Canadian Social Research Newsletter
September 7,  2008

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 1915 subscribers.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian content

1.   Saskatchewan : Registered Disability Savings Plans to be exempt from welfare calculations (Saskatchewan Social Services) - September 4
2. The Housing Circumstances Of Recently Arrived Refugees: The Winnipeg Experience (Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg) - July 2008
3. New from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy in September 2008:
--- Make Work Pay
--- Social Profits
4. Falling Poverty Among the Elderly - A Canadian Success Story (Andrew Jackson, Progressive Economics Forum Blog) - August 7
5. Welfare Incomes 2006 fact sheets on adequacy of welfare incomes (National Council of Welfare) - August 2008
6. Ontario : Report of the Legal Aid Review 2008 (Ministry of the Attorney General) - July 2008
7. Our Choice for a Better Ontario: A Plan to Cut Poverty in Half by 2020 (Ontario Association of Food Banks) - August 2008
8. What's New in The Daily (Statistics Canada):
--- Labour Force Survey, August 2008 - September 5
--- Back to school – September 2008 - September 4
--- Employment, Earnings and Hours, June 2008 - September 3
9. What's new from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (Toronto) - September 5

International  content

10. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs (Institute for Research on Poverty - University of Wisconsin-Madison)
11. Australian Policy Online Weekly Briefing - selected recent content
* CRINMAIL (September 2008) - (Child Rights Information Network - CRIN)

Have a great week!

New exemption will benefit people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities
News Release
September 4, 2008
Individuals with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities in Saskatchewan will be able to better plan for the future, following the exemption of Registered Disability Savings Plans (RDSPs) from social assistance calculations. The exemption means that RDSP assets and income - including funds withdrawn for payment to a beneficiary - will not be included when determining eligibility for the Saskatchewan Assistance Program.
Source:
Saskatchewan Social Services
[ Government of Saskatchewan ]

Context:
In the determination of financial eligibility for needs-tested welfare or disability benefits,
each province and territory decides how it will treat assets and income from various sources, both at the point of application and on an ongoing basis.

Related link:

Saskatchewan Exempts the RDSP
September 4, 2008
Exciting news! Yet another province has decided to exempt the RDSP from affecting Disability Benefits. Saskatchewan put out a news release earlier today from the Ministry of Social Services indicating that the RDSP will not affect the calculations for those receiving social assistance, exempting both the RDSP as an asset and income. (...) This a a very exciting development for people in Saskatchewan as it now means they, along with BC, Newfoundland, and Yukon, can fully utilize the benefits that the RDSP provides.
Source:
Registered Disability Savings Plan Blog --- everything you wanted to know about the RDSP....

The RDSP Blog is a product of the
Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN)
PLAN is a non-profit organization, established in 1989 by and for families committed to future planning and securing a good life for their relative with a disability.

Recent posting on the RDSP Blog:

TOP 10 Reasons Provinces/Territories Should Exempt
the Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP) as an Asset and Income
August 14, 2008

- Go to the Asset-Based Social Policies Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/assets.htm
- Go to the Disability Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/disbkmrk.htm

The Housing Circumstances Of Recently Arrived Refugees: The Winnipeg Experience
By Dr. Tom Carter et al.
(July 2008 for Prairie Metropolis)

Housing is a central component of the settlement experience of refugees. A positive housing situation can facilitate many aspects of integration. Unaffordable, crowded, unsafe housing, however, can cause disruptions in the entire settlement process. A two-year study of recently arrived refugees in the city of Winnipeg illustrates the significant housing challenges they face. In the first year 75 households who had been in the city a year or less were interviewed. Fifty-five of these households were re-interviewed a year later. The research findings highlight the housing and neighbourhood challenges the households faced in the first year and the changes in their circumstances that had occurred by the time interviews were conducted in the second year.

Download full report (PDF - 2.3MB, 146 pages)
Research Highlights (PDF - 35K, 4 pages)

Source:
Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg

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

Recent releases from the
Caledon Institute of Social Policy:

Make Work Pay (PDF - 34K, 2 pages)
Ken Battle and Sherri Torjman
September 2008
This Labour Day commentary explores various actions that governments and employers can take to improve the earnings of the working poor. One in four Canadian workers makes just $10 an hour or less and close to half (44 percent) of low-income households have at least one working adult. Key policy reforms include increasing and indexing minimum wages, investing in education and training, ensuring an adequate supply of decent affordable housing and enhancing the Canada Child Tax Benefit. This commentary focuses upon essential changes to the amount and design of the Working Income Tax Benefit - the federal policy measure whose intended purpose is to help make work pay.

