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Search results for: “site/economics of childcare”
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Can cooperatives humanize the economy?
Book Review of Humanizing the Economy: Cooperatives in the Age of Capital, by John Restakis, New Society Publishers, 2010. The economy is about business, right? Sure, we have a dynamic mixed economy, and most people support decent social programs and government intervention to protect the environment or to improve living…
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Of the 1%, For the 1%, By the 1%
The first leg of the federal election campaign has featured much debate over who benefits from different proposals. At least indirectly, it has been a discussion about income inequality as the federal parties reveal proposals that could widen or close income disparities while growing the economy. Against this noisy foreground, two…
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Indigo’s “For the Love of Indigo” school library fundraising campaign
Did you know that parents want their children to have access to well-stocked libraries in their schools? Were you aware that they’re very concerned that provincial governments aren’t doing enough to ensure that there’s enough money to pay for these books and libraries? Or that increasingly teachers have to dig…
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From Charity to Entitlement
Look to history for best way to end persistent poverty I recently heard a caller to a radio talk-show complain about poor people turning to government for assistance to survive. He suggested that community efforts, such as food banks and charity, should suffice. And from his grave, Dickens groaned. One…
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CCPA Review: Taking Stock of the Bipole III Debate
On July 29, 2010 Manitoba Hydro (with the approval and support of the Manitoba government) announced their preliminary preferred route selection for the Bipole III transmission line. Bipole III will bring power from planned dam developments on the Nelson River down the west side of the province to southern Manitoba,…
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Fast Facts: Facts, Principles, and Priorities in Government Budgets
Nova Scotians are again invited to help the provincial government “return to balance”, i.e., reduce the province’s deficit and debt. We are reminded that “if we don’t want tax increases, we have to accept spending cuts” and warned that the annual interest charges paid by the government are $1 billion…
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Lack of water data a cause for public concern
In our high-speed digital world, there is no excuse for regulators failing to post and update information that is readily available to them and of evident public interest. This is especially true when the fate of vitally important, publicly owned assets such as water hangs in the balance. To have…
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Ontario’s Deficit Quandary
When Politics Trump Economics Download 246.47 KB10 pages As it prepares its budget for 2011 — an election year — the Ontario government faces a strategic choice between two general paths. One path would be responsive to the government’s apparent short-term election year political needs. The other would be consistent…
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Pipe Dreams: The risky bets behind Ottawa’s TMX purchase
The federal government’s decision, announced this morning, to purchase the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and the pipeline expansion project from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion is politically risky, economically perilous and, as we’ve said many times before, impossible to justify on environmental grounds. It all looks even worse when you…
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Ontario election 2018: Turning votes into seats
In Ontario’s first-past-the-post electoral system, it’s not just a matter of counting votes. Here are a few things to think about that may help determine who wins—and who loses—on June 7: Geography matters Governments change when the same people vote differently, or when different people vote the same—but in a…
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Labour market exodus and other unhappy math
Friday’s labour force survey numbers from Statistics Canada were another nail in the coffin of Canada’s fleeting, fragile economic “recovery.” On first glance, the data seemed to tell a good story: the official unemployment rate tumbled from 7.9% to 7.6% in November. Immediately, that seemed strange — given that 0nly…
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Reduction in unionization helped break the economy
Do unions have any role in today’s society? Right wing organizations like the Fraser Institute say no but a report from an unlikely source suggests otherwise. The International Monetary Fund, no left wing organization, has published a paper suggesting the decline of unionization is one of the causes of the…