Canadian Social Research Newsletter
October 9, 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 1510 subscribers.

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

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Fact sheet on minimum wage (PDF file - 99K, 6 pages)
September 2005

Did you know?
- last year, 621,000 individuals worked at or below the minimum wage rate set by their province (4.6% of all employees in Canada)
- Alberta had by far the lowest proportion of employees working at or below minimum wage (0.9%), while Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest (6.5%)
- women accounted for almost two-thirds of minimum wage workers, but less than half of all employees
- one in three teenagers aged 15 to 19 worked for minimum wage (this age group accounted for nearly half of all minimum wage workers)
- the incidence of working for minimum wage declined sharply with age but rose slightly among those 55 and older

Source:
Perspectives on labour and income (HINT: follow this link to dozens of free articles --- I guarantee you'll find something of interest to you here.)
[ Statistics Canada ]

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

Primary Health Care Reform and Women (PDF file - 423K, 24 pages)
September 2005
"Given that women are both the majority of the users of the health care system and the majority of health care providers, how can reforms be made to work for all women — no matter where they live, what their income levels, education, language or health issue, sexual orientation or level of physical disability? (...)
Examines the debates about primary health care reforms and their impact on women and their health. Argues that these reforms are really about women’s work even though women are not the ones making most of the decisions."
Source:
National Coordinating Group on Health Care Reform and Women
[ Centres of Excellence for Women's Health ]
and
[ Canadian Women's Health Network ]
[ funded by Health Canada's Bureau of Women's Health and Gender Analysis ]

- Go to the Health Links (Canada/International) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/health.htm
- Go to the Canadian Government Sites about Women's Social Issues page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/women.htm

What's New from the Canadian Council on Social Development:

Child Poverty and the Canada Social Transfer: CCSD takes the Debate to the Prairies.
[October 6, 2005]

Let's Make Productivity Work for Canadians
CCSD's Presentation to the Finance Committee 2005 Pre-budget Consultation
[October 5, 2005]

Funding Matters … For Our Communities:
Challenges and Opportunities for Funding Innovation
in Canada’s Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector (PDF file - 242K , 22 pages)
[September 8, 2005]
This report summarizes the findings of workshops and presentations undertaken through this project, including common themes and innovative community practice. It also includes an analysis of the different proposals for funding reform raised over the course of the project.

Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference Proceedings
Fredericton - June 16-18, 2005
[Proceedings posted September 2005]
- incl. links to complete proceedings and highlights for each of the three days of the conference; the link below is to the complete proceedings.

Conference Proceedings with photographs (PDF file - 566K, 78 pages)
Related Links:
Canadian Social Welfare Policy Conference Home Page

Source:
Canadian Council on Social Development

- Go to the Canadian Government Budgets Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/budgets.htm
- 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 Conferences and Events Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/confer.htm
- Go to the Voluntary Sector Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/voluntary.htm

An Eye on Early Learning and Child Care in Manitoba (PDF file - 1,160 KB, 11 pages)
The Manitoba Child Care Program's online newsletter for child care providers.
October 2005 issue

Source:
Newsletter page - includes a link to the April 2005 issue (PDF file - 516K, 10 pages)
[ Manitoba Child Care Online ]
[ Manitoba Family Services and Housing ]

NOTE: this comment/suggestion is for anyone who works on an information website: if you check the newsletter page link, you'll note that the nice web team at Manitoba Family Services and Housing actually provides both the filesize and number of pages of the Adobe PDF file on their site (i.e., "1,160 KB, 11 pages"). This is very helpful, because it gives site visitors important information about the file they're about to download.
To the Web design team at Manitoba Family Services and Housing : Thanks for being so considerate of visitors to your site! To all other web designers : see how easy it is?
[Gilles]

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

Accessibility News (Govt. of Ontario)
Online Newsletter (monthly)
Content of the September 2005 issue:
* Welcome to the Accessibility News
* The Presence, Portrayal and Participation of Persons with Disabilities in Television Programming
* Access to Emergency Alerts for People with Disabilities
* An Information Society Open to All
* 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Care about Accessibility
* Human Factors Report: Improving the Usability and Accessibility of Voting Systems and Products
Newsletter Archive - back to November 2001
Source:
Paths to Equal Opportunity
[ Accessibility Ontario ]
[ Ministry of Community and Social Services ]

