On the surface, the Shafia murder case doesn’t look like a “political” issue at all. The horrifying killing of four innocent women by family members near Kingston nearly three years ago could easily be seen as simply the tragic drama of an individual family, not a matter for analysis and…
Drummond Report threatens universities’ academic excellence The Report of the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services, headed by economist Don Drummond (the Drummond Report), was released on Feb. 15. It contained more than 600 recommendations, the stated aim of which was to enable the Ontario government to return…
A local citizens initiative aimed at highlighting the health threats posed by sour gas wells in B.C.’s energy-rich Peace River region appears to be gaining momentum, but whether or not it will result in a public inquiry remains to be seen. Last week, the Alaska Highway News reported that during…
Back in March, the Ontario Liberals put all of their chips on the table with their election-style provincial budget. They promised free child care, more support for dental care and drugs, and a reinvestment in health care—bankrolling it by deficit spending for the next six years. That left the opposition…
A federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) framework agreement on housing was signed on April 10 in Toronto. It supports the Trudeau government’s National Housing Strategy, which was released last fall.Here are 10 things to know about the just-signed agreement: Though a National Housing Strategy (NHS) was released last fall, a federal-provincial-territorial (FPT) framework agreement still…
les familles manitobaines travaillent dur juste pour faire du sur place En mars 2007, le bureau national du CCPA publiait un rapport sur l’inégalité des revenus au Canada au cours des trente dernières années. Ce rapport intitulé The Rich and the Rest of Us : The Changing Face of Canada’s Growing…
More than a decade ago, the federal and provincial governments started work on a new poverty line – the Market Basket Measure (MBM). After decades of distracting and divisive debates about poverty lines, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada crafted a methodology for the MBM that passed the test of…
Alberta’s 2018 budget was tabled on March 22, 2018. The official name of this year’s budget is Budget 2018: A Recovery Built to Last. Here are five things to know: This was largely a status quo budget. Total estimated provincial revenue for 2018-19 is $47.9 billion, compared with $46.9 billion in 2017-18.…
I have to admit that lately I’ve been thinking maybe some of us in the 99% have been just a teensy bit unfair. And it hurts—really hurts—to say this, but I’m wondering if the CCPA also bears some responsibility for inflaming that whole “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful—sorry, I…
Last summer, Gabrielle Giroday wrote an article for the Winnipeg Free Press called “Stores can’t stop carts vanishing: Shoppers wheeling thousands away.” This article raised concerns about shopping carts being removed from store property to be used for other purposes. Giroday’s article inspired me to look more closely at the…
Table 1: OAS/GIS Contributions to the Income of Seniors (2006) OAS OAS / GIS / Allowance Age 66 26% 34% Age 67 27% 36% Women 65-69 29% 38% Men 65-69 19% 26% All Seniors 26% 36% $5-$10,000…
On March 8, I gave a guest presentation to students in Professor Naomi Lightman’s Sociology of Work class at the University of Calgary. I was joined by Alexander Kulakov and Amit Nade, employment coaches at the Mustard Seed. Here are 10 things to know about homelessness and employment in Calgary: There aren’t…