Canada

People waiting for a meal in New Brunswick. (Photo: OldMaison.)

Canada’s economic policy continues to take reduction of the debt and deficit as its primary end. The means to this end include cuts to social infrastructure spending, public sector employment and the health and welfare institutions that used to put Canada near the top of most international measures of well-being.

Under cover of deficit reduction, the Government of Canada continues to withdraw funding from the civil society organizations and research institutions that measure the effectiveness of those government policies and provide alternatives to them. The impacts of those cuts are beginning to become evident as income inequality grows.

On the international stage, Canada has championed austerity measures for countries facing economic crisis, Canadian foreign aid has been in decline while the Government's criticism of multi-lateral institutions for international cooperation increases.

If market conditions were ever to close the gap in Canada, this would have been the time. Social assistance rates have remained virtually unchanged across most of Canada. Most social assistance incomes in Canada remain well below the low income cut-off rate. The overall poverty rate in Canada is 9%, however, poverty rates continue to disproportionately affect women, Aboriginal peoples, and people with disabilities. For example, one in three Aboriginal and racialized people in Canada live in poverty. One in four people with disabilities, immigrants, and female single-parents in Canada live in poverty. Across all categories rates of poverty are higher for women than for men.

The concentration of power in the corporate sector is perpetuating income inequality trends in Canada, according to a report published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, a member organization of Social Watch). The study, “A Shrinking Universe: How Concentrated Corporate Power is Shaping Income Inequality in Canada”, links the rise of the richest Canadians with a shift toward more concentrated power within the country’s largest firms.

As the federal government of Canada continues to move forward towards the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, a new research produced by the Nova Scotian provincial office of the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) finds that the benefits are being oversold while the costs and consequences are being minimized and even ignored.

Photo : Radio Canada

The province of Saskatchewan’s public liquor retail system is superior to both Alberta and British Columbia’s private scheme in terms of price, revenue generation and mitigation of social harm, concluded in a new report the Saskatchewan office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in that North American country) and the Parkland Institute.

Working in Ontario. (Photo: amber dawn pullin/Flickr/CC)

The ability of Canada’s young workers to find stable, well-paid, and meaningful work is increasingly under threat, warns a report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). They are more likely to be unemployed or precariously employed in non-permanent jobs, and regardless of whether they have post-secondary qualifications, these young workers will likely endure the negative effects of un- and underemployment for years to come.

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that Canada and the EU are negotiating behind closed doors would result in as many as 70,000 job losses in Ontario and would undermine independent government decision-making, according to a new report produced by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ (CCPA) office in that province.

Average tuition and compulsory fees for Canadian undergraduate students are estimated to rise almost 18% over the next four years, from almost $6,200 in 2011-12 to over $7,300, says a study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Photo: Xtra!

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' national office have just been moved to Under One Roof Properties, project that unites Ottawa-based progressive organizations with shared office spaces and facilities, aimed to foster an environment of interaction, collaboration and movement for social change.

Armine Yalnizyan. (Photo: CCPA)

The closure in Peterborough, Canada, of a plant of the world’s biggest chain of ice-cream shows once again how the global economy affects the local economies, especially the employment and the salaries, explains in a column for The Global and Mail Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Ellen Russell (CCPA)

Canada is not immune to the banking problems we see abroad, cautions “No More Swimming Naked”, a report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) written by Ellen Russell, that examines how banks work, why they are inherently prone to instability, and how banking crises spread—even to banks and banking systems that appear to be stable. Russell warns that current regulations did not eliminate problems with risk-taking and overconfident behavior among banks.

Buildings of the Federal Government in Ottawa. (Photo: Radio Canada)

The total number of federal core public service job losses over the next three years will be 29,600 —far more than the 19,200 estimate that is now commonly cited, says a new analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Jeannette Corbiere Lavell. (Photo: NWAC)

Based on the Canadian experience, the Native Women's Association (NWAC), the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA, member of the Social Watch national coalition) and other organizations stated this month at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that all governments should “immediately develop and implement a national strategy to address the disadvantaged social and economic conditions of Aboriginal women and girls, including poverty, inadequate housing, low educational attainment, inadequate child welfare policies, and over-criminalization”.

Throughout the 2008-2010 financial crisis, Canadian banks were touted by the government and the banks themselves as being very stable and that they needed no bailout. However, in reality, Canada’s banks received billions in cash and loan support during the 2008-2010 financial crisis—and the government has remained resolutely secretive about the details, according to a study released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in that country).

The 144th Session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. (Photo: HRBrief)

Over the last 30 years, more than 600 aboriginal woman and girls have been murdered or gone missing in Canada. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) addressed this issue for the first time following a petition by Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in that country) and the University of Miami’s Human Rights Clinic.

With the release of its annual Alternative Federal Budget, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) urges the federal government to table a detailed budget that restores Canadians’ trust in the economy, public institutions, and democracy.

The proposal launched by the CCPA, one of the national focal points of Social Watch in the North American country, addresses the concerns of mainstream Canada by putting forward a public investment plan that promotes a better quality of life for all Canadians, not just an elite few.

In terms of gender equity Canada is ranked ninth among 154 countries, far above its neighbour United States and below several European nations, New Zealand and a developing nation, Mongolia. However, her relatively good performance is not enough to narrow the gap between men and women to an acceptable level.

Corporate income tax rate in Canada: 1926-2010. (Source: The Globe and Mail)

“In Canada, federal taxes on profits had fallen to 16.6 per cent by fiscal 2010-11 after briefly dipping to 13.2 per cent in 2008, a level not seen since the Great Depression,” wile corporate profits “have rebounded since the 2008-9 crisis, nearing the previous high water mark,” wrote Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), one of the focal points of Social Watch in the North American country.

