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Our Schools/Our Selves: Winter 2018 is online now!

For the first time, this winter we are making Our Schools/Our Selves available in its entirety online. This issue of Our Schools/Our Selves focuses on a number of key issues that education workers, parents, students, and public education advocates are confronting in schools and communities, and offers on-the-ground commentary and analysis of what needs to be done for us to get this process right. It also provides updates from other jurisdictions grappling with the restructuring—or its aftermathof education.

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The Monitor, January/February 2018

Sub Title: 
Climbing up and kicking down
Release Date: 
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
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8.92 MB

Canada's top CEOs are breaking pay records, yet they are some of the first people to oppose raising the minimum wage and making our tax system fairerkey planks of any progressive plan to reduce income inequality. This issue of the Monitor hones in on the power of Canada's executive shareholder class, how they are reshaping public services, taxes, trade policy and Canada's response to climate change in their own interests, which is not necessarily in the public interest.

Also in this issue:

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Suppressed report shows hundreds of BC’s fracked gas wells may leak methane, underscores need for public inquiry

Release Date: 
Thursday, December 14, 2017

VANCOUVER—BC’s Oil and Gas Commission withheld a report from the public for four years showing that 900 gas wells could be leaking methane—a finding that highlights why a public inquiry into oil and gas industry fracking operations is needed. 

The Commission published the December 2013 report on its website on November 20 after a copy of the document was leaked. 

The document shows that nearly 50 fracked gas wells were leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and that up to 900 gas wells could be leaking and potentially contaminating groundwater sources. 

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Child and Family Poverty in Halifax

Sub Title: 
2017 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia Addendum
Release Date: 
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Number of pages in documents: 
16 pages
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601.08 KB16 pages

This addendum to the 2017 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Nova Scotia finds that 13,690 children, almost one in five, were living in poverty in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in 2015. At 18.8%, Halifax has the 7th highest child poverty rate among the 25 large Canadian cities. There are five communities within HRM that have child poverty rates between 35 and 40%.

Time Out

Sub Title: 
Child care fees in Canada 2017
Release Date: 
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
Number of pages in documents: 
31 pages
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989.66 KB31 pages

This study, the fourth in a series beginning in 2014, reveals the most and least expensive cities for child care in Canada. The study provides an annual snapshot of median parental child care fees in Canada’s 28 biggest cities for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. For the first time ever, the study also includes child care fees in selected rural areas. 

The study finds that child care fees have risen faster than inflation in 71% of the cities since last year, and in 82% of cities since 2014.

Charting a path to $15/hour for all workers—and the road beyond

Sub Title: 
CCPA-BC Submission to the Fair Wages Commission
Release Date: 
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Attached Document Title: 
Charting a Path to $15/hour for all Workers - and the Road Beyond
Number of pages in documents: 
10 pages
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10.68 MB10 pages

In this submission to the BC Fair Wages Commission, the CCPA-BC highlights the urgency for British Columbia to adopt a $15 minimum wage by March 2019. 

BC’s current minimum wage is a poverty-level wage. Low-wage workers need a significant boost to their income and they have been waiting a long time. Over 400,000 British Columbians—22 per cent of all paid employees in the province—work for less than $15 per hour and they would significantly benefit from a $15 minimum wage.