This and that for your Sunday reading. – Tom Parkin discusses the need for a new Tommy Douglas to start leading the way toward national social programs – and the hope that Andrea Horwath can earn that role in Ontario’s provincial election: Since Douglas’s time, Canadian health care has been
Continue readingTag: Housing
Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jake Johnson writes about the obscene amount of money handed to the wealthy in the U.S. by the Republicans’ tax scam. And Robert Reich discusses how the spread of inequality and isolation helped to lay the groundwork for Donald Trump’s destructive presidency.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Saskatchewan budget misses opportunity on rental housing assistance
I recently wrote a ‘top 10’ overview blog post about the 2018 Saskatchewan budget. Following on the heels of that, I’ve now written an opinion piece about the budget’s announcement of a phase out a rental assistance program for low-income households. Points raised in the opinion piece include the following:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Scott Gilmore discusses how Canada is actually backsliding in some crucial development goals. And Colin Gordon writes about the inequality growing on multiple fronts around the globe. – Kathy Tomlinson uncovers a Vancouver real estate market rigged to benefit developers and speculators.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Sunil Johal and Armine Yalnizyan discuss the importance of building an economy based on a race to the top in labour and environmental standards, rather than the pursuit of the lowest common denominator. – Kevin Corinth and Claire Rossi-de Vries examine the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Robert Costanza reviews Mariana Mazzucato’s The Value of Everything, and highlights its focus on attaching proper importance to priorities that aren’t reflected in prices: (T)he current mainstream ‘marginalist’ concept bases value on market exchanges: price, as revealed by the interaction of supply and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Denise Balkissoon writes about the importance of ensuring a just transition for fossil fuel workers – rather than using their jobs as bargaining chips to preserve oil industry profits. And Andrea Olive, Emily Eaton and Randy Besco point out that there’s plenty
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten things to know about the 2018 Saskatchewan budget
I’ve written a ‘top 10’ blog post about the recently-tabled Saskatchewan budget. Points raised in the blog post include the following: -This year’s budget was quite status quo. -Last year’s budget, by contrast, included a series of cuts to social spending. Last year’s budget also announced cuts to both personal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Paul Constant discusses a new study showing that the positive effects of minimum wage increases for low-income workers actually grow over time. And Sheila Block highlights how a $15 increased minimum wage stands to offer far more to workers than Doug Ford’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Paul Krugman writes that a transition to a clean energy economy is well within reach – as long as politicians don’t put the interests of oil money over our economic and environmental future. But Gordon Laxer notes that NAFTA already limits Canada’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Nick Falvo offers a useful summary of the federal-provincial framework on housing – including its lack of any specific mention of homelessness and supportive housing among other deficiencies. – Meanwhile, Justin McElroy reports on the Horgan government’s plan to ensure more rights for
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sean Farrell reports on a new OECD study recommending the application of inheritance taxes to reduce wealth inequality. – And Harry Quilter-Pinner discusses Finland’s confirmation that the obvious solution to homelessness – providing housing to people who need it – is also the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Newly-signed FPT housing framework agreement
I’ve just written a blog post about the newly-signed federal-provincial-territorial housing framework agreement. This agreement builds on (and helps move forward) Canada’s National Housing Strategy, which was released last fall. One of the points made in the blog post is that the federal government’s stated objective of removing approximately half-a-million
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Scott Moe’s first budget is just more of the same in leaving Saskatchewan’s low-income residents behind in the face of rising costs of living. For further reading…– D.C. Fraser’s general report on the budget is here. – The inflation data cited in the column is here, while
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ashley Renders reports on the Canadian mining companies which are using corporate trade deals to threaten developing countries with billion-dollar claims to stifle environmental protections. And Mike Blanchfield and Andy Blatchford report that China wants any trade deals to similarly privilege investors
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Linda Givetash reports on the increasing cost and decreasing availability of housing in Canada. And Patrick Greenfield and Sarah March note that an appalling increase in the number of homeless people in the UK is being reflected in the number of deaths on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Matthew Yglesias examines the direct effects of social programs, and finds there’s every reason to invest more in them: Mercury emissions (mostly from coal plants) end up in the water, where they end up in fish, from whence they end up in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Peter Gowan and Ryan Cooper write about the need for much more affordable social housing across the income spectrum. Rhys Kesselman responds to a few of the more laughable attacks on British Columbia’s more progressive property tax. And Stephen Punwasi discusses the Financial
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Five things to know about the 2018 Alberta budget
On March 22, the NDP government of Rachel Notley tabled the 2018 Alberta budget. I’ve written a blog post discussing some of the major ‘take aways’ from the standpoint of Calgary’s homeless-serving sector (where I work). Points made in the blog post include the following: this was very much a
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Ten proposals from the 2018 Alberta Alternative Budget
The 2018 Alberta Alternative Budget (AAB) was released yesterday—it can be downloaded here. An opinion piece I wrote about the AAB appeared yesterday in both the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton Journal. Inspired by the Alternative Federal Budget exercise, this year’s AAB was drafted by a working group consisting of
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