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Media & Policy News: 5 August 2016

August 5, 2016

Top Stories

Rural Ontario in crisis due to high hydro rates:
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2016/07/29/rural-ontario-in-crisis-due-to-high-hydro-rates-local-united-way-head-says

  • Pensioner overwhelmed by kindness of strangers, but asks “what about all the other people who need help”?: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/28/pensioner-cut-off-by-hydro-overwhelmed-by-kindness-of-strangers.html

Ontario wage-theft victims lost $28 million to poor enforcement:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/02/wage-theft-victims-lost-28m-to-poor-enforcement-statistics-show.html

  • CBC Ottawa radio hosts legal clinic lawyer on what needs to change to protect workers: http://www.cbc.ca/ontariotoday/2016/08/02/what-needs-to-change-to-protect-workers/
  • How a pay raise for low-paid personal support workers turned into a nasty pay cut: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/08/04/how-a-pay-raise-turned-into-a-nasty-pay-cut-hepburn.html
  • Workers Action Centre: Changing Workplaces Review interim report released: Join us in the fight for real change: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b32b33961fd1e65272919d8a6&id=795917399e

Advocates say “hands off our assets” and raise allowable employment earnings in OW and ODSP:
http://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/6789377-advocates-say-to-government-hands-off-our-assets/

Letter to the editor: It’s clear that injured workers are being treated unfairly by the WSIB:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2016/08/02/injured-workers-victimized.html

Meet the five Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Inquiry commissioners:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/profile-commissioners-mmiw-1.3705554

  • Why the inquiry must engage all Canadians: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/inquiry-into-missing-murdered-indigenous-women-must-engage-all-canadians/article31271844/

Feds increase post-secondary student grants to help low-income families:
http://www.westerngazette.ca/news/govt-increases-student-grants-to-help-low-income-families/article_744cce38-55c3-11e6-b000-ef5a74ebee15.html

Canada loses 31,200 jobs in July – 71,400 full-time positions gone:
https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/08/05/canada-loses-31200-jobs-in-july.html

  • Canada’s economy is growing at the slowest pace in 60 years and the only thing holding us up is housing: http://www.financialpost.com/m/wp/news/economy/blog.html?b=business.financialpost.com/news/economy/canadas-economy-is-growing-at-the-slowest-pace-in-60-years-and-the-only-thing-holding-us-up-is-housing
  • Unemployment rate rises to 6.9%: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/jobs-canada-july-1.3708611

CRA convicts only a fraction of offshore tax evaders:
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2016/08/01/cra-convicts-a-fraction-of-offshore-tax-evaders-exclusive.html

 

Ontario

Province on track to balance budget in next fiscal year:
https://news.ontario.ca/mof/en/2016/08/ontario-releases-2016-17-first-quarter-finances.html

Ontario’s funding of hospitals is the lowest in the country, says new report:
http://www.cantechletter.com/2016/08/ontarios-funding-hospitals-lowest-country-says-new-report/

Ontario’s “benevolence with strings attached” is keeping low-income students out of university:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/campus-notes/2016/08/ontarios-benevolence-strings-attached-keeping-low-income-student

Province spent $70 million on now-defunct Ontario Retirement Pension Plan:
http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Canada/2016/07/28/22655214.html

  • Canadian Federation of Independent Business calls $70 million a “pricey bargaining chip”: https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2016/07/29/70-million-spent-on-fledgling-ontario-pension-plan-a-pricey-bargaining-chip-cfib.html
  • Star editorial: Cost of canning Ontario Retirement Pension Plan more than justified: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/08/01/cost-of-canning-ontario-retirement-pension-plan-more-than-justified-editorial.html

 

Reports , Events, Campaigns and Other Good Things

Farwell to Mel Hurtig who, among other things, authored “Pay the Rent or Feed the Kids”:
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/08/05/Farewell-to-Mel-Hurtig/

Consultations on Labour Market Transfer Agreements – deadline August 19:
http://www.flmm-fmmt.ca/english/View.asp?x=910

HUMA committee to study poverty reduction this fall:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Committees/en/HUMA/StudyActivity?studyActivityId=8845428

Two studies by York academics on the Ontario Employment Standards Act:
http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2016/07/29/ontario-releases-studies-led-by-york-researchers-in-support-of-changing-workplace-review/

CAMH PhotoVoice exhibition on until Saturday in Toronto:
http://www.camh.ca/en/hospital/about_camh/newsroom/CAMH_in_the_headlines/stories/Pages/Looking-at-life-through-a-new-lens.aspx

