Top Story
Ontario appoints new Minimum Wage Advisory Panel:
https://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/advisorypanel.php
Coverage and Critique:
- Globe: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/jobs/ontario-strikes-new-panel-on-how-to-raise-minimum-wage/article13291398/
- Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/07/17/ontario_minimum_wage_panel_to_look_at_more_than_just_inflation.html
- Ottawa Sun: http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/07/17/minimum-wage-panel-created-by-ontario
- Ottawa Metro: http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/742222/poor-students-need-higher-minimum-wage-before-2014-says-anti-poverty-group/
- London Metro:http://metronews.ca/voices/urban-compass-london/744567/raising-ontarios-minimum-wage-forget-the-committees-lets-do-it-now/
Adam Vasey, of Pathway to Potential in Windsor, appointed as a member of the panel:
http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/07/17/pathway-to-potential-director-to-sit-on-provincial-minimum-wage-panel/
Press release from Workers’ Action Centre:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/groups-across-ontario-call-14-minimum-wage-as-thousands-ontarians-work-poverty-1812010.htm
Raise the Minimum Wage Campaign website:
http://raisetheminimumwage.ca/
Worth Repeating: Armine Yalnizyan says “boost the minimum wage, boost the economy”:
http://www.progressive-economics.ca/2013/02/27/boost-the-minimum-wage-boost-the-economy/
Meanwhile, Saskatchewan appoints its own minimum wage panel:
http://globalnews.ca/news/713707/changes-coming-to-minimum-wage-in-sask/
And a recommendation from a minimum wage panel in Newfoundland and Labrador languishes for six months:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2013/07/20/nl-minimum-wage-increase-720.html
Around the Province
The Ontario Human Rights Commission says employer expectations for “Canadian experience” are discriminatory:
http://newcanadianmedia.ca/item/6849-canadian-experience-job-norms-violate-ontario-rights-code
More coverage in the Star:
http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/07/15/demanding_canadian_experience_from_newcomers_may_breach_ontarios_human_rights_code.html
Workers at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Brampton keep defined benefits pension plan after three-week long strike:
http://www.benefitscanada.com/pensions/db/canadian-coca-cola-workers-keep-db-plan-41700
The number of EI claimants on the rise in Sudbury:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/story/2013/07/22/sby-sudbury-employment-insurance-benefits-recipients-up.html
Former patients at CAMH in Toronto are now running the staff cafeteria:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2013/07/04/former_camh_patients_now_running_staff_cafeteria.html
Advocates host a community application day for Toronto’s CSUMB-replacement program, called the Housing Stabilization Fund:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/19/helping_hand_for_torontos_homeless_goar.html
More on the application day from rabble.ca:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/johnbon/2013/07/housing-fund-keeps-torontos-poor-becoming-homeless
The new Scarborough subway route debated at Toronto City Council last week would leave out immigrants, students, and the poor:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/2013/07/18/scarborough_subway_route_makes_immigrants_students_and_poor_the_losers.html
Across the Country
CCPA Nova Scotia and CSEP-NS releases report on the negative impact of the province’s 2011 changes to special needs allowances:
http://halifax.mediacoop.ca/story/report-criticizes-changes-income-assistance-rules/18298
Here’s the report:
http://www.cwp-csp.ca/2013/07/changes-to-welfare-in-ns-affecting-the-most-vulnerable/
National / Federal
Alex Himelfarb, on why greater social equality is critical for political participation:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/17/why_canadians_have_no_time_for_politics.html
There really aren’t jobs going begging for people, despite what Minister Kenney says:
http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/en/blog/about-those-jobs-without-people-minister-kenney
The employment problem is really about a lack of jobs, not a lack of skills:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/were-missing-jobs-not-skills-mr-kenney/article13295853/#dashboard/follows/
Report shows poorer Canadians die younger:
http://www.windsorstar.com/health/Poorer+Canadians+more+likely+younger+report+claims/8677332/story.html
Ottawa is edging away from public health care:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/07/08/ottawa_edges_away_from_public_medicare.html
International
McDonald’s in the US illustrates clearly why its employees can’t live on their wages:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/07/mcdonalds-literally-cannot-imagine-how-its-workers-would-survive-on-the-minimum-wage/277845/
A Texas mother shoots children and herself after being denied food stamps:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57337766/mom-denied-food-stamps-shoots-kids-kills-self/
Wages for garment workers internationally have actually decreased in the past ten years:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2013/07/19/garment_workers_making_less_money_than_10_years_ago_report_shows.html
HSBC branches in Scotland close as tax fairness protesters target tax avoidance:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/protest-group-threatens-civil-disobedience-at-scottish-bank-in-welfare-reform-protest.1374304153