Harper’s pension reform moves breed needless resentment
Feb 02 2012
Harper doesn’t want ideas. He wants a quick, made-in-Ottawa solution… He has a parliamentary majority. What he can’t do is stop Canadians from questioning his rationale (numerous actuarial reports show Old Age Security is affordable); questioning his motives (streamlined environmental rules would help oil producers); and questioning his trustworthiness (despite his claims to the contrary, immigrants fear he will restrict the intake of “non-productive’ newcomers such as grandparents, siblings and refugees.)…
Tags: immigration, participation, pensions
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canada chops employment insurance staff, leaving jobless in the lurch
Jan 29 2012
An applicant who provides all the information required by Service Canada is supposed to get his or her first benefit payment within 28 days. But thousands of laid-off workers say they’ve been waiting months. It’s impossible to get though to Service Canada; the phone lines are jammed. It takes hours to get an appointment with a claims officer when they go to the office in person. And when their turn finally comes, they’re often told their claim is “spooling” or “churning” in the computer and won’t be retrievable for three weeks… Why is the federal agency failing to keep its part of the bargain?
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Policy Context | No Comments »
Disabled children get left out
Jan 24 2012
… preschool children are generally well-served by community agencies and elementary schools do their best to include children with disabilities in classroom activities. But around Grade 5 or 6, these kids fall by wayside… Those who manage to finish high school have enormous difficulty getting the training they need to qualify for a job… smaller communities don’t have resources for these children with disabilities. But even in major cities parents don’t know what services exist… There are solutions to these problems, but they require money and leadership.
Tags: disabilities
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Tax breaks leave gaping hole in federal budget
Jan 12 2012
Every year Ottawa gives up billions of taxes in deductions, exemptions, deferrals, credits, rebates and concessions. Because no money actually goes out the door, these tax breaks don’t count as spending. But they cost the federal treasury billions… here is the value of all the tax expenditures in the 2011 report, released this week: $152 billion. To put that in perspective, the government’s total program spending in 2011 amounted to $248 billion.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Education Delivery System, Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Payroll taxes go up but jobless relief deteriorates
Jan 05 2012
Most of the jobs available now are part-time, short-term or casual. They seldom last long enough to provide workers with the hours they need to qualify for EI benefits… Rates of coverage vary widely across the country. In Ontario, less than 40 per cent of the jobless receive EI benefits… Successive governments have pared EI benefits… The rate-setting mechanism no longer functions as intended… surpluses cannot be accumulated in good years to use in lean years… (so) that when the economy slumps EI premiums go up, forcing workers to pay more when they can least afford it.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Policy Context | No Comments »
Parliament fails native women
Jan 03 2012
Three days before the House of Commons rose for its Christmas recess, a parliamentary committee quietly tabled a shocking report. It was called Ending Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Girls. But it wasn’t a plan of action. It wasn’t even a commitment to do better. It was a self-congratulatory compendium of existing programs… The Conservative government, which controls Parliament, can do as it wishes. It is clear it does not consider the disproportionately high rate of violence against aboriginal women a priority.
Tags: Native, rights, standard of living, women
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
David Pecaut was ‘a popcorn machine of ideas’
Dec 29 2011
…the Pecaut Centre for Social Enterprise… will have three purposes. • Its primary objective will be to develop Toronto’s next generation of social entrepreneurs… • Its second objective will be to act as a knowledge hub for the not-for-profit sector. It will grapple with one of the biggest challenges they face: How to measure the value (or in business terms, the return on investment) of what they do… • Its third objective will be to take promising social enterprises from startups to sustainable ventures… (as) the not-for-profit sector must be part of a strong, creative, compassionate Canada.
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Harper’s unlikely social breakthrough [family caregiver tax credit]
Dec 15 2011
Approximately half a million caregivers — people who voluntarily look after infirm spouses, frail, elderly parents and children with serious health problems — will soon get Canada’s first Family Caregiver Tax Credit. It is extremely modest: less than $1 a day. It is regressive; high-income caregivers get maximum credit, low-income caregivers qualify for little or nothing. And it is selective; 82 per cent of the 2.7 million Canadians who sacrifice their income, career prospects and sometimes their health to care for loved ones, aren’t eligible.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, standard of living, tax, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
When did compassion become unaffordable?
Dec 01 2011
It has become the mantra for an era of tumbling expectations. “We will protect health care and education,” Premier Dalton McGuinty assured anxious Ontarians… What hasn’t received much attention is what this mantra means for the province, the nation and the value system Canadians once shared… • It strips the disadvantaged of their last vestiges of bargaining power… • It puts to rest the tradition that Canadians take care of vulnerable citizens in good times and bad…
Tags: budget, ideology, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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