Heather Wright/The Independent

Sarnia-Lambton-Bkjewanong MP Marilyn Gladu says she wants to tackle concerns about workforce shortages in the trades, crime and help communities in her riding find resources to build infrastructure and more affordable housing.

Gladu took her seat in the opposition benches as the House of Commons began its second sitting under the Liberal minority government headed by Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The four-term MP talked to The Independent about the issues she wants to tackle before leaving for Ottawa.

Gladu is particularly concerned about workforce shortages in the trades. She criticized the Carney government for allowing the Apprenticeship Incentive Grant to end in March. The program offered a taxable cash grant of $1,000 a year for two years to apprentices.  Gladu also mentioned another grant program aimed at women in the trades which provided $6,000 over two years which expired in March 2023.

“They had incentivized women to $8,000 to try to get more women in the trades, but they have cancelled that program, which makes no sense at a time when they say they want to build, build, build.

“Who’s going to build – the trades? Why do you remove that incentive when you’re spending so much money in other directions, unnecessarily.”

The cost of living and housing is still a big issue for her constituents, the MP said “and I don’t see anything that’s really going to remedy that in the near term.”

Gladu says she’ll be watching to see what the federal government does to ease the financial pressure in its first budget in November.

“The federal government could put money on those as nation-building-type projects – the electricity Riverside generation project for example – that would create jobs for us here at a time when we really need them.”

Gladu also lists crime as an issue for local voters. “Crime is out of control in this country. People are worried,” she said.

Gladu did concede that crime in her riding, while increasing, doesn’t compare with what happens in larger cities. Sarnia Police had over 35,000 calls for service in 2024, up 10 per cent from the year before and laid 18 per cent more charges.

“But people are worried we’re moving in that direction. And so, I do hear concern from people, ‘What are we going to do? When are we going to stop letting people out on bail when they’ve been violent criminals?’”

With the country’s jails and prisons crowded, Gladu says “definitely we’re going to need more prisons in the near term because it’s out of control.”

The MP says there are other steps the government could take to curb crime. “We are not doing an adequate job of the security checks on people that we’re letting come into the country, and so we are letting in a lot of folks who came up with no security check and have a proven criminal record.”

Gladu agreed much of the crime in Lambton County is not related to immigration but rather drugs.

She believes the federal government should be putting more money into drug enforcement particularly to shutdown fentanyl “superlabs.”

Gladu adds the addiction crisis also needs the attention of the federal government. “We need more recovery beds. We have 10 here in Sarnia Lambton, we would need 200,” she says adding there has been a move to get more addiction treatment beds in London “that would have some Sarnia beds attached to it.”

Gladu says the treatment options are needed “to get people away from their addictions and back to their lives.”