The Fraser Institute has a new report warning Ontario could become the next Greece or California because of the size of its debt. Of course we know Ontario is not Greece or California, and such comparisons are disingenuous. But it is possible that Ontario could find itself in a similar…
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Imagine if Ontario’s incoming Premier – lauded for breaking the inequality barrier on two counts – decided to parlay her victory into a post-austerity focus on solutions to income inequality. Now that would be truly groundbreaking. And it couldn’t come at a better time. Brand new data from Statistics Canada…
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The traditional model of quality assurance, where professors and institutional bodies evaluate, approve and improve programs, has always existed in Ontario. However, the centralization and standardization of quality assurance has been accelerated by university and college administrators and encouraged by Ministry staff. External pressures for standardization from the OECD and…
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Increasingly, leadership for policy change comes from outside of government, not from within. It’s why many Ontarians who are focused on reducing and eliminating poverty in this province have engaged in a broadening conversation about how to end working poverty through decent jobs, a better minimum wage, and a concept…
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There’s reluctance among Canadian proponents to call for it by name. But Right-to-Work (longer, harder, without representation or recourse, for less money and fewer sick days or pee breaks) seems to be the flavour du jour amongst…ahem…politicians of a certain age. (By which I mean the Age of Dickens. Pip-pip,…
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Four years after Lehman Brothers collapsed, it’s time to take stock of things by asking a stock political question: Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Where you stand on the answer depends on where you sit. Many people, businesses and communities are still struggling to…
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At a time when Ontario’s government is promising a transformation of the province’s postsecondary education system, it would be wise to focus on a problem it helped create: The problem of high tuition. A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), Eduflation and the High Cost of…
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Last May federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said there was no such thing as a bad job. The Law Commission of Ontario may disagree. This week it put out a report about the rise in vulnerable workers and precarious jobs. Now that he’s heard from executives who think Canadians are…
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As a partner in Blue Green Canada, the United Steelworkers have issued the following news release. Erin Weir is an economist with the United Steelworkers union and a CCPA research associate. WTO Called Upon to Dismiss Japan, EU Challenge to Canadian Renewable Energy Policy Canadian NGOs and labour unions have…
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Statistics Canada reported today that April was another good month for the labour market. The Canadian economy added 58,200 jobs, most of which were full-time and all of which were paid positions rather than reported self-employment. Paradoxically, official unemployment increased as more Canadians entered the labour market. This development provides…
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