Three new Law Commission of Ontario research reports:
https://t.e2ma.net/message/jgkep/3zouab

30% of Canadians say their top financial priority is to reduce debt: report:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/many-canadians-focused-on-tackling-debt-report-1.3011872

 

Around the Province

Peterborough gets $4.8 million for affordable housing, seniors housing, and social housing renos:
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2016/08/01/city-to-spend-48m-on-affordable-housing

Grey County doubling maintenance on social housing:
http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2016/08/02/grey-doubling-maintenance-on-social-housing

Proposal to train OW/ODSP and low-income workers to support at-risk seniors could reduce poverty in Muskoka:
http://www.muskokaregion.com/news-story/6791682-poverty-reduction-proposal-considers-senior-home-support-employment/

Legal Aid Ontario lawyers protest outside Oakville MPPs office over right to collectively bargain:
http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/6794332-legal-aid-ontario-lawyers-protest-outside-oakville-mpp-kevin-flynn-s-constituency-office/

Good Food Box in Thunder Bay provides high quality low cost food at an affordable price:
http://www.tbnewswatch.com/News/392004/Program_provides_high_quality_food_at_a_low_price_

Overcoming Windsor’s poverty of place:
http://www.windsorindependent.com/putting-residents-first-in-overcoming-poverty-of-place/

Former residents of Brockville’s St. Lawrence Regional Centre sought for class action lawsuit:
http://www.recorder.ca/2016/07/28/former-residents-sought-for-class-action

Leeds and Grenville OW and ODSP recipients to benefit from end to child support clawback:
http://www.recorder.ca/2016/07/30/boost-in-store-for-ont-works-recipients

Legal clinic’s future in Elliott Lake is uncertain:
http://www.elliotlakestandard.ca/2016/07/27/legal-clinics-future-in-city-uncertain

What a Scarborough single mom’s daily four hour commute looks like:
http://torontoist.com/2016/08/what-a-scarborough-single-mothers-daily-commute-looks-like/

Toronto’s shelter system is a house in flames:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/01/shelter-system-bracing-for-a-tidal-wave-fiorito.html

Toronto agrees to open cooling centres sooner and more frequently:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/04/city-of-toronto-agrees-to-open-cooling-centres-more-frequently.html

Toronto’s 1% are about 100,000 times wealthier than us: study:
http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/08/04/how-much-are-the-richest-people-in-toronto-earning-.html

  • Actually, no, this report is not about the 1%. It’s about 8 billionaires: http://theleftchapter.blogspot.ca/2016/08/no-torontos-1-per-cent-are-not-about.html

Toronto’s Kensington Market tenants fight rent hike of nearly 50%:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/kensington-market-tenant-dispute-1.3705046

 

Across the Country

Residents of upscale Calgary neighbourhood balk at proposed affordable housing:
http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/rosedale-residents-balk-at-proposed-affordable-housing-sites-in-pricey-neighbourhood?__lsa=fe87-2e24

  • Calgary woman challenges attitudes: http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/calgary/calgary-blogger-poverty-1.3702339

Payday loan lending rates in Alberta lowest in Canada under new law:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/payday-loans-alberta-service-mclean-new-legislation-1.3704264

BC Human Rights Tribunal to hear challenge of clawback of EI benefits from disability payments:
http://theprovince.com/opinion/columnists/maternity-benefits-clawbacks-unfair-to-women

BC’s new tax on foreign home ownership a good start, but just a start:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/bcs-new-tax-a-good-start-but-just-a-start/article31120967/

  • Tax won’t make a big dent in housing affordability: http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/b-c-foreign-buyer-tax-1.3703759
  • Yalnizyan: BC tax on foreign buyers won’t cool housing market much, but it’s still a good idea: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/listen.html?autoPlay=true&clipIds=&mediaIds=2692853262&contentarea=news&subsection1=regions&subsection2=toronto&subsection3=metromorning&contenttype=audio

Vancouver’s mayor pledges to develop tent city into social housing:
http://www.inews880.com/syn/112/209909/vancouver-mayor-pledges-to-develop-tent-city-into-social-housing

More struggling Albertans setting up camp in Edmonton river valley:
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/edmonton/more-homeless-people-camping-in-edmonton-river-valley-officials-say-1.3701012