Photos of missing and murdered aboriginal women lent a somber presence to the three-day Assembly in Vancouver. (Photo: Viveca Ellis/The Epoch Times)

With the Missing Women’s Inquiry ongoing in Vancouver, a Canadian national forum aimed at improving the security and safety of First Nations communities couldn’t have come at a more opportune time last month, wrote journalist Viveca Ellis on an article published by The Epoch Times international media network.

Jim Stanford, (Photo: CAW/TCA)

Political leaders boast that the Canadian economy has fully recovered from the recession, and that it was not as severe there as it was in other countries. It turns out that both of those claims are false because they don't take population growth into consideration, according to a study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, one of the focal points of Social Watch)

Postal strike in Vancouver. (Photo: Guilhem Vellut/Flickr/CC)

Federal cutbacks announced in the 2010 and 2011 budgets will result in more than 60,000 job losses, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in that country). Any additional cuts in the upcoming federal budget would result in even more job losses.

The CCPA's website shows by the cent the income of the CEO Elite 100 and the average workers' earning since January 1st.

On January 3rd at 12.00 o’clock, each one of the “CEO Elite 100” —the best paid executives of companies listed in the Toronto Stock Exchange— had already got 44,366 dollars, the amount that an average Canadian wage earner would obtain after working full-time the entire year, revealed the CCPA, one of the members of Social Watch in that country. To make the inequity even worst, only one woman is member of this privileged club 

Jeannette Corbiere Lavel and Sharon Donna McIvor. (Photo: FAFIA)

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women decided to conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls across Canada. The decision was announced this week by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC), and Sharon McIvor, of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA, focal point of Social Watch in that North American country).

Strathcona refinery in Vancouver. (Photo: Imperial Oil)

Greenhouse gas emissions embodied in Canadian exports of fossil fuels in 2009 were 15% greater than the emissions from all fossil fuel combustion within that North American country, and almost four times the emissions from extracting and processing fossil fuels in its territory, according to a study released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Marc Lee. (Photo: CCPA)

The richest 20% of Canadian income earners are responsible for almost double (1.8 times) the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of those in the lowest income group, says a new study released this week by in Ottawa by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), one of the focal points of Social Watch in that North American country.

March in honour of Canadian murdered and missing native women in Vancouver. (Photo: Nofutureface/Flickr)

The Sisters in Spirit, part of the Native Women’s Association of Canada, dedicated this Tuesday, like every Oct. 4 since 2005, as a day of vigil to honour the lives of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, with rallies and other events in nine provinces including Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec and Nova Scotia as well as the Northwest Territories.

Poor people waiting for a meal in New Brunswick. (Photo; OldMaison.)

Poverty costs tax-payers of the eastern province of New Brunswick more than $2 billion (some U$S 1,9 billion) a year, according to a report released Tuesday by the Common Front for Social Justice and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, one of the focal points of Social Watch in the North American country.

University of Toronto. (Photo: Crown International Education)

Sources: Market Wire, CCPA

Ontario's system of financing higher education is becoming less equitable and more regressive for families, says a study released this week by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, one of the focal points of Social Watch in this North American country).

Economist Armine Yalnizyan. (Photo: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)

Source: The Star.

Income inequality in Canada is widening as the rich get richer while poor and middle-income people lose ground, says the Conference Board of Canada in a report released Wednesday, according to The Star newspaper.

“While the poor are minimally better off in an absolute sense, they are significantly worse off in a relative sense. And where is the middle-class in all of this? These are important questions for society,” said board president Anne Golden in an interview.

The 33-year trend which has accelerated since 1993 raises questions about the country’s economic well-being, including whether Canada is using all the skills and talents of its citizens and whether social cohesion and fairness are being undermined, says the report titled "How Canada Performs: Is Canada becoming more unequal?"

Sources: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Winnipeg Free Press.

Privatizing Manitoba Hydro, electric power and natural gas utility owned by the government of the Canadian province of Manitoba, would result in soaring power rates, job losses and the handover of an essential service to wealthy, out-of-province owners, union leaders warned this week quoting a report publisheb by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), a focal point of Social Watch.

Sources NSI-INS
            Agenda

The North-South Institute (NSI, focal point of Social Watch in Canada), with support from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has convened the 2011 NSI Forum, that will take place in Ottawa on Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st under the title “The Future of Multilateral Development Cooperation in a Changing Global Order”.

Photo: Deb Ransom, Canada government

A recent report coordinated by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) highlights the sharp decrease in support for women’s issues under the Stephen Harper government, whose Conservative Party's won its first legislative majority since 1988 on Monday, assuring his re-election.

St. Mary's Home for maternal services in Ottawa (Photo: Nancy MacNider)

Source: Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA)

Women in Boznia and Herzegovia now have a greater chance of surviving childbirth than women in Canada, according to the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA), focal point of Social Watch in that North American country.

After September’s G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, USA (detailed in the “News” section of this e-bulletin), the next meeting of this elite global club is scheduled to take place in Huntsville, Canada in June 2010. “Spotlight On…” will also turn its gaze to that North American country, with this month’s profile focused on Social Watch Canada.

Next Friday, February 1, 2008, the North-South Institute, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) will be launching the Canadian chapter of the international report Social Watch Report 2007: in dignity and rights.

The Conference will be a unique opportunity to explore the ways in which a human rights framework can inform new strategies for trade, development and the eradication of poverty.