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 1338 subscribers.

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

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DRUGCOVERAGE.CA
"DrugCoverage.ca is dedicated to helping Canadians access reimbursement for prescription medications by providing information on the various types of Private Insurance plans, Provincial/Territorial Drug Benefit Programs and Federal plans available in Canada."
- this site is operated by Plasmid Biocommunications Inc., a Toronto-based company specializing in programs to facilitate reimbursement for special authorization drugs; they also produce educational materials, seminars and training programs on Canadian drug reimbursement.
- extensive collection of detailed information about the federal and provincial-territorial government prescription drug plans and private plans, as well as links to provincial-territorial drug coverage program websites
- highly recommended reading!

2005-2006 New Brunswick Budget
March 30, 2005
"Finance Minister Jeannot Volpé tabled on March 30, 2005 a balanced budget that invests record amounts in health and senior care, as well as in education and children. The 2005-2006 budget also contains further tax relief for New Brunswickers and small businesses. Building a Stronger New Brunswick for All contains total expenditures of $6.105 billion, an increase of 3.7 per cent from the revised 2004-2005 level. It contains no tax increases or new taxes."
- incl. links to : Speech - Highlights booklet - The New Brunswick Economy - Main Estimates - News release - Fact sheets - Workforce Profile

Finance minister delivers balanced budget
March 30
CBC News
"Finance Minister Jeannot Volpe has introduced a balanced budget with no new taxes, a tax cut for small business and roughly $200 million in new spending on health care and education. (...) New Brunswick's welfare rates, among the lowest in Canada, will be increased for the first time since 1997. But the increases will be small. Volpe says the social assistance rates will go up a total of six per cent over the next three years. When fully implemented, that will boost the annual income for a single parent with two children by $624 a year. The two per cent increase scheduled for this year will amount to an increase of $16 a month for the same family. Volpe said it was better than no increase, but he admitted it wasn't much."

Groups react to 'small change' budget
March 31
CBC News
"FREDERICTON - Business people say they like the small tax cuts in the Lord government's new budget. And advocates for the poor say the small increase in welfare rates is better than nothing, but not much."

Fentie Tables 2005/06 Budget - Yukon
News Release
March 24, 2005
"WHITEHORSE - The Government of Yukon's Capital and Operations and Maintenance budget, totaling over $784 million, is being tabled today in the Yukon Legislative Assembly by Premier Dennis Fentie."
- includes detailed Budget Highlights

Yukon Finance Department Home Page - links to the 2005-2006 Budget Address and Highlights, 2005-2006 Financial Information and Projections, 2005-2006 Capital Estimates, Operation and Maintenance Estimates
[NOTE: some of these links weren't working on March 30]

March 29, 2005
Payroll employment, earnings and hours, January 2005
The average weekly earnings of payroll employees decreased by $2.02 in January to $709.22. Earnings gains in transport and warehousing and education were offset by declines in professional and scientific services, health care and social assistance and miscellaneous services.

March 29, 2005
Legal aid: Resource and caseload, 2003/04
In 2003/04, Canada's legal aid plans spent $603 million dollars, or the equivalent of $19 per Canadian, on the delivery of legal aid services. Total spending was virtually unchanged from the previous year, once the effects of inflation are considered.
Related Table:
Selected legal aid statistics (1999-2003)

March 29, 2005
Employer pension plans (trusteed pension funds), third quarter 2004
Trusteed pension fund managers struggled to increase the value of the retirement savings of 4.5 million Canadian workers over the third quarter of 2004. Assets increased to $663.7 billion, up a slight 1.1% from the second quarter. However, this was the sixth quarter in a row to show a positive increase in value since the funds bottomed out in the first quarter of 2003 at $532.4 billion.

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WHATS NEW
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>> Child care subsidy increased for low income families
by Nova Scotia Department of Community Services
Press release from the Government of Nova Scotia announces new subsidy rates that are stepped to reflect the higher cost of caring for younger children.

>> Whole child approach
by New Zealand Ministry of Social Development
Guide from the New Zealand government discusses how to take into account the needs, rights and interests of children in policy development and service delivery.

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CHILD CARE IN THE NEWS
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>> Daycare plan key to job skills: Dodge [CA]
National Post, 31 Mar 05
David Dodge, governor of the Bank of Canada, says Canada needs to build an "infrastructure for early childhood development".

>> Government urged to lift child care aid [AU]
ABC News Online, 31 Mar 05
Australian child care workers are again calling for government assistance to the sector, irrespective of today's outcome from an Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) hearing to decide classification structures for about 18,000 child care workers.

>> Child care vouchers help well-off more [GB]
Financial Times, 30 Mar 05
UK government subsidies designed to help families with children will benefit well-off professionals more than those in poorer sections of society, economists looking at new child care vouchers have warned.

>> Rural kids to get a 'head start': Lambton, Kent part of new plan [CA-ON]
Chatham Daily News, 30 Mar 05
As part of the Ontario government's Best Start Plan -- which will provide more access to child care and early-learning opportunities for young children -- the rural areas of Lambton/Kent have been chosen as one of program's three model sites.

