I recently helped organize a homelessness study tour of New York City. Our group consisted of 30 Canadians from the non-profit sector, government, law enforcement and academia. We toured six sites over a three-day period. Here’s my ‘top 10’ overview of the tour: https://nickfalvo.ca/ten-things-to-know-about-homelessness-in-new-york-city/
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Cowichan Conversations: Liberals Called Out Over Year of Planning Blindly-COVID Soaring in Conservative Led Provinces
Originally published by the National Post Matthew Lau is a conservative writer based in Toronto. His interests are in economic principles and fiscal issues, and he has written for the Financial Post, the Fraser Institute, Read more… The post Liberals Called Out Over Year of Planning Blindly-COVID Soaring in Conservative
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Basic Stupidity
One of the first things Doug Ford did when he came to office was to break a campaign promise and cancel Ontario’s Basic Income Project. Laurie Monsebraaten reports: Under the pilot project, launched by the former Liberal government in April 2017, single people such as Miller have been receiving annual
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Call for federal support of cancelled Ontario basic income project
Members of the Progressive Economists Forum noted with dismay the premature cancellation of Ontario’s basic income pilot and have penned an open letter to Federal Minister Jean-Yves Duclos (Families, Children and Social Development) calling for federal support for the project. So far, the letter has been signed by 50 Canadian
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Time For A Basic Income
It’s time to implement Guaranteed Basic Income Programs. However, Gwynne Dyer writes, there is surprising resistance to the idea. Conservatives argue that giving people free money is fraught with moral hazard. But the numbers suggest that, in the future, large numbers of people will be unemployed: The famous 2013 study
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Panel discussion at federal NDP policy convention
Yesterday I spoke on a panel discussion on economic inequality, along with Andrew Jackson and Armine Yalnizyan. We were guests at the federal NDP’s policy convention in Ottawa. The panel was moderated by Guy Caron. Topics covered included the minimum wage, basic income, affordable housing, the future of jobs, gender
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Robert Reich On The Universal Basic Income
More and more jobs are fated to disappear, thanks to monoliths like Amazon squeezing out other retail, thanks to autonomous vehicles close to becoming part of the mainstream, and for a host of other reasons. Economist Robert Reich offers a partial answer to those losses, one that I doubt will
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 readingNorthern Reflections: World Of Wonders!
Over the weekend, the Swiss held a referendum in which they rejected a proposal for a guaranteed annual income. Andrew Coyne writes:The model on which the Swiss voted was at the outer limits of what anyone has imagined a basic income could or should e…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Bold Experiment Or A Necessary Support?
The concept of a guaranteed annual income just won’t go away. It is regarded by some as an effective way of addressing the increasingly wide disparities afflicting our society, and reviled by others as an affront to individualism and a disincentive to …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Star Readers On The Guaranteed Annual Income
I write periodically in this blog on the concept of the guaranteed annual income; it seems it would be an effective way of helping to address many of the socio-economic problems we face. As you will see in the first of four letters on the subject from …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On The Guaranteed Annual Income
Responding to a recent opinion piece advocating for a guaranteed annual income, Star reader David Gladstone of Toronto has this to offer the crucial role it can play in a world of tremendous change and increasingly precarious employment:It seems the wo…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Idea Gaining Traction
The concept of a guaranteed annual income, a subject I have written about previously on this blog, seems to be gaining traction. A relatively simple way of uplifting countless people from poverty and in the process ultimately saving money through a str…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thinking Beyond The Conventional
We are regularly told, both by governments and their corporate confederates, that these are tough times, and that only patience and a freer hand for business will bring about eventual relief. To the seasoned observer, such a prescription is utter nonse…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Where Is Help To Be Found?
Over the past several weeks I have been reading a number of letters to the editor from ‘concerned’ citizens about the arrival of Syrian refugees in Canada. Some offer a racist perspective thinly disguised as concern for our fellow Canadians (Instead of…
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Canadian Government To Look Into Guaranteed Annual Income
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger It has been years since the notion of a guaranteed annual income has been seriously discussed in Canada, but that may well change as the costs of administering the social assistance Read more…
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Nope, Alberta still needs to raise the minimum wage
Last night, Andrew Coyne published a column in which he champions introducing a minimum income over raising the minimum wage as a radical policy suggestion for Alberta’s new NDP government. Coyne couches the column in his typical pseudo-contrarianism. Here he is supposedly advocating socialism…gasp! In reality, however, Coyne gets it backwards: a minimum income in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Paul Mason discusses the effect a guaranteed annual income could have on individuals’ choices about labour and employment: A true, subsistence level basic income would close to double [existing social spending in the UK]. But it is imaginable, in the short to medium
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Hugh Segal discusses the need for an open and honest conversation about poverty and how to end it. And to better reflect Canadians’ continued desire for a more fair society, Roderick Benns makes the case for a basic income as Canada’s next
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joan Walsh discusses Elizabeth Warren’s work on improving wages and enhancing the strength of workers in the U.S., while Jeremy Nuttall interviews Hassan Yussuff about the labour movement’s work to elect a better government in Canada. – Bob Hepburn argues that getting rid
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