Canadian Social Research Newsletter
October 2, 2005

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 1505 subscribers.

Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see some notes and a disclaimer.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Early Learning and Child Care Agreements - 2005

Governments of Canada and British Columbia sign an Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care
News Release
September 29, 2005
"Prime Minister Paul Martin and British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, along with Social Development Minister Ken Dryden and Stan Hagen, British Columbia’s Minister of Children and Family Development,announced today an historic Agreement in Principle that further supports the development of quality early learning and child care (ELCC) for young children and their families in British Columbia."

Early Learning and Child Care Agreements in Principle
- links to info for all jurisdictions that have signed an ELCC agreement with Canada since April 29, 2005:
Alberta - Nova Scotia - Newfoundland and Labrador - Ontario - Saskatchewan - Manitoba

Source:
Social Development Canada

Related Links:

Child Care in British Columbia

Source:
BC Ministry of Children and Family Development

Google News search Results : "Child care, British Columbia "
Google Web Search Results : "Child care, British Columbia"
- each of the above links takes you to a Google.ca search results page
Source:
Google.ca

Since April 2005, the Government of Canada has signed agreements with the governments of (in reverse chronological order) British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Follow the next link below for an excellent, comprehensive collection of resources related to the 2005 ELCC Agreements prepared by the University of Toronto's Childcare Resources and Research Unit.

Towards a national system of early learning and child care
"(...) On April 29, 2005 the governments of Canada and Manitoba struck an historic Agreement-in-Principle on early learning and child care. This was followed by a similar agreement between the federal government and the province of Saskatchewan. These agreements are the beginning of what is hoped to be a series of strong bilateral agreements between the federal government and the provinces/territories. These historic agreements build on a meeting of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services in November 2004 and a subsequent meeting in February 2005. They (with the exception of Quebec) agreed to shared principles to guide the development of a new national system of early learning and child care."

NOTE: this is a large (and growing) collection that includes government and non-governmental reports, press releases, news articles and other documents dealing with the new federal-provincial-territorial arrangements for early learning and child care in Canada.

Source:
Issue Files - CRRU
[ Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) - University of Toronto ]

- Go to the Government Early Learning and Child Care Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/ecd.htm

2005 Public Accounts of Canada Tabled
September 29, 2005
"The Public Accounts of Canada for 2005, which include the Financial Statements of the Government of Canada were tabled in the House of Commons on September 29, 2005. The three volumes can be obtained in print from the Government of Canada Publications."
Click the link above to access the complete report in individual PDF files:
* Volume I - Summary Report and Financial Statements (PDF 2.0Mb)
* Volume II - Details of Expenses and Revenues (PDF 2.8Mb)
* Volume III - Additional Information and Analyses (PDF 3.7Mb)
Unpublished detailed information relating to Sections 4, 5 and 7 of Volume III of the Public Accounts of Canada 2005 are as follows:
* Section 4 (Professional and Special Services) (PDF 882kb)
* Section 5 (Acquisition of Land, Buildings and Works) (PDF 348kb)
* Section 7 (Transfer Payments) (PDF file - 2.1MB, 251 pages)
Section 7 includes detailed info about:
- $31 Billion in 2004-2005 in Payments under the Canada Health Transfer (CHT), the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST), the Health Reform Transfer (HRT) and other targeted federal transfers in support of health
- $14.5 Billion in 2004-2005 in Payments under the Canada Social Transfer (CST) in support of post-secondary education, social assistance and social services, including early childhood development and early learning and childcare
In 2004-2005, Finance Canada made payments of $45.7 billion through the Canada Health Transfer, the Canada Social Transfer, the Health Reform Transfer, and other targeted federal transfers in support of health and social services, including both cash and tax transfers. The amount of these cash and tax transfers in 2004-2005 is shown in the above table. In April 2004 the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) was split into the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) and the Canada Social Transfer (CST). The CHT is a block-fund transfer to provinces and territories to provide financial support for the provision of health. The CST is a block-fund transfer to provinces and territories in support of post-secondary education, social assistance and social services, including early childhood development and early learning and childcare. Both transfers are a combination of tax point and cash transfers.
[Extract from Section 7, page 248]

Source:
Public Works and Government Services Canada

- Go to the Canada Assistance Plan / Canada Health and Social Transfer / Canada Social Transfer Resources page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/cap.htm
- Go to the General Federal Government Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fed2.htm

How Canadians Govern Themselves - 6th Edition
September 23, 2005
Library of Parliament
A good primer on Canadian Government; highly recommended!
- info is organized under the following headings: Introduction - Parliamentary Government - A Federal State - Powers of the National and Provincial Governments - Canadian and
American Government - The Rule of Law and the Courts - The Institutions of Our Federal Government - What Goes On in Parliament - Provinces and Municipalities - Living Government- Governors General of Canada since Confederation - Canadian Prime Ministers since 1867.

