Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
Tories’ Bill 66 would undermine clean-water protections that followed Walkerton tragedy, victims and advocates warn
Last week, the government tabled a new piece of legislation, Bill 66, that, if passed, would allow commercial development to bypass several long-standing laws meant to protect the natural environment and the health of residents, including the Clean Water Act that was put in place following the Walkerton tragedy… The stated purpose of the proposed bill, called the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act, is to cut “red tape” around planning approvals for businesses looking to invest in local communities.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Call to create national plan to fight plastic waste gets full House support
A motion calling for Canada to create a national strategy to combat plastics pollution received unanimous support in the House of Commons on Wednesday… “They put the environment first, ahead of partisan politics”… the motion calls on the federal government to develop a national strategy to attack the root cause of plastic waste in the ocean, and to help organizations working to preserve coastal communities.
Tags: economy, globalization, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
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PC bait and switch on climate change punishes Ontario taxpayers to pay off polluters
Rather than imposing a price on carbon pollution as a cost of doing business, the Tories are shifting the burden to taxpayers by making them subsidize big business. Instead of polluters paying up, polluters are being paid off with $400 million in corporate carbon welfare that comes at taxpayers’ expense. Turns out that the premier’s famous “axe the tax” slogan served to disguise a bait-and-switch ploy that lets big business escape unscathed — taking the hatchet to taxpayer’s pocketbooks while slashing environmental protection.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Workers’ rights advocates push back at PC bill to derail labour reforms
Bill 148 was introduced following a two-year consultation and a 400-page independent report informed by 10 academic research projects. Ontario Federation of Labour president Chris Buckley said the changes would result in workers “working full time and still living in poverty.” … Critics lashed out at the short time frame for consultation on the bill — pointing out that the new labour protections introduced in 2017 involved 12 public consultations, 200 oral presentations, and nearly 600 written submissions.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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OCUFA submits recommendations on Bill 47, calls for reinstatement of fair labour laws
Rolling back equal pay, options for consolidating bargaining units, fairer rules for joining unions, and other basic rights represent a major step backwards in efforts to address precarious work across the province… Workers on university campuses and in communities across the province are counting on these modest but important labour law improvements to support themselves and their families
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights, standard of living
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University and college faculty, students, and staff call on Ontario government to protect workers’ rights and withdraw Bill 47
Faculty, students, and staff across Ontario know first-hand how important existing labour laws are for the well-being of our families and communities. Ontario workers deserve fair wages and good jobs, including at our universities and colleges. If this government is truly for the people, it should do the right thing and withdraw Bill 47 immediately.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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Doug Ford’s fight against carbon pricing puts us on the wrong side of history
Already, 53 governments worldwide have put a price on GHG emissions. They include six Canadian provinces and all three territories; the European Union, world’s largest economy; Japan, third-largest economy; several of China’s largest manufacturing centres; and powerhouse economy California. That carbon pricing is an affordable remedy is evident in the mid-income countries that have adopted it, including Mexico, Slovenia, Latvia and Kazakhstan.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Ford driving a race to the bottom for Ontario’s lowest-paid workers
… the perverse thinking behind the economic philosophy that has dominated North American politics in recent decades: that workers must offer themselves up at the lowest possible wage with the fewest possible benefits in order to create an attractive investment climate for businesses that might otherwise move elsewhere… most low-wage countries remain that way, while the high-wage nations of Europe and Scandinavia continue to excel in global competitiveness.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
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Ontario is taking a big step back by freezing minimum wage
The government says the new law will “create good-paying jobs with benefits.” In reality, it will do just the opposite by clawing back planned wage increases, rights and protections contained in the former Liberal government’s Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, passed late last year. That certainly isn’t good for employees, and as many economists have argued it isn’t good for the economy as a whole either.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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