من الأشهر اليوم؟

Canada’s minister of middle class prosperity made a stop at Our Place on Wednesday, a sign of the federal government’s desire to bring Victoria’s homeless and working-poor families into the middle class.

“Making sure the economy works for everyone is what we are doing,” Fortier said over coffee at the Magnolia Hotel.

Fortier, the MP for Ottawa-Vanier, was appointed Canada’s first minister of middle-class prosperity in 2019 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a goal of building a bigger middle class and making life more affordable for average families.

Strengthening the middle class will allow the government to “reduce the inequalities that exist,” she said. “There’s no magic solution.”

She said she is trying to “find an economy that works for everyone. We know that the core middle class, if it’s strengthened and is strong, we will be able to bring the others into the middle class.”

Working closely with municipalities and provinces is key to finding solutions, she said.

“Going to Our Place today, we’ll see what kind of measures we can do to support people and I believe there are also some wrap-around services that will help them find ways to hopefully get out of that situation,” Fortier said. The drop-in centre serves some of the most vulnerable people in the captial region.

Fortier is headed to Vancouver tomorrow as the last stop of a B.C. tour that has also seen the minister visit Kelowna, Vernon and Surrey.

She is trying to gauge the well-being of communities and their quality of life priorities be it affordable housing, improved transit, improving supports and relations with Indigenous people, education, health care, a secure retirement, investments in good-paying jobs in industries from high-tech to resource industries including foresry and oil and gas while transitioning to a cleaner economy.

Fortier is also meeting with Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and B.C. Finance Minister Carole James. She said she and James talked about affordability and quality-of-life issues.

“I think we’re on the same page on realizing that we need to not only focus on the GDP as being an indicator ... but we have to take into account affordability and quality of life,” Fortier said.

“Will it be better to do a tax cut or to invest in health care? That’s what we are trying to see, where we should prioritize,” she said. “We know we have to investigate ... [whether] the investments we are making really making a difference in the lives of people.”

ceharnett@timescolonist.com