Campaign 2000 partners congratulate Manitoba for not clawing back the CCB from provincial benefits:
http://mytoba.ca/featured/manitoba-2-3-ridings-child-poverty/

Teen accused of attacking people who are homeless due in Montreal court:
http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/teen-who-allegedly-attacked-homeless-people-due-in-court-1.3015242

Food Bank garden in Glace Bay, NS ruined after vandals douse it with furnace oil:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/glace-bay-food-bank-vandalism-1.3705891

Work underway to find solutions for unemployed shrimp plant workers in Newfoundland and Labrador:
http://www.thepacket.ca/News/Local/2016-07-29/article-4601713/Terra-Nova-MHA-says-work-underway-to-find-solutions-for-unemployed-shrimp-plant-workers/1

 

National

Real proposals for reconciliation with Indigenous peoples need to be enormous:
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/08/04/indigenous-reconciliation-proposals-need-to-be-enormous.html

Syrian refugee families struggle amid delays in benefits:
https://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2016/08/01/syrian-refugee-families-struggle-amid-delays-in-benefits.html

Why so many Canadians with disabilities are overeducated and unemployed:
http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/shared-values/why-so-many-canadians-with-disabilities-are-overeducated-and-unemployed

Report on child care shows fewer Canadian moms participate in the job market than those in other wealthy countries:
https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/08/03/fewer-canadian-moms-participate-in-workforce-than-those-in-many-rich-nations.html

Setting the course for Canada’s immigration system – consultations on now:
https://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2016/08/02/shaping-the-future-of-canadas-immigration-system.html

Conservative Party leadership hopeful: “God put conservatives on earth to stop taxes everywhere, forever”:
http://thestarphoenix.com/opinion/editorials/god-put-conservatives-on-earth-to-stop-taxes-everywhere-forever-brad-trost

 

International

IMF’s own watchdog criticizes its handling of Eurozone crisis:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/28/imf-watchdog-criticises-handling-eurozone-crisis

Japan invests 28 trillion yen in infrastructure and social services to stimulate the economy:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/02/business/economy-business/cabinet-backs-infrastructure-investment-better-welfare-services-%C2%A528-trillion-stimulus-package/#.V6Sjq6IsB-8

Social security cuts to force 10,000 Finns below the poverty line:
http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/14145-10-000-finns-could-soon-find-themselves-below-the-poverty-line.html

UK suburbs face poverty without a radical overhaul of transport systems:
https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/jul/25/uk-suburbs-need-radical-transport-solutions-ease-poverty

Cost of poverty in the UK 78 billion pounds per year:
http://www.theweek.co.uk/75091/counting-the-cost-of-poverty-78bn-spent-annually-in-the-uk

More than 600,000 people live in poverty in Greater Manchester:
http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2016-08-04/new-figures-reveal-more-than-600-000-people-live-in-poverty-greater-manchester/

Scotland tries to bring “dignity, fairness and respect” to recipients of welfare payments:
http://www.thenational.scot/news/welfare-shake-up-payments-may-replace-benefits-as-minister-insists-that-dignity-and-respect-begin-with-terminology.20590

Living on welfare in Australia a relentless daily struggle:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-04/cost-of-living-newstart-student-nijole-naujokas/7691086

Australia can learn from New Zealand’s failed welfare reforms:
http://theconversation.com/australia-can-learn-from-the-limitations-of-new-zealands-welfare-reforms-63103

Government aid programs keep 72,000 children out of poverty in Hawaii:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/4/report-aid-programs-keep-72000-children-out-of-pov/

Fewer US kids are in poverty, but more US seniors die in poverty:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-01/good-news-fewer-u-s-kids-live-in-poverty-bad-news-more-old-folks-do

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson is “open” to Universal Basic Income – check out why:
http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/gary-johnson-is-open-to-universal-basic-income/

Obama commutes sentences for nonviolent offenders to help end poverty:
http://www.abc-7.com/story/32689228/the-latest-obama-says-commutations-help-cut-poverty-cycle

Why US welfare reform didn’t end welfare stigma:
http://daily.jstor.org/why-welfare-reform-didnt-end-welfare-stigma/

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This site contains general legal information for people in Ontario, Canada. It is not intended to be used as legal advice for a specific legal problem. ISAC is a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization. ISAC is funded by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). The funding for this website is also provided by LAO. The views expressed in any of ISAC’s publications (including written, oral, or visual) are the views of the clinic and do not necessarily reflect those of LAO.