On November 18th, 2009, in Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Canadian Labour Congress held an event entitled "Recession, Recovery and Transformation: Meeting the policy challenges of our time." The session was filmed by CPAC, and are available through the links below.
Inequality and poverty
On February 17, 2010, the Mayor’s Executive Policy Committee (EPC) passed a motion to provide a grant in the amount of $225,000 per year for 15 years in support of the Youth for Christ Centre of Excellence. On February 24th, Winnipeg City Council will vote on the motion.
As service providers working with inner-city youth, our organizations strongly agree that we need to increase recreational opportunities for inner-city youth in Winnipeg. However, we strongly oppose public funding for the Youth for Christ Centre.
Politics is about choices. But we can’t make effective choices without clarity. And that means we have to have an adult conversation about taxes and public services. A conversation that starts at A and goes to B, and doesn’t assume something that doesn’t make any sense to get there. A conversation that re-establishes in public discourse a connection between the public services we need and the taxes that pay for those services. The kind of conversation we expect our children to learn to engage in virtually from the moment they can talk.
Inside this issue:
Managing BC’s Forests for a Cooler Planet: Carbon Storage, Sustainable Jobs and Conservation by Ben Parfitt
How Big is BC’s Public Sector? by Iglika Ivanova
Communities in Crisis: A Case Study of Campbell River by Blair Redlin
2010 and All That by Marvin Shaffer
Public or Private — How the Choice for P3s Gets Made by Keith Reynolds
Food Bank Use Takes a Distressing Jump by Seth Klein
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.
In Nov. of 2009, the Nova Scotia office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives hosted a conference in Halifax, named "Visioning Nova Scotia in 2020: Advancing research and policy for sustainability". Its purpose was to identify the key issues facing the province, and envision the kind of policy decisions that would help solve those problems.
In this clip, Christine Saulnier, Director of the CCPA-NS office, introduces the conference.
I recently finished my Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Winnipeg in Politics and International Development Studies, which included a practicum placement with CCPA. Throughout most of my degree, I volunteered with the university's Local Committee of the World University Service of Canada (WUSC). WUSC is a national development organization that engages Canadian youth in its objectives of increasing international access to education and raising social consciousness.
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 way shopping carts are used in my community as a way for low-income people to accomplish daily tasks.
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.