Ontario Office

Electro-Motive/Caterpillar's decision to lock out its London, Ontario workers on January 1st, demanding workers accept a 50% pay cut or lose the plant altogether, brings into focus a theme that is unfolding in 2012: The crackdown on middle class work in Canada.

The CCPA's Trish Hennessy has written two blog posts about the developments in London and what it means for Canada's labour movement:

Caterpillar: The moth flying too close to the flame shows the futility of Canada's tax cut agenda and the failure of senior governments to act to save jobs.

Attack of the killer unionbot deconstructs the dehumanizing narrative that is pitting Canadians against unions.

As the City of Toronto considers a budget proposal that would result in drastic public sector job cuts, economist Hugh Mackenzie weighs in with a sobering observation: between October 2010 and October 2011, the entire Toronto Census Metropolitan Area lost 8,500 jobs. Mayor Rob Ford's intent to eliminate 2,300 public sector jobs in one year could make things dramatically worse for Toronto's post-recession recovery efforts.

Read Hugh Mackenzie's full blog post, Political Paralysis and Disaster Budgeting: Lessons from Toronto.

On November 3rd, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives proudly hosted the 2011 David Lewis Lecture in Toronto. This year’s lecture featured an intimate conversation between two of Canada’s leading thinkers and recipients of the Order of Canada - Stephen Lewis and Michele Landsberg.

Hundreds of guests joined us for this sold-out event, which was generously sponsored by the Trinity-St. Paul's Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). All proceeds from the event are dedicated to future CCPA David Lewis Lectures.

In case you weren't able to join us this year, you can watch the full lecture here.

On November 3^rd, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives proudly hosted the 2011 David Lewis Lecture in Toronto. This year’s sold-out lecture featured an intimate conversation between two of Canada’s leading thinkers and recipients of the Order of Canada - Stephen Lewis and Michele Landsberg.

Watch the full 2011 David Lewis Lecture here:

CCPA Ontario co-produced a new report with the Wellesley Institute that shows how the City of Toronto can bring its budgetary shortfall down to zero without gutting city services and selling off assets. Countdown To Zero: Balancing Toronto’s Budget, looks at the city's annual budgeting process over the past five years and shows that the fiscal challenges facing city council this year are nothing new. What’s different this year, is that Mayor Ford’s decisions to freeze property tax rates and cancel the Personal Vehicle Tax cost the city $132 million in revenues. The report charts a way out.

Click here to read the report.

The CCPA Ontario Office has published a report by The Kingston Community Roundtable on Poverty Reduction, Living Wage Working Group that calculates the hourly wage needed in income to meet the basic standard of living in Kingston.

A Living Wage for Kingston indicates that the minimum wage, despite important increases in recent years, is still far from adequate to provide the basic living requirements of families in Kingston (or elsewhere in Ontario).

Rising costs of living, including housing, food and energy, have not been matched by wages or income assistance rates. As a result, many are forced to chose between food and shelter, or worse. A living wage is an important step toward ensuring that all families in Kingston have the resources that are necessary to raise their children, stay healthy, and fully participate in social and community life.

Click here to read the full report.

We hope you can join us November 10th in Toronto for (In)Equality Matters: Social Justice and the Economy.

Incensed by skyrocketing corporate profits and plummeting average incomes? Think wealthy Canadians and corporations should contribute more to public goods and services? Why aren’t they? What can we do about it?

Join Inter Pares and Canadians for Tax Fairness for an evening of discussion on how to foster economic equality.

Jean Symes from Inter Pares, Armine Yalnizyan, one of Canada’s leading progressive economists, and Dr. Yao Graham, renowned African activist and coordinator of Third World Network-Africa, will speak about examples of deepening economic inequality they see in communities worldwide, and what we can do about it.

Click here for full event details.

Join us on Thursday, November 10, 2011 for (In)Equality Matters: Social Justice and the Economy!

7:30pm
United Steelworkers Hall
25 Cecil St. (near College and Spadina), Toronto
Free (donations welcome)
Join us in person or live on the web!

Incensed by skyrocketing corporate profits and plummeting average incomes? Think wealthy Canadians and corporations should contribute more to public goods and services? Why aren’t they? What can we do about it?

Join Inter Pares and Canadians for Tax Fairness for an evening of discussion on how to foster economic equality.

Jean Symes from Inter Pares, Armine Yalnizyan, one of Canada’s leading progressive economists, and Dr. Yao Graham, renowned African activist and coordinator of Third World Network-Africa, will speak about examples of deepening economic inequality they see in communities worldwide, and what we can do about it.

Facebook event page

Free parking available behind building.
This space is wheelchair-accessible.

For more about the 4-city tour: www.interpares.ca/inequalitymatters
Questions? 1-866-563-4801 (toll-free) or info@interpares.ca.

Sponsoring organizations

Inter Pares, which means "among equals" in Latin, is a national charitable organization dedicated to promoting international social justice. In Canada and overseas, we support people's struggles for peace, justice, and equality; their efforts to challenge structural obstacles for change; and their alternative development approaches. www.interpares.ca

Third World Network-Africa is a pan-African research and advocacy organization based in Accra Ghana. TWN-Africa’s work covers the areas of economic policy: international trade, investment and the role of the IFIs on African development, gender and economic policy and Africa's extractive sector (mainly mining). Since its foundation in 1994 TWN-Africa has worked to support the self-organizing of marginalized groups and the coming together of African organizations and their allies around the world in activism around these issues. www.twnafrica.org

Canadians for Tax Fairness works to build a national campaign to promote fair taxation. We support the development and implementation of a tax system, based on ability to pay, to fund the comprehensive, high-quality network of public services and programs required to meet our social, economic and environmental needs in the 21st century. Canadians for Tax Fairness will work together with other groups and individuals who share our goals. www.taxfairness.ca

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice. Founded in 1980, the CCPA is one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates. www.policyalternatives.ca