Both local Members of Parliament look to continue specific projects for Northwestern Ontario ahead of the holiday break.

Tuesday’s Speech from the Throne focused on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as help after severe weather, child care and programs to make housing more affordable.

Thunder Bay-Superior North’s Patty Hajdu, who will serve as the Minister of Indigenous Services and Minister Responsible for FedNor, feels promises towards home ownership will directly have an impact on her constituents.

“Helping to put home ownership back in the reach of Canadians with a more flexible first-time home buyer incentive or a rent to own program or reducing closing costs, that’s actually going to benefit young or new home owners in our region that have been clear to me that it’s getting harder and harder to get a home,” Hajdu stressed.

Hajdu also felt that the child-care plan proposed by the federal government for five years, $30 billion that will cut fees to an average of $10 per day will also help in Northwestern Ontario.

“I will tell you that there are moms in Thunder Bay-Superior North and across the region that are kept out of the workforce because it just doesn’t make economic sense, if they don’t have affordable childcare and in some cases, they don’t have access to it at all,” Hajdu noted.

Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the province will again sit down with the federal government on Wednesday for negotiations.

Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski spent the majority of 2021 continuing the work to help relocate Afghans who worked with the Canadian military.

Powlowski believes they could help with worker shortages in Northwestern Ontario.

“I have talked with people all across the region, not only in Thunder Bay but in Atikokan and Fort Frances,” Powlowski noted. “Employers in Emo are all looking for workers, whether it’s truck drivers, personal support workers (PSW), or anyone to work in Wal-Mart or Tim Hortons.”

Powlowski went onto say, “The Afhgans I think are one example of people from other countries who come here who want to work, are willing to work and I think it works out well for both Northwestern Ontario as well as the immigrants and refugees who are overjoyed to come to Canada.”

The house rises on Friday, December 17.