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Mulcair Promises to Help Provinces With Disasters Like Wildfires

NDP Tom Mulcair vowed that an NDP government would devote $250 million to a police-recruitment fund in its first four-year mandate.

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Mulcair was recently campaigning in British Columbia, where he met with parents and children in Vancouver to tout the party’s child care plan.

This upfront investment would be followed by $100 million in annual, ongoing funding, the NDP leader added. “The NDP is taking action to ensure Canadians and their homes are safer with an effective and modern approach to coordinated disaster assistance”, said Mulcair.

Sheila Malcolmson, NDP candidate for the Nanaimo-Ladysmith riding, said she sees the role of federal government as partnering with local crews and provincial governments to improve the ability to respond in “a time of increased climate change and more firefighting risk”.

An additional two-million dollars would be earmarked for disaster training programs, which he says were cut under the Harper administration. “We have the plan to undo the damage done by Stephen Harper”. The Green party held two seats at dissolution, one belonging to Bruce Hyer, who was elected as a New Democrat in northern Ontario but crossed the floor.

More than 30 shootings have rocked the fast-growing, Metro Vancouver community since March.

Mulcair was also asked his party’s position on controversial oil pipeline projects such as Kinder Morgan’s $5.4-billion Trans Mountain expansion, which faces stiff opposition from First Nations, environmental groups and some municipalities.

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“It’s not up to governments to be proponents of these programs – it’s up to governments to put in place structures that can analyze them”, he said, adding that the current environmental assessment process is “singularly defective”.

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