Island Airport, minimum wage, green buildings top Chow’s federal agenda

Despite slowing down for the holidays, Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow is forwarding many local issues in Ottawa.

One of her important issues is the Island Aiport. Chow reports that Tasse report will be in front of the transport committee for review. She also has put forward a private members bill to amend the Marine Act to remove the Toronto Port Authority. Her office was able to confirm that a retaining wall that recently collapsed was the responsibility of the city, not the Port Authority. Finally, she has requested the access for information to see if the new Porter Air planes are safe for the length of runway offered at the Island Aiport.

Chow is advancing local issues in finance as well. She is collecting “horror stories about how graduate students are being hounded by collection agencies.” If you have an example to share of this practice, please e-mail stories to her office. Personal credit cards are also on her radar: “Once every five years there is a bank act review. We are pushing them to cap the credit rate to 5% above prime rate.”

The minimum wage increase is one of her more urgent concerns. “We have introduced a private members’ bill top bump up the minimum wage to $10 per hour. In a city like this it is important,” Chow asserts.

Her office is also focusing on sustainable living, most specifically by asking Environment Canada to develop an energy-efficient building code. When she was a councilor, she was told that the city was waiting for the province to provide guidelines, later that the province was waiting for Ottawa to take action.

“We really need to have a green building code so all new condos would have to be built to the green standards,” Chow stresses. Already she has heard from residents of the Cityplace buildings Apex and Optima, who have asked for help to retro-fit the recently-completed condos. While there are no federal funds to finance the retro-fit, the condo boards have begun the project. Chow’s goal is for other new condo corporations to avoid this problem by requiring developers to follow environmentally friendly building standards from the start.

Chow has already been working to bring her own home up to a green standard. She even has a video available on YouTube about “How to Retrofit Your Home” where she gives a tour of her green renovations and shows off her solar panels.