Canadian Social Research Newsletter
January 4, 2009

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 1942 subscribers.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian content

1.   Welfare won't be much help [Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy] (John Stapleton, Toronto Star) - December 24
2. Obituary (Ontario) : Dorothea Crittenden, Canada's first woman deputy minister reformed welfare and social assistance - December 24
3. What's New from the Department of Finance Canada:
--- Tax Expenditures and Evaluations 2008 - December 2008
--- Government helps Canadians maximize their savings with the new Tax-Free Savings Account - January 2
--- Canada’s Government Provides Individuals, Families and Businesses Important New Tax Relief for 2009 - December 31
4. Banner year for Canada's CEOs: Record High Pay Increase (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) - January 2009
5. Minimum Wage Rates For Workers in Canada - Minimum Wage Database (Labour Program of Human Resources and Social Development Canada)
6. Lost and Found : Historical Statistics of Canada (1983) (Statistics Canada)
7. What's New in The Daily (Statistics Canada)

International  content

8. Social Assistance in OECD Countries [in 1996] (An Oldie Goldie!) - United Kingdom Department for Work and Pensions
9. Australian Policy Online Weekly Briefing - selected recent content
10. CRINMAIL (December 2008) - (Child Rights Information Network - CRIN)

Gilles

************************
Gilles Séguin
Canadian Social Research Links
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net

Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy:

Welfare won't be much help
December 24, 2008
John Stapleton
With the adoption of Breaking the Cycle, Ontario plans to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent in five years. It will be tough for the Ontario government to meet this commitment as poverty usually increases during recessions and welfare caseloads grow. Poverty and its attendant costs increase a lot in major recessions. Just like the Great Depression, we started the present recession with a liquidity crisis, a debt bubble and a crisis in confidence. By 1932, Ontario's relief expenditures had tripled while old age pension costs had doubled. Governments are now bracing for a new onslaught but we will not see these spectacular cost increases in the current recession.
Source:
The Toronto Star

- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm
- Go to the Ontario Municipal and Non-Governmental Sites (D-W) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk3.htm

Dorothea Crittenden: Canada's first woman deputy minister
reformed welfare and social assistance
December 24, 2008
Obituary
By Gay Abbate
"(...) Dorothea Crittenden was a trailblazer who devoted her life to helping build Ontario's welfare system. She was also a key player in the creation of the Canada Assistance Plan, a federal-provincial cost-sharing plan that guarantees all Canadians equal access to social assistance."

As a rule, I don't include links to obituaries on my site or in my newsletter. In this case, however, I've made an exception based on the valuable historical insights that I've found in the obituary, and moreso in the paper below by John Stapleton, and that I wanted to share with Canadian social historians --- more pieces of the puzzle, as it were...
[...and no, I won't link to your Aunt Bertha's obituary. Don't even ask.]

The above obituary by Gay Abbate appeared in The Globe and Mail on December 23, and it's based in part on information provided by Dr. Crittenden in the course of interviews with John Stapleton in 1991.
The content of those interviews appears in the paper below, which provides valuable historical information about Canadian social policy from the Depression to the mid-1970's when she was Ontario's Deputy Minister of Community and Social Services. Of particular interest to Canadian social historians, I'm sure, will be sections like * What Ontario gave up for CAP * Project 500 in the 1970s * the cap on CAP (I should note that the cap on CAP was in the early 1990s and not the 1980s, as noted in the above obituary. John's paper has the correct info on that.)

Coming of Age in a Man’s World:
The Life, Times and Wisdom of Dorothea Crittenden,
Canada’s First Female Deputy Minister (PDF - 355K, 22 pages)
January 2007
Source:
Open Policy (John Stapleton's website)

- Go to the Ontario Government Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk.htm
- Go to the Ontario Municipal and Non-Governmental Sites (D-W) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk3.htm

Tax Expenditures and Evaluations 2008 (PDF - 534K, 48 pages)
2008 (PDF file dated 12-08)
Tax Expenditures and Evaluations, is published on an annual basis. It provides estimates and projections for broadly defined tax expenditures as well as evaluations and descriptive papers addressing specific tax measures. This year’s edition includes an analytical paper entitled “Considerations in Setting Canada’s Corporate Income Tax Rate." [Excerpt from the Preface]
Source:
Government of Canada Tax Expenditures
Source of information for the analysis of the Canadian tax system. Provides information on the federal income tax system (corporate and personal) as well as the goods and services tax (GST).
- includes links to all editions of this report - including the 2008 report and one for each year going back to 1995 (but no link to a report for 1996).

