Newsletter – March 18th
Many thanks to those who dropped by and attended my first Annual community skate.
I’ve been busy over the last few weeks.
You’ll find some updates on what we’ve been doing to serve you in Ottawa and Thornhill.
To stay up to date – follow me on social media – Facebook; Instagram; Twitter
First Annual Skating Event
I hosted my first annual community stake on March 5th at the Rosemount Community Centre. I am truly grateful to those who attended and made this event a success. I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with constituents about issues that matter to all of us.
Stay tuned for more community events!
The Government is finally dropping the test requirement for Fully Vaccinated Travelers
After repeatedly raising this issue, starting April 1st fully vaccinated travelers will not be required to go through testing at airports. Travel measures triggered by the pandemic have already devastated the transport and tourism sectors, bleeding billions of dollars from Canada’s airline sector and shuttering hotels because of stop-and-go restrictions.
While the government finally decided its time to lift the punitive, costly and ineffective COVID testing – we need to lift restrictions and end the mandates. I’ll be pushing this in the house next week.
Stay tuned.
Potential CP Rail Disruption
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) were in a position to strike starting March 16th at midnight should talks between the parties fail. The potential strike would affect more than 3,000 locomotive engineers, conductors, train, and yard persons working at CP Rail. Businesses are already facing the difficult prospect of recovering from the pandemic. They cannot afford further supply chain disruptions. Our rail lines are a critical part of our entire transportation infrastructure network and need to be protected from disruption.
Click here to read my statement.
Ukrainian President speaks in the House of Commons
On Tuesday, March 15th during a special session of the Parliament, I had the opportunity to hear the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak about the ongoing situation in Ukraine. I applaud his courage and outstanding leadership at this critical juncture in Ukraine’s history. The images we see coming out of Ukraine are heartbreaking and painful and we all pray for their people. Canada has the largest number of people of Ukrainian descent outside of Ukraine and Russia. Canada and our allies must do more to secure Ukraine’s airspace. At a minimum, it is incumbent on us to protect the airspace over the humanitarian corridors, so that Ukrainians can seek safe passage away from war zones and to allow humanitarian relief to reach those areas under siege.
Visited Nova Scotia to learn about our Ports and Supply Chains
I recently traveled to Nova Scotia and toured various parts of the province; the east coast port is a critical part of our supply chains. I also had an opportunity to visit Chignecto Isthmus. This is the piece of land connecting Nova Scotia to the rest of Canada. A combination of a high tide with a powerful storm up the Bay of Fundy will certainly overwhelm the aging dikes and flood large portions of Amherst, Nova Scotia.
$50 Million dollars of trade a day runs through here. Full communities of residents live here. There is a $700,000 secret report from the government that has some answers, but no one knows what the report contains.
Do you have 5 minutes? Click here to watch my speech on the Oil and Gas industry in Canada.
Lunch with York Region Municipality
I invited the York region municipal leaders for a lunch at my constituency office to discuss how we can better collaborate to ensure York Region’s success.
We celebrated International Women’s Day!
I wish my colleagues and all the women around the world a (belated) Happy Women’s Day!
Strengthening Canada’s ties with Taiwan
It is time that Canada adopted an approach to Taiwan that better reflects the current reality – to strengthen our ties. I joined the Taiwanese Merchant Association to discuss how Canada can step up its trade relationship with Taiwan.
Don Valley North Hyundai Visit
I visited the Don Valley North Hyundai & Genesis to understand the supply chain crisis many auto dealerships are facing in Thornhill and across Canada. Thank you to Jay Goldberg, GM of the dealership for an amazing tour of the facility.
Melissa Lantsman
melissa@melissalantsman.ca