Archive for the ‘Economy/Employment’ Category
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Stephen Harper still favours business over big government. So how did that work out after 2008?
Thursday, May 14th, 2020
Day by day, week by week, Trudeau’s government is increasingly making clear that its approach to bailouts will not follow the path taken more than a decade ago, when much of the aid to corporate giants never did filter down as promised to economically devastated citizens. The Occupy movement and its cries against the “one per cent” were a direct result of the frustration and fallout of the 2008 crash and the income inequality it exposed.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in History | No Comments »
Ontarians getting income support aren’t gaming the system
Wednesday, May 13th, 2020
The suggestion that Canadians are choosing not to work — and not simply out of a job because of, you know, a global pandemic — seems to imply that folks would rather take money from the government than put in an honest day’s work. The real problem isn’t that $2,000 might disincentivize people from looking for work. The real problem is how people can live on that amount, considering, for example, that the average rent in Canada, as of March, was $1,842.
Tags: ideology, participation, poverty
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Child care is essential to our economic recovery
Tuesday, May 12th, 2020
Even before the pandemic there wasn’t enough regulated child care, and in most communities it was far from affordable. This is the time to change that. Government funding for child care provides direct jobs for women, who have suffered higher job loses and reduced hours in the pandemic, and it enables other women to rejoin the workforce… How Ottawa and the provinces move forward will be evidence of whether governments have learned from this crisis…
Tags: child care, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, women
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Canadians need child-care benefits to withstand a COVID-19 recession
Monday, May 11th, 2020
… our national child-care support program – the Child Care Expense Deduction (CCED) – has two flaws that will make it unsuitable for an uneven economic recovery, as predicted for Canada, as well as for primary caregivers with school-aged kids at home… The CCED must be claimed by the lower-income spouse and the amount deducted cannot exceed two-thirds of their income… As a result, the CCED is stingy for low-income families and significantly more generous for higher-income families…
Tags: child care, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
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Pandemic proves value of guaranteed incomes
Saturday, May 9th, 2020
We know that we will emerge from this crisis with higher levels of unemployment than we have seen in two generations. We should be prepared for a winter ahead into which millions of Canadians will be headed broke, unemployed and close to despair… It might lead to the most transformational changes in today’s rich but increasingly divided and unequal economies since Bismarck invented the public pension system, nearly 140 years ago.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Neo-liberalism may be another COVID-19 victim
Friday, May 8th, 2020
Overall, neo-liberalism seemed to be working. The developed world got its foreign-made goods at bargain basement prices. The workers of the developing world were usually exploited. But at least they had jobs… Now we have a pandemic that strikes right at the heart of globalization… Global supply chains may work in neo-liberal theory. But in the real world of disease, fear and sharp practices, these supply chains are strikingly vulnerable.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
A progressive approach to COVID-19 recovery
Sunday, May 3rd, 2020
a COVID-19 recovery strategy, governed by progressive principles and values, would look something like the following : 1. Prioritize the needs of people… 2. Reinforce people’s economic and social rights… 3. Public investment… 4. Transition to greater national self-sufficiency in some sectors… 5. Spend what it takes… In implementing all of the above, dogmatism should be avoided.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa boosts aid package to students, pledges incentives to find work
Thursday, April 30th, 2020
Under the program, post-secondary students, recent graduates and those headed to school in the fall are eligible to get monthly payments of $1,250 a month between May and August. It also promises up to $5,000 for students who volunteer… The government agreed to increase the monthly payments to those with dependants and disabilities by $250 to $2,000 a month… The government agreed to implement new financial incentives and measures to “connect Canadians, particularly students and Canadian youth, to the various jobs available.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Delivery System, Equality Debates | No Comments »
How is Ottawa going to pay off its COVID-19 debt? With any luck, it won’t have to
Tuesday, April 28th, 2020
… the country’s long-term fiscal game plan is likely to look like the one that financed the Second World War… In the 30 years after the war, Canada did not pay off the national debt. It even added to it… The reason was economic growth. The debt was large and growing, but the economy grew slightly faster. That’s how Canada got rid of its war debt without literally paying it off… borrowing costs, low then, are at record lows now.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
COVID-19 prompted previously unthinkable spending from Ottawa. Here’s how it will reshape our future
Saturday, April 25th, 2020
… just two months ago… COVID-19 management gripped our economy and we collectively decided to put health and well-being above — far above — economic growth and fiscal discipline… but few foresaw a lockdown that is now more than six weeks long, with many more to come. Few could predict that the cost would be so enormous. But the most surprising part? The consensus that it’s all still worth it is holding strong.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, participation
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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