Canadian Social Research Newsletter

Welcome to the weekly Canadian Social Research Newsletter,
a listing of the new links added to the Canadian Social Research Links website in the past week.

The e-mail version of this week's issue of the newsletter is going out to 1971 subscribers.

1. Budget 2009: Canada’s Economic Action Plan (January 27) + Budget media coverage & analysis from various sources - updated to Jan. 29 (CBC - CTV - Globe and Mail - Toronto Star - Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - Canadian Union of Public Employees - Canadian Labour Congress)
2. The Fiscal Monitor - November 2008 (Department of Finance Canada) - January 27
3. Canadians could face 'several difficult years': throne speech (CBC.ca) - January 26
4. What's New in The Daily (Statistics Canada):
--- The Canadian Labour Market at a Glance, 2007 - January 30
--- Payroll employment, earnings and hours, November 2008 - January 28
--- Employment Insurance, November 2008 - January 27
5. What's new from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (Toronto) - January 28

International content

6. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs (Institute for Research on Poverty - University of Wisconsin-Madison)
7. World Economic Forum / World Social Forum - January 30 to February 1
8. Australian Policy Online Weekly Briefing - selected recent content
9. CRINMAIL (January 2009) - (Child Rights Information Network - CRIN)

Budget 2009: Canada’s Economic Action Plan
News Release
January 27, 2009
The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, today tabled a comprehensive budget plan to stimulate economic growth, restore confidence and support Canadians and their families during a synchronized global recession. (...) Canada’s Economic Action Plan will provide almost $30 billion in support to the Canadian economy this year. In total, this is equivalent to 1.9 per cent of our total economy.

The Budget Plan
* HTML version - Table of Contents, incl. links to each of the four chapters and five annexes
* PDF Version (1.2MB, 343 pages)
- complete Budget Plan in one file
[Factoid: In the 343-page Budget Plan, the words "women" and "poverty" appear exactly ZERO times.]

Tax Savings Calculator
The Good News:
My "Total Tax Relief" for 2009 is $532.
The Bad News:
My additional out-of-pocket expenses for 2009
re. higher property taxes and higher cost of living in general will add up to $1000 or more.

Bad-times budget delivers billions in tax cuts, spending
Flaherty forecasts annual deficits through to 2013, starting at $33.7B
January 27, 2009
NOTE: scroll down the page for dozens of links to budget analysis
under "IN DEPTH: Federal budget 2009" (right-hand margin of the page)

Budget 2009 Coverage
January 27, 2009
After months of speculation, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled a federal budget that includes $40 billion
in economic stimulus over the next two years in the form of infrastructure spending and income tax cuts.

Tax cuts mean $5.9B loss in revenue
Tories say they want people to spend; ignore warnings not to chop across the board
January 28, 2009
By Tonda MacCharles
OTTAWA–The Conservative government has proposed widespread tax relief for small businesses, homeowners, seniors, and low- and middle-income Canadians. The budget calls for tax measures that will leave more money in more people's pockets, including the sprawling middle class, whose support the Conservatives covet. The moves will take an additional 265,000 Canadians off the tax rolls altogether, largely through changes to the basic personal income tax exemption and to the seniors' Age Credit. But the tax changes will come at a cost to the federal treasury.
Source:
The Toronto Star

Fed budget 2009: Billions in new housing spending, but not for those who need it the most
January 27, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
This backgrounder provides a first glimpse at housing in federal budget 2009. Additional housing analysis, and analysis of other key issues and concerns, will be released in the coming days by the Wellesley Institute.
In a nutshell:
* Billions in new housing dollars, but who really benefits?
* Who's left out
* The driveways and decks tax credit
* Less help for those that need it the most
* Most who need housing help won't be able to get it
* Bright Northern Lights
* No new help for people who are homeless
* Re-profiling the dollars
* Housing investments : good for people, communities, economy
* More analysis to come...

