OTTAWA—The tentative Buy American deal fails to gain a meaningful exemption for Canadian suppliers from provisions in the U.S. stimulus package while permanently curtailing provincial and municipal procurement sovereignty, says a new analysis of the deal from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
“The agreement is highly unbalanced and provides significantly better access for U.S. suppliers to the Canadian procurement market than for Canadian suppliers to U.S. stimulus projects,” says senior CCPA trade researcher Scott Sinclair.
Employment and labour
In recent decades we’ve seen a dramatic increase in income inequality, which has concentrated the gains from economic growth in the hands of a small minority at the top of the income distribution. Studies documenting this development cite an unprecedented increase in the amount paid to corporate executives since the early 1980s as a key factor in the growth in inequalities. This trend has been accentuated by tax changes that benefit people with very high incomes.
Canada's Employment Insurance system is failing the recession "stress test" and many unemployed workers are falling through the cracks. The number of unemployed Canadians not in receipt of EI benefits jumped from 650,760 in October 2008 to 777,4000 in October 2009, even as the system because easier to access. It is estimated that as many as 500,000 Canadians who initiated an EI claim in 2009 will exhaust their benefits because new jobs remain very difficult to find.
OTTAWA—Canada’s Employment Insurance system is failing the “stress test” of the recession and fixing it must be a key priority in the upcoming federal budget, says a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
According to the report, even as the EI system became easier to access the number of unemployed Canadians not in receipt of EI benefits jumped from 650,760 in October 2008 to 777,4000 in October 2009.
As we prepare to cheer for our athletes during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic games, it’s worth remembering the fields in which BC isn’t going for the gold. Ensuring that work is a guaranteed way out of poverty, for example.
It’s a little known fact, but the “the best place on earth” is now home of the lowest minimum wages in Canada. Our minimum wage has been frozen at $8 per hour (and an embarrassingly low $6 for the first 500 hours of work) since 2001, and there is little indication that this is about to change any time soon.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and the Winnipeg Free Press recently called on the Manitoba government to abandon a policy established in 1999 of mandating annual increases in the minimum wage. The CFIB ("Business group rejects hike to minimum wage," December 26, 2009) says an increase in the minimum wage now would hurt some small employers. The WFP ("Not now," December 31, 2009) concurs.
We believe that holding the line on the minimum wage would be the worst thing the government could do in the present circumstances.
Canadians may have been hit hard by a worldwide economic recession, but it appears Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs are enjoying a soft landing.
The total average compensation for Canada's 100 highest paid CEOs was $7,300,884 in 2008—a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,305. They pocketed what takes Canadians earning an average income an entire year to make by 1:06 pm January 4—the first working day of the year.
TORONTO—Canadians may have been hit hard by a worldwide economic recession, but it appears Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs are enjoying a soft landing.
A report on executive compensation by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a progressive think tank, reveals Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs pocketed an average $7.3 million in 2008, the year recession broadsided the nation.
“Canada’s top 100 CEOs earned 174 times more than the average Canadian wage,” says economist Hugh Mackenzie, CCPA Research Associate.
Don’t worry, be happy. As of this writing, media coverage of the recession has been littered with smiling faces. Sure, the recession provoked alarming comparisons with the Great Depression. But don’t let that scare you. Now everyone from the governor of the Bank of Canada to the chattiest newspaper columnists sees “green shoots” of economic recovery.
Look around the world, and you will see example after example of nations conductimg a risky social experiment of "letting the market rule." However, not all societies have succumbed to these pressures- some resist having market principles determine their quality of life.
This document examines the way "letting the market rule" is destablizing Canadian society.