Scarborough Southwest federal byelection 2026: Affordable housing, food costs among issues discussed at candidates debate
By MATTHEW STEPHENS
Residents filled the pews of Birchcliff Bluffs United Church on Thursday, April 2, to hear from candidates running in the federal byelection in Scarborough Southwest later this month.
Candidates at the debate included Doly Begum of the Liberal Party, Pooja Malhotra of the Green Party, Lyall Sanders of the Centrist Party, Fatima Shaban of the New Democratic Party, and David Vedova of the Christian Heritage Party.
Diana Filipova of the Conservative Party of Canada, Peter Koubakis of the People’s Party of Canada, and Independent candidate April Francisco did not attend.
Reza Khoshdel, executive director of Centre 55 and moderator of the debate, said parties without seats in the House of Commons — the Centrist Party and Christian Heritage Party — would be limited to opening and closing statements and would not take part in the “rapid-fire question” portion.
Organized by the Daily Bread Food Bank and Bluffs Food Bank, and hosted by Scarborough United Neighbourhoods and the South Asian Women’s Rights Organization, the debate featured questions on income supports, employment and affordable housing directed to Begum, Malhotra and Shaban.
Under the new leadership of Avi Lewis, Shaban said the federal NDP is pushing harder to break away from corporate grocers and establish deals with Canadian farmers to deliver cheaper “government owned groceries.”
“Food insecurity also means that we should increase minimum wage so that people can afford groceries,” said Shaban. “We also need to give them affordable housing so that more is left over for groceries.”
She said the NDP is pushing to hold the federal government accountable and make improvements to health care, public transit, and youth support.
“Even though we were not part of the majority or the minority government, we have still pushed the Liberals for medical care, for pharmacare, for affordable childcare,” said Shaban.
Malhotra said the Green Party would introduce “zero-waste legislation” to encourage corporate grocers to donate leftover food rather than discard it, and would increase taxes on high-income earners.
“It’s our lives that they get rich off, and we don’t ever get that return,” said Malhotra. “They need to pay their fair share because they keep making more money while the poor are getting poorer.”
To tackle the country’s cost of living crisis, she said the federal government needs to establish a guaranteed livable income and provide a proper definition for affordable housing as it applies to specific geographic areas.
“We have to look at it by location. So, for Scarborough Southwest, where the median is $37,500 per year as their income, and then the average is $48,000, we need to look at what communities can actually afford when we’re giving out contracts,” said Malhotra.
Begum, who has served as Scarborough Southwest’s Member of Provincial Parliament for the NDP since 2018 and is now running for the Liberals, said she is ready to work with Prime Minister Mark Carney to expand food supports, deliver middle-class tax cuts and increase affordable housing.
“I know the Liberal government is investing an additional $20 million for a local food infrastructure fund to support food banks and community organizations so they can get nutritious food to families who need it the most,” she said.
“With the Build Canada Homes Plan, we put $13 billion in funding that will accelerate actually building homes.”
In his remarks, Sanders of the Centrist Party stressed the importance of affordable housing and reliable transit to riding residents.
“The people of Scarborough Southwest would like to have affordable housing. We’d like to have proper transit, and we’d like to have a better life than what we have right now. Twelve years ago I was homeless, and I understand from that point of view what it means to have a place to live. We need to be working together and that’s one of the things we want to do; we want to come up with good solutions,” he said.
In his remarks, Vedova of the Christian Heritage Party said affordable housing and balanced budgets will be among his party’s priorities.
“We will make housing affordable by cutting taxes and red tape, eliminate foreign ownership of homes, farms and critical businesses and reduce demand through responsible, common sense immigration policies,” he said. “We will implement mandatory balanced budgets for hospitals, schools and transportation systems.”
The federal byelection in Scarborough Southwest will take place on Monday, April 13.