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

Ministry of Community and Social Services:
Supporting Ontario's communities since 1930
The year 2005 is the 75th anniversary of the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services.
Historical Info:
Click on the link above and then, on the next page, scroll down to "Stories from our Past" for links to six short historical bits about welfare and social services in Ontario in the last century and even before.
Origins of the welfare department (1930) - breaking 650 lbs. of rocks to qualify for welfare in 1915 - houses of refuge - the Mothers' Allowance Act (1920) - the first foray into the field of day care in the mid-40s - the Soldier's Aid Commission (est. 1915).

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

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

October 7, 2005
Labour Force Survey, September 2005
Employment was unchanged in September, leaving total gains during the third quarter at 31,000 (+0.2%). This was lower than the second quarter job growth of 0.5% (+79,000). The unemployment rate remained among the lowest in almost three decades, edging down 0.1 percentage points in September to 6.7%.

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

Employment Insurance: Research Summary for the
Task Force for Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (Word file - 428K, 11 pages)
Ontarians Can No Longer Count On Employment Insurance To Provide Temporary Income Between Jobs
Toronto and Ottawa Have Lowest Coverage in Canada
October 6, 2005
By Jill Black and Richard Shillington
Highlights
- EI coverage has declined precipitously for a number of reasons, many to do with changes in the labour market that the program wasn't designed to handle; new initiatives should therefore be considered to fill the gap.
- Toronto and many other Ontario cities have extremely low EI coverage, likely due to high employment and high immigration; there is no comprehensive or definitive assessment of what is driving low coverage, but program changes in the 1990s clearly contributed to EI coverage becoming increasingly unbalanced. This needs to be understood better, and part of the solution may lie in EI program changes.

Harder to get EI in Toronto
Hasn't kept up with the times: Report
Economic slump could put city at risk
October 6
By Thomas Walkom
Toronto Star
"If you live in Toronto and lose your job don't count on getting any help from the federal government's once-proud employment insurance program. Jobless in almost every other major Canadian city — even those with lower unemployment rates — have a better shot than Torontonians at qualifying for benefits, according to a new study by a coalition of business, non-profit and labour groups to be released today."
[Word version of this article - 28K, 2 pages]

Related Links:

St. Christopher House
Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults

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

Youth Leaving Care – How Do They Fare?
Briefing Paper (PDF file - 242K, 31 pages)
September 2005
By Anne Tweddle (my charming wife)
"This discussion paper was prepared for the Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA) Project in order to support and inform short- and long-term recommendations respecting challenges facing youth leaving care."

Related Links:

Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults
Laidlaw Foundation (funder)

- Go to the Children, Families and Youth Links (NGO) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnngo.htm
- Go to the Ontario Municipal and Non-Governmental Sites (D-W) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk3.htm

Energy Relief
Helping Canadians Deal with High Energy Costs
October 6, 2005
* Government Announces Measures to Address Impact of Higher Energy Costs (News Release 2005-066)
Backgrounders
* Energy Cost Benefit (Finance Canada)
* Fiscal Impact of Government's Response to Higher Energy Costs (Finance Canada)
* Energy Efficiency Incentives for Homes and Buildings (Natural Resources Canada)
* Actions to Increase Market Transparency and Accountability (Natural Resources Canada)
Useful Links
* Energuide for Houses
* Home Improvement
* Incentives and Rebates:
--- http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/corporate/incentives.cfm
--- http://incentivesandrebates.ca/gc_fi_search.asp
* EnerGuide for Existing Buildings
* Commercial Buildings Incentive Program

Related Link:

September 30, 2005
Relieve energy cost squeeze on the poor –
We need long term solutions, not just pre-election one-off response says National Anti-Poverty Organization
"The recent increase in the costs of home heating oil and natural gas as well as the price of gasoline is putting a serious squeeze on low income Canadians – both those on social assistance and those in low-wage jobs. Heating oil prices have risen by a third over last year and natural gas prices have nearly doubled. Low income households (lowest quintile) spend over 14% of their income on fuel and electricity - three times as much as all households in Canada - and these Statistics Canada figures are from 2003 when prices were not as high."
Source:
National Anti-Poverty Organization

