Ontario Office

On October 4th, the CCPA proudly hosted the 2012 David Lewis Lecture, a series that examines the future of democracy in Canada. This year’s lecture featured Generation Now—four emerging voices on the Canadian political landscape: Vancouver's Emma Pullman (SumOfUs) and Jamie Biggar (Leadnow), and activists Brigette DePape and Ben Powless.

Watch the full 2012 David Lewis Lecture here:

In a new CCPA-Ontario report, Jordan Brennan looks at the history of the minimum wage and living wage in Ontario and makes the case for a living wage as an essential tool to help reduce income inequality. The report, Enhancing Democratic Citizenship, Deepening Distributive Justice: The Living Wage Movement, was written for Ontario's first ever living wage conference, hosted October 11 and 12, 2012 in Toronto by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Ontario office. We'd like to thank our sponsors, Ryerson University's Centre for Labour Management Relations and the Metcalf Foundation, for making this report a reality.

Read the report here.

In Canada, many workers do not earn a living wage—that is, sufficient income to afford the basics of life—because of discrimination. Women workers and those who are racialized, immigrant, Aboriginal, living with disabilities or similarly disadvantaged are all segregated into low wage job ghettoes whilst their work is systemically devalued.

A new report from the CCPA’s Ontario Office, A Living Wage As a Human Right, articulates the need for governments and employers to deliver more equitable compensation incomes for vulnerable workers. It also explores how we can close discriminatory pay gaps, so that this basic human right — the right to work and to earn pay free of discrimination — is realized for Canada’s low-paid workers.

Find out more, read the full report here.

A trade deal between Canada and the EU that's being negotiated in Ottawa this week could have devastating effects on Ontario. The CCPA's new report, Straightjacket: CETA’s Constraining Effects on Ontario, details the ways in which the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) could accelerate Ontario’s industrial decline and weaken the province’s economic future. It estimates Ontario could lose up to 70,000 jobs if the deal goes through.

Read the full report, Straightjacket: CETA’s Constraining Effects on Ontario, to find out more.

The Ontario government is in a consultation phase over how to modernize the province's child care system. Child care expert Martha Friendly and CCPA Ontario Director Trish Hennessy have co-authored a primer on child care in Ontario, making the case for the government to take leadership and commit to public, non-profit, affordable, regulated child care.

Read the primer, The Path to Better Child Care in Ontario, here.