Also from Caledon:

Social Profits (PDF - 49K, 7 pages)
Sherri Torjman
September 2008
This essay discusses the various dimensions of the social economy - a unique and burgeoning sector of the economy in which business enterprises and economic activity seek not only to generate revenue but also to advance social goals. There are hundreds of thousands of hybrid businesses, also known as social enterprises, which are taking their place on the world stage - and increasingly in stock market portfolios. They try both to generate profit and create social value. They are sometimes referred to as ‘blended value’ organizations because that is precisely what they do. This paper explores their many different forms and puts forward policy proposals to bolster social enterprises within the Canadian economy.

Source:
Caledon Institute of Social Policy
Established in 1992, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy is a private, nonprofit organization with charitable status. It is supported primarily by the Maytree Foundation, located in Toronto.

- Go to the Asset-Based Social Policies Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/assets.htm
- Go to the Voluntary Sector Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/voluntary.htm

Canadian government policy and seniors living in poverty
August 25, 2008
A blog post on the Progressive Economics Forum, "Falling Poverty Among the Elderly - A Canadian Success Story", describes how the poverty rate for seniors has fallen from 11.3% in 1989 to just 5.4% in 2006 (3.4% for elderly men, and 7.0% for elderly women.) This puts the average poverty rate for seniors in Canada lower than Sweden (6.6%) and way below the U.S. (21%). The author speculates that the senior poverty rate has fallen due to progressive social policies such as the Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement, as well as high private pensions during the 1970s and 1980s. But poverty among seniors still disproportionately effects women, people of colour, immigrants and people with disabilities. A 2006 report from the National Advisory on Aging, Seniors on the Margins: Aging in poverty in Canada (see the link below) looks more seniors in the next decade, especially marginalized seniors, may not have access to the resources they need.
Source:
PovNet
An online resource for advocates, people on welfare, and community groups and individuals involved in anti-poverty work.

Related links:

Falling Poverty Among the Elderly - A Canadian Success Story
Posted by Andrew Jackson
August 7, 2008
Source:
Progressive Economics Forum Blog
[ other posts by Andrew Jackson ]
[ Progressive Economics Forum ]
The Progressive Economics Forum aims to promote the development of a progressive economics community in Canada. The PEF brings together over 125 progressive economists, working in universities, the labour movement, and activist research organizations. ]

Seniors on the Margins: Aging in poverty in Canada (PDF - 299K, 33 pages)
September 2005 (PDF file date)
Seniors on the Margins is a series of policy papers presenting NACA opinions and recommendations on the needs and concerns of seniors who are marginalized, or at risk of marginalization in Canadian society.
Source:
National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA)
NOTE: In May 2007, NACA was replaced by the National Seniors Council (see the link below). Despite all of the pontificating on accountability, transparency and disclosure that we hear from Canada's No-Longer-New Government, the NACA website ceased to exist when the Seniors Council was created. The above NACA link is from The Wayback Machine , an invaluable research aid from Archive.org.
[ For more info about The Wayback Machine, go to the Reference Links page of this site - http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/reference.htm ]

For more information on government policy and seniors, see also:

* National Seniors Council - advises Canada's Government on all matters related to the health, well-being and quality of life of seniors.
* Seniors Canada - Federal government information

- Go to the Seniors (Social Research) Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/seniors.htm

New on the website of the
National Council of Welfare:

Welfare Incomes 2006* fact sheets
on adequacy of welfare incomes

For the past 20 years, the National Council of Welfare has been producing annual estimates of the incomes of individuals and families on welfare in each Canadian jurisdiction. In addition to an extensively-annotated table of welfare benefit levels for single clients (able-bodied and disabled) and families (one adult + one child and two adults + two children), the report includes information on prevailing welfare asset and income exemption levels in each province/territory, comparisons of welfare incomes over time and comparisons of current welfare incomes with various benchmarks. The fact sheets which were recently posted to the Council's website include several variations and permutations of income measures used in Canada, such as Statistics Canada's before- and after-tax low income cut-offs, before- and after-tax average incomes and before- and after-tax median incomes. For the first time, the 2006 edition of Welfare Incomes includes a comparison of welfare incomes and the Market Basket Measure (see related links below).
[ *NOTE : According to the Council's website, "The NCW plans to publish a 2006/2007 combined issue of Welfare Incomes at the end of 2008. In the meantime, all usual data will be available on our Web site."]

