The 2024 Scarborough Centre Youth Fair
I’m extremely proud of how our community got together to connect more than 300 young people to employment opportunities. Our 2024 youth fair at Grace Place Church was a great success. To the employers and employment services providers, thank you all for coming out!
(Click to view more photos)
|
|
|
April was Filipino Restaurant Month
April was Filipino Restaurant Month in Canada, a time to celebrate Filipino cuisine. Scarborough is home to a vibrant Filipino community and many great Filipino restaurants. I recently hosted a celebration at FV Foods in Scarborough. Thank you to owner Mel Galeon, Filipino Consul General to Toronto Angelica Escalona, and all the friends who joined us for dinner.
(Click for photos)
|
Celebrating the achievements of Tamil Canadians
It was wonderful to connect with many friends in the Tamil community at the National Council of Canadian Tamils annual gala. Thank you to the Tamil-Canadian community for your contributions to Scarborough and to Canada.
|
Friendship Sunday at Wilmar Heights Baptist Church
I was honoured to join hands with our diverse community at Wilmar Heights Baptist Church for Friendship Sunday. We welcomed religious leaders and congregations from near and far, coming together in the spirit of unity and harmony. The songs and shared moments were truly moving. Thank you as always Pastor Tai and Marian and all the congregation for the warm welcome.
|
A locally developed plan to confront anti-black racism
Last month the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals launched its Action Plan to Confront Anti-Black Racism, in collaboration with the City of Toronto. I look forward to supporting and seeing this initiative flourish in our community.
|
Recognizing the newest member of Scarborough’s Walk of Fame
A new group of honourees was indicted into the Scarborough Walk of Fame in a ceremony at Scarborough Town Centre recently. Congratulations on making Scarborough proud! Meet this year's new inductees: Our 2024 Inductees
|
Supporting local business – Ghadir Meat & Restaurant
Ghadir Meat and Restaurant has started serving a traditional Lebanese breakfast. I enjoyed it recently — a delicious way to start the day!
|
Scarborough giving back to the community
Reflecting on the incredible generosity of our community! I joined Aly Shamsy and the Scarborough Jamatkhana to deliver the donations collected during Ramadan to the Muslim Welfare Centre. Even after Eid, the spirit of giving continues to shine bright.
|
Annual community cleanup to recognize Earth Day
Our community clean-up at Jack Goodlad Park was a testament to Scarborough Centre's unity! Despite the cold, I was humbled by the dedication of our motivated champions of the environment! Let's continue to preserve our community's beauty.
(Click for more photos)
|
A plan for generational fairness
The 2024 federal budget has just been released. It’s a plan for generational fairness that seriously tackles what I think is one of the biggest issues facing Scarborough, and facing Canada: housing affordability.
|
Protections for Canadian renters
One of the biggest pressures on Canadians right now is housing, and this is particularly true for everyone who rents their home, including younger Canadians.
We’re working to make the rental market fairer by launching a new $1.5 billion Canada Rental Protection Fund to protect affordable housing and create thousands of new affordable apartments.
That means, more apartments for seniors; students; and families – at prices they can afford. We’re working to make the rental market fairer so every generation can get ahead.
Learn more: Protecting and expanding affordable housing
|
Building more housing
One of the biggest pressures on Canadians right now is housing, and this is particularly true for everyone who rents their home, including younger Canadians.
We’re taking action. Our government is unlocking housing construction by delivering a $15 billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program. This funding will help create over 131,000 new homes for Canadians within the next decade.
That’s more homes for seniors; more homes for students; and more homes for young families to raise their kids.
This is a Team Canada effort – and we’re encouraging partners across the country to work with us to get more homes built, faster.
Learn more: Unlocking housing construction and launching Canada Builds
|
Building the infrastructure to support more housing
One of the biggest challenges for young people right now is housing – we need to make sure everyone can afford a home. Part of that is about increasing housing supply across the country.
Our government is helping communities build the infrastructure needed to build more homes, by investing $6 billion through our new Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, and topping up the Housing Accelerator Fund with $400 million.
Growing communities need quality infrastructure in order to build more homes, faster – and our government is there to support them with these generational investments.
Learn more: Growing communities and building more homes, faster
|
Helping renters become homeowners
Renters deserve protection from steep rent hikes, renovictions, or bad landlords. With our new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights and our new Tenant Protection Fund, they won’t have to face these challenges alone.
We’re protecting renters’ rights by:
* Launching a new Canadian Renters’ Bill of Rights to protect them from unfair rent hikes, renovictions, and bad landlords.
* Creating a new $15 million Tenant Protection Fund so they don’t have to fight landlords alone.
And we’re unlocking pathways for renters to become homeowners by helping you get credit for on-time rent payments. This will make it easier to qualify for a mortgage, and even for a lower rate.
But the federal government cannot do it alone. We need provinces like Ontario to stop being gatekeepers and work with us to build more housing people can afford and ensure tenants are protected.
|
Setting our kids up for success
Our kids deserve the best start. The new National School Food Program will do just that. By providing healthy meals for our kids, we’re helping them grow and learn and giving parents the peace of mind they deserve. A healthy start for about 400,000 kids across Canada.
Learn more: A National School Food Program to set kids up for success
|
Investing in early learning and child care
Our Canada-wide early learning and child care system has cut fees to $10-a-day in eight provinces and territories, and by half everywhere else.
But not enough families have access to affordable spaces — so we are building more.
Our new child care expansion will deliver over $1 billion in loans and grants to build more child care spaces. We’re also making sure rural communities get the childcare they need. By forgiving student loans for early childhood educators in rural and remote areas, we’re incentivizing educators to work in those communities. And we’re increasing training for early childhood educators and supporting more research to improve child care.
By building more child care spaces, and attracting and training more child care workers, we’re making sure more young families can save money with affordable child care.
Learn more: More $10-a-day child care spaces
|
Canada will be a leader in Artificial Intelligence
We are investing over $2.4 billion in AI to create good-paying opportunities for every generation, boost innovation across the economy, raise productivity, and accelerate economic growth.
Learn more: Securing Canada’s AI advantage
|
Dental care for Canadian seniors
The first one million seniors who successfully applied to the Canadian Dental Care Plan and have a May coverage start date in their welcome package, can now receive the dental care they need. And potentially eligible people aged 65 and above can now apply to the CDCP online with a new user-friendly tool designed to help Canadians easily apply.
Learn more: Canadian Dental Care Plan
|
Recognizing Asian Heritage Month in Canada
May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, a time to recognize the immense contributions of Canadians of Asian Heritage in building a dynamic and prosperous Canada. Canadians of Asian heritage and their communities have been a part of shaping Canada’s heritage and identity for centuries.
|
|
|
|
© 2026 Salma Zahid
