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Pensions: Harper gov’t pits generations against each other
Feb 26 2012
It knew Canada’s dependency ratio (the number of retirees relative to the number of workers) would soon start rising. Number-crunchers had been urging governments to wake up for years. Instead of doing that, the Conservatives increased federal spending, wiping out the $13 billion surplus they inherited from the previous Liberal government. Now they’re warning Canadians the country’s 60-year-old pension program is unsustainable.
Tags: budget, economy, pensions, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Outsourcing: the new way to balance government budgets in Canada
Feb 21 2012
It is sometimes necessary to bring in private contractors to provide specialized knowledge or technical expertise. But not for budgets. They are the direction-setting documents of government… But today, leaders’ speeches consist mostly of generalities. And spending estimates are rarely examined by Parliament. By default, budgets have become the road map to the future. To ensure that they reflect the choices of the people — not just those of the leader — the budget-making process must be as transparent as possible, especially now as all three levels of government embark on retrenchment campaigns that will require difficult sacrifices. Yet each leader has made — or tried to make — the process more opaque.
Tags: budget, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Supreme Court ruling gives Canadians with mental disabilities full equality in court
Feb 14 2012
The law is finally fair. In a landmark judgment last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Canadians with mental disabilities have the same right to testify in court as everyone else… It also said adults with mental disabilities should be subjected to no higher test of truthfulness than any other witness: Can they tell their story coherently and do they swear to tell the truth?
Tags: disabilities, mental Health, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Prime Minister Stephen Harper boasts about Canada’s economic performance while jobs vanish and pensions shrink
Feb 09 2012
What we are seeing is a power shift. Governments and corporations are limiting their risk exposure at the expense of their citizens and employees. This trend is not new, but it accelerated sharply in 2012. We knew Harper had no intention of bolstering public pensions. But no one imagined he would make life harder for seniors, without any warning or public discussion.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Employment Debates | No Comments »
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 »
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