{"source_url": "https://www.guelphtoday.com", "url": "https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/mental-health-battling-homelessness-priorities-for-guelph-in-2020-mp-lloyd-longfield-1973652", "title": "Mental health, battling homelessness, priorities for Guelph in 2020: MP Lloyd Longfield", "top_image": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/guelphtoday/20191217lloydak1.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "meta_img": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/guelphtoday/20191217lloydak1.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "images": ["https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=472654609985204&ev=PageView&noscript=1", "https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=21059523&cv=2.0&cj=1", "https://www.vmcdn.ca/files/guelphtoday/layout/logo_guelphtoday_yellow_201x40.svg", "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/guelphtoday/20191217lloydak1.jpg;w=960", "https://www.guelphtoday.com/images/blank.gif", "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/guelphtoday/20191217lloydak1.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop"], "movies": [], "text": "MP Lloyd Longfield speaks to GuelphToday about his priorities for the new year\n\nAfter the Liberals won a minority government in the federal election, Guelph\u2019s MP Lloyd Longfield says there's an urgency to get everything done within the first two years.\n\nHe says the upcoming year comes with new priorities and the top priorities for 2020 will be battling housing and mental health and addictions.\n\nLongfield says housing will be addressed on many levels such as providing homes for seniors, new homes for young people, solving the homelessness crisis in Guelph and how it interacts with the other priority of mental health and addictions.\n\n\u201cThe opioid crisis is across Canada. It\u2019s in Guelph. We\u2019ve seen a real rise in the drugs on the street whether its crystal meth or different opiates,\u201d says Longfield, adding that it is important to respond to the need when necessary and the people working in the front lines are crucial in determining what that need is.\n\n\u201cA lot of people are homeless because of mental health and addictions so you have to solve mental health and addictions problems before you can prepare to be able to move into homes. And sometimes mental health is because you don\u2019t have a home. They go hand in hand,\u201d says Longfield.\n\n\u201cThe connection between those two areas in Guelph is very strong and we\u2019ve got great community involvement,\u201d says Longfield, giving the recent example of Legacy Guelph, a local men's group committed to generating 100 new homes in Guelph in the next two years.\n\nHe says all three orders of governments have to work together and the projects working on homelessness and mental health and addictions interface with the city and the province. While the county delivers support services, the city has to provide support through building codes by freeing up land for development to allow more homes to be built in Guelph.\n\nHe says part of homelessness and mental health and the connection to small businesses is creating income streams for people so that they can lift themselves out of poverty by finding the right place to apply those skills.\n\nLongfield says he will also be working on a number of projects to address climate action such as a funding public transit, installing bike lanes and walking paths.\n\n\u201cWe have to get past the eco-anxiety to a place where we\u2019re actually solving problems,\u201d says Longfield adding that he will work on is energy conservation on homes to encourage retrofitting, windows and caulking, thermostats and high-efficiency appliances.\n\n\u201cWe have a federal goal of planting two billion trees. We have a local goal of 40 per cent tree canopy.\u201d\n\nLongfield says there's a great need to address the inequity women face and its important to support women and ensure they get the right jobs and that those jobs pay an equal wage to men.\n\n\u201cWhen you look at small business support, the earnings gap between women and men is still a real thing and we could free up the numbers, $1.6 billion into the economy if we\u2019re able to get women earning what men earn,\u201d says Longfield.\n\nWith women in charge of the Chamber of Commerce, Innovation Guelph, Business Centre Guelph-Wellington, The Circular Food Economy, 10C and Linamar among others, Longfield says it is important to keep encouraging women.\n\n\u201cThe federal government has programs to encourage women entrepreneurship. We\u2019ve been able to get some funding to the programs here, but the more funding you get, the more development you get which then attracts more investment, private investment as well as government investment,\u201d says Longfield.\n\nHe says the support for seniors and vulnerable people in Guelph is going to be ongoing.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got 10-year plans around housing so that's going to be ongoing through 2020,\u201d says Longfield.\n\nNew priorities include the $10 million Circular Food Economy which will create 50 new businesses.\n\nThe new parliamentary intern Caroline Woodward assigned to Guelph \u2014 from the Parliamentary Internship Program started by Alf Hales from Guelph that assigns 10 interns across Canada \u2014 will be connecting to organizations internationally from which Guelph can learn from.\n\nLongfield will also be working on improving child literacy, focusing on Canadian literacy.\n\n\u201cWe need Canadian stories. We need Canadian viewpoints on things and readership of Canadian authors have dropped 50 per cent in the last eight years,\u201d says Longfield.\n\nHe also has a goal of getting the boil water advisories to zero by March 2021 and has been visiting several Indigenous communities in the past year to talk about the water challenges they have.\n\n\u201cInstead of us providing the solutions, them telling us what they need and working on solutions together,\u201d says Longfield adding that he will continue to visit more remote communities in the new year.\n\n\u201cMaking the connections between our federal initiatives and local initiatives is going to be a big job for the year 2020.\u201d", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": [""], "tags": [], "authors": ["Anam Khan"], "publish_date": null, "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "MP Lloyd Longfield speaks to GuelphToday about his priorities for the new year", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/files/ui/icons/fav/at.png", "meta_data": {"referrer": "always", "viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "og": {"site_name": "GuelphToday.com", "type": "article", "title": "Mental health, battling homelessness, priorities for Guelph in 2020: MP Lloyd Longfield", "description": "Read the full story and comment on GuelphToday.", "url": "https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/mental-health-battling-homelessness-priorities-for-guelph-in-2020-mp-lloyd-longfield-1973652", "image": {"identifier": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/guelphtoday/20191217lloydak1.jpg;w=1200;h=800;mode=crop", "width": 1200, "height": 800}}, "fb": {"app_id": 900664033386489}, "twitter": {"site": "@guelphtoday", "card": "summary_large_image"}, "description": "MP Lloyd Longfield speaks to GuelphToday about his priorities for the new year", "article": {"section": "Local News"}, "apple-mobile-web-app-title": "GuelphToday.com", "msapplication-config": "https://www.vmcdn.ca/files/ui/icons/fav/browserconfig.xml", "theme-color": "#ffffff"}, "canonical_link": "https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/mental-health-battling-homelessness-priorities-for-guelph-in-2020-mp-lloyd-longfield-1973652"}