- Go to the General Federal Government Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fed2.htm

Paid to be Poor:
Report of the 2005 Manitoba Low Wage Community Inquiry (PDF file - 2.2MB, 86 pages)
"The Just Income Coalition sponsored a series of community hearings in Winnipeg, Brandon and Thompson. A balanced, broadly-based panel of independent “listeners” heard the first-person stories of Manitobans affected by low wages — 34 low-income individuals, and 38 spokespersons for community organizations (unions, health and social services, faith leaders, etc.). For these hearings, the Coalition widened its focus beyond the minimum wage issue to include all workers in low wage employment. The majority of Manitoba’s low wage workers are women. The Panel heard from single mothers and couples, students and workers, Aboriginal people and immigrants, and those with disabilities and long-term illness. According to data purchased from the Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey, over one-quarter of the work force received less than a living wage ($10.25 per hour) in 2004. Just over 6 percent received the current minimum wage of $7.25 or less. This survey [see Appendix I] explodes the myth that most low wage employees are teenagers or single adults with no family responsibilities."

Press Release (PDF file - 111K, 2 pages)
October 5, 2005

Source:
Just Income Coalition (Manitoba)
"The Just Income Coalition formed in the fall of 2002 when a group of representatives from labour, human services, faith, women's, and Aboriginal organizations came together out of a shared concern over the inadequate minimum wage and its impact on low income Manitobans."

Related Link:

Social Planning Council of Winnipeg (SPCW)
NOTE: check the SPCW Resources and Links pages for dozens of online resources

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

Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect - 2003
October 4, 2005
"The rate of substantiated maltreatment in Canada, excluding of Quebec, has increased 125%, from 9.64 substantiated cases per thousand children in 1998 to 21.71 in 2003. This increase in documented maltreatment may be explained by improved and expanded reporting and investigation procedures such as: 1. changes in case substantiation practices; 2. more systematic identification of victimized siblings; and 3. greater awareness of emotional maltreatment and exposure to domestic violence."
- incl. links to : major findings, related CECW Information Sheets on CIS-2003 (2-3 pages each --- Physical abuse of children in Canada - Sexual abuse of children in Canada - Child abuse and neglect investigations in Canada: Comparing 1998 and 2003 data - Child Neglect in Canada) + "Information Sheets Coming Soon" (Child Neglect In Canada - Domestic Violence - Emotional Maltreatment), plus Introduction to CIS Cycle II

Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect - Major Findings - 2003
HTML version
PDF version (2.9MB, 162 pages)

Source:
Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare

Google Web Search Results : "Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse, October 2005"
Google News search Results : "Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse, October 2005"
Source:
Google.ca

Related Link:

Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect: Final Report (2001)

- Go to the Children, Families and Youth Links (Government) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnbkmrk.htm
- Go to the Children, Families and Youth Links (NGO) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnngo.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.

7-Oct-05

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WHAT’S NEW
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>> Labour market update: Background papers
Three papers from the Child Care Human Resources Sector Council profile the child care workforce, explore the link between wages and quality, and present perspectives of ECE students.

>> A town hall meeting on child care: Framing the BC action plan
Video and audio files from Working TV provide a webcast of a meeting sponsored by the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C and featuring Australian child care expert Lynne Wannan.

>> Public funding and child care policy: How do we 'make the connection'?
Fact sheet from the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada introduces their new "Child Care Policy: Making the Connections" project; makes the case for quality child care policy.

>> Removing barriers: A can-do attitude -- A report on developing good practice for children with special needs in early years childcare and education in the private and voluntary sectors
Report from the British government discusses findings of a survey to evaluate what child care providers are doing to help children with special needs access high quality ECEC.

>> Assessing the CAPC/CAPNP joint management infrastructure as a model for FPT collaboration: Looking back and moving forward
Report from Canadian Policy Research Networks provides an analysis of the federal/provincial/territorial collaboration on the Community Action Program for Children and the Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program.

