« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Investing in Ontario’s future (or not)
Saturday, August 25th, 2012
11 August 2012
Preliminary 2011 data show Canadian businesses investing more per worker than the OECD average — 102 cents per dollar across the group … “Ontario … continues a long-term slide. After getting 77 cents of new investment for every dollar invested across the OECD in the early 2000s (65 against the United States) and 72 in the late 2000s (63 against the United States), Ontario workers may get a mere 70 in 2012 (and only 60 against the United States).”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa’s Indian policies stick with tried and tested failure
Friday, August 24th, 2012
9 August 2012
The Indians did not give up being Indian, as bureaucrats expected they would, for the simple reason that they did not want to. Over and again the principal outcome of top-down, Ottawa-knows-best paternalism was another generation of consternated policy wonks and impoverished reserves whose inhabitants nonetheless resisted outside pressures to cease and desist all things Indian… to introduce voluntary fee simple property ownership to Indian reserves… is one step’s remove from conducting the discussion entirely over the heads of the people affected…
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion History | No Comments »
Natives deserve same property rights as all Canadians
Friday, August 24th, 2012
9 August 2012
On reserves, land is owned by the Crown, which in turn permits First Nations to use it for their collective use. Houses typically are built and maintained by bands or bureaucrats — with no economic input from (or equity for) the occupants. It is an artificial, Soviet-style arrangement… this isn’t because Ottawa is nickel-and-diming Canada’s native reserves. Rather, it’s a function of the perverse economic incentives facing the natives who live in those homes.
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Human rights tribunal dismisses disabled man’s bid to have town pay for snow removal
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
7 August 2012
A human rights tribunal has dismissed a disabled man’s application to have his town remove snow pushed into his driveway by its snowploughs, because it would cost the municipality a steep $75 an hour to do it… In recent years, at least 15 municipalities across Canada have adopted windrow-removal programs for the elderly and disabled, many of which are free or for a small fee, if the applicant meets financial assistance criteria.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Don’t fear the preacher: Let politicians pray in peace
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012
4 August 2012
Mr. Martin worries that faith is supplanting “reason.” I think “reason” is too far down the list of important policy-drivers in Ottawa to care very much. Politicians believe all sorts of stupid things for all sorts of stupid reasons… Democracy provides us with a wonderful opportunity, every four years or so at the most, to judge politicians for what they do. What does it matter why they do it?
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Equalization tensions could ‘destroy unity’ in Canada: Ex-Bank of Canada Chief David Dodge
Saturday, August 11th, 2012
1 August 2012
But wealth-sharing, enshrined in the 1982 Constitution Act, can cause a variety of problems… Transfers can play a “counterproductive role if they act to mask inexorable structural change, delay necessary adaptation and create the illusion that the unsustainable can somehow be sustained indefinitely… “Ultimately they can destroy unity by creating resentment, disrespect and distrust.”
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Most mothers take leave after childbirth, most fathers take ‘invisible leave’
Friday, August 10th, 2012
30 July 2012
Most Canadian mothers with young children took some form of maternity leave after childbirth, Statistics Canada reported Monday, while an expert says fathers are taking more of what she calls ‘‘invisible leave.’’… It’s a lot harder to claim it or even ask for it in the provinces outside of Quebec, she said, where workplace family policies and expectations on men differ greatly. Fathers’ uptake of parental leave hovers around 12% across Canada, Quebec excepted. But in Quebec, fathers took leave in the case of 76% of children…
Tags: child care, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Employers discriminate against older adults, Canadians tell pollster
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012
22 July 2012
Nearly three-quarters of Canadians believe workplaces are shunning older job applicants based solely on their age, a worrisome finding given labour force trends in Canada… Only nine per cent said they would hire someone aged 18 to 24, or aged 55 to 64. And only three per cent said they would hire someone over the age of 65… some experience is great, but it really doesn’t matter if you’ve had 10 years or 30 years of experience — once you’ve got a good amount, you don’t need tonnes of it” to be among the favoured age group for hiring…
Tags: economy, participation, youth
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »
The triumph of ‘hard-headed socialism’ is destroying Canadian conservatism
Saturday, July 21st, 2012
Jul 17, 2012
Is there a name for a policy that combines fiscal responsibility with a thick safety net, including universal health care? It turns out Canadian writer Stephen Marche just found one: “Hardheaded socialism.”… Social programs and robust capitalism are not, as so many would have you believe, inherently opposed propositions. Both are required for meaningful national prosperity.”… It’s what works in developed post-industrial economies — both in Canada and Scandinavia
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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 »
Recent Comments