Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Gulf between business and labour narrows
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Oct 06 2010
Although business and labour are temporarily united in opposition to higher EI premiums, they remain at odds on the bigger question of whether coverage should be extended to part-time employees and contract workers. Two forces — a sputtering recovery and a government fixated on cost-cutting — are driving business and labour together right now. But beneath this cyclical convergence, the former combatants are edging toward a shared understanding: Good social policy can be smart economic policy.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »
Ontario’s Bill 68 falls short for ‘precarious’ workers
Monday, October 4th, 2010
October 1, 2010
Research has shown that precarious workers face numerous stressors such as low wages, job uncertainty and having to work harder than permanent staff. This is significant because of the growing number of people who comprise the temporary or part-time workforce.
Tags: Health, rights
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
EI program: Reform plan is needed
Friday, October 1st, 2010
Oct 01 2010.
… EI needs more than an ad hoc intervention on the premium side. It needs a complete overhaul. The last comprehensive makeover was in 1971, when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister. Since then, the EI program has been gradually whittled down by both Liberal and Conservative governments, so that now a majority of the jobless are not even covered by it… The issue should be handed to a royal commission or some other panel of experts to study and report back within a year with recommendations of how to reform EI to make it both more accessible and sustainable.
Tags: budget
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Canada’s EU trade talks could fall apart
Monday, September 27th, 2010
September 22, 2010
… instead of limiting our negotiators to gaining access only for our products, we should direct them to prioritize our services trade with the EU. Barriers to Canada–EU services trade are often related to difficulties in moving people or establishing a local presence. The deal should therefore cover such issues as facilitating movements of temporary workers and opening up opportunities to invest and set up foreign affiliates.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Tories not doing enough to fix EI program
Monday, September 27th, 2010
Sep 27 2010
… what’s wrong with EI: – Approximately 40 per cent of the jobless don’t qualify for unemployment benefits… People who don’t qualify for EI benefits are shut out of Ottawa’s job training and skills upgrading programs… All workers pay identical premiums, but EI claimants receive starkly different benefits, depending on their regional unemployment rate… Employment insurance is no longer an economic stabilizer.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
UN millennium goals ignore deeper causes of poverty
Sunday, September 26th, 2010
September 22, 2010
… Millennium Development Goals -a set of eight objectives, ranging from eradicating extreme poverty and hunger to reducing child mortality and achieving universal primary education… are, in theory, to be achieved by 2015… Instead of vowing to support humanitarian objectives and throwing money at poverty’s symptoms, the rich countries must recognize the urgency of removing the obstacles to development that they have the power to address.
Tags: globalization, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The new protectionism is shutting us out
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Sep. 23, 2010
World trade collapsed in the 1930s because of collapsing consumer demand, not protectionism; competitive tariffs were a response to that implosion, not its cause. For the same reason, world trade plunged 12 per cent last year, despite the G20 promises… . Almost universally, countries around the world are becoming more aggressive in protecting and stimulating domestic output and employment. They don’t usually jack up tariffs… instead, they use less visible but equally effective tactics… Our passivity in the face of others’ pro-activity has taken us from trade feast to famine.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Recession exposes fallacies behind EI funding
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Sep 22 2010
The government has until Nov. 30 to decide whether to go ahead with the proposed 15-cent-per-hour increase on Jan. 1, 2011, or override the EI financing board… If they stick to their fiscal plan, they risk upsetting voters in every part of the country. If they delay the premium increase, they’ll have trouble reaching their goal of balancing the federal budget within five years… the Caledon Institute… urges the government to forgo next’s year’s rate increase. But its bigger message is an appeal to Parliament to rethink the financing of jobless benefits.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
An economic cancer
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Sept. 18, 2010
… fully one in three cigarettes bought in Canada were contraband as of 2008–up from one in six just two years before… The state’s failure to tackle this problem makes it effectively complicit in the illegal tobacco trade… Effective immediately, it should enforce the law against illegal tobacco products, as well as lower tobacco taxes. In the long term, it should reform the Indian Act to empower aboriginal Canadians to start legitimate businesses instead of resorting to crime.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, Health, Indigenous, poverty
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Laws to protect kid labourers too lax: advocates
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
September 17, 2010
Each province and territory now has jurisdiction to craft its own rules related to the minimum work-start age, maximum hours and types of employment. But decrying a recent “erosion” of protections for child workers — especially in British Columbia and Alberta — there is a growing call for the federal government to impose national minimum standards… Most provinces restrict the type of work children are allowed to do, but young people have toiled in a number of workplaces, from retail to farms, construction, mines or service industries.
Tags: rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Recent Comments