$2.075b for housing in Tuesday's federal budget???
January 25, 2009
By Michael Shapcott
The federal government is busily leaking all sorts of details about Tuesday’s federal budget – a sharp departure from the usual secrecy that surrounds spending plans – and the latest “leak” from federal housing minister Diane Finley in the Sunday Toronto Star sets out $2.075 billion for housing initiatives. If the spending plans are confirmed in the budget (and it’s hard to imagine why Minister Finley would be so specific in her disclosures if she wasn’t in the know), it will mean (quoting the language in the Star):
• $1 billion to “renovate existing social housing”, including energy retrofitting;
• $600 million for on-reserve Aboriginal housing;
• $400 million for “seniors’ housing”;
• $75 million for “housing for people with disabilities”.
Source:
Wellesley Institute Blog
[ Wellesley Institute
The Wellesley Institute is a Toronto-based non-profit and non-partisan research and policy institute. Our focus is on developing research and community-based policy solutions to the problems of urban health and health disparities. ]

Social housing to get boost
Poor, seniors and aboriginals expected to be among
the beneficiaries of more than $2 billion out of federal government's stimulus package
January 25, 2009
By Bruce Campion-Smith
OTTAWA–The federal government is poised to pump more than $2 billion into social housing nationwide – a sweeping investment aimed at helping the poor, aboriginals and seniors, the Star has learned. The spending is expected to be part of the aggressive stimulus package unveiled in Tuesday's federal budget and could provide a boost for tradespeople hit by the slowdown in the new housing market.
Source:
The Toronto Star

Federal budget leaves unemployed in the cold
January 27, 2009
OTTAWA -- Today’s federal budget leaves hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Canadians hanging on a very short rope and won’t provide the immediate stimulus our economy needs, says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Why Budget 2009 Leaves Canadians in the Cold
January 28, 2009
For Stephen Harper, the only thing that matters about the 2009 budget is that it meets the political imperatives he imposed on himself with his disastrous December fudgit-budget. On that front, he and we are in the hands of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. But for Canadians, the only thing that really matters is how effective the budget will be as a response to the biggest economic crisis to hit this country in more than 75 years.

Source:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. Founded in 1980, the CCPA is one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates.

Harper “stimulus” budget falls far short
January 29, 2009
Faced with the prospect of losing their grip on power, the Harper government has made a big show of taking action to address the economic and financial crisis, but it still falls far short of what is needed to revive the economy, create jobs and protect the vulnerable.

Federal Budget 2009: Initial Report Card
January 29, 2009
How well did the budget deliver on these three key areas of concern?
1. stimulating the economy,
2. protecting the vulnerable, and
3. saving and creating jobs by rebuilding the economy

Source:
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is Canada’s largest union. With 570,000 members across Canada, CUPE represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines.

Canadian Labour Congress
Final Budget 2009 Analysis
By Andrew Jackson
January 28, 2009
- includes "What We Wanted" and "What We Got" in the following areas:
* Impact on Jobs and the Economy
* Investment in Public Infrastructure and Housing
* The Manufacturing and Wider Jobs Crisis
* Employment Insurance Benefits
* Pensions
* Support for Training and Labour Adjustment
* Federal-Provincial Transfers and the Future of Public Services
* Equality and Inclusion
* Global Issues
NOTE: the CLC Final Budget 2009 Analysis appears on the Relentlessly Progressive Economics Blog, which also includes budget-related posts by other progressive economists (See "Recent Blog Posts" in the right-hand margin of the page for links)

Source:
Canadian Labour Congress
The Canadian Labour Congress is the largest democratic and popular organization in Canada with over three million members. The Canadian Labour Congress brings together Canada's national and international unions, the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils.

January 27, 2009
Women and children last: No thank you, Mr. Flaherty! (PDF - 36K, 2 pages)
[ version française : Les femmes et les enfants en dernier: non merci, Monsieur Flaherty! (PDF - 48Ko., 2 pages) ]
Toronto – This landmark federal budget includes billions of dollars of spending and wrong-headed tax cuts but offers little support for our most vulnerable families – especially the 760,000 low income children and their mothers – who feel the double burden of job loss at the workplace and at home, says Campaign 2000, the national coalition of over 120 partners working to end child and family poverty in Canada.

Source:
Campaign 2000
Campaign 2000 is a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000.

Stimulus Package Remains a Lost Opportunity
January 28, 2009
While CPJ applauds Budget 2009 for its effort to address the economic crisis through economic stimulus, it is also a lost opportunity to make greater investments that would promote the dignity and well-being of the poor and marginalized. It also lacks adequate investments in social infrastructure or sustainable development. The budget reflects the government’s unwillingness to promote public justice through measures to protect those who will suffer the most from the economic crisis. CPJ will strengthen the call for the federal government to invest in a poverty reduction strategy and protect the most vulnerable in our society.

Source:
Citizens for Public Justice
We are a faithful response to God’s call for love, justice and stewardship. (...)
Our mission is to promote public justice in Canada by shaping key public policy debates through research and analysis, publishing and public dialogue.

