Archive for the ‘Policy Context’ Category
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Euro Treaty Would Give Harper More Power at Home
Monday, September 24th, 2012
24 Sep. 2012
Like other trade agreements, this one systematically weakens the democratic decision-making authority of all levels of government. As such, it is Harper’s Trojan horse. In the guise of expanding “trade” with the EU, he makes progress in his goal of emasculating democratic governance… Two of the most egregious impacts have to do with Medicare and government purchasing.
Tags: economy, globalization, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Corporate welfare flourishes in lean times
Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
September 13, 2012
… a single federal department: Industry Canada. Between 1982 and 2012, it spent $13.7 billion on grants and loans to business. The vast majority of these loans were not repaid. A mere 0.1 per cent of the interest owed on these loans was ever collected. No business would get away with this in the private financial market… What’s worse… there is no credible evidence Canadians benefit from this taxpayer largesse,
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Economic recovery won’t happen until we kill off bad policies
Thursday, September 13th, 2012
NationalPost.com – FullComment 12/09/12. Andrew Coyne It has become a cliché: the new normal. Indeed, so accustomed have Americans become to slow economic growth and stubbornly high unemployment, more than three years into the “recovery,” that it may not even seriously threaten Barack Obama’s re-election prospects. No one thinks the economy would be doing […]
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Depressed wages are a drag on Canada’s economy
Sunday, September 2nd, 2012
September 01, 2012
… if four out of five jobs added to Canada’s labour market since the 2008 recession are temporary or contractual then it is no wonder that 22 per cent of the working population in Ontario can’t call themselves “gainfully employed”… lack of protection in these precarious jobs, both under the law and because of low levels of unionization, means that many casual, part-time and contract workers aren’t familiar with the few rights they do have, or else they are afraid to exercise them for fear of reprisal, blacklisting or deportation.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
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Ontario neglecting its most vulnerable workers
Tuesday, August 28th, 2012
26 August 2012
Roughly 1.7 million workers in the province — 1 out of 5 — have little or no protection from bosses who pay them less than the minimum wage, compel them to work on statutory holidays without overtime and don’t allow them time off for illness, a family emergency or the death of a loved one. Some of these inhumane practices happen within the bounds of Ontario’s gap-ridden Employment Standards Act. Some happen illegally because the rules are so poorly enforced.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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Policy, not cutting labour costs, is the key to preserving our auto industry
Monday, August 27th, 2012
20 August 2012
Direct hourly labour costs are less than 5 per cent of the total cost of designing, engineering, manufacturing, transporting and selling a new vehicle. Yet they capture 99 per cent of the attention. If the analysts are serious about preserving and building this industry for the long term, they’d better… start to imagine an all-round industrial policy framework – like those in other successful jurisdictions – that offers a more promising economic recipe.
Tags: economy, globalization, pensions, rights, standard of living
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The devil is in the details: What economists may be missing
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
Jul 17, 2012
… despite a number of structural reforms over the past two decades, such as NAFTA, GST, price stability, the elimination of the fiscal deficit and the CPP/QPP reform…. weak organizational innovation… would explain why all the productivity-enhancing policy changes we have introduced may not be bearing fruit… there is a need to survey Canadian businesses on their organizational structures and innovation practices in a consistent and ongoing manner to be able to carefully study the links that have been found to be important in other countries.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Fiscal “Crisis” In Context: Two Indicators
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
July 12th, 2012
… choosing today to slash spending on useful public programs very much reflects a political choice, not a fiscal necessity. In the long run, we can and should pay for the public services we need by putting Canadians back to work. In the meantime, there is clearly ample capacity for governments to continue to carry the cost of these programs… it is counter-productive to impose austerity in the public sector on top of the other painful economic challenges we are facing.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates, Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Repealing the Fair Wages Act goes against evidence and workers’ interests
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
July 03, 2012
The Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act was repealed by a single line in the 425-page federal omnibus budget bill. The act mandated minimum wages contractors had to pay their workers on federal government construction contracts, calculated based on the prevailing wages in the geographic region. The move was discovered by NDP MP Pat Martin just weeks before the budget passed. Prior to that, the government had made no mention of its decision… the decision to scrap the act was made without any formal review. Instead, it appears to have been based solely on Merit Canada’s lobbying.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
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The debate over the state is getting stale
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
Jun. 29 2012
… slower growth and higher deficits raise the question for many whether the state is a friend or enemy of more growth and deficit-reduction… The two prescriptions – left and right – leave large unanswered questions. The left is so worried about today’s economic frailties that it remains unclear when and how even larger government deficits would be ever paid down, as eventually they must. And the right is so fixated on the ills caused by government that it remains apparently oblivious to the short-term hurt its restrictive policies are having – or would have – on growth, jobs and recovery.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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