Toronto is becoming so increasingly unaffordable that four-year Davenport area resident Josh Shook confessed during an all-candidates meeting that he can't even dream of purchasing his own home.
"It's expensive to live in this city," he said on Wednesday evening, April 20, to those seeking the office of Member of Parliament in the Davenport riding at Joseph Piccininni Community Recreation Centre on St. Clair Avenue, just west of Lansdowne Avenue.
Shook wanted to know specifically from NDP candidate Andrew Cash, if elected, how he would alleviate some of the financial burden from his constituents' shoulders.
Cash began by saying that the government hasn't built any new affordable housing units in years and that it has stopped funding co-op housing, an affordable alternative and a successful one at that, he pointed out.
"We've got some of the highest banking, phone and Internet fees in the world," said Cash. "Our MPs should be finding ways to get these fees down. Instead, what do we get? The HST. That's why (NDP Leader) Jack Layton is trying to get rid of the HST on energy bills."
The other four of the six candidates running in Davenport were given a chance to respond to Shook's question.
Conservative Party candidate Theresa Rodrigues was invited to the debate but did not participate.
"We're getting nickeled and dimed all over the place," said Miguel Figueroa, Communist Party of Canada candidate and leader. "All the good union-paying jobs are disappearing."
A growing number of people are living paycheque to paycheque and are on the brink of disaster, he said.
"There's a major disconnect between the wealthy and the living conditions of marginalized people," said Figueroa. "No one in this election is talking about class divide. That's what we are trying to put forward."
Liberal candidate Mario Silva said he knows folks who can't make ends meet.
"It's an issue of affordable housing," said Silva. "We need to have again a government that builds affordable housing. With a minority government, we'll be able to work with cities again to make this happen."
Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party of Canada candidate Simon Luisi agreed that current living conditions could be improved.
"My party would attempt to make your food affordable," he said.
Green Party candidate Wayne Scott said poverty is so prevalent in the Davenport riding.
"We need affordable housing," he said. "Our party would appoint a minister of housing. We would put it in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that everyone has the right to a home."
With such developments as the expansion of the island airport and the impending implementation of more diesel trains through local neighbourhoods, the issue of the environment and specifically greenhouse gas emissions is a growing concern for Canadians.
"It's appalling when you see young kids in the emergency room with asthma attacks," said one local resident, who wanted to know how candidates would tackle the task of reducing greenhouse gases. "How do we do this? A carbon tax or cap and trade? What's better?"
Figueroa said the Marxist-Leninist Party takes issue with both approaches because they're market based.
"Corporate polluters should be fined," he said adding that the worst culprits should face jail time.
Silva said the answer is public transportation.
"We need a clean energy focus from provincial transportation investment," he said.
Luisi said that one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases is the livestock sector. Eliminating meat from our diet would make a "great difference" in the earth's atmosphere, he said.
Cash said the issue hits close to home for him as one of his children has asthma.
"We need to electrify the (Union to Pearson) Air Rail Link," he said, suggesting the project was rushed for the 2015 Pan-Am Games. "For a two-week sporting event, we're bringing in polluting infrastructure. This is the wrong approach. That's why our party rejects it and that's why I've been fighting along with the Clean Train Coalition."
Scott said that he's been a sustainable transportation advocate for most of his adult life.
"I've never had an air conditioner, I've never driven a car or flown in an airplane. I've worked as a bike courier," he said. "I think we should be doing everything we possibly can, not only at a government level, but at a personal level."