Source:
Parliamentary Internet - House of Commons, Senate of Canada

Also from the Parliamentary Internet website:

Chamber Business
- links to the latest debates and the latest journals in both the Senate and the House of Commons

Committee Business
- links to committee Mandates, Membership, Lists of Studies and Committee Meetings as well as Schedules of Meetings, Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence and Press Releases are available for both the Senate and the House of Commons.

About Parliament
- incl. People - The Parliamentary Process - The Parliament Buildings - Education - Youth Programs - Photos - Related Information (government departments, the courts, political parties, etc) - A to Z Index - Partners for a Green Hill

Visitor Information
- helpful information for tourists and visitors as well as for individuals doing business with Parliament --- maps, special events, guided tours, tourism/transit links, etc.

Virtual Library
- links to the reports of the Information and Documentation Branch (7 reports) and the Parliamentary Information and Research Service (250+ reports)

A to Z Index
- arranges information provided on the site by subject for easy searching

About Governors General of Canada
- information about the current Governor-General (Her Excellency Michaëlle Jean) and her predecessors

- Go to the Federal Government Department Links (Fisheries and Oceans to Veterans Affairs) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fedbkmrk2.htm
- Go to the General Federal Government Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fed2.htm

Reducing Child Poverty to Increase Productivity: A Human Capital Strategy
Brief to the Standing Committee on Finance (PDF file - 89K, 8 pages)
Pre-Budget Consultation
September, 2005
By Laurel Rothman
National Coordinator, Campaign 2000
"The fact that 15% of our youngest citizens are growing up in poverty does not bode well for Canada’s future productivity performance, which is the focus of the 2005 Pre-Budget Consultations. Broad based investment in our human capital is essential for a productivity agenda. "Canada’s Fiscal Outlook projects surpluses of almost $30 billion over the next five years. With consecutive multi-billion dollar budget surpluses, Canada has the resources to make substantial progress. We call on the federal government to commit a portion of these surpluses to invest in children, as they have committed portions for healthcare and equalization payments."
Source:
Campaign 2000

- Go to the Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm

Submission to the Federal Labour Standards Review - Excerpts
September 26, 2005
Campaign 2000
"Campaign 2000 maintains that federal labour standards should be modernized to reflect leading standards and 'best practices' in other advanced economies. They need to be updated to reflect changes in the labour market and workforce over the past 40 years, with a particular emphasis on ensuring protection for vulnerable workers."

Complete brief:

Submission to the Federal Labour Standards Review Commission
Re: Part III of the Canada Labour Code (PDF file - 57K, 7 pages)
August 15, 2005
From: Laurel Rothman, National Coordinator
Campaign 2000

Source:
Campaign 2000

Related Link:

Federal Labour Standards Review Commission

"There are No Banks Here"
Financial & Insurance Exclusion in Winnipeg's North End (PDF file - 276K, 56 pages)
by Jerry Buckland & Bruce Guenther with Georgi
Boichey, Heather Geddie & Maryanne Mutch
September 2005
"Financial exclusion is a matter of growing concern in Canada considering the decline in the number of mainstream bank branches in some inner-cities and the concurrent rise in the number of fringe banks. This study reports on results from a survey of residents from Winnipeg's North End, a low-income area of the city. The study seeks to understand resident's experiences with financial and insurance services: which ones they use, which ones are important to them and how accessible the services are. As a follow-up to research completed in 2002-2003 in the North End this survey asked questions about a greater number of services (banks, fringe banks, informal financial services and insurance services and financial support services) in a semi-random fashion to a broader range of respondents (low- and middle-income).

