Newsletter - aug. 06, 2022
Our government is providing comprehensive military aid to Ukraine to help them fight and win Putin’s illegal war. Since 2015, our Canadian Armed Forces have trained over 33,000 Ukrainian soldiers through Operation UNIFIER to help them prepare for any threat.
Since then, we have announced over $600 million of military equipment for Ukraine. When we paused Operation UNIFIER in February, we committed to resuming it whenever and wherever possible.
This week, I announced that we have authorized the immediate deployment of up to 225 Canadian Armed Forces personnel to the United Kingdom, for an initial period of four months, to train new recruits from the Armed Forces of Ukraine as they seek to increase the size of their ground forces in the face of Putin’s ongoing unprovoked, unjustifiable, and illegal invasion.
Effective August 25th, the majority of the deployed Canadian Armed Forces in the UK will work as trainers, supported by a command and control element at a military base in South East England, with the first cohort of Canadian Armed Forces personnel departing from Edmonton next week.
For more information, please see the news release.
Emancipation Day Picnic at Erchless Estate
I was pleased to join the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton at the Oakville Museum Erchless Estate for Oakville's annual Emancipation Day picnic. It was great to see everyone in person as we commemorated this meaningful occasion. The Emancipation Day picnic dates back to 1850 when African Canadians would gather at George's Square. We enjoyed a hot Caribbean meal prepared by Chef Romaine Newell, music performed by John Campbell and Denise Als, and learned about Oakville's rich Black history.
On Emancipation Day, we take time to reflect upon the dark legacy of slavery in what is now Canada, its devastating impacts on the Black community, and the persistent consequences that many Black Canadians still experience today. Racism and discrimination have no place in Canada and our government is committed to the fight against anti-Black racism and discrimination as we continue to build a more inclusive and equitable Canada for everyone.
Thank you to everyone who made this event possible!
Canada Summer Jobs
Canada Summer Jobs helps young people gain the skills, work experience and abilities they need to transition successfully into the labour market. This week, I visited some of the local organizations who have benefitted from the Canada Summer Jobs program.
Each summer, Front Line Outreach runs Camp Dakota - an outreach program that serves children and youth who live in subsidized, low income housing. This year, Canada Summer Jobs has helped them to hire 17 summer students and to offer free programing for campers. It was wonderful to speak with the leaders and campers about their summer experience at Camp Dakota.
Next, I visited Community Living Oakville to see their Xcel program in action. Xcel helps participants to build relationships and develop skills that focus on their specific interests. Community Living has been a staple in Oakville for decades, providing supports and services for children, youth and adults with developmental disabilities. Thank you to the staff, volunteers and Canada Summer Jobs students for your hard work and dedication.
Finally, I had the opportunity to tour the new GlobalMedic facilities in Oakville. Seven Canada Summer Jobs students are working hard to pack and supply food to Food Banks across the GTA. GlobalMedic's food packaging program, McAntony’s Menu, has packed 1.9 million pounds of food to date. The program has been so successful that they recently introduced a vertical farming initiative, growing the fresh produce that food banks often lack. I look forward to seeing this initiative continue to grow.
Recognizing Alicia Sullivan
At the Emancipation Day picnic, I had the pleasure of meeting Alicia and Amanda Sullivan, a mother and daughter from Oakville. Amanda is a high school student who was recently awarded an $80,000 Schulich Leader Scholarship. The scholarship will cover her tuition at McMaster University as she works towards her four-year degree in the Mathematics and Statistics Gateway program. The vetting process for the award is rigorous as only 100 scholarships are awarded among the 1,500 nominees submitted from more than 300,000 high school graduates.
Amanda has also volunteered in numerous programs and initiatives with the Canadian Caribbean Association of Halton (CCAH) over the years, including packaging and delivering meals with her mother in the No One Goes Hungry campaign. This year, she is working at the association’s BIPOC day camp.
On behalf of our Oakville community, I extend my sincerest congratulations to Amanda on this remarkable accomplishment! I can't wait to see all that she is able to accomplish. To learn more about Amanda's story, click here.
Making Passport Services Easier
Increased demand for passports combined with the longer processing times have meant more Canadians require their passport applications be transferred to local passport offices for processing in order to receive them in time to travel. This has been stressful for Canadians and a challenging way for them to get their documents.
To help make this process easier, Service Canada has put a new process into place. As of now, Canadians who provided a completed application by mail more than 20 business days ago, and are traveling within the next 20 business days, can visit any of over 300 Service Canada Centres to make a transfer request, so that their application is processed in time for travel.
This change aims to reduce the number of urgent file transfers processed by passport offices and to minimize the burden on local printing facilities at those sites. It will speed up the processing of passport applications when the service standard has not been met and a file transfer has been requested as a result. We should also see a further reduction of lineups associated with urgent requests at passport offices.
We are making progress on this challenge, and we will continue to provide options to offer a better service experience to Canadians. If you require assistance, please reach out to my constituency office at 905-338-2008 or anita.anand@parl.gc.ca.
Permanent Increase to Old Age Security
To help tackle the rising cost of living, the Old Age Security (OAS) pension is increasing by 10% for seniors aged 75 and over. This will be the first permanent increase to the OAS pension since 1973, other than adjustments due to inflation and it will strengthen the financial security of 3.3 million seniors.
Eligible seniors will not have to take any action to receive this increase—their payments will be increased automatically. To learn more, click here.