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Getting It Right from the Start: An Argument for Early Childhood Care
Sunday, November 28th, 2010
November 24, 2010
Government support of early childhood education and care programs for poor and vulnerable children is a worthwhile investment argues a new paper released by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies. Ian Munro says the evidence is clear that high-quality child care delivers long term sustained value for low income families and for society at large.
Tags: child care, economy, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Poverty Eradication Key to Canada’s Economic Recovery
Friday, November 26th, 2010
November 24, 2010
Canada’s economic recovery hinges on federal leadership to pull recession victims out of the poor house and prevent Canadians from plunging into deeper poverty, says Campaign 2000’s new report card on child and family poverty… The child poverty rate of 9.1 per cent is slightly less than when it was 11.9 per cent in 1989. Lessons from past recessions tell us that poverty will rise before the recovery is complete. “… Research has clearly demonstrated that there will be significant economic savings and better health outcomes for all of us if we improve the incomes of people in poverty”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, homelessness, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
NAFTA Chapter 11 an increasing threat to the public good
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
November 4, 2010
All levels of government, particularly in Canada, are being targeted by investors for alleged breaches of Chapter 11, NAFTA’s investment chapter, says a new report by CCPA trade analyst Scott Sinclair… Canada has paid out NAFTA damages totaling $CAD157 million, while Mexico has paid damages of $US187 million. The U.S. has yet to lose a NAFTA chapter 11 case… “This situation has become a legal and economic minefield, with governments too often finding that the best interests of their citizens are trumped by the ability of multinationals to make profits,“ the study notes.
Tags: economy, globalization, privatization
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Public Hunger Inquiry – Recession Relief Coalition
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Nov. 11, 2010
Hunger: It is the untold story of the Recession. As governments begin “tightening their belts,” we must make sure the story is told now, before they make the problem much, much worse.
We can’t afford to be silent any longer!
[Public Hunger Inquiry, Toronto – November 23, 2010]
Tags: poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
The Liberals are talking pension reform
Monday, November 8th, 2010
Nov. 7, 2010
… the federal Liberals deserve praise for going where they should logically fear to tread. According to a party “white paper”… they are now contemplating an election platform that would include a voluntary supplemental pension plan and would ease the rules that currently limit retroactive payments for late claimants of Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits to one year… Any attempt at pension reform should look at the whole picture, not just savings vehicles.
Tags: economy, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Keith Martin: Do’s and Don’ts for reforming health care
Monday, November 8th, 2010
November 8, 2010
Dr. Keith Martin, the Liberal MP, is continuing his campaign to encourage a realistic debate over health care reform (as opposed to just talking about it, which is the preferred option in Ottawa and 10 out of 10 provinces). His suggestion last month that Canadians should have the right to pay for health care outside the system if they wished had his own party doing backflips to separate themselves from his dangerous ideas… But Martin isn’t backing down. Today he expanded his view with a list of criteria for repairing the system…
Tags: Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Canada pays a price for overburdened workers, finding balance is in the public interest
Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Nov. 05, 2010
Rugged individualism is wonderful in theory. But it’s totally false to the way most of us experience the world. We don’t scrabble out an existence on our own – we work in offices, we pay taxes to governments, we have families – and what happens in one domain necessarily affects what goes on in the other. People don’t just get over it. They become physically ill from stress, or they suffer depression… That is why work-life balance is not purely a private matter… Public policy needs to catch up to and reflect the reality of people’s lives.
Tags: participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Now Is Not the Time For Spending Cuts: Study
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Oct 18, 2010
Given the fragile economic recovery and the weak job market, now is not the time spending cuts, argues a report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The study argues that debt in Canada—even after two years of stimulus—is still at very low levels compared to other countries, and compared to the mid-1990s. It warns against repeating the major spending cuts of the 1990s, which shrank social programs and public services.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The math of inequality
Friday, October 1st, 2010
October 1, 2010
Mr. Corcoran did not seem to do his math before publishing his editorial… / Mr. Corcoran’s assiduous analysis of a particular graph does not persuade that there is no inequality of income. We’re past that — we can all see for our own eyes the glaring disparity. And it’s such a huge disparity that the direction hardly matters… nobody deserves anything; just as no one deserves to be born with Down’s syndrome or fetal alcohol syndrome. How would Mr. Corcoran have fared if he was born on a reserve?… First step: Tax the super-rich (start with inheritance tax) and eliminate poverty in a week.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Senate Report on Poverty Shelved by Harper Government
Friday, October 1st, 2010
September 28 , 2010
Earlier this year, the Senate of Canada unanimously endorsed In from the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness, a landmark report containing 74 recommendations to help lift Canadians out of poverty. Yesterday, the Government of Canada issued essentially a non-response to the report, instead choosing to list its apparent accomplishments in reducing poverty in Canada without directly commenting on a single recommendation contained within the report.
Tags: ideology, poverty, Senate
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
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