Canadian Social Research Newsletter

Canadian Social Research Newsletter
August 14, 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 1422 subscribers.

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

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian Content

1. Council of the Federation [Provincial-Territorial Premiers] Meeting (August 10-12, 2005 – Banff)
2. Canadian Union of Public Employees Urges Premiers to stop Privatization - August 10
3. $8.1 million for child care in British Columbia (Ministry of Children and Family Development) - August 10
4. New on the Reference Links page of this site:
--- Anywhere.ca - A Canadian search directory
--- Wikipedia - free online encyclopedia
5. What's New from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit ( University of Toronto) - August 12

International Content

6. Poverty Dispatch Digest : U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs --- August 11
7. Top Ten Facts on Social Security's 70th Anniversary (U.S. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) - August 11

Have a great week!

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

E-mail:
gilseg@rogers.com

1. Council of the Federation Meeting (August 10-12, 2005 – Banff)

Communiqué (PDF file - 75K, 6 pages)
BANFF, August 12, 2005
"The Council of the Federation concluded its meeting today in Banff, Alberta, as Premiers agreed to take historic steps towards strengthening Canada’s social and economic fabric. The Council of the Federation today unveiled several additional key initiatives including priorities in the areas of skills training and post-secondary education, pharmaceuticals, prevention and treatment of drug addiction, and fiscal imbalance."

Communiqué (PDF file - 69K, 6 pages)
BANFF, August 11, 2005
"The Council of the Federation met today in Banff, Alberta in celebration of Alberta’s Centennial. Premiers unveiled the first components of their comprehensive strategies to enhance the overall competitiveness and prosperity of Canada. The Council of the Federation’s priorities for strengthening Canada include transportation and infrastructure development, energy and trade. Premiers also met with U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins to discuss Canada – U.S. relations."

Source:
Council of the Federation Website
[ Conseil de la fédération - version française ]
Official website of the Premiers' Council of the Federation

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:

Early childhood education and care in Canada 2004
By Martha Friendly and Jane Beach
6th edition, May 2005, 232 pp
"Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2004 provides cross-Canada data and information on regulated child care, kindergarten, maternity and parental leave together with relevant demographic information."

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

6. Poverty Dispatch Digest :
U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs --- August 11

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)

August 11, 2005

Today's subjects include: Medical Debt and Working Adults // Proposed Medicaid Cuts // Health Care Reform - Opinion // Tutoring and No Child Left Behind Act // Income and Housing Prices // Los Angeles Riots - Social Consequences (Opinion) // Minority Group Migration // Contract with State Welfare Program - Dane County, WI // School Spending Differences - Illinois // Low-Income Families and Tax Law Changes - Utah // Hispanic Population Growth - Wisconsin // Putting Banks in Low-Income Neighborhoods - New York // Homelessness - San Francisco

August 8, 2005

Today's subjects include: Costs of Schooling - Children of Illegal Immigrants (Opinion); Ohio // Early Childhood Education // Food Stamp Program Study -Tennessee // Health Insurance Program for Low-income Families - California, Maine // Inner City Problems & Homicide - Milwaukee, WI (Opinion) // Legal Aid for Low-income Families - Montana // Los Angeles Riots - Social Consequences (Opinion) // Low-wage Workers - Taxes in Utah; Wisconsin (Opinion) // Mental Health Care & Minorities // Poverty - Iowa // Uninsured Children - Indiana // Urban School Problems - Indiana (Opinion) // Welfare Reauthorization - Opinion // Welfare Reform - Montana //

Each of the weekly digests below 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]

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...

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:

- August 4, 2005
- July 28
- July 21
- July 14
- July 7

POVERTY DISPATCH description/archive - weekly issues back to October 2004 , 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

7. Top Ten Facts on Social Security's 70th Anniversary - August 11
(U.S. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Top Ten Facts on Social Security's 70th Anniversary - U.S.
by Jason Furman
Revised August 11, 2005
PDF version of this report (57K, 5 pages)
"President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14, 1935, which established a basic compact between generations: younger workers would contribute payroll taxes, and retired workers would have a more secure retirement. Presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Ronald Reagan have signed landmark Social Security reforms to expand Social Security to provide disability insurance (1954), index Social Security benefits so people would not become poorer as they grew older (1972), and reform Social Security to add decades to its life (1983). As Social Security approaches its 70th anniversary on August 14, 2005, it remains one of the most successful and effective, as well as one of the most popular, of government programs. It provides a universal benefit that is progressive and lifts millions of people out of poverty. It also provides extremely valuable social insurance, providing payments to those who need them most — including workers who become disabled, families whose breadwinner dies, dependent spouses, and retirees who live to a very old age and outlive their assets. (...) As policymakers contemplate changes in Social Security, they should keep in mind 10 important facts about the program:
Fact #1: About half of the elderly have incomes that, without Social Security, leave them below the poverty line. Social Security lifts 13 million elderly Americans above the poverty line.
Fact #2: Social Security does more to reduce poverty among children than any other government program.
Fact #3: Social Security is more than just a retirement program: one-third of Social Security beneficiaries receive survivors benefits or disability insurance benefits. 10 million beneficiaries are adults below the age of 65, and 4 million are children.
Fact #4: For two-thirds of the elderly, Social Security provides the majority of their income. For one-third of the elderly, it provides nearly all of their income.
Fact #5: Social Security provides benefits to 48 million Americans, with the average beneficiary receiving $10,500 per year.
Fact #6: Social Security is especially beneficial for women.
Fact #7: Social Security is particularly important for African Americans.
Fact #8: Social Security provides an especially good deal for Hispanics.
Fact #9: Social Security provides a progressive benefit that keeps up with increases in the cost of living.
Fact #10: Social Security is an extremely efficient program, with administrative costs equaling only 0.6 percent of retirement and survivors benefits."

Source:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)
"...one of the leading organizations in the country working on fiscal policy issues and issues affecting low- and moderate-income families and individuals. The Center specializes in research and analysis oriented toward policy decisions that policymakers face at both federal and state levels. The Center examines data and research findings and produces analyses designed to be accessible to public officials, other non-profit organizations, and the media."