Release of The Fiscal Monitor
January 27, 2009
Highlights:
* November 2008: budgetary surplus of $15 million
* April to November 2008: budgetary surplus of $0.2 billion

Speech from the Throne
January 26, 2009
In these uncertain times, when the world is threatened by a struggling economy, it is imperative that we work together, that we stand beside one another and that we strive for greater solidarity.
(ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...)
Source:
Government of Canada

Canadians could face 'several difficult years': throne speech
Tories 'will spend what is necessary' to boost economy, Jean says
January 26, 2009
The Conservative government is presenting a six-point economic stimulus plan in this week's budget and "will spend what is necessary" to rescue Canada's sagging economy during the global financial crisis, says the throne speech delivered Monday.
- incl. links to related sites and multimedia coverage (see the right-hand margin of the page)
Source:
CBC.ca

Over the course of the past few months, Statistics Canada has been working behind the scene restructuring its website "...to implement the Government of Canada Common Look and Feel ("CLF") Standards for the Internet." In addition to changing its web address from "www.statcan.ca/" to "www.statcan.gc.ca", StatCan also fudged around with the content and structure of the URLs for its products to conform to CLF conventions and Official Languages standards. The whole redesigned site was launched last weekend. On Sunday, to be precise --- immediately after I copied all of the (old) links to my site and sent out the newsletter, the StatCan site update was uploaded to the Web and all old links were broken. Argh. indeed.

As a result of this restructuring, the majority of the 4,300 links to StatCan products that you'll find throughout the Canadian Social Research Links website are broken. If you're a social researcher with a personal collection of links to StatCan products, you may want to set some time aside to update your links. Sometimes, a URL change is simple to do on a site-wide basis using global search-and-replace - that was the case when they added the "gc." to their domain name URL. (That's how I found out that I had over 4,300 links to StatCan reports and such). However, some of the other URL changes they've made involve not only flipping the structure of the URL but changing the spelling as well --- thus rendering my web editing software's global search-and-replace feature virtually useless.

As soon as I noticed this problem with my StatCan links, I wrote to the StatCan website feedback email address to ask if they would share with me the rules that they followed to change all of their product URLs so that I might be able to use global search-and-replace to fix my broken links. If I don't hear back from them (and something tells me that'll be the case...), I'll manually update the old links that I deem important (like Ivan Fellegi's historical admonition against using LICOs as a poverty line, for example) and decide whether to leave the rest of the broken links in or to delete them from my site. I should mention that, unlike the HRSDC website search engine, the StatCan search tool is quite effective at finding "lost" reports. When you encounter a broken link to a StatCan report, the error page offers you a link to the search engine. Just go back to the page with the broken link, select the text of the title you're seeking and click the link again to access the search engine using the report title.

January 30, 2009
The Canadian Labour Market at a Glance, 2007 (PDF - 921K, 127 pages)
The Canadian Labour Market at a Glance presents charts and highlights of key trends in Canada's job market. This publication is intended for a variety of users, including those working in government, educational and financial institutions, and the media, as well as any other organizations and individuals interested in the different aspects of the labour market.
[ earlier editions of this product (for 2003 and 2005) ]

January 28, 2009
Payroll employment, earnings and hours, November 2008
The average weekly earnings of employees increased 0.4% from October to $804.58 in November. Compared with November 2007, average weekly earnings rose 2.7%. Among Canada's largest industrial sectors, between November 2007 and November 2008, earnings increased by 4.8% in educational services, 4.6% in health and social assistance, 1.6% in retail trade, 1.3% in manufacturing, and 1.0% in accommodation and food services.
- includes two tables : Average weekly earnings (including overtime) for all employees - Number of employees

NOTE: As at January 30, the November 2008 edition of this report had not yet been posted to the StatCan site. According to the above Daily entry, detailed data will be available "soon" in the monthly publication Employment, Earnings and Hours.The link to the main page for that report appears immediately below, as does the link to the latest available edition, October 2008 - close to 500 pages of information for Canada and for each province and territory!
Employment, Earnings and Hours - Product main page
Latest report in this series:
[ Employment, Earnings and Hours, October 2008 (PDF - 2.2MB, 476 pages) ]
[ earlier editions of this report back to July 2000 ]

January 27, 2009
Employment Insurance, November 2008
In November, 506,320 Canadians received regular Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, up 15,300 or 3.1% from October, after seasonal adjustment. The number of Canadians receiving regular EI benefits rose by 48,700 between November 2007 and November 2008, a 12.3% increase. The number of men receiving benefits increased 17.1%, and the number of women, 6.1%
- includes two tables : Employment Insurance statistics - Number of beneficiaries receiving regular benefits

The Daily Archives - select a year and month from the drop-down menu to view releases in chronological order

5. What's new from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (Toronto) - January 28

From the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU):

January 28, 2009

No lifeline for women and children in today’s budget?
28 Jan 09
- Childcare Resource and Research Unit's pre-budget press release.