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CHILD CARE IN THE NEWS
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>> Families 'saddled' with child care debt [AU]
Courier-Mail, 7 Oct 05
More than 40,000 Australian families have racked up debts under the Federal Government's child care benefit scheme and are struggling to pay them off.

>> Child care not just about kids: Lacking services could hinder county's economic development [US]
The Desert Sun (California), 6 Oct 05
Think the current child care shortage in Riverside County, California is a matter that concerns only parents, kids and their caretakers? Think again.

>> Child care centres rejecting under-2s [AU]
5 Oct 05
Many new child care centres in Australia are refusing to create places for children under two because it costs too much to care for younger children, the child care industry has warned the Government.

>>·Face of child services to change [CA-ON]
Fort Frances Times, 5 Oct 05
People representing various fields working with children have met in Fort Frances to discuss the future of children’s services in Rainy River District. The planning session was the first of many as the district prepares to implement Ontario’s Best Start initiative.

>> Long waits loom for Nunavut day care [CA-NU]
Nunatsiaq News, 23 Sep 05
Aakuluk Day Care, the biggest child care centre in Iqaluit looks after 44 children every day, but they still have a long waiting list.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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)

October 6, 2005
Today's subjects include: Poverty Rate // Minority Fathers and Children's Education // Medicaid Incentives // Hurricane Victims, Poverty & Race - Editorial and Opinion // Hurricanes and Social Services // Poverty and Nutrition // Child Health Insurance Proposal - Illinois // African-American Nonmarital Childbearing - Milwaukee // Medicaid Computer System Problems - Maine // Head Start Program - Detroit // Academic Achievement - Colorado // Homelessness - Los Angeles, Utah // Municipal Internet System - Philadelphia

October 3, 2005
Today's subjects include: Child Tax Credit and the Poor // Hurricanes and Poverty // New Approach to Fighting Poverty - Opinion // Call for Action against Poverty - South Carolina // Disaster Would Spotlight Poverty - San Francisco // Possible Disaster and Reaction of Inner-City Residents - Milwaukee // Poverty Level - Minnesota // Welfare Reform - Massachusetts // High Gas Prices and the Working Poor - Los Angeles // Student Achievement Gap at Elite Schools - New Jersey // Medicaid Reform - New York // Food Stamp Cuts - Michigan // Minimum Wage - New Jersey // Heating Assistance - Wisconsin, South Dakota

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

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 ]

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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

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The 2005 Ig Nobel Prize Winners

http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html


The 2005 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday evening, October
6, at the 15th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard's
Sanders Theatre.

Here are a few of this year's winners and their respective categories:
(follow the link above to see the entire list for each year from 2005
 back to 1991)

PHYSICS: John Mainstone and the late Thomas Parnell of the
University of Queensland, Australia, for patiently conducting an
experiment that began in the year 1927 -- in which a glob of congealed
black tar has been slowly, slowly dripping through a funnel, at a rate
of approximately one drop every nine years.


MEDICINE: Gregg A. Miller of Oak Grove, Missouri, for inventing
Neuticles -- artificial replacement testicles for dogs, which are
available in three sizes, and three degrees of firmness.
[ http://www.neuticles.com/index1.html ]


PEACE: Claire Rind and Peter Simmons of Newcastle University, in
the U.K., for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a
locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the
movie "Star Wars."

CHEMISTRY: Edward Cussler of the University of Minnesota and Brian
Gettelfinger of the University of Minnesota and the University of
Wisconsin, for conducting a careful experiment to settle the
longstanding scientific question: can people swim faster in syrup or in
water?


BIOLOGY: Benjamin Smith of the University of Adelaide, Australia
and the University of Toronto, Canada and the Firmenich perfume
company, Geneva, Switzerland, et al, for painstakingly smelling and
cataloging the peculiar odors produced by 131 different species of
frogs when the frogs were feeling stressed.


NUTRITION: Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats of Tokyo, Japan, for photographing
and retrospectively analyzing every meal he has consumed during a
period of 34 years (and counting).


FLUID DYNAMICS: Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow and Jozsef Gal, for using
basic principles of physics to calculate the pressure that builds up
inside a penguin, as detailed in their report "Pressures Produced When
Penguins Pooh -- Calculations on Avian Defaecation."