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Nova Scotia Office

4th Annual CCPA-NS Fundraiser: Dinner and an Evening with Laura Penny

Thursday, Oct 6, 2011, 6:30pm - 9:00pm

Laura Penny -  “As scathing as Michael Moore, as incisive as Naomi Klein.”

Italian Cultural Centre, 2629 Agricola Street, Halifax
Doors Open 6:00pm • Dinner at 6:30 • Speaker at 7:30

Tickets must be purchased in advance. No tickets will be sold at the door. Call CCPA-NS at (902) 477-1252 or 1-877-920-7770 to purchase tickets.

Tax receipts will be issued (minus costs).

More information:

Keynote Address: Sorry, Kids: Your Future is Cancelled

Don’t miss an opportunity to hear Laura Penny share her thoughts on how expensive all this "austerity" is going to be, and how right wing economic policies do not turn out to be very cheap at all, even though they always appeal to cheapness. She will focus specifically on the implications of this agenda and of problems with education funding, the environment, and the effects of social disinvestment on kids.

About Laura Penny:

Laura Penny is best-selling author of Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit and More Money Than Brains: Why School Sucks, College is Crap and Idiots Think They're Right (both Globe and Mail "Best Books of the Year"). Laura Penny has a PhD in Comparative Literature, a MA in Theory and Criticism, and a BA in Contemporary Studies and English. She has worked as a bookstore clerk, a student activist, a union organizer, a university instructor, and her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Chronicle Herald. She lives in Halifax, where she teaches at Mount Saint Vincent University and the University of King's College.

For more information, see the following links:

Laura Penny criticizes the North American education system on TVO

Video on BS covered by 60 minutes includes segments from Laura Penny (go to the 7: 42 minute)

Globe and Mail review of this book: “Laura Penny’s prose is fluent, clever, often funny and, most important, consistently engaging. Her new book, More Money Than Brains, is a ferocious defence of the arts and humanities against the philistine influence of Homo economicus (subspecies Goldman Sachsus).” Read more here.

Why CETA is a Bad Deal for Canada: Public Meeting

Tuesday, Jun 28, 2011, 7:00pm - 9:00pm

 

Learn more about how CETA threatens Canadian communities and how you can help stop this deal.

 

Tuesday, June 28 7 p.m.Italian Canadian Cultural Association 2629 Agricola Street, Halifax

Featuring

Maude Barlow - National Chairperson, Council of Canadians

Paul Moist - National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees

Mark Austin - Executive Director, Rural and Coastal Communities Network

Why CETA is a bad deal for Canada

Canada and the European Union are negotiating a new Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). This is a big deal for Canada and so far, negotiations have been quietly taking place behind closed doors.

If CETA is signed it will:

• Threaten our democracy by putting corporate rights first

• Encourage privatization of Canada’s drinking water and wastewater services

• Threaten local job creation and “buy-local” policies

• Cause prescription drug costs to skyrocket by at least $2.8 billion per year

• Allow big corporations to ignore or challenge environmental regulation

Let’s work together to stop this deal!

Sponsors: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Nova Scotia; Council of Canadians; Canadian Union of Public Employees

Download event flyer here

Nova Scotians paying more than their fair share for post-secondary education – Report

Halifax – The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) released a new report today which shows that Nova Scotia students and their families are paying almost three times as much as the provincial government.
 
The report, entitled Fairness, Funding and our Collective Future: a way forward for post-secondary education in Nova Scotia, shows that the largest part of the cost of a university education is not tuition fees; it is the cost of the income students forgo while they attend univer­sity.
 
“This report reveals that Nova Scotia students and their families are contributing more than their fair share for a post-secondary education,” says Elise Graham, Chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students-Nova Scotia.
 
 Assuming a student would have been able to work full-time at the minimum wage, they are giving up approximately $20,000 per year in wages in addition to paying for tuition fees, books and transportation. A conservative estimate of the total cost to the student is roughly $26,000 per year. The government contributed $9,509 per student in 2010–2011.
 
The authors call on the government to stop underestimating both the individual cost of pursuing a post-secondary education as well as the benefits to society as a whole.
Author and director of the CCPA-NS, Christine Saulnier says, “The Nova Scotia government needs to rethink its entire approach to this sector before it is too late. We can’t afford to lose the social benefits or create barriers to attracting or retaining students.”
 
The report recommends that the government: expand the public investment in post-secondary education substantially, ensure that there is more public accountability and transparency within the system and make sure funding is used as fairly, effectively and efficiently as possible. The authors also single out disturbing trends where private interests risk undermining the accessibil­ity, equity and quality of the system.
 
According to James Sawler, Associate Professor of Economics at Mount Saint Vincent University and co-author, “The additional revenue generated by post-secondary graduates through their income taxes is enough to justify our recommendation to enhance public funding.”
 
"At a time when other provinces, such as Manitoba and New Brunswick, have recognized that providing high quality university education is part of the solution to economic problems, it is time for the Dexter government to wake up and stop offering policies that failed 15 years ago," added Chris Ferns, President of the Association of Nova Scotia University Teachers (ANSUT).
 
-30-
 
For more information or to arrange interviews in either English or French, contact Christine Saulnier at (902) 477-1252.
 
Copies of the report will be available at the press conference to be held Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 11 am in the Senior Common Room, Arts and Administrative Building, University of King’s College, 6350 Coburg Road. The report is now available here: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/fairness-funding-and-our-collective-future.

Fairness, Funding and Our Collective Future

A way forward for post-secondary education in Nova Scotia

Reports & Studies

Nova Scotia Alternative Budget 2011

External Content 
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/nova-scotia-alternative-budget-2011
Projects & Initiatives: Nova Scotia Alternative Budget

Nova Scotia Alternative Budget 2011

Striking a healthy balance

Reports & Studies
Projects & Initiatives: Nova Scotia Alternative Budget
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