I’ve just written a blog post about homelessness and employment, with a focus on Calgary (where I live and work). Points raised in the blog post include the following: -Persons experiencing homelessness usually have poor health outcomes, making it especially challenging to find and sustain employment. -There are several non-profits
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The Progressive Economics Forum: Parental Leave and Pay Equity
Budget 2018 is being advertised as a truly comprehensive gender budget, with two key pieces of that being use-it-or-lose-it paternity leave, and action on pay equity. Last year’s gender budget implemented the Liberal campaign promise to extend EI parental leave from a total of 12 months to 18 months, despite
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten proposals from the 2018 Alternative Federal Budget
I’ve written a blog post about this year’s Alternative Federal Budget (AFB). Points raised in the blog post include the following: -This year’s AFB would create 470,000 (full-time equivalent) jobs in its first year alone. By year 2 of the plan, 600,000 new (full-time equivalent) jobs will exist. -This year’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Noam Scheiber and Ben Casselman comment on the role of corporate consolidation in undermining pay and working conditions. And Meagan Day rebuts the claim that employers can be excused for ignoring not-yet-qualified pools of workers by pointing out that the same people
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jonathan Ostry comments on the emerging recognition that inequality represents a barrier to economic development: I argue that greater attention should be paid to the consequences that economic policies have for income distribution (inequality). The reasons are four-fold. First, excessive levels of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Steve Roth points out how extreme concentrations of wealth lead to poor economic and social outcomes: If wealth is consistently more widely dispersed — like it was after WW II — the extra spending that results causes more production. (Why, exactly, do you
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Self-insurance for workers doesn’t work
This is a guest post from Rod Hill, a Professor of Economics at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John campus. A previous version of this post first appeared in the New Brunswick Telegraph Journal. In a report this month for the Halifax-based Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), entitled
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Alberta finally moves, cautiously, toward reforming labour laws, more boldly to ban cash-for-blood transactions
PHOTOS: Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray at her news conference yesterday morning. Below: Labour lawyer and respected labour relations specialist Andrew Sims and Health Minister Sarah Hoffman at her news conference yesterday afternoon (Twitter). No sooner asked than answered, Alberta’s NDP government announced a plan yesterday morning to consult with
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Harper’s EI Appeals Process Not Working
This weekend, Quebec unions and activists issued a joint statement on the appeals process in Employment Insurance, calling on Trudeau to review the appeals process. The 2012 budget removed part-time panels of three community representatives – one labour, one business, and one government, and replaced them with full-time adjudicators working
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Parental and Caregiving Leaves
The very narrow and brief on-line consultations around parental and caregiving leaves finishes today. As we’ve done in the past, a coalition of community and labour organizations worked together to develop a common list of policy asks. Even though the official consultation is finished, we encourage concerned individuals and groups
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: How do you solve a problem like precarious work?
Finance Minister Bill Morneau has taken quite a bit of heat for his tone deaf comments about the reality of precarious work, specifically saying that we should just “get used to job churn”. But his policy prescription, an improved social safety net, is a quite valid part of the solution. But
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Guaranteed Annual Income
Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation, I’ve written a blog post titled “Ten things to know about Canada’s guaranteed annual income debate.” Points raised in the blog post include the following: -There are people and groups on both the left and right of the political spectrum
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Nora Loreto slams the Wynne Libs’ “red tape” gimmick, while highlighting the need for people to claim a voice in rules largely intended to protect them as workers and consumers:One person’s red tape is another p…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Owen Jones interviews Ha-Joon Chang about the foreseeable harm caused by the UK’s austerity, as well as the false claims used to push it. – The Stoney Creek News rightly argues that Canada Post should move toward pos…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Evening Links
Assorted content to end your week.- Ed Finn reminds us that “free trade” agreements have always served to increase the wealth and power of those who already have the most at the expense of social interests. And Scott Sinclair and Angella MacEwen each o…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Greg Jericho is the latest to weigh in on the false promises of neoliberalism:An article in the IMF’s latest issue of is journal Finance and Development notes that “instead of delivering growth, some neolibe…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Up for discussion
Kady O’Malley has already highlighted a few of the noteworthy resolutions (PDF) submitted to this weekend’s NDP policy convention. But I’ll point out a few more which look to me to deserve attention.First, in the category of simple good ideas regardles…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Mixed bag for EI in Budget 2016
The 2016 Budget announces some much needed improvements to Employment Insurance, and leaves room for more changes in the near future. The changes announced in the budget are largely positive, but many details are still missing, and some stinkers from Harper are left unchanged. The Good … Significantly, the government will reduce the 910 hours threshold […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- Jonathan Sas offers a worthwhile read on the potential value of a basic income – as well the importance of retaining and strengthening a social safety net to go with it:In the current rush to experiment with GMI…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: February Labour Force Woes
The unemployment rate is up again this month, to 7.3%, with 1.4 million workers looking for jobs in February. A loss of full-time work was partly replaced by part time positions. A disproportionate percentage of last year’s growth came from precarious self-employment. Remember those heady days when we could say that at least Canada’s unemployment rate […]
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