Source:
Publications (links to 18 studies and reports)
[ Winnipeg Inner City Research Alliance (WIRA) ]
[ Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg ]

- Go to the Manitoba Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/mbkmrk.htm

The Economy in Brief - September 2005
"Overview:
* In the second quarter of 2005 real gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.2%, following a 2.1% increase in the first quarter.
* Final domestic demand remained solid, rising 2.9% following a gain of 6.2% in the first quarter. Residential investment rebounded from a first-quarter decline.
* Increased domestic demand was met through domestic production as real imports fell 3.5% after an 11.0% jump in the first quarter. Real exports rose 0.8% following a 5.5% gain in the first quarter.
* The current account registered its 24th consecutive quarterly surplus. It widened by over $5 billion to $18.7 billion or 1.4% of nominal GDP.
* Since the end of 2004 the Canadian economy has created over 137,000 net new jobs, all of them full-time. The unemployment rate remained at 6.8% in August, near its lowest level since 1976."

Source:
Economy in Brief 2005
- includes similar analyses for March and June of 2005 - [ earlier years, back to 1996 ]
[ Department of Finance Canada ]

- Go to the Federal Government Department Links (Agriculture to Finance) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fedbkmrk.htm

What's New from The Daily [Statistics Canada]:

September 28, 2005
Demographic statistics, July 1, 2005
Canada had the second highest rate of population growth among the G8 countries between 1994 and 2004, exceeded only by that of the United States. Whereas US growth was primarily due to a high rate of natural increase, the growth of the Canadian population was largely due to its net international migration.

- Go to the Federal Government Department Links (Fisheries and Oceans to Veterans Affairs) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fedbkmrk2.htm
- Go to the Social Statistics Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm

Life on Social Assistance in New Brunswick, or
"If Welfare Owns You, You Can't Do Nothing" (PDF file - 330K, 57 pages)
Ysabel Provencher & Chantal Bourassa, Action Research Laboratory, School of Social Work, Université de Moncton
July 2005
"The two general objectives of the study were to gain a better understanding of (1) the reality of Francophone social assistance recipients in New Brunswick, and (2) the successes and difficulties encountered in implementing the new mechanisms, policies, and programs associated with the 1995 reform of the social assistance system. The findings of this study arose from a series of five group interviews conducted with Francophone social assistance recipients in the southeastern and northern regions of the province in the summer and fall of 2004. (...)We describe a few aspects of the social assistance system (income levels, programs and benefit rates, eligibility procedures) and present a few characteristics of the provincial profile of social assistance recipients (number of households on social assistance, distribution of recipients by type of household and benefit rate). "
- highly recommended, excellent resource on welfare reforms in New Brunswick!

Version française:
La vie à l'aide sociale au Nouveau-Brunswick, juillet 2005 (fichier PDF - 358Ko., 64 pages)

Source:
New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women
Conseil consultatif sur la condition de la femme au Nouveau-Brunswick

- Go to the New Brunswick Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/nbkmrk.htm

Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for Housing
White Point, Nova Scotia
September 23, 2005
o News Release

Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for Housing
White Point, Nova Scotia
September 22, 2005
o News Release
o Guiding Principles

24th Annual Federal-Provincial-Territorial Meeting of Ministers responsible for the Status of Women
Regina, Saskatchewan
September 22-23, 2005
o News Release

Source:
Canadian Intergovernmental
Conference Secretariat

- Go to the Homelessness and Housing Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/homeless.htm
- Go to the Canadian Government Sites about Women's Social Issues page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/women.htm

What's New - from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) - University of Toronto

Each week, the Childcare Resource and Research Unit disseminates its "e-mail news notifier", an e-mail message with a dozen or so links to new reports, studies and child care in the news (media articles) by the CRRU or another organization in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). What you see below is content from the most recent issue of the notifier.

30-Sep-05

---------------------------------------------------
WHAT’S NEW
---------------------------------------------------

>> Moving forward on early learning and child care: Agreement-in-principle between the government of Canada and the government of British Columbia
Bilateral agreement between the federal government and B.C. articulates "their shared vision for early learning and child care"; includes "British Columbia specific principles".

>> The Federal Provincial Territorial agreements and child care
Presentation for the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action's national symposium discusses the long term goals of a pan-Canadian child care system and the current reality.

>> What do we know about early learning and what are we doing about it?
Proceedings from a Canadian Education Association symposium feature discussion of current research into early learning and child development and the implications for policy.

>> Full day kindergarten: A study of state policies in the United States
Report from the Education Commission of the States (US) describes state kindergarten policies; calls for improvement of definitional clarity, access, funding and quality.

