to ask questions. We will also keep the meeting as tight as possible so that as many questions as possible can be taken. This is an information meeting and I know it will be of interest to many who will not be able to attend. I will be producing a report on the meeting and it will be available on request from my office. It will detail who all the various participants were and how they can be contacted if you need information or wish to provide them with your input directly. If you wish to receive a copy of the report please send me a note with your name and full mailing address clearly printed on the note. I will be reporting on this meeting in my next householder but due to space limitations it will be in much less detail than the full report. As always, I invite your input on matters of importance to you and I would welcome your views on this very important area. IMPORTANT NOTICE OF…
Recently I attended the West Erindale Homeowners' Association annual meeting. At the meeting, the Peel Regional Police Community Safety Liaison Officer presented information about the number of home break-ins and property damage incidents that occurred in my neighbourhood over the past year. I was alarmed at the high number of crimes. According to the police, approximately 3,000 residential burglaries occur each year in the Region of Peel and according to them, most of the break-ins are opportunistic or in other words are preventable. To help you
assess the security of your home, the Peel Regional Police have
developed a series of 7 Fact Sheets as follows:
You can also contact them by telephone at (905) 453-3311 Ext 4021, or by fax at (905) 453-4428 or on their internet site at www.peelpolice.on.ca which is filled with helpful information.
The issue of child poverty has been of serious concern for many years because the condition of our children is a reflection of the condition of our country. If children are poor, then their family is poor. The solution requires that we address certain questions such as: "What constitutes poverty?"; "How do you measure it?"; "Who is poor?"; "What are the underlying reasons for their situation?"; "What options do we have to address the poverty that currently exists?"; and "How do we stop the cycle of poverty where children of poor families themselves become poor later?". These are important questions which will be considered in the next Parliament and all concerned Canadians should make their views known. I invite you to share your thoughts with me. This is a subject in which I have been actively involved in Parliament and I expect that to continue. To provoke your thinking, I have reproduced below the Foreward of my book "The Child Poverty Solution". A free copy of the manuscript of the book is available through my office or you can read or print it off from my WEB site at www.paulszabo.com. Extract From "The Child Poverty Solution" Poverty is one of the least understood issues in Canada. Advocacy groups call it child poverty and it tugs at the heartstrings of every caring person. They have invoked the images of children starving in the streets and report that the problem has increased 50% over the past decade. Who could possibly be against eliminating child poverty? The bold reality is that poverty in Canada is more a matter of social poverty than of economic poverty. On Friday, November 24, 1989, Parliament unanimously passed a motion to seek to eliminate poverty among children in Canada by the year 2000. This was our very first millennium project and for the last 10 years, it has been the raison d'etre for virtually every anti-poverty voice. There is a story behind the action of Parliament in 1989 and although no one will dispute the nobility of the gesture, it was hollow and without substance. There is a heated debate going on today in the back rooms of government as to how to define poverty. The positions range from deprivation of food, clothing and shelter to not being able to more fully participate in Canadian society. This debate on absolute versus relative poverty will likely culminate in the establishment of an official poverty line. Consequently, it will become the foundation for social welfare in Canada. and also define the level of poverty that we are prepared to tolerate. In the absence of an official poverty line, many have relied on data provided by Statistics Canada in a measurement system called Low-Income Cut-Offs ("LICOs"). The current data suggests that 17% of Canadians are significantly below the income of the average Canadian family. This is a relative measure and anti-poverty groups use it as a measure of who is poor in Canada. However, the measure does have a number of flaws. For example, 40% of the families considered poor under the LICO measurement actually own their own home. Of those, half do not even have a mortgage. Is a family who owns a home free and clear really living in poverty? This is just one of the reasons why the Government of Canada is developing a new "Market Basket Measure" or MBM, to define poverty in more absolute terms. Anti-poverty groups are outraged because the new definition would drop the rate of poverty in Canada to 12%. How could the LICO poverty rate be 40% higher? Obviously one or both of the measurement systems has a serious deficiency. One measures income inequality while the other measures income adequacy. Defining and measuring poverty is a very divisive issue and Canadians should be engaged in the debate. On February 11, 1999, Parliament again debated the issue of poverty. The speeches covered most of the relevant information, but this time nobody noticed. The media and the public at large virtually ignored the event. Not only was the substance the same as in 1989, but the statistics were significantly more tragic. How is it that nobody cared? Are Canadians are suffering from "sympathy fatigue" or is it that nobody believes that poverty is really a problem in Canada? Anti-poverty groups are growing in size and influence. They report annually on the growing level of poverty in Canada and fiercely lobby governments to act. More jobs, more social assistance, more social housing, more tax benefits for families with children, more money for health and early childhood development programs, more Employment Insurance benefits and more subsidized daycare are but a few of the demands from advocates. They universally accept LICO as the measure of poverty for one simple reason. It is an economic measure which calls for economic solutions. If they had to address the root causes of poverty, it would open up a Pandora's box which most fear to face. Homelessness has become the latest focus for poverty in Canada. In January 1999, a task force chaired by Anne Golden, issued their report on homelessness in Toronto. Declaring that there were workable solutions, they engaged all levels of Government to step up to their responsibilities. However, if you look closely at the report, the facts paint a different picture of poverty than most would expect. Of the homeless identified, 35% were mentally ill, 15% were aboriginals, 10% were abused women and 28% were youth of whom 70% had been physically or sexually abused. In addition, the majority were also abusers of drugs and alcohol. They also found that 47% of the homeless had come from outside of the Toronto area. Effectively, Toronto has proven that if you build it, they will come. The causes of homelessness, like poverty in general, are really more a function of social poverty. People who live