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Corporate rights under serious scrutiny in Europe. Canada fast asleep.
On Feb. 3rd, I made a presentation in Vancouver to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade on the proposed Canada/E.U. trade deal (C.E.T.A.). I was there on behalf of CUPE B.C. The Committee, chaired by Alberta Conservative M.P. Rob Merrifield, was in B.C. to review both C.E.T.A.…
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Work Life: Workplace Safety a motherhood issue? Not yet.
In Manitoba, messages about the importance of workplace health and safety are hard to miss. The SAFE Work campaigns run year-round by the Workers Compensation Board are trying to foster a culture of workplace health and safety in which it becomes socially unacceptable to put workers in harm’s way. After…
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Tradable Water Rights – Coming to a province near you
In January of this year, the BC government joined Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to become the fourth province to announce that it is considering creating tradable water rights as a way of curbing use and improving the efficiency of allocation. The announcement came as a vague reference to “water markets”…
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Fast Facts: Meeting the housing needs of Aboriginal people moving to Winnipeg
Winnipeg is home to Canada’s largest Aboriginal population. Aboriginal people, however, are among the most likely to experience homelessness and are also over-represented in housing that is unaffordable, overcrowded or in poor condition. Finding housing has become a wall preventing many Aboriginal people from successfully making Winnipeg home. Moving to…
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A windfall for BC’s five biggest forest companies?
Shortly before the May election, the provincial government withdrew legislation that could have handed de facto control of publicly owned forestlands to a handful of forest companies. The contentious sections of the bill were dropped amid a swelling chorus of questions about why such a gift would be bestowed without…
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Budgets more than numbers
The Nova Scotia Department of Finance recently launched an interactive “Back to Balance” website, giving community members an opportunity to try their hands at government budgeting. The site is technically sophisticated and informative. Users can move sliders to adjust the levels of various taxes and expenditures, and pop-up bubbles provide…
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Time to move beyond the debate on assisted suicide
The long smouldering debate on physician-assisted suicide (PAS) flared up early this summer when on June 5 the Quebec National Assembly passed Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care. The legislation gives patients in some situations the possibility of requesting medical aid in dying, widely considered a euphemism for euthanasia.…
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Youth Voices: Harper’s Crime Strategy
Closing the Doors on Youth On November 12th, 2010, the federal government announced an investment of $45 million to increase the number of beds in Manitoba jails. Steven Harper’s Conservative government has made it well known that getting tough on crime is a top priority. While there is evidence that…
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Tough on crime will likely lead to more crime, bigger deficit: report
OTTAWA – The Harper governmentís tough on crime agenda will likely increase the incidence of crime and the deficit, says a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The report, by CCPA Research Associate Paula Mallea, analyses the financial and human costs of the tough…
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The Fear Factor
Stephen Harper’s “Tough on Crime” Agenda Download 982.08 KB 58 pages According to Statistics Canada, crime rates have been trending down for over 20 years. This includes the violent crime rate. Yet the Harper government continues to insist that there is an epidemic of crime, and that Canadians should be…
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Out-of-control rents
Rental wages in Canada, 2023
CMHC, “Rental Market Survey Data Tables,” 2023. For a notable exception, see John Rapley, “Canada’s approach to housing is bad for the economy,” The Globe and Mail, July 14, 2023. David Macdonald, “Unaccommodating: Rental Housing Wage in Canada” (Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2018), policyalternatives.ca/unaccommodating. David Macdonald and Ricardo…