Budget 2009 confirms federal government satisfied with Canada's last-place international ranking on child care
28 Jan 09
- Press release from the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (CCAAC) on the 2009 budget.

Child-care policy and the labor supply of mothers with young children: A natural experiment from Canada
28 Jan 09
- Article by Pierre Lefebvre and Philip Merrigan examining the significant impact of Quebec’s reduced fee child-care policy on the labour supply of women.

The current state of Canadian family finances 2008 report
28 Jan 09
- Annual report from the Vanier Institute of the Family on current family finances in Canada.

Canada’s economic action plan: Budget 2009
28 Jan 09
- Budget 2009 from the Honourable James Flaherty, Department of Finance, and Liberal budget response from leader Michael Ignatieff.

Pre-budget consultation briefs
27 Jan 09
- Pre-budget consultation briefs from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, Campaign 2000 and the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada.

The child care transition: A league table of early childhood education and care in economically advanced countries 11 Dec 08 - UNICEF Innocenti Report Card 8 compares ECEC in wealthy countries; Canada ranks at the bottom of 25 countries, meeting only one of ten key benchmarks.

more WHAT'S NEW ONLINE »

child care in the news

· Stimulus plan would provide flood of aid to education [US]
27 Jan 09

· Care, then cruelty [AU]
27 Jan 09

· 'Child Care Today' Gives US efforts low marks [US]
26 Jan 09

· Groves claims $3.3m from receiver [AU]
26 Jan 09

· Sectors dominated by women need more funding: Layton [CA]
23 Jan 09

· Get 'family friendly,' or recession will last longer [CA]
22 Jan 09

more CC IN THE NEWS »

Subscribe to the CRRU email announcements list
Sign up to receive email notices of updates and new postings on the CRRU website which will inform you of policy developments in early childhood care and education, new research and resources for policy, newly released CRRU publications, and upcoming events of interest to the child care and broader community.

CRRU Publications - briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications
ISSUE files - theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info

Poverty Dispatch (U.S). ===> the content of this link changes twice a week
IRP compiles and distributes Poverty Dispatches twice a week. Each issue of the dispatch provides links to U.S. web-based news items dealing with topics such as poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, education, health, hunger, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.
Each Dispatch lists links to current news in popular print media.

January 29, 2009
* Economic Stimulus Package
* Kids Count Report - Oregon
* State Medicaid Systems and Funding
* State Children's Health Insurance Program
* U.S. Poverty Measurement
* Joblessness and Unemployment
* Worldwide Job Loss and Unemployment
* Food Assistance Programs
* Child Care Subsidies - Wisconsin
* Report: U.S. Union Membership in 2008
* Immigrant Workers and Cash Remittances - Mexico
* Opinion: Foster Care Adoptions and State Laws
* Payday and Title Lending
* Tax Preparation Services and Tax Credits

January 26, 2009
* Increasing Need for Assistance
* Privatization of Social Services - Indiana
* Joblessness and Unemployment
* Food Stamp Program Enrollment
* Medicaid Rules and Funding
* Children's Health Insurance Coverage
* Opinions: Health Care Coverage
* Wisconsin Covenant College Program
* Recession and State Budgets
* States and Prison Costs
* Prisoner Re-entry - Chattanooga, TN
* Child Care Subsidy Fraud Investigation - Wisconsin

If you wish to receive Poverty Dispatches by e-mail,
please send a request to rsnell@ssc.wisc.edu

Canada at the 2009 World Economic Forum
Davos, Switzerland
January 30 - February 1, 2009
Minister Day will attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), where he will advance Canada's trade, investment, and science and technology interests with Canada's key partners present at the meeting. More than 40 heads of state and government, with upwards of 20 Ministers of Trade, and 1,400 business executives are expected to attend the meeting.
- incl. links to : Media Centre - Related Links - Photos and Videos - Fast facts on Canada (European Union commercial relations + European Free Trade Association) - more..
Source:
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

Ministers Day and Flaherty to Attend Davos World Economic Forum
News Release
January 29, 2009
The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, and the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, will travel to Davos, Switzerland, from January 30 to February 1, 2009, to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. The theme of this year’s meeting is "shaping the post-crisis world."
Source:
Department of Finance Canada

World Economic Forum - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world including health and the environment.

