This report updates research published by the CCPA in 2017, and compares the pension deficits of the roughly 90 companies on the S&P/TSX Composite Index with defined benefit (DB) pension plans to shareholder payouts between 2011 and 2017. These company plans account for a large portion of all the country’s private DB assets.
Inequality and poverty
This report investigates whether the emerging policy consensus on just transition is consistent with the principles of social justice and equity more broadly. Rather than discuss the necessity of a just transition to a zero-carbon economy in Canada, this report is specifically concerned with the question of whether a just transition, as it is currently being pursued at the policy level, truly achieves justice for all workers by redressing inequities or, at a minimum, by not exacerbating them.
OTTAWA—Marginalized workers and communities impacted by climate change policies are at risk of facing even greater inequality if Canada’s just transition strategy is not expanded to include groups that are historically disadvantaged by Canada’s labour market, according to a new report released today.
The pollster Nik Nanos claimed in June that climate change would be “one of the defining battle grounds” this election. “More important than jobs, more important than health care, more important than immigration.” In July, Abacus Data put climate change in third spot behind health care and cost of living, the latter an important issue (with the environment) for the two-thirds of voters from the millennial and gen-X cohorts.
This report examines how Nova Scotia’s protections for workers compared to other provinces and territories in Canada.
(HALIFAX, NS)—A new report, A Rising Tide to Lift All Boats: Recommendations for Advances to Nova Scotia’s Labour Standards Code, from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives–Nova Scotia office examines how Nova Scotia’s protections for workers compare to other provinces and territories in Canada.
WINNIPEG— A new paper released today documents some of the organizing history leading up to implementation of the Rent Assist shelter benefit and changes to the program since it was implemented. The report reveals that Rent Assist was the result of a sustained and broad-based grassroots campaign led by Make Poverty History Manitoba. Highlights from the report will be discussed at the report launch event:
This paper documents some of the organizing history leading up to implementation of the Rent Assist benefit, precursors and provincial policy context from which the Rent Assist program emerged, as well as changes to the Rent Assist program since it was implemented. Rent Assist has been highlighted as a model for overcoming the deficiencies of existing housing benefit programs across Canada while addressing the needs of both social assistance recipients and low income working households.
Ottawa / Washington, D.C. / New York, NY / Mexico City, Mexico—With ratification of NAFTA 2.0 still up in the air in the U.S. and Canada, a new international report contrasts the deeply flawed agreement with proposals for a more progressive and truly fair trade regime.
With ratification of NAFTA 2.0 still up in the air, a new international report looks beyond that deeply flawed agreement to imagine a more progressive and truly fair trade regime. The report, which includes contributions by trade experts and activists from all three North American countries, critically analyzes the USMCA (known as CUSMA in Canada and T-MEC in Mexico) and sets out alternatives that would give priority to human rights and the rights of nature over corporate rights.