Thanks for inviting us to speak to you today.
Cooper Institute is a community-based social justice collective. We've been active since 1984 in communities across P.E.I. in working on social, economic, and environmental issues that are vital to Island residents.
In our presentation today, we're going to touch on several issues of particular importance to us: justice for migrant workers, addressing poverty, and sustainable communities.
It was with great enthusiasm that we read in the mandate letter to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development the request to work with other departments to develop a strategy to address poverty. This is first and foremost a matter of fundamental human rights. It's also a budgetary concern. Acknowledged as a leading social determinant of health, poverty is costing Canadians billions of dollars annually.
Cooper Institute supports the concept of a basic income guarantee—BIG—and encourages the federal government to collaborate with provinces and territories, and especially with the community sector, to develop a model for implementing such a program. This is a long-term goal; we still need to invest in programs and services that support low-income Canadians, including affordable housing, universally accessible child care, and public transit. The BIG and other poverty reduction strategies must be seen as investments and could be paid for with revisions to the tax system. We support other groups in asking for tax fairness, including an increased corporate income tax and an end to corporate offshore tax dodging.
In Prince Edward Island, our rural communities and economies have been built and sustained by seasonal workers in fishing, farming, and tourism. Employment insurance is essential. It's paid for by workers and employers. It's essential to workers and businesses and the sectors in which they are employed. It's essential to the health and the economic well-being of their communities. The federal government must honour its commitment to reverse the 2012 changes to EI, reinstating the five extra weeks in all regions of the country. We have a high unemployment rate here, and our workers have been affected by the oil industry changes. We're asking for the working-on-claim provision to be fixed to make sure that workers are fairly compensated when they take work while on EI and for a re-evaluation of the regional divisions, which were particularly unfair in P.E.I.
Federal measures should support communities to develop their own policies and plans to meet the needs of people who live there. Cooper Institute is concerned about the impact of trade agreements, such as the CETA and the TPP. Under NAFTA, investor-state dispute settlement provisions have led to Canada being sued on numerous occasions and being forced to pay millions of dollars in compensation to foreign corporations. These costs are borne by all Canadians. The CETA and the TPP contain the same ISDS provisions that grant excessive power to corporations and impede government's ability to develop policies and programs that benefit communities and the environment.
Just a few months ago, we worked with MPs Sean Casey and Wayne Easter to organize consultations on climate change. In total, a hundred people attended and shared their ideas about what should be included in a climate change strategy for Canada. Not surprisingly, a common theme was the need to make a transition to a green economy. Specifically, people said they wanted no new infrastructure to support a carbon-based economy; no new investment in fossil fuel extraction or transport; investment in local renewable energy infrastructure and local food production and distribution; all government decisions to pass a climate test; avoidance of trade deals that will worsen climate change; and, a phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies.