Liberals to debate job guarantee program

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This article was published 25/04/2019 (2507 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANDATING food production in vacant lots and atop commercial buildings, a new hospital for Neepawa and a “jobs guarantee” pilot project are among the proposals up for debate at the Manitoba Liberal party’s annual general meeting this weekend in Winnipeg.

With a provincial election possibly only a few months away, provincial Liberals are debating 25 policy resolutions on topics ranging from health care to community safety to francophone rights to poverty. Some of the motions will undoubtedly form part of the party’s election platform.

A resolution sponsored by the St. Boniface constituency association calls for the development of a pilot project that would enhance job skills and employment. It calls for the province to launch a job guarantee program where people who are unemployed can earn a living wage, with benefits, while doing work that is “in the public interest,” based on their skills and abilities.

Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, who represents St. Boniface in the Manitoba legislature, said the program would be the “flip side” to the concept of a guaranteed annual income program in which participants don’t necessarily have to work to be paid.

“This is an option to give people the opportunity to work and either get skills or maintain their skills,” he said.

He said the idea has been used before in the United States in the 1930s. Participants would join up voluntarily.

Another policy resolution labelled “food growing in urban areas” notes there are significant opportunities to produce food in towns and cities, including in vacant lots and on top of commercial buildings. It calls on a future Liberal government to pass legislation “to mandate the use of such areas for the growing of food.”

In an interview Thursday, Lamont said the intent of the resolution — proposed by the party’s policy committee — is not necessarily to require food be produced in these spaces, but to remove any legal impediments from doing so.

“It’s good for communities. It actually can make a difference for climate change, even,” he said of such enterprises.

Meanwhile, Neepawa is one of the fastest-growing communities in Manitoba, and that’s led to a shortage of local housing as well as school and health issues, Lamont said. A new hospital has been discussed for the area, and the Liberal motion recommends it be built within the town’s borders.

The Liberals expect between 150 and 175 members to attend the AGM, which begins this afternoon and winds up Saturday evening. The meeting is being held in conjunction with the party’s federal wing in Manitoba.

Lamont will address the meeting Saturday. He said he will use the occasion to speak in more detail about the party’s vision for the province.

Three federal cabinet ministers will also speak: Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale; Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains; and local MP Jim Carr, minister for international trade diversification.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca