Top Stories
The Canada Revenue Agency is no longer mailing personalized tax packages, and the simplified form has been discontinued:
http://www.moneyville.ca/article/1318627–tax-return-changes-raise-concerns-roseman
Anti-poverty rally at Liberal leadership convention tomorrow:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/as-cold-snap-sets-anti-poverty-fight-heats-up-as-hundreds-get-set-march-on-liberals-1749016.htm
More on PC’s “Welfare to Work” white paper:
- System needs reform, but don’t paint everyone with the same brush:http://www.niagarathisweek.com/opinion/columns/article/1570265–welfare-system-needs-reform-jobs-a-good-place-to-start
- “Carrots and sticks” in Hudak’s welfare plan:http://www.niagarathisweek.com/news/article/1570260–carrots-and-sticks-in-pc-welfare-plan
Ontario Issues
Sudbury Labour Council’s letter on SCAP’s work on CSUMB:
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/24/coverage-ensured-public-informed-about-program
No money to keep the heat on in Owen Sound – CSUMB elimination a factor:
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2013/01/23/families-struggling-to-keep-heat-on
Big impacts coming in Renfrew County:
http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/2013/01/18/provincial-funding-cuts-will-affect-people-locally
Martin Regg Cohn on the other Liberal leadership candidates:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1319861–how-the-four-men-lost-the-ontario-liberal-leadership-cohn
New PCs white paper pledges to delay full-day kindergarten and slash education jobs:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1319403–ontario-tories-would-delay-full-day-kindergarten-slash-thousands-of-education-jobs
The National Post comments on poverty reduction in Ontario:
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/01/24/tasha-kheiriddin-ontarios-failed-approach-to-poverty/
Around the Province
Peterborough Poverty Reduction Network looking to buy property for “community asset that could include a diverse mix of housing, new meeting spaces and a cultural/arts centre”:
http://www.mykawartha.com/news/article/1568915–poverty-network-aims-to-buy-former-mount-st-joseph-property
Reports and Other Goodies
From the CCPA: Canada’s $145 billion infrastructure gap: Where it came from and why it will cost so much to fix it:
http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/reports/canadas-infrastructure-gap
From Windsor’s Pathway to Potential: Excellent “Understanding Poverty” workbook:
http://pathwaytopotential.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/P2P_UNDERSTANDING-POVERTY-WORKBOOK_LOW-RES.pdf
A new campaign to draw attention to our unravelling social safety net:
https://sites.google.com/site/stitchingoursafteynet/
As previously posted, Oxfam has started a campaign “to end extreme wealth by 2025, and reverse the rapid increase in inequality seen in the majority of countries in the last twenty years, taking inequality back to 1990 levels”
- Here’s their great media brief on the cost of extreme wealth and inequality:http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/cost-of-inequality-oxfam-mb180113.pdf
Alex Himelfarb’s great speech to CCPA-Ontario’s recent “Post-Austerity” symposium:
http://afhimelfarb.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/the-age-of-austerity/
John Stapleton: A Ball Player, a Cop, a Janitor, and a Welfare Recipient:
http://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/en/blog/john-stapleton-ball-player-cop-janitor-and-welfare-recipient
How does policy change happen? Here are six theories:
http://tamarackcci.ca/resource-library/policy-systems-change/pathways-change-six-theories-about-how-policy-change-happens
Across the Country
The real problem for the Alberta government’s budget is tax and royalty giveaways:
http://www.betterwayalberta.ca/the-status-quo/the-real-problem-tax-and-royalty-giveaways
City of Winnipeg budget cuts impede the fight against poverty:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/city-cuts-impede-fight-against-poverty-187844621.html
- Here’s the CCPA Manitoba report:http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/fast-facts-city-no-longer-player-poverty-reduction
National Issues
How running government “like a business” has been a dismal failure:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/running-government-like-a-business-has-been-a-dismal-failure/article6968196/
Carol Goar: Corporate balance sheets are healthy as the economy languishes:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/1318638–goar-corporate-balance-sheets-healthy-as-economy-languishes
Inequality and Idle No More
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/behind-numbers/2013/01/seeing-inequality-through-rose-coloured-classes
Tom Walkom wonders whether Liberals matter any more:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1318573—do-canada-s-or-ontario-s-liberals-matter-any-more-thomas-walkom
Federal News
The Parliamentary Budget Officer’s latest report says cuts are deeper on the front end, but spending is up in the back:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-making-deep-federal-spending-cuts-but-evasive-on-details-pbo-report/article7759904
Bank of Canada to keep interest rates low as economic “deterioration” keeps inflation at bay:
http://www.thesudburystar.com/2013/01/24/coverage-ensured-public-informed-about-program
Harper’s “crony capitalism”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mark-milke/harper-government-small-businesses_b_2535919.html
International
In New Zealand, a new report says people from refugee backgrounds with disabilities have ‘slipped through the cracks’:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1301/S00104/lack-of-support-for-refugees-with-disability-needs.htm
A flexible, educated, and not unionised workforce key to getting The Hobbit to film in NZ:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10861092
Don’t just change policy to end hunger, challenge power:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jan/24/hunger-change-policy-challenge-power
Charities’ silence on government policy is tantamount to collusion:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/charities-silence-government-policy?CMP=twt_gu
Britain is headed for a “triple-dip” recession (Ed note: perhaps that austerity thing isn’t working out the way they planned):
- Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/25/uk-triple-dip-recession-gdp
- Globe: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/european-business/britains-economy-flirts-with-triple-dip-recession/article7844538/
Oh gee, it’s not just me – the IMF tells Britain they might want to reconsider that austerity thing:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/jan/24/imf-advises-uk-ease-austerity
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/24/imf-george-osborne-austerity-failing
Maybe going after companies like Starbucks that evade taxes might work, says Cameron:
http://m.guardiannews.com/politics/2013/jan/24/david-cameron-starbucks-focus-tax
Are declining corporate tax rates a “ruinous race to the bottom”?:
http://video.ft.com/v/2115754803001/Corporate-tax-a-race-to-the-bottom