World Social Forum - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"(...) The World Social Forum (WSF) is an annual meeting held by members of the anti-globalization (using the term globalization in a doctrinal sense not a literal one) or alter-globalization movement to coordinate world campaigns, share and refine organizing strategies, and inform each other about movements from around the world and their issues. It tends to meet in January when its "great capitalist rival", the World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland."

APO Weekly Briefing
The content of this page changes each week, and it includes links to a few book/report reviews, about two dozen new reports, a few job ads and 60 events (mostly conferences) of interest to social researchers...
Source:
Australian Policy Online (APO) - home page
With nearly 120 member centres and institutes, Australian Policy Online offers easy access to much of the best Australian social, economic, cultural and political research available online.
NOTE: the APO home page includes links to the five most popular reports on the APO website, and this list is updated each week.

APO Archive
The APO archive is grouped into 23 subject areas, with entries appearing in reverse chronological order.
* Ageing *Asia and the pacific * Citizenship and the law * Disability * Economics and trade * Education * Employment and workplace relations * The environment * Foreign policy and defence * Gender and sexuality * Health * Housing * Families and households * Immigration and refugees * Income, poverty and wealth * Indigenous * Media, communications and cultural policy * Politics and government * Population, multiculturalism and ethnicity * Religion and faith * Rural and regional * Science and technology * Social policy * Urban and regional planning * Youth

29 January 2009 - CRINMAIL 1054
* CAMPAIGN: Prescription for Life: Take action to help children living with HIV [publication]
* UNITED STATES: School can expel lesbian students, court rules [news]
* UZBEKISTAN: Children and parents threatened for attending places of worship [news]
* BANGLADESH: Child journalist website launched [publication]
* SWITZERLAND: Newspaper criticised for exposing details of girl abuse [news]
* UNICEF: Country-led M&E Systems. Better evidence, better policies, better development results [publication]
* ETHIOPIA: VI African regional conference on child abuse and neglect [event]
**NEWS IN BRIEF**

27 January 2009 - CRINMAIL 1053
* DRC: Congolese warlord enters plea in child soldiers case [news]
* ZIMBABWE: Millions of Zimbabwe children could be denied education [news]
* FOOD: The Feeding of the Nine Billion: Global Food Security for the 21st Century [publication]
* OPT: Gaza children return to school after war [news]
* YEMEN: Half Yemen’s Tribal Fighters are Children [news]
* MEXICO: Child matador bullfight suspended [news]
* UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW: 4th session [event]
**NEWS IN BRIEF**

Earlier issues of CRINMAIL
- links to 300* earlier weekly issues, many of which are special editions focusing on special themes, such as the 45th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Disclaimer/Privacy Statement

Both Canadian Social Research Links (the site) and this Canadian Social Research Newsletter belong solely to me, Gilles Séguin.

I am solely accountable for the choice of links presented therein and for the occasional editorial comment - it's my time, my home computer, my experience, my biases, my Rogers Internet account and my web hosting service.

I administer the mailing list and distribute the weekly newsletter using software on the web server of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
Thanks, CUPE!

If you wish to subscribe to the e-mail version of newsletter, go to the Canadian Social Research Newsletter Online Subscription page:
http://lists.cupe.ca/mailman/listinfo/csrl-news

You can unsubscribe by going to the same page or by sending me an e-mail message [ gilseg@rogers.com ]

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Privacy Policy:
The Canadian Social Research Newsletter mailing list is not used for any purpose except to distribute each weekly issue.
I promise not share any information on this list, nor to send you any junk mail.

Links presented in the Canadian Social Research Newsletter point to different views about social policy and social programs.
There are some that I don't agree with, so don't get on my case, eh...

To access earlier online HTML issues of the Canadian Social Research Newsletter, go to the Newsletter page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/news.htm

Please feel free to distribute this newsletter as widely as you wish, but please remember to mention Canadian Social Research Links when you do.

Cheers!
Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com

Ten more little-known facts to impress your friends

Ten more little-known facts
to impress your friends