Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
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Don’t raise the minimum wage. Fine-tune it
Urban poverty is a tragic and growing problem in Canada. While everyone likes the idea of adults supporting themselves and their children by working, it’s just not possible on minimum wage. An across-the-board minimum wage is the problem. Perhaps the Dutch example offers some sensible guidance for Canada.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Trouble in Stephen Harper’s backyard
The Harper government encouraged employers in Alberta to become dependent on migrant labour, then throttled the supply. What is not understandable is the rationale westerners use to defend the flawed program… Wouldn’t [the oil price collapse] obviate the need for migrant workers? Not according to the think-tank… It dismisses the possibility of hiring jobless Albertans… It is cool to the idea of recruiting aboriginal workers or people with disabilities…
Tags: disabilities, economy, globalization, ideology, immigration, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
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Supply management costs poor families five times more relative to household income: study
… the simplest would be using free-trade negotiations to open up the markets and then the existing quota system would adjust its systems and prices accordingly… [but] “… if you opened up borders kiss goodbye to our dairy sector”… ”for the first time in 22 years, the board that sets farmgate prices for milk (what farmer’s are paid per litre) lowered it this year. “The Canadian Dairy Commission is showing to the Canadian public that it actually can work… but for last 30 years it only showed the Canadian public it cannot work on behalf of consumers”…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Job creation is not very high on Canada’s list of problems
It used to make sense to put job creation at the top of the list of policy priorities. But in an economy where there are fewer people of working age, the challenge now will not be to find them a job. It will be to make sure that they have the equipment, technology and skills to generate the most income possible.
Tags: economy, featured, participation, youth
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Canada needs a true economic union
If our country is to succeed in this constantly changing, hypercompetitive new world, all our governments need to be pulling in the same direction. Some key elements of the economic union must be: – The reduction of interprovincial barriers that hamper and infringe on trade within Canada…. – The establishment of a strategic, long-term national approach to training that helps ensure Canadians in every region have the skills they need to prosper in the workforce of today and tomorrow… – The creation of a pan-Canadian energy strategy And as part of that strategy: a co-ordinated plan to reduce greenhouse gases, ensuring that our economic growth is sustainable. The most urgently needed element of the economic union is a long-term pan-Canadian infrastructure strategy.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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With right to strike, the Supreme Court returns balance to the workplace
This week, the Court has recognized again that in effect, workers collective rights are human rights. As the decision says, the right to strike is essential to realizing Charter values of “human dignity, equality, liberty, respect for the autonomy of the person and the enhancement of democracy.” As Justice Abella wrote in the Court’s decision, “clearly the arc bends increasingly towards workplace justice.”
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, rights
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Much Too Responsible
In Europe as in America, the excesses that led to crisis overwhelmingly involved private rather than public debt… officials in Berlin and Brussels chose to ignore the evidence in favor of a narrative that placed all the blame on budget deficits… its doyens of deflation… felt comfortable, emotionally and politically, demanding sacrifice (from other people) at a time when the world needed more spending.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology
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Aboriginal revenue sharing is an idea whose time has come
Aboriginal people deserve a financial return from resource development in their traditional territories and revenue sharing is an obvious way to make that happen… it may be the only significant tool at the disposal of aboriginal communities seeking to address the major infrastructure challenges they face around housing, roads and water supplies. … either through negotiations or legal action, resource revenue sharing will soon be commonplace in Canada.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
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Demonized ‘industrial policy’ puts corporate tax cuts to shame
Corporate tax cuts certainly boost after-tax corporate profits, but have had a negligible impact to date on actual business investment in machinery and equipment and in intellectual property, which are the key building blocks of our future prosperity… real business spending in these vital areas has been flat for the past three years… This raises the question of how much money should be funnelled to the private sector through costly across-the-board tax cuts as opposed to more targeted programs.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
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Focus a carbon-tax debate on the economy, not the environment
… a carbon tax designed to improve the economy would be good for the environment… If we do introduce a carbon tax, let us make sure it does not join the list of policies that began with good intentions and ended up with less than stellar performance, such as provincial anti-poverty policies, social-assistance systems, the employment insurance program and – do I dare add – our health care system.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
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