It is argued that eligibility for OAS/GIS discourages older Canadians from remaining in the workforce, and that we need to keep them working to avoid labour shortages and a sharp rise in the so-called dependency ratio. But the fact of the matter is that 65 is not the trigger for retirement that it used to [...]

For Immediate Release, Grey-Bruce Labour Council, Feb 4, 2012, Electro-Motive Plant Closure Two weeks ago the community, labour, the occupy movement and citizens from all walks of life stood in London in support of workers; not just the workers at Electro-Motive, but the Canadian worker. Yes, the focus was the CAW Members on the picket line, but the workers on the line that day represented every single worker in Canada being wilfully targeted by corporate and government organs and...

 If you're on Twitter, look for the English LabourStart Canada feed.  Regular stories drawn from the Canada page on LabourStart, the global labour movement's news and campaigns website.   All the news that matters to Canadian trade unionists, all in 140 character tweets. Look for us as @LabourStartCanE Coming soon, our French language feed.

It was not a happy new year for Canadian job seekers. Statistics Canada reported today that unemployment rose for a fourth consecutive month in January. Overall employment remained flat as Canada’s population and labour force grew at a normal pace, leaving more workers without jobs. The good news in today’s report is that 39,200 more [...]

No. Of course not. Even if the government waves around scary large increases in nominal dollar terms. As has been widely reported, the most recent OAS actuarial report shows that total program expenditures will rise from $38.8 billion in 2011 to $107.9 billion in 2030. However, the dollar figure reflects, not just an increase in [...]

Canada’s job market continued to weaken in January as employment rose by a meagre 2,300 jobs, much less than the growth in the number of workers in the labour force. As a result, the national unemployment rate rose from 7.5% to 7.6%. The unemployment rate has been steadily climbing from 7.1% last September, since which [...]

There are some interesting dynamics going on with the NDP leadership race that we can track with numbers, see way below. And while numbers tell some stories, they don’t necessarily track intangible criteria of leadership qualities like these, which I would perhaps suggest in this order: intelligence progressive vision: social, political, economic, ecological justice policy [...]

Now that the government is planning for an $8 billion cut,  the potential job losses could drive job losses to between 99,000 and 108,000 full time positions across Canada.  At this much higher level, the federal government could be single-handedly responsible for pushing national unemployment from its current 7.5% to 8.0%.  About half of those [...]

Canadian Press have put out a story based on a research paper by Richard Shillington which was commissioned by HRSDC from Informetrica, and obtained by the CLC through an Access to Information request. Receiving OAS is required to makes seniors eligible for the GIS top up, which provides one in three seniors with a supplement [...]

Feb. 1st, 2012 Letter to the Editor; Re, Former Goodyear Plant to Close Black Lawson Kennedy, Russell Brothers, PPG, Bell Canada Operator Services and now Veyance Technologies (former Goodyear plant) and manufacturer’s too many to name have left Owen Sound or downsized over the years since the early eighties. This does not begin to identify the list of other manufacturing sector jobs and / or well paying public service sector jobs that have left the entire Grey Bruce region since the same...

A colleague emailed me the following daily schedule for her Full Day Kindergarten Classroom. Children’s Day (Outline)  ** Times are approximate ** Activities may change depending on day Entry 8:40 *Arrival *Lockers (coat, boots, hat, mitts etc) put on shoes *Check backpacks for envelopes/library books) *Find name and match (first/last) *Carpet (name square) 8:45-9:20 *Name [...]

Statistics Canada reported today that the economy shrank in November for the first time in six months. This decline was driven by reduced energy production, which partly reflected maintenance shutdowns in the oil patch and unusually mild weather. While those factors may not affect future economic growth, their ability to turn it negative in November [...]

Finally, we got some snow outside.  Last night, we received tons of snow.  So today, we thought the snow should come inside! We took the cotton out of our sensory table to empty it.  We then filled the sensory table 3/4 of the way full with real snow.  We gave the children mittens to play [...]

To reprise a now topical earlier blog,  hiking the age of eligibility for OAS will have the biggest impact by far on future seniors who are in low income. Many if not most of this group are unable to work due to disability or ill health. If the age of eligibility for OAS and GIS [...]

The Prime Minister’s speech at Davos was, I would bet, written by Stephen Harper himself. It  bore the stamp of his long standing contempt for the European welfare state. He all but said that the Europeans had brought the crisis on themselves through trying to live beyond their fiscal means:  As I look around the world, as [...]

Two obvious but generally unstated details about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline are climate change and that oil and gas companies stand to make mega-profits. An honest appraisal of the project would be something like, “yes, putting in the pipeline will facilitate even more greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta oil sands, but our buddies [...]

Prime Minister  Harper went to Davos yesterday to sing Canada’s praises.  No sooner had he finished reciting a long list of our national achievements, however, then he launched into a list of the sober, realistic, inevitable things that must be done in Canada to ensure “sustainability” in the long term.  Top of the list is [...]

Raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security/Guaranteed Income Supplement (OAS/GIS) benefits is the worst possible way to deal with the retirement income security crisis facing Canadians. Experts such as former Assistant Chief Statistician Michael Wolfson project that one half of all middle income baby boomers face a severe cut to their living standards [...]

Our daily schedule might be different than most Early Learning Kindergarten classrooms.  However, my teaching partner and I have tried different ways of making it work in our room, and for us and our students, this schedule works the best.  We do alter it during different seasons, but not greatly.  The main way we adjust [...]

Today’s release by the CLC of a study on corporate Canada’s balance sheets, shows not only a trend in declining real investment but also a rising involvement in financial markets. Non financial corporations are not only hoarding cash they are also using cash flow to buy up positions in financial assets. As a complementary note [...]