---------------------------------------------------
CHILD CARE IN THE NEWS
---------------------------------------------------

>> Child care deal official [CA-BC]
Globe and Mail, Sept 30, 2005
Spending for this year has been announced and parents have already filled out the paperwork for subsidies, but Prime Minister Paul Martin has now made B.C.'s child care deal with Ottawa official.

>> No expense spared at Byron's preschool [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, Sept 30, 2005
Australian couple Sam Mattila and William Mertens are paying $105 a day for their 14-month-old toddler, Byron to go to child care.

>> $100 a day - the child care dilemma [AU]
Sydney Morning Herald, Sept 30, 2005
The cost of child care in Australia has passed the $100 a day mark - a price surge that could force many mothers out of the workforce

>> Daycare pressures expected [CA-ON]
Toronto Star, Sept 29, 2005
Increased demand for child care spaces may well be the greatest effect on the Oshawa area of increased migration, said Dr. Hugh Drouin, Durham Region's commissioner of social services.

>> B.C. poised to join child care deal as alarms raised about for-profit centres [CA-BC]
Canadian Press, Sept 28, 2005
The bilateral agreement between the federal government and B.C. comes as child care advocates get set for a national tour, warning Canadians that commercial day care isn't the best option for kids.

>> No room for day care in most Stratford schools, Board told [CA-ON]
Stratford Beacon-Herald, Sept 28, 2005
The Ontario Best Start program that aims to put child care services in schools may be difficult to arrange in Stratford-area schools where the School Board’s senior administrator says "space is pretty much fully utilized".

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This message was forwarded through the Childcare Resource
and Research Unit e-mail news notifier. For information on the
CRRU e-mail notifier, including instructions for (un)subscribing,
see http://www.childcarecanada.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Related Links:

What's New? - Canadian, U.S. and international resources from Jan 2000 to the present.
Child Care in the News - media articles from January 2000 to the present
ISSUE files - theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info
Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere
CRRU Publications - briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications

Also from CRRU:

Towards a national system of early learning and child care
Regularly updated
"(...) On April 29, 2005 the governments of Canada and Manitoba struck an historic Agreement-in-Principle on early learning and child care. This was followed by a similar agreement between the federal government and the province of Saskatchewan. These agreements are the beginning of what is hoped to be a series of strong bilateral agreements between the federal government and the provinces/territories. These historic agreements build on a meeting of the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Ministers Responsible for Social Services in November 2004 and a subsequent meeting in February 2005. They (with the exception of Quebec) agreed to shared principles to guide the development of a new national system of early learning and child care."
NOTE: this is a large (and growing) collection that includes government and non-governmental reports, press releases, news articles and other documents dealing with the new federal-provincial-territorial arrangements for early learning and child care in Canada.

- Go to the Non-Governmental Early Learning and Child Care Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/ecd2.htm

POVERTY DISPATCH Digest
Institute for Research on Poverty - U. of Wisconsin
This digest offers dozens of new links each week to full-text articles in the U.S. media (mostly daily newspapers) on poverty, poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, education, health, hunger, Medicare and Medicaid, and much more...
The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers a free e-mail service that consists of an e-mail message sent to subscribers each Monday and Thursday, containing a dozen or so links to articles dealing with the areas mentioned above. The weekly Canadian Social Research Links Poverty Dispatch Digest is a compilation, available online, of the two dispatch e-mails for that week --- with the kind permission of IRP.

Here's the complete collection of U.S. media articles in this week's Poverty Dispatch Digest:
(click the link above to read all of these articles)

September 29, 2005
Today's subjects include: Food Stamp Use // Poverty and Educational Opportunity // Federal Higher Education Funding // Hurricane Evacuees and Social Services // Hurricane Victims, Poverty & Race - Editorial and Opinion // New Research Center on Children and Families // Poverty and Nutrition // Food Stamp Use - Milwaukee County // Poverty Study, Janesville, WI // Poor and 'Donor Fatigue' - Iowa // Cost of Living - California // Child Support Amnesty Program - Michigan // Education and Poverty - Michigan // Graduation Rates - Indiana

September 26, 2005
Today's subjects include: Hurricane Victims, Poverty, and Race // Wealth Differences between Victims of Katrina and Rita // Poverty, Marriage, and Motherhood - Opinion // Poverty and Families - Opinion // Poverty and Obesity // Fighting Poverty - Opinion and Editorial // Welfare Reform - Massachusetts // Welfare and Education - Rhode Island // Fighting Poverty - West Virginia // Poverty and Homelessness - Orange County, CA // Poverty and Medical Care - Kentucky // Cuts in State Health Care Program - Tennessee // Child Poverty - Allen County, IN // Cuts in Child Care Assistance - Minnesota // Assistance for Single-Parent Families - Nevada // Continuing Problems with Computerized Benefits System - Colorado // Plight of Pacific Islanders - California