There are 17 fact sheets in total --- here's one that's worth examining even if you're not "a numbers person"...:

Fact Sheet 12 : Comparison of 2006 welfare incomes with 2006 Market Basket Measure and Old Age Security (PDF - 956K, 1 page)
- Welfare incomes as a percentage of MBM ranged from 27% in New Brunswick to 66% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
- OAS as a percentage of MBM ranged from 81% in Ontario to 101% in Quebec and New Brunswick.

Source:
Welfare Income series - includes archives back to 1999
[ Council Research & Publications ]
[ National Council of Welfare ]
The National Council of Welfare (NCW) is an arm's length advisory body to the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development on matters of concern to low-income Canadians.

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

Market Basket Measure links
from Human Resources and Social Development Canada:

Low Income in Canada: 2000-2004 Using the Market Basket Measure
November 2007 (PDF file date)

Low Income in Canada: 2000-2002 Using the Market Basket Measure
June 2006

- Go to the Poverty Measures - Canadian Resources page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/poverty.htm
- Go to the Social Statistics Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm
- Go to the Key Provincial/Territorial Welfare Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/welfare.htm

Ontario:

Report of the Legal Aid Review 2008
July 2008 (PDF file date)
Complete report:
PDF version - 780K, 206 pages
HTML version - includes an expanded table of contents and links to individual sections of the report

Executive Summary (HTML)
Recommendations (key themes):
* management of the legal aid system cannot be approached in isolation from the broader justice system
* financial eligibility criteria need to be significantly raised to a more realistic level that bears some relationship to the actual circumstances of those in need.
* some range of legal aid services should be provided to all Ontario citizens on a non-means-tested basis
* LAO needs a strategic focus on mechanisms for facilitating greater integration in the delivery of legal aid services, minimizing the attachment of particular legal aid services to particular classes of institutions or classes of problems, and enhancing single entry point or one-stop shopping approaches to the need for legal aid services.
* LAO must be much more aggressive and enterprising in experimenting with innovative forms of service delivery
* the legal aid tariff needs to be significantly raised in the immediate future, along with salaries for staff lawyers in the clinic and duty counsel systems
* most of the objectives cannot be fully realized without a substantial infusion of additional financial resources.
Source:
Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General

Related link:

Legal Aid Ontario
In 1998, the Ontario government enacted the Legal Aid Services Act in which the province renewed and strengthened its commitment to legal aid. The Act established Legal Aid Ontario (LAO), an independent but publicly funded and publicly accountable non-profit corporation, to administer the province’s legal aid program. LAO’s mandate in the Legal Aid Services Act, 1998 is to “promote access to justice throughout Ontario for low-income individuals by means of providing consistently high quality legal aid services in a cost-effective and efficient manner.”

- Go to the Ontario Government Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk.htm

From the Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB):

Ontario's Food Banks present plan to cut poverty in half by 2020
Press Release
August 19, 2008
The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) released a new report today, entitled Our Choice for a Better Ontario, in response to a call for submissions from the provincial government's Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction. The report sets a goal of cutting poverty in half by 2020 through a renewed investment by the federal and provincial governments.

Complete report:

Our Choice for a Better Ontario:
A Plan to Cut Poverty in Half by 2020 (PDF - 1.4MB, 64 pages)
August 2008 (PDF file date)
"(...) Our challenge is great. Hunger and poverty disproportionately affects certain populations and places in Ontario. Ontario’s economy is also in a period of significant transition. Hundreds of thousands of Ontarians lack the basics of life, including food, shelter, and education. We believe that our universal goal must be to cut poverty in half by 2020, with a focus on reducing the deepest poverty. In order to meet this goal, we have established twelve supportive goals focusing on key sectors, people, and places. "
- goals cover the following areas:
* Housing * Education * Financial Inclusion * Employment & Enterprise * Energy * Health * Neighbourhoods and communities * New Canadians * Single parents * First Nations * Ontarians with Disabilities * Children
Source:
Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB)
The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) is the umbrella organization for food banks across the province, representing over 100 members in communities across Ontario.