January 2, 2009
Government helps Canadians maximize their savings with the new Tax-Free Savings Account
January 2, 2009
The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of National Revenue and Minister of State (Agriculture), and Mr. Peter Aceto, President and CEO of ING DIRECT Canada, today welcomed the availability of the new Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) introduced by the Government of Canada in the 2008 Budget.

* Tax-Free Savings Account (Govt. of Canada website)
- incl. links to : * Home * TFSA and you * TFSA calculator * TFSA vs RRSP * TFSA and the economy * TFSA and seniors * Income-tested benefits * Things to know * More information

December 31, 2008
Canada’s Government Provides Individuals, Families and Businesses Important New Tax Relief for 2009
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty today took the opportunity to inform Canadians of new tax relief measures that will benefit them in 2009.
(...)
The following measures come into effect in 2009:
* The introduction of the Tax-Free Savings Account, which will allow Canadians to set money aside in eligible investments and watch those savings grow tax-free throughout their lifetimes;
* The reduction of the general corporate income tax rate to 19 per cent from 19.5 per cent. Overall, the general corporate income tax rate is being reduced from 22.12 per cent (including the corporate surtax) in 2007 to 15 per cent by 2012;
* The extension of accelerated capital cost allowance treatment for three years for investment in manufacturing or processing machinery and equipment; and
* As part of the fifth Protocol to the Canada-U.S. Tax Treaty, the reduction in the rate of withholding tax on interest payments from Canada to non-arm’s length U.S. lenders from 7 per cent to 4 per cent. The withholding tax on non-arm’s-length interest paid between Canada and the United States will be completely eliminated as of 2010.

* Backgrounder – Summary of Federal Tax Relief for 2008 and 2009

Source:
Department of Finance Canada

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

Canada’s top CEOs reach new pay high
Press Release
January 2, 2009
TORONTO – Canada may be in for a rocky economic ride, but the nation’s best paid 100 CEOs are still basking in the glow of the banner year of 2007: they got a record 22% average pay hike in 2007. Canada’s best paid 100 CEOs tallied one billion in average total earnings – a historical first, according to a report on CEO pay by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

Banner year for Canada's CEOs:
Record High Pay Increase (PDF - 390K, 17 pages)
January 2009
By Hugh Mackenzie

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.

- Go to the Banks and Business Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bookmrk3.htm
- Go to the Social Research Organizations (I) in Canada page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/research.htm

From the Labour Program of Human Resources and Social Development Canada:

Current And Forthcoming Minimum Hourly Wage Rates For Adult Workers in Canada *
(this is the best resource for info on current and upcoming minimum wage levels)

Minimum Hourly Wages for Canadian Adult Workers since 1965
NOTE: this information is broken up into five files - one for each decade.
The link takes you to the latest ten-year period; click the date links at the top of the page to open pages for earlier decades.

Source:
Minimum Wage Database
- also includes links to:

* Minimum Wage Database Introduction
- Info on minimum wages in Canada - history, current situation, legislation, boards, special categories of workers, etc.

* Current And Forthcoming Minimum Wage Rates
in Canada for Young Workers and Specific Occupations

* Customized Search for Minimum Wages in Canada
Extensive information on minimum wages in Canada - historical and current rates for each jurisdiction in Canada for experienced workers and special categories of workers. This database lets you customize a search for minimum wages in any given jurisdiction from 1965 to date.

Source:
Minimum Wage Database
[ Employment Standards Legislation in Canada ]
[ Labour Program, Human Resources and Social Development Canada ]

-----

* <Begin first HRSDC rant of 2009.>

So much for my New Year's resolution to stop picking on the nice folks who are responsible for the Human Resources and Social Development Canada website.
ARRRRRGH.
When I checked the links on the Minimum Wage Links page of this site [ http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/minwage.htm ] recently, I was upset to see that all five of HRSDC's links to its minimum wage database were not only dead links but dead-end links. Now, I'm a reasonable person --- I don't have a problem with websites "evolving" over time, and I *do* realize that HRSDC's website is in a perpetual state of flux, never quite reaching a "final" state before the next government shakeup, but still....

If you change the links on your site, PLEASE redirect visitors to the new location of the files.

People who use your site often save these links either as Bookmarks or Favorites, or they count on research guides, like Canadian Social Research Links, to take them directly to relevant content. If someone clicks any one of the old links from the minimum wage database, such as:
Current and forthcoming minimum wage levels for adult workers in Canada ("old" dead-end link)
... the next page that appears is the following error message:
"Server Error in '/wid-dimt/mwa' Application. The resource cannot be found. Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly. Requested URL: /wid-dimt/mwa/index.aspx"

This is useless gobbledeegook!

There's no redirect URL to the correct page.
There's no link to the HRSDC site search engine (although I concur that the HRSDC search engine sucks).
There's no link to the HRSDC home page.
There's no link to the HRSDC sitemap (no wait, there IS no HRSDC site map. Boo.)

