« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Ottawa needs to step up to PSE plate, too
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
November 23, 2011
Since the late 1990s, full-time enrolment at colleges and universities has increased 25 per cent. Enrolment in graduate studies soared 42 per cent between 1998 and 2008. But federal funding for postsecondary education has decreased dramatically since the late-1970s. The Canada Social Transfer gives money to the provinces but does not require them to use federal postsecondary funding for postsecondary purposes… The CFS’s central recommendation is for the federal government to bring in a Post-Secondary Education Act modeled after the Canada Health Act.
Tags: budget, participation, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Graphic: Taking measure of Canada’s provinces
Sunday, November 13th, 2011
Nov 12, 2011
Statistics Canada released new data this week about how the economies of Canadian provinces and territories grew and shrank in 2010. The National Post’s graphics team takes a look. [see graphic]
Tags: economy, housing, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
CASW Asking for Balance on Crime and Punishment Legislation
Monday, November 7th, 2011
November 7, 2011
“Social workers are respecfully appealing to Prime Minister Harper to lift the 100 day self-imposed timetable for passing C-10, retract the bill, and to reintroduce its component parts next session so that each can be debated on their own merits”… “Victims justly require protection, support and justice; let us honour them by not creating a system that, as an unintended consequence, creates more victims that it supports.”
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, participation
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
So many ways to die
Sunday, November 6th, 2011
Nov 5, 2011
The National Post’s graphics team takes another look at what was killing Canadians in 2008.
Tags: Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
New seats rebalance the House of Commons
Friday, October 28th, 2011
Oct. 27, 2011
New Seats: 30 new seats over four provinces will be added to the House of Commons making a total of 338 seats, including 3 seats in the territories. [Infographic]
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
The right to information
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
Oct 22 2011
Canada’s Access to Information Act gives every Canadian citizen the right to access government records. Such information is not supposed to be kept secret. Too often, though, it is journalists who are singled out and thwarted in their efforts to get access to public information. As this year’s annual Newspapers Canada audit of our country’s freedom of information system found, in Ontario particularly, requests made by media and other groups that seek to hold government accountable were more likely to be flagged as contentious and take much longer than requests made for private reasons.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
Reality Check: Why Unions Still Matter
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
October 19, 2011
A recently published study shows that “the decline of organized labor explains a fifth to a third of the growth in [American] inequality”. The latest U.S. census data, coupled with an historical analysis showing declining union membership coinciding with middle-income earners’ decreasing share of aggregate income, demonstrate just how relevant unions remain.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Federal government could do much more to help universities
Thursday, September 15th, 2011
September 14, 2011
Just when the nation’s most pressing need is economic recovery, austerity is the name of the game in Ottawa, including grants to research agencies and postsecondary institutions vital to the developing Canada’s long-term social, cultural, and economic strength… The funding agencies are just one part of the federal government diminishing support for universities. Support from the Canada Social Transfer program, which flows money to the provinces for postsecondary education, is more than $400 million below what’s needed just to bring back 1992-93 funding levels (adjusting for inflation and population growth).
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
The tuition burden for Ontario families is rising – and regressive
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
September 7, 2011
Families have seen university tuition increase 244 per cent, in real dollars, since 1990, even though incomes have been stagnant… For professional students, it’s even worse. To support a dentistry student, for example, a lower-income family would have to devote six-and-a-half years of earnings to pay for just the tuition fees… This year, the average undergraduate student in Ontario will pay an estimated $6,500 for a year’s tuition, up from $2,500 (in 2011 dollars) in 1990… Ontario now has the highest tuition fees in Canada.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Public austerity: Why is Canada leading the way?
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
August 31, 2011
Government spending cuts in Canada are planned to be deeper than any other advanced industrial countries, points out Canadian Labour Congress economist Andrew Jackson, even though the country’s balance sheet is healthier… It’s not government debt or deficits that lie behind Canada’s economic problems; it’s the painfully slow recovery and a weak job market. The degree of austerity planned by Canadian government will only make matters worse.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Recent Comments