Related link:

We must spend to fight poverty: report
Low-fee credit unions for the poor and a plan to help low-income households pay for heat and hydro are among a broad series of initiatives needed to fight poverty in Ontario, say the province's food banks in a report released recently. Cutting poverty in half by 2020 would lift more than half a million Ontarians out of poverty and should be the McGuinty government's "commitment of a generation," says the report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.
Source:
Sudbury Star
September 2, 2008

- Go to the Food Banks and Hunger Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/foodbkmrk.htm
- Go to the Anti-poverty Strategies and Campaigns page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/antipoverty.htm

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

September 5, 2008
Labour Force Survey, August 2008
Following a decline in July, employment edged up by 15,000 in August. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.1%. Since the start of the year, employment has increased by 87,000 (+0.5%), a much smaller increase compared with the 221,000 (+1.3%) of the first eight months of 2007.
[ Labour Force Information - August 10 to 16, 2008 ]

September 4, 2008
Back to school – September 2008
Tens of thousands of students, from kindergarten to college and university, have gone back to school. In honour of this annual ritual, Education Matters presents "Back to school – September 2008." It presents a few facts and figures relating to education, from enrolment trends and household spending on education to educational attainment levels among the Aboriginal population and recent immigrants.
[ Education Matters: Insights on Education, Learning and Training in Canada ]

September 3, 2008
Employment, Earnings and Hours, June 2008
The average weekly earnings of employees stood at $789.23 in June, up slightly from May (+0.1%). Compared with a year earlier, average weekly earnings rose 2.5%.
[ complete report (PDF - 2.2MB, 461 pages) ]

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

What's new from the
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) :

September 5, 2008

Seven Cs: An informational guide to young children’s outdoor playspaces
5 Sep 08
- Report from Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre and CHILD highlights findings from a five-year study of outdoor playspaces in Vancouver.

Design for play: A guide to creating successful play spaces
4 Sep 08
- Report and online photo gallery from Play England aims to inform the creation of play spaces that “do justice to children’s endless capacity for adventure and imagination”.

Alberta child care licensing Act and regulation 4 Sep 08 - New licensing Act and regulations come into force November 1st; information sessions being held across Alberta during September and October.

Public policy and public funding implications of child care research
4 Sep 08
- Presentation from the Human Early Learning Partnership explores rationales for investment in ELCC and presents a child care system implementation model.

more WHAT'S NEW ONLINE »

child care in the news

· Child care program runs out of funds [CA-ON]
5 Sep 08

· McKew attacks childcare staff ratio [AU]
1 Sep 08

· Daycare dilemma: ‘Alberta Advantage’ does not include toddlers and working moms [CA-AB]
29 Aug 08

· Harper government's child care agenda has failed [CA]
29 Aug 08

· Troubled daycares close in Toronto's west end [CA-ON]
29 Aug 08

· Support for child care collapsing [CA-SK]
22 Aug 08

more CC IN THE NEWS »

Related Links:

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.

Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere
CRRU Publications - briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications
ISSUE files - theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)

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

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.

September 4, 2008
* Poverty Rates and Measurement
* Schools and Child Poverty
* Health of Children in Low-income Families
* Health Insurance Coverage for Children
* Health Insurance Coverage and Costs
* Jobs, Wages, and State Economies
* Unemployment Benefits - New York, California
* State Minimum Wage - New Hampshire
* Homeless Assistance Center - Dallas, TX
* Affordable Housing - Mississippi, Illinois
* 'Heat and Eat' Assistance Program - Rhode Island
* Income of High School Graduates
* Disparities in Education Funding - Chicago, IL
* No Child Left Behind and Measuring Achievement
* Payday Lending - North Dakota

Past Poverty Dispatches
- links to two dispatches a week back to June 2006

Search Poverty Dispatches

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

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

- 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

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):

4 September 2008 - CRINMAIL 1013
* PETITION: An International Call to End all Executions of Juvenile Offenders
* IRELAND: Ombudswoman calls for stronger legislation, extending beyond sexual abuse [news]
* SOMALIA: Schools close in protest over insecurity [news]
* NICARAGUA: Name and Identity for Thousands of Indigenous Children [news]
* INDIA: Children living on highways to escape Bihar floods killed by traffic [news]
* CHINA: Thousands of N.Korea children face hardship in China, say activists [news]
* EDUCATION: Enabling Education newsletter - special edition on language [publication]

2 September 2008 - CRINMAIL 1012 - Special edition on sexual exploitation
* INTRODUCTION
* ARGENTINA: Summary of Paulo Pinheiro's speech at regional consultation for World Congress [publication]
* EUROPE/CENTRAL ASIA: Regional preparatory meeting for the world congress III against sexual exploitation of children and adolescents [event]
* SEXUAL EXPLOITATION: Semantics or Substance? Towards a shared understanding of terminology referring to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children [publication]
* INFORMATION and RESOURCES
* INTERVIEW: Jaap Doek
* EMPLOYMENT: War Child
**QUIZ** Special edition on sexual exploitation
**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) ]

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!

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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:
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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...

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

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Cheers!
Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com

Ten more facts to amaze your friends and family!

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And, in closing...
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