Same old, same old.

< /End first HRSDC rant of 2009.>

Related links:

Current Minimum Wage Levels By Province/Territory - from CanadaOnline
- updated whenever minimum wages increase in any jurisdiction

Minimum wage (International) - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- Go to the Minimum Wage /Living Wage Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/minwage.htm

Historical Statistics of Canada contains links to over 1,000 statistical tables (downloadable in Excel format)
on the social, economic and institutional conditions of Canada from Confederation to the mid-1970s.

I was unpleasantly surprised recently to discover that my link to the main page of this resource
from StatCan was broken, especially after my earlier experience with the minimum wage links from HRSDC (see above).
Clicking the "old" link to this report takes you to a StatCan error page with links to the dept. website and its search engine.

Contrary to my frustrating experience with the HRSDC search engine and to my great delight,
I found the new URL for Historical Statistics by simply entering the report's title into the search engine; it was the first result.

Kudos to the StatCan search engine team!
(...although you could make things even simpler by using an "auto-redirect technique", i.e., where visitors clicking on a link that you've changed
are automatically redirected to the new URL for that page. I'm just sayin'...)

Below, you'll find the new link to this report along with an excerpt and a complementary historical report from Human Resources and Social Development Canada.

Historical Statistics of Canada (2nd edition, 1983)
Jointly produced by the
Social Science Federation of Canada
and Statistics Canada

Here's a sample section from this valuable historical resource:

Section C: Social Security - by T. Russell Robinson, Health and Welfare Canada
Contains seven pages of historical information on the evolution of Canadian social programs, plus links to over 180 tables.

---

Another excellent resource that you might want to check out in this context is from
Human Resources and Social Development, and it's entitled:
Social Security Statistics, Canada and Provinces, 1978-79 to 2002-03
[ link to more info about this report ]
[ direct link to the list of historical tables on the HRSDC website ]

---

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

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

No new releases since Dec. 23.

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

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

NOTE: In my view, the following is a milestone historical document on social assistance in Canada and elsewhere in the world.
It's a comprehensive overview of how social assistance (welfare) operated in 24 countries (including Canada) in the mid-1990s.
I highly recommend it for all welfare (and social policy) historians!
(It's not something that was recently posted to the Net; it's just something that I discovered recently and wanted to share because of its value for historical studies.)

---

From the United Kingdom Department for Work and Pensions (DWP):

Social Assistance in OECD Countries
Volume I : Synthesis Report (PDF - 2.6MB, 207 pages)
A study carried out on behalf of the Department of Social Security and the
OECD by the Social Policy Research Unit
1996

Social Assistance in OECD Countries
Volume II : Country Reports (PDF - 4.8MB, 499 pages)
A study carried out on behalf of the Department of Social Security and the
OECD by the Social Policy Research Unit
By Tony Eardley, Jonathan Bradshaw, John Ditch, Ian Gough and Peter Whiteford
1996

Participating countries:
* Australia * Greece * Norway * Austria * Iceland * Portugal * Belgium * Ireland * Spain * Canada * Italy * Sweden * Denmark * Japan * Switzerland * Finland * Luxembourg * Turkey * France * Netherlands * United States * Germany * New Zealand * United Kingdom

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

WOW!
I just accidentally stumbled across this excellent (and now FREE!*) two-volume study from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that was released in the mid-1990s. I know the study very well, because I was the designated Canadian national government contributor.

This report is a critical and comparative overview of how social assistance or welfare operated in the mid-1990s in 24 countries (including Canada, with a special focus on Ontario). The chapter on Canada presents a factual snapshot of how welfare was working in Canada just before the 50-50 federal cost-sharing under the Canada Assistance Plan (CAP) was replaced by a block fund, the Canada Health and Social Transfer, in April of 1996.

The OECD study consisted of a two-stream approach: for each country involved in the study, an "expert informant" (academic) and a "national government official" received a questionnaire on social assistance programs. The questionnaires were different from one another - federal government officials were asked to provide factual responses to over 70 questions, while the academics' questionnaire focused more on an in-depth critique of those same programs. Social Work Professor Patricia Evans was the Canadian expert informant, and I completed the submission on behalf of the Canadian government (see the link immediately below).

Social Assistance in Canada, 1994 is the final submission of the Canadian federal government in the context of the study.
It contains over 40 pages of information on Canadian social assistance programs as they operated in 1994. The final submission about welfare in Canada to the report team was posted to the website of the Department that's now called Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. I occasionally rant about shortcomings of HRSDC's website, so it's only fitting that I give them credit for something creditable, like leaving an historical document about welfare in Canada available on their website. Well done, HRSDC!

