Archive for the ‘Employment Debates’ Category
Why isn’t EI reform on Harper government’s radar?
Feb. 01, 2012
A system that treated each jobless worker equally regardless of the local environment would encourage labour mobility and improve productivity. No wonder Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall damns the existing system as a “huge disincentive against getting people to go where there is a job. The principle infused into this ought to encourage people to go where the work is.” … Whatever the reason, reforming employment insurance so that all workers are treated equally, however much it would benefit the economy, is a can the Tories appear to have kicked down the road.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Bow Down Canadians, Corporations Are King
Jan. 30, 2012
What kind of society beggars those of its citizens who worked all their lives and now want to retire in dignity while privileging the rich and super-rich by slashing their income taxes and allowing them to transfer wealth to their children untouched? … Since the mid-1980s, and accelerating with the signing of the Canada-U.S. “free trade” deal, the guiding principle of neo-liberalism seems to have been “Ask not what your economy can do for you, ask what you can do for your economy.” … The economy is now defined as the narrow interests of global corporations.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
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Squeezing the middle
Jan. 23, 2012
Most Canadians are guaranteed nothing by our lean, mean, globalized economy. Even university-educated specialists (like accountants or programmers) have been squeezed by new technology, and by trade rules which allow corporations to outsource any job to the lowest global bidder… About the only structural protections most Canadians have going for them are public programs (like health care, education and pensions), and unions (to help equalize their power with employers). Yet these are under attack, too, from the same governments that allow (even glorify) the social irresponsibility of corporations. Governments are cutting the social wage as employers try to slash money wages.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Surely Harper Doesn’t Want More Poor People. Or Does He?
11 Jan 2012
As the Fraser Institute’s Niels Veldhuis observed, “taking money from successful Canadians and redistributing it to lower income Canadians will only decrease the incentives for lower income Canadians to become successful.”… Minimum wage laws and the right to be represented by a union infringe on the economic freedom of employers and employees, they say. Having a legislated minimum wage must inhibit a prospective employee’s freedom to choose an even lower wage… as Canada’s standing on the economic freedom index rises, so do the number of billionaires and the ranks of the poor and struggling
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
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Pay at the top
Jan. 05, 2012
There is no justification for anyone running a hospital to be paid two or three times more than Ontario’s Premier or even the Prime Minister (Hospitals Scrapping Executive Perks – Jan. 4). We need a law that limits public-sector salaries to those of the Premier ($200,000-plus)/Prime Minister ($300,000-plus), with the justification that everyone else’s job simply can’t be more rigorous than that of the top dog. Even at those lowered salaries, competent people would be lining up to apply. And when their over-the-top pensions kick in, taxpayers can keep paying them for many more years.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living, tax
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Five ways to boost Canada’s economy
Jan. 01, 2012
Keep Canada’s future retirees from sliding into poverty… Six leading Canadian pension experts… recently urged an expansion of the CPP… Build critical infrastructure… From crumbling bridges and choked roads to inadequate public transit, the needs outstrip available funds… Deregulate the relics of the pre-Internet economy… Low-cost competitive telecom services are a must-have… Unleash the innovation potential of Canadian companies… Canada spends 1 per cent of GDP on business R&D, compared to 1.6 per cent among wealthy countries
Tags: budget, globalization, ideology, pensions, standard of living
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Fighting for safety on the job
Dec 28 2011
There were 24 deaths on construction sites in 2010 – eight more than the year before… Ontario needs mandatory safety training for construction workers and enhanced training for those in high-risk activities. Workers must be better informed about their rights and employers about their responsibilities to provide a safe work environment. All that must be coupled with better enforcement to make sure the rules are actually followed.
Tags: Health, rights, standard of living
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How the resource boom is transforming our economy
Dec. 20, 2011
The Canadian economy has undergone a fairly profound shift over the past 10 years… we are starting to see… (that) exploitation of natural resources leads to a decline in the manufacturing sector… Ontario, the province most reliant on manufacturing, is now the second largest recipient of federal equalization payments… We should use some of the proceeds of non-renewable natural resources development to foster growth in our truly renewable resource industries — such as information technology and life sciences.
Tags: economy, standard of living
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Cure for Ontario’s credit woes worse than disease
Dec 16 2011
… the more governments reduce spending by, for instance, slashing public service jobs, the lower their tax revenues. And the lower the tax revenues, the harder it is to meet fiscal targets – which spooks the financial markets even more. It is a pernicious circle. What should Ontario’s government do? First, it should avoid panic… Second, it shouldn’t scapegoat public sector employees… Debt and deficit – while costly – are sometimes better than the alternative. Bond rating agencies notwithstanding, this is one of those times.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Approaching the tipping point [corporate interests]
Dec 12 2011
Governments in the “Western” world need to wake up and start working with corporations and labour to create general prosperity. Corporations that send jobs to countries with cheaper labour not only undermine their own workers but also themselves. As the “corporate” world eliminates decent wages in their countries of origin, they also eliminate potential customers of their own products.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living, tax
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