The EI system allows workers to pay into a plan that is supposed to provide crucial support for workers between jobs, and quality re/training when required. However, significant changes to the system over the past 20 years have diminished the program’s effectiveness. Furthermore, EI’s role is being eroded at the same time as precarious work is expanding. The combination of these two factors is contributing to the long list of challenges inner-city and Aboriginal workers face, making it that much more difficult for them to realize their full potential.
In a new CCPA-MB report, Ellen Smirl and Lynne Fernandez detail how Manitoba’s Aboriginal and inner-city workers fare under the current EI system.
In addition to the usual challenges of finding affordable, good quality housing that meets their needs, many low-income tenants have trouble maintaining their housing, often because their rents increase sharply or their units are converted to condominiums.
To learn more about this phenomenon, CCPA's Manitoba Office examined three Winnipeg inner city neighbourhoods: West Broadway, Spence and Daniel McIntyre. The first part of the research looks at the quantitative reality of condo conversions and rent increases due to renovations while the second part of the research looks at low-income renters’ housing experiences.
Read more in our report, Rising Rents, Condo Conversions, and Winnipeg’s Inner City.
In a new report from CCPA-MB, Valerie Shantz examines cases of institutional expansion in three neighbourhoods within Winnipeg's inner city.
Download the full report: Shared Futures: Big Institutions and their Inner-City Neighbours.
CCPA-Manitoba has launched a blog, aptly named POLICY FIX. Check it out at www.policyfix.ca.
Winnipeg's infamous North End has the media repeatedly calling for a "get tough on crime" strategy, one that is often supported by local police and politicians. In If You Want to Change Violence in the ‘Hood, You Have to Change the ‘Hood, six inner-city gang members, interviewed by Manitoba Research Alliance researchers, explain why such an approach will only cause the prison population to swell: we need to get tough on poverty if we want to get rid of crime. Click here to download the full report.
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