I should emphasize that Social Assistance in Canada, 1994 is only ONE of the two source documents used by the team responsible for drafting the final report for the OECD. The other source was Professor Evans' submission, which was, as noted above, more of a critical perspective. [ See Background for more contextual information on the Canadian portion of the study. ]

Following the same methodology as for all participating countries, information from both submissions - the expert informant's and the national government official's - was woven together into one coherent text by one of the co-authors of the report. The resulting Canada chapter (Chapter 5, pages 78-108) that appears in Volume II of the report is quite balanced because of the two-stream approach; I recommend it.

NOTE: Social Assistance in Canada, 1994 contains some info that the Canada chapter in the OECD report doesn't include; I'd suggest reading both.

---

* NOTE: I mentioned "FREE" in the blurb above because the total cost of the paper version of both volumes was close to $400 in Canada when it was released in 1996.
On behalf of social researchers, a big THANKS to the U.K. Dept. of Pensions and Work for making this available to the masses.

---

- Go to the Welfare and Welfare Reforms in Canada page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/welref.htm

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

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

From the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN):

30 December 2008 - CRINMAIL 1046
* CRISIS SPOTLIGHT: Gaza - DR Congo - Zimbabwe - other emergencies [news]
* VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN: Mapping the Caribbean [news]
* NEPAL: Fighting back against the child widow taboo [news]
* CHINA: Tainted milk victims to be paid [news]
* BAHRAIN: Report on the state of children's rights [publication]
* CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE: Q4C Implementation Toolkit [publication]
**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.

Source:
CRINMAIL(incl. subscription info)
[ Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) ]

- Go to the Children's Rights Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnrights.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:
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 mention Canadian Social Research Links when you do.

Cheers!
Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com

One last shot at Dubya...

*************************

Supporters of the English language everywhere are giddy with excitement as George W. "Foot-in-Mouth" Bush exits the world stage.
Everywhere, that is, but in comedy-writing circles, where he will be sorely missed...

Here's a final top ten list of favourite examples of Dubya's fractured English.
(Click the source link at the bottom for 13 more Bushisms.)


1. "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
— September 2000, explaining his energy policies at an event in Michigan.

2. "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?"
— January 2000, during a campaign event in South Carolina.

3. "They misunderestimated the compassion of our country. I think they misunderestimated the will and determination of the commander in chief, too."
— Sept. 26, 2001, in Langley, Va. Bush was referring to the terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks.

4. "There's no doubt in my mind, not one doubt in my mind, that we will fail."
— Oct. 4, 2001, in Washington. Bush was remarking on a back-to-work plan after the terrorist attacks.

5. "I want to thank the dozens of welfare-to-work stories, the actual examples of people who made the firm and solemn commitment to work hard to embetter themselves."
— April 18, 2002, at the White House.

6. "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
— Sept. 17, 2002, in Nashville, Tenn.

7. "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
— Aug. 5, 2004, at the signing ceremony for a defense spending bill.

8. "Thank you, Your Holiness. Awesome speech."
- April 16, 2008, at a ceremony welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to the White House.

9. "Our most abundant energy source is coal. We have enough coal to last for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge."
— April 20, 2005, in Washington.

10. "We look forward to hearing your vision, so we can more better do our job."
— Sept. 20, 2005, in Gulfport, Miss.

Source:
http://postedstories.blogspot.com/2009/01/president-george-w-bush-bushisms.html

***************************

    And, in closing...

From the "Giant-Knitting-Needles-in-My-Eyes" Department:

"We had a funner weekend because it was sunny outside."

Repeat after me:

Funner is NOT a word.
Funner is NOT a word.
Funner is NOT a word.

Now STOP using it!!

If you wish to discuss this privately, please send an email to myself. *

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The Political Compass
http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Read the blurb on the main page of this site, then take the (entirely anonymous) five-minute test. It will tell you where YOU are on the political compass.
- includes a list of readings of influential thinkers who think like you, based on your test results...

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

The More You Know: Caroline Kennedy (YouTube video)
Y'know...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAgI4AS1NVg

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

Olympia SnowWoman
http://www.bethelmainesnowwoman.com/blog/

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* NOTE: In the first part (the "Funner" part) of this section of the newsletter, I planted the expression "please send an email to myself" to get a laugh.

However, if you're the type of person who seriously uses "myself" in this context (as in "If you want to join us, call Bob or myself."),
please understand that I was making a joke. It is incorrect to use "myself" this way.

Myself is a reflexive pronoun (as in "I hurt myself") and should never, ever, ever be used as a synonym for "me" as the object of a verb in a sentence.
People who try to sound like language snobs by using "myself" this way are in fact proving exactly the opposite.