N.L.'s newly announced Well-Being Week is meaningless without action, says NDP leader

Newfoundland and Labrador's premier says the upcoming Well-Being Week is a time to raise awareness of the ways social factors affect people's health and quality of life.The leader of the provincial NDP says people are already aware and what they need is help.

Following Andrew Furey'sannouncement of Sept. 17-23 as Well-Being Week, NDP Leader Jim Dinn said he attended Wednesday's event hoping to hear about new initiatives to improve quality of life for residents of the province.

"I didn't hear that. I heard an announcement of a week," he said.

Shortly before the event, he said, he got an email from a mother of three teenagers who said they were being evicted and have nowhere to go.

"They're calling my office, and they're hoping that I'm going to help, and I'm thinking, 'I don't know where we're going to get places that are affordable."

Seniors and other people on fixed incomes likewise call his office looking for help with rising rents, said Dinn, who added that a nearby bus shelter was being used as a home by someone without a place to live.

"Yet at the same time we've got a government that seems to be tone-deaf to that and seems to stick with the notion that well, rents really aren't increasing that significantly."

Furey, who announcedWell-Being Weekat social services organization Choices For Youth in St. John's on Wednesday, cited the 2022 Health Accord's recommendations focusing on improving the social determinants of health: access to safe housing, good food, clean water and an equitable justice system among them.

The government will be putting a "heightened focus" on social determinants in spending and policy decisions, said Furey, and Well-Being Week will be a time to highlight those issues with events and initiatives.

"Well-being is an essential aspect of the overall health of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and for too long we have just looked at simple parameters like life expectancy and how we treat strokes and diabetes and heart disease," he said. "We need to look at the social determinants of health and those that are driving those very diseases."

Speaking to reporters after the announcement, Dinn rattled off a list of things the government should do if it isserious about addressing social determinants: introduce a guaranteed basic income. Mandate a livable minimum wage. Provide more non-market affordable housing. Fill the dozens of vacant social worker positions.

A week of awareness isn't enough, said Dinn.

"I don't know if that's going to help the young mother I just spoke to you aboutwith three teenage children. I don't think it will," he said. "I definitely don't think it's going to help the gentleman, the person who is sleeping in the bus shelter, and it's not helping those seniors who are facing,and those on fixed income, facing significant rent increases."

Without accompanying hard data from the government on how the government has reduced, for example, the number of people who don't have a family doctor, said Dinn, he doesn't see the benefit of a week of well-being awareness.

"Anyone working in this field, the organizations, the people experiencing it, they're already aware of it," he said. "People are aware. I want something done."

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