Each of the weekly digests offers dozens of links or more to media articles that are time-sensitive.
The older the link, the more likely it is to either be dead or have moved to an archive - and some archives [but not all] are pay-as-you-go.
[For the current week's digest, click on the POVERTY DISPATCH Digest link above]

Subscribe to the Poverty Dispatch!
Send an e-mail message to John Wolf [ jwolf@ssc.wisc.edu ] to receive a plain text message twice a week with one to two dozen links to media articles with a focus on poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, health, Medicaid from across the U.S.
And it's free...

Source:
Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP)
[ University of Wisconsin-Madison ]

For the current week's digest, click on the POVERTY DISPATCH Digest link at the top of this section.
Recently-archived POVERTY DISPATCH weekly digests:

POVERTY DISPATCH description/archive - weekly issues back to January 2005, 50+ links per issue
NOTE: this archive is part of the Canadian Social Research Links American Non-Governmental Social Research page.

- Go to the Links to American Government Social Research page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us.htm
- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (A-J) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us2.htm
- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (M-Z) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us3.htm

From the National Center for Children in Poverty - NCCP (Washington):

Who are America's poor children? (PDF file - 241K, 4 pages)
September 2005
"Child poverty and material hardship are not just problems experienced by the states in Hurricane Katrina’s path—they plague Americans around the country. Just as residents began the clean-up process, the U.S. Census Bureau released numbers showing that in 2004, the poverty rate rose for the fourth straight year in a row — 37 million Americans live below the poverty line. In the wake of this national tragedy, poverty should once again become a topic of national concern. Now is the time to focus on how to make sure no more children are left behind. This series, Child Poverty in 21st Century America, addresses the challenge."
Abstract (HTML)
Complete report (PDF file - 241K, 4 pages)

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Basic Facts about Low-Income Children: Birth to Age 18
July 2005
"After a decade of decline, the proportion of low-income families is rising again and millions of children of low-income parents find themselves without the basics, despite a majority of them living in households with working parents. More than one-third of children in the United States live in low-income families and 17 percent live in poor families. Young children are disproportionally affected."
Abstract
Complete report (PDF file - 140K, 4 pages)

Source:
NCCP Economic Security Papers - links to 10 papers (see also Policies and Publication Series down the right-hand side of the page)

- Go to the International Children, Families and Youth Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chn2.htm

The case for an EU-wide measure of poverty (PDF file - 240K, 25 pages)
[European Union]
July 2005
"Income poverty in the EU is normally measured by reference to income thresholds defined at the level of each member state, independently of any consideration of inequalities in income between member states. This approach has come under strain as a consequence of the recent enlargement of the EU: income differences between member states are now so wide that what is defined as the poverty threshold in the richer member states would count as an above-average income in the poorer member states. This paper proposes that, in order to cope with this new situation, measures of poverty based on EU-wide thresholds need to be utilised alongside existing measures."
(Source: Abstract, p. 1)

This paper is based on work carried out for the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions under its research programme, ‘Monitoring Quality of Life in Europe’."

Source:
The Economic and Social Research Institute (Dublin)

- Go to the Poverty Measures Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/poverty.htm

NationMaster
"NationMaster is a vast compilation of statistical information gathered from a number of sources. Beyond providing statistics, this site allows users to compare economic, population, communication, military, transportation and other statistics. You may choose to compare the statistics of different nations with the statistical data sets provided, or create your own comparative graphical and statistical data on any number of countries and topics. The site is searchable and provides links to interesting facts and figures. Individual country profiles are also provided and include maps, flags, and lists of major cities and states. Data sources include: the CIA World Factbook, United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, World Resources Institute, UNESCO, UNICEF and OECD."
Found in:
Internet Gems
[ Foreign Affairs Canada / International Trade Canada ]

- Go to the Social Statistics Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm

From the World Economic Forum:

Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006 - 26th edition
Released September 28, 2005
"The World Economic Forum continues its tradition of excellence with the 26th edition of the annual Global Competitiveness Report featuring the latest national statistics and results of the Executive Opinion Survey, which captures the perception of over 10,000 business leaders. The report provides the most comprehensive assessment of 117 developed and emerging economies. Produced in collaboration with a distinguished group of international scholars and a global network of over 100 leading national research institutes and business organizations, the report presents individual detailed country profiles highlighting the competitive strengths and weaknesses of each economy as well as an extensive section of data tables containing country rankings for over 160 indicators."
Order the full report from Palgrave Macmillan --- £65.00

Argh.
The World Economic Forum website offers links to selected content (see below) from the 2005-2006 report, but it uses the Lotus Notes format, which appears to be quite balky --- I can't link to most site content except the main page of the report (the first link above) and the executive summary. Any other link that I copy and paste into my site is broken when I click on it subsequently, whether I use my preferred Firefox browser or Mister Gates' Internet Explorer. This is *not* the result of inexperience on my part - I've been able to link to content on just about every site I've visited since the fall of 1997 - but it makes me wonder about the logic behind a website that doesn't allow visitors to link to a special report or study...
Click on the first link above to go to the report's main page, then select from the following files, most of which are in PDF format:
- Full rankings (Canada is 14th)
- Contents (1pg; 17k)
- Preface (2pgs; 37k)
- Executive Summary (16pgs; 107k)
- Rankings in PDF format (1pg; 24k)
- Composition of the Growth Competitiveness Index (2pgs; 38k)
- The Business Competitiveness Index (1pg; 22k)
- Online Media Coverage 05-06 (media coverage of the 05-06 report - 18 links)
- Press Release - including detailed report highlights

Nordic countries and East Asian tigers top the rankings in the
World Economic Forum's 2005 competitiveness rankings
[dead link - go to the main page of the report and click on "Press Release"]
28 Sep 2005
"Nordic countries and East Asian tigers top the rankings in the World Economic Forum's 2005 competitiveness rankings
Australia, India, Ireland and Poland all gain positions – US remains in second place after Finland.
Finland remains the most competitive economy in the world and tops the rankings for the third consecutive year in The Global Competitiveness Report 2005-2006, released today by the World Economic Forum. The United States is in second position, followed by Sweden, Denmark, Taiwan and Singapore, respectively."

Previous Country Profiles
[dead link - go to the main page of the report, scroll to the bottom of the page and then click "Previous country profiles"]
- these profiles are drawn from the 2002-2003 edition of the report, but if you click on "Canada", for example, you'll see how the report is compiled from country info

Final rant:

How NOT to build a sitemap - courtesy of The World Economic Forum
- this site map consists of eight words: Home - FAQs - Knowledge Navigator - Contact Us - Members' Area
- the eight words in this sitemap *should* be: "We obviously don't know what sitemaps are for."

How to build a sitemap
"A sitemap is a hyperlinked list of each and every file at your site, consisting of the titles of the pages and whatever other info you'd like to include, organized by subject/category. Keep it simple -- without graphics or distractions."

- Go to the Social Research Links in Other Countries (Non-Government) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/internatngo.htm
- Go to the Rants page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/rants.htm

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 and submit your coordinates:
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 ]

------------------------

The e-mail version of this newsletter is available only in plain text (no graphics, no hyperlinks, no fancy bolding or italics, etc.) to avoid security problems with government departments, universities and other networks with firewalls. The text-only version is also friendlier for people using older or lower-end technology.

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 include a link back to the home page of Canadian Social Research Links.

Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com

----------------------------------------------------

Things That Only Happen In Movies

1. Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their enemies with complicated devices 
incorporating fuses, pulleys, deadly gases, lasers and man-eating sharks. 

2. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.

3. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to learn to speak German. 
Simply speaking English with a German accent will do.  Similarly, when they are alone, all German soldiers 
prefer to speak English to each other. 

4. Plain girls can become movie star pretty simply by removing their glasses and rearranging their hair.

5. A single match is usually sufficient to light up a room the size of a football stadium. 

6. If you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts, your opponents will wait patiently to 
attack you one by one by dancing around you in a threatening manner 

until you have defeated their predecessor.

7. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red digital displays so you know exactly 
when they are going to explode.

8. If staying in a haunted house, women must investigate any strange noises alone and wearing their 
flimsiest underwear.

9. You will survive any battle in any war UNLESS you show someone a picture of your sweetheart back home. 

10. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window of any building in Paris.

Source:
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/features/20moviethings.htm