in squalor on the streets of Canada sadly represent those whom no one loves. Lone-parent families represent 12% of all families but account for 46% of all families living in poverty. The rate of family breakdown is almost 50% in Canada. The incidence of domestic violence continues at record levels. Alcohol and drug abuse in our schools and our communities has escalated with tragic consequences. Unwanted teen pregnancies continue to rise. Close to 30% of students drop out of high school and become Canada's poor in waiting. Nearly 25% of all children enter adult life with a significant mental, social or behavioral problems. These represent the social poverty in our society and they are the root causes of the vast majority of economic poverty in Canada. If poverty in Canada is a horror and a national disgrace, then the breakdown of the Canadian family is the principal cause of that disgrace. Those who express outrage at poverty, but who do not express the same outrage at the breakdown of the family, are truly in denial. However, in these days of political correctness, the family and its structure and condition represent a minefield through which few are prepared to tread. Anti-poverty groups have meekly side-stepped the social poverty dimension. However, if we are not prepared to address social poverty in Canada, then we are effectively choosing to tolerate the very poverty that we seek to eliminate. If we could raise one sane generation of Canadians, poverty as we know it would be a condition of the past. In this context, "sane" means physical, mental and social health. It also contemplates that our social, moral and family values are sane and that our families, educators and legislators promote, protect and defend those values. Our children are a function of the society in which they live. Those who become our future poor do so because of our failure to put their interests ahead of our own. Collectively, we are all responsible for the poverty that exists in Canada today. It is, therefore, our collective responsibility to resolve both its social and its economic causes. *** If you would like to share your thoughts, or bring to my attention relevant information or other reference material, please write to me by letter, fax or email. Addresses are on the back cover. Your views are important and I thank you in advance for your input.
Special personal messages of congratulations may be requested for those Birthdays and Anniversaries listed below. As these events are very important occasions, you may want to request a message, when applicable, from Her Majesty The Queen, the Governor General and the Prime Minister of Canada. Greetings from Her Majesty the Queen are available for 100th Birthdays and every 5th year thereafter, and 60th Wedding Anniversaries and every 5th year thereafter. Please note that copies of birth certificates and marriage certificates are required by Government House for messages from The Queen. Birthdays 75th and over - message from the Prime Minister 90th - 99th - message from the Governor General 100th and over
- message from Her Majesty The Queen Wedding Anniversaries 25th and over - message from the Prime Minister 50th - 59th - message from the Governor General 60th and over
- message from Her Majesty The Queen
Just over 60% of the eligible voters actually voted in the November 12th election and I received about 52% of those votes. That means that approximately 30% of voters elected me as the Member of Parliament for Mississauga South. The question that many people have raised with me is "How do you represent the views of your constituency?". There are so many issues and almost half the voters favoured other parties and other candidates. This raises some questions about the way we govern ourselves and whether some other approach might better reflect the needs of the people. The low voter turnout across Canada is unfortunate and it is not just at the Federal level. For example, in the November 13th Mississauga Municipal Election, only about one-third of the eligible voters participated. Voting is a right as well as a responsibility. The quality of elected representatives we have depends on the decision of the voters and that is why every vote is so important as we have witnessed in the US election. With regard to representing the views of constituents, many have used the saying that MP's should vote the will of their constituents. That might be possible if you run as an independent and promise to vote and do what people want you to do. However, independents rarely get elected and one can only imagine how difficult it would be to establish what the will of the constituents actually was on a specific issue. In the last Parliament, there were literally hundreds of votes on hundreds of issues. How could every constituent be expected to receive and understand everything they needed in order to share their view and exactly how would they make their views known? Keep in mind that not every constituent would share the same view since many support the view of their political party. In addition, some issues do not have a simple yes or no response. Determining the will of your constituents on a specific issue would also be costly and time consuming. When you also consider the voter turnout percentage, what level of feedback would be considered sufficient to reflect the will of your constituents? In the past, I have put surveys in my householder on major issues such as doctor-assisted suicide and gun control. The surveys could be removed from the householder and put in the mailbox since they were already addressed and do not require postage. The largest response I ever received was 160 surveys from the 32,000 households that receive the householder. That is one-half of one- percent response. Needless to say, referenda or surveys are not an efficient or cost effective way to determine the will of your constituents. However, the surveys are useful for receiving input from interested parties and to allow me to respond to their questions or their requests for more information. In the election, I ran for a particular party including its platform and policies. That means I will support the platform and policies on which I was elected or resign. That leaves new issues for which the party did not have a position. New issues require an MP to inform themselves and seek input from their constituents. Negative option billing by the cable companies, bank mergers and the Air Canada/Canadian Airlines issues are examples and I received substantial input from interested constituents. Moral issues such as euthanasia, abortion etc are free votes and I vote my conscience. Bills tabled by Private Members are also free votes and I vote on the merits of a Bill using my best judgment. Having lived and been actively involved in Mississauga for almost 30 years, I feel that I have a good sense of our values and priorities. As an MP since September 1993, I have also continued to learn about what is important to our community. It is an ongoing process and each letter, phone call and meeting I have, makes me a better representative. I rely on my best judgment and I would be interested to hear your views on how I can best represent you.
Visit us on the Internet: www.paulszabo.com
Constituents may write to any Member of Parliament or Cabinet Minister postage free. Simply address your envelope to the particular Member, c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6. Your views and suggestions are important.
|
