The Con government has announced that Canadian energy companies who cause an environmental disaster will be liable for a much larger amount. Currently, it’s just $30 million for the east and west coasts and $40 million for the Arctic. Now it will be $1 billion. That’s fine, but when one
Continue readingTag: business
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Do the Cons support free enterprise, or not?
As Canada gets ever closer to signing a free trade and labour agreement with the European Union, where free enterprise is alive and well despite a much more comprehensive social net than we have here, I’m piqued by something. It seems incredible to me that the Conservative Party, the party
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Canada Originally Intended All Education To Be Free
Out of Canada’s 33 Fathers of Confederation, only one went to university.1 It’s not that Nova Scotia’s Charles Tupper was the only intelligent one among them, other founders were businessmen, doctors, and lawyers, it’s that none of those jobs, and many others, did not require any post-secondary education. The eduction
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Canada Originally Intended All Education To Be Free
Out of Canada’s 33 Fathers of Confederation, only one went to university.1
It’s not that Nova Scotia’s Charles Tupper was the only intelligent one among them, other founders were businessmen, doctors, and lawyers, it’s that none of those jobs, and many others, did not require any post-secondary education.
And the eduction jobs in the late 19th century did require was entirely made free shortly after confederation because provincial governments, though extremely small and limited, believed that their public schools should provide all the instruction necessary for citizens to obtain jobs in any sector, be it agriculture, engineering, manufacturing, commerce, medicine or law.
Today however provinces have lost sight of the importance they once placed on education. Where once provincial governments provided all the training necessary for a skilled workforce, they are increasingly providing less while at the same time businesses are only requiring more.
By 2020 the BC government predicts that 77.3% of all jobs will require a post-secondary education. That means in seven years provincial governments will not provide the education needed for three-quarters of all jobs whereas for decades those same governments believed it was important enough to provide the education for every job.
When Canada was founded, education was seen as the extremely important public good that it is. Even in that most conservative era of small government, where health care wasn’t paid for, roads were tolled, and government sanitation services were non-existent, education was such a priority that our provincial governments sought to make it entirely free to every citizen, to provide the training and skills for any and every job.
That is how education in Canada was originally viewed by government, and that is how all education necessary for all employment was publicly provided for decades. Of course over time that changed, and now Canada has a skilled labour shortage, productivity is declining, and our economy is stagnating.
And though today education remains perhaps the most beneficial public good, it is now a costly private expense, while health care, an almost entirely private good, along with roads and sanitation are completely paid for with public funds.
The great past of Canada was built on the importance of education and the complete public provision of it in order to train its citizens for every job. Over the last few decades that has changed, and with it so has Canada’s opportunity for a great future.
1. [Richard Gwyn. John A, The Man Who Made Us, p.321 ]↩
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Canada Originally Intended All Education To Be Free
Out of Canada’s 33 Fathers of Confederation, only one went to university.1 It’s not that Nova Scotia’s Charles Tupper was the only intelligent one among them, other founders were businessmen, doctors, and lawyers, it’s that none of those jobs, and many others, did not require any post-secondary education. And the
Continue readingThings Are Good: Unilever’s Sustainability Strategy Saves Costs, Environment
Unilever is a massive corporation that owns a ton of brands from Q-Tips to Ben Jerry’s Ice Cream. They have recently pushed for more efficiency and sustainability across all their brands and have found that their environment-saving approach has saved money. The company’s sustainability director for manufacturing, John Maguire, echoed
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: NDP — socialist now a dirty word?
Barring a huge shock, it’s almost certain Justin “Not Ready for Prime Time” Trudeau will become the leader of the federal Liberal Party, tomorrow. But the one I’m watching this weekend is the NDP convention, and their mulling over whether to eliminate or significantly tone down references to its being
Continue readingLeft Over: Banks? Fuggetaboutit………
RBC replaces Canadian staff with foreign workers Axed employee blows whistle; federal government investigating By Kathy Tomlinson, CBC News Posted: Apr 6, 2013 5:31 PM PT This is going to sound like an unpaid ode to Credit Unions, so be it…in this case, because I know it best, VanCity…not only are
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Book Club 08 – Cradle to Cradle
One line item in my 2013 “bucket list” was to upload the book summaries from my work business book club. Since we covered about 40 books, and I wanted to upload one book a week, March was about the latest date I could start this project, and still hope to
Continue readingFinding Clarity: The not so new normal
We live an existence of change and uncertainty. We should celebrate.
Continue readingFinding Clarity: A Great Ad. For the Liberal party?
Warren Kinsella called attention to this ad on his blog. Thanks Warren. This is a fantastic ad, glorifying the triumph of hard work, persistence in the face of adversity and progress. Damned if this is not an ad for the Liberal Party of Canada. Or it should be. And if
Continue readingFinding Clarity: Technology is more than wires and chips
Impressed that George Takach recognizes that technology is more than wires and chips
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, 2012 (via GreenCarReports)
My new adventures as a Canadian correspondent for GreenCarReports.com begin with this post. Readers are encouraged to show them some love. 🙂 My ongoing efforts to track Canadian EV sales figures (and those of a few other countries) remain visible here.
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Rogers and Me Part 2: When You Have A Monopoly I Guess You Don’t Have to Tell Your Customers What They Are Paying For
After my original attempts to get Rogers to answer my questions via e-mail failed I posted my questions to Google Drive (originally Google Docs) and tweeted the location to them and finally got answers via Twitter, 140 characters at a time. That brought me to the next stage of the
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Rogers and Me Part 2: When You Have A Monopoly I Guess You Don’t Have to Tell Your Customers What They Are Paying For
After my original attempts to get Rogers to answer my questions via e-mail failed I posted my questions to Google Drive (originally Google Docs) and tweeted the location to them and finally got answers via Twitter, 140 characters at a time.
That bro…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Rogers and Me Part 2: When You Have A Monopoly I Guess You Don’t Have to Tell Your Customers What They Are Paying For
After my original attempts to get Rogers to answer my questions via e-mail failed I posted my questions to Google Drive (originally Google Docs) and tweeted the location to them and finally got answers via Twitter, 140 characters at a time. That brought me to the next stage of the
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Now we finally know the real price of milk, thanks to the teabags
We’re all familiar with the concept of a loss leader — a store will deliberately price key products to a price below cost, often way below cost. This is to get people into the store to buy stuff that is overpriced. A good example are razor handles and blades —
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Prius: a Crystal Anniversary (15 years)
A few Prius-inclined websites noted last week that Dec 10, 2012 marked the 15th anniversary of the Prius’ introduction in Japan. With the Prius (temporarily?) becoming the world’s 3rd-best-selling car brand in 2012, the anniversary probably deserves some reflection. 🙂 > As near as I can figure, Malcolm Gladwell-type book
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: At Chinese-owned B.C. mine, no Canadian hires for four years
by BC Federation of Labour “It’s clear HD Mining is in no hurry to hire Canadians and that the province of BC and Government of Canada have been complicit all along.” Documents released today show HD Mining planned to use exclusively underpaid Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW’s) underground for 4.5 years
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Canada’s F-35 — the $46 billion dollar boondoggle
Later today, the Amsterdam based accounting firm Kynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG ™) will issue a report regarding the proposed procurement of 65 Lockheed-Martin F-35-A Lightning II fighter jets for the Canadian Air Force. If media previews are to be believed, the program will be way higher than the $9
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