>> Funding not enough: city: Council questions province's commitment to child care [CA-BC]
Burnaby Now, 30 Mar 05
Burnaby councillors questioned the provincial government's commitment to child care after receiving a report from the city's social issues committee. Councillor Dan Johnston said that a recent provincial funding announcement is in large part reinstating money it previously cut.

>> Reducing child poverty should be everyone's goal [CA]
Ottawa Citizen, 28 Mar 05
All levels of government must develop the political will to commit to meeting a national goal or standard so that new funding is appropriately accounted for. As a starting point, why not set out to better the child-poverty rates of the Nordic countries and measure ourselves against these international standards?

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This message was forwarded through the Childcare Resource and Research Unit e-mail news notifier.
For information on the CRRU e-mail notifier, including subscription instructions , see http://www.childcarecanada.org
The Childcare Resource and Research Unit (University of Toronto, Canada)
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Current developments in Early Childhood Education and Care: Provinces and territories
Regularly updated
"This resource is a collection of useful online readings about current early childhood education and care policy and program delivery issues in each province and territory. Within each jurisdiction, information is organized into three sections: news articles, online documents and useful websites."

IMF Executive Board Concludes 2005 Article IV Consultation with Canada
Public Information Notice
March 29, 2005
International Monetary Fund
"On February 16, 2005, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article IV consultation with Canada."

Source:
International Monetary Fund
"The IMF is an organization of 184 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty.."

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.

March 31, 2005

Today's subjects include: Charter Schools - Opinion // Child Well-Being Index // Medicaid // American Indian Students // United Way "Agenda for Change" - Dane County, WI // Welfare Reform - Virginia // Medicaid - Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas // Health Insurance Plan - Minnesota // Health Care Plan Cuts - Tennessee // Minimum Wage - Madison, WI // Child Support Enforcement - North Dakota // School Vouchers - Indiana, Ohio // Early Childhood Program Funding - Iowa // Child Demographic Report - Allen County, IA // Aid for Poor College Students - Washington // Teacher Retention in High-Poverty Schools - Washington // Head Start - Maine // Homelessness - North Carolina //

NOTE: "Poverty Dispatch is compiled and distributed to e-mail subscribers twice a week -- Mondays and Thursdays. We plan to maintain a broad coverage of poverty-related issues as reported all week in U.S. newspapers and other news sources." (Institute for Research on Poverty)

Most of the weekly digests below offer 100 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 link above]

The Poverty Dispatch weekly digest is a good tool for monitoring what's happening in the U.S.; it's a guide to best practices and lessons learned in America.

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...

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

2005 Index of Child Well-Being shows mixed picture for America's children:
huge declines in crime, violence and risky behavior amid increasing poverty and worsening health
New Index Report Finds Virtually No Improvement In Reading
And Math Test Scores Since 1975; Obesity Epidemic Continues To Worsen
Press Release
March 30, 2005
"Washington, D.C. – Dramatic declines in rates of violence and risky behaviors such as teen births, smoking, and alcohol and illegal drug use during the past 10 years have contributed substantially to modest and slow progress in the overall well-being of America’s children, according to the 2005 Index of Child Well-Being (CWI), released today by the Foundation for Child Development (FCD)."

2005 Report
Index of Child Well-Being (CWI), 1975- 2003 with Projections for 2004 (PDF file - 79K, 17 pages)
"The 2005 CWI report presents a mixed picture of child well-being. Substantial and dramatic improvements in safety and risky behavior among young people, especially since 1993, contrast with declines in health and economic well-being and a 30-year flat line in education.

Source:
Foundation for Child Development
"Connecting Research with Policy to Promote Social Change since 1900"
- incl. links to: Press Release * Fact Sheet * Policy Brief * Fast Facts

Wolfensohn's Warnings
Embassy, March 30th, 2005
By Sarah McGregor
"Outgoing World Bank President says foreign aid must double in order to lift millions from poverty
The failure of powerful leaders to capture 'the hearts and minds'of their citizens is having devastating consequences for the world's poorest people, warns outgoing World Bank President James Wolfensohn. (...) Canada at one time earmarked 0.54 per cent of its annual budget to foreign aid, but this year only reached 0.29 per cent. The Liberal government has promised to double its official foreign aid, but even then it will only achieve about 0.33 per cent of gross domestic product in five years, said Mr. Wolfensohn. 'It's too low.'
Mr. Wolfensohn has noted the absurdity of a world that spends annually $3,000 billion on arms, $300 billion on agriculture subsidies and just $60 billion on development aid. (bolding added)"
Source:
Embassy News (Canada) Online

Editorial Comment:
Funny we never hear an *incoming* World Bank President say something like that...

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.

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Thanks, CUPE!

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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:
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There are some that I don't agree with, so don't get on my case, eh...

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http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/news.htm

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Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com