Canadian Social Research Newsletter

Canadian Social Research Newsletter
February 18, 2007

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 1758 subscribers.
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see some notes and a disclaimer.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian Content

1. New Alberta Agenda, new Alberta welfare department - December 2006
2. What's new from Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry:
--- Debit cards replace Alberta welfare cheques - February 13
--- Alberta Income Support Class Action Settlement AISH, Income Support and Widows' Pension clients given more time to make claims - January 11
3. What's new from Emploi et Solidarité sociale Québec:
--- asset exemption levels
--- Employment assistance statistics
4. Does the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) violate the Charter of Rights? (ODSP Support and Activism Website)
5. 2007 Report of the Auditor General of Canada - February 13
6. What's New from Statistics Canada:
--- Canada's unemployment mosaic, 2000 to 2006 - February 15
--- Federal government revenue and spending by province : A scoreboard of winners and losers in Confederation? - February 15
--- 2006 Census: Geographic products and Census dictionary + GeoSearch2006 - February 14
--- Study: Time with the family, 2005 - February 13
--- Purchasing power parities, 1992 to 2005 - February 12
7. International Monetary Fund Praises Economic Plan of Canada’s New Government (Department of Finance Canada) - February 13
8. International Women's Day - March 8
9. What's New from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (University of Toronto) - February 16

International Content

10. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs
11. What's New from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (U.S.):
--- Myths and Realities about the Alternative Minimum Tax - February 14
--- Myths and Realities about the tax cuts - Revised February 13
--- Implementing the TANF changes in the Deficit Reduction Act - February 9
12. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (Washington, Paris)
13. Government Social Research Bulletin (Government of the United Kingdom) - February 2007
14. Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries (UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre) - February 14

Have a great week!

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

E-mail:
gilseg@rogers.com

1. New Alberta Agenda, new Alberta welfare department - December 2006

Oops.
I missed the boat back there.
New Alberta Premier Stelmach and his Cabinet were sworn in on December 14, 2006. This was evidently at a time when I wasn't visiting provincial government websites very regularly.
I just found this on February 18, as I was preparing the weekly issue of my newsletter. I'll be updating the Alberta content in my site accordingly within the next few days.
Sorry about that.

Stelmach sets new Alberta agenda: New government structure
will focus on building a stronger Alberta and improving Albertans' quality of life
News Release
December 13, 2006
"(...)Mandate of Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry (EII) [ new Department in Alberta responsible for welfare]
The ministry will include the existing programs provided by Human Resources and Employment. Takes over immigration programs (now in Human Resources and Employment; Economic Development and Advanced Education). Also responsible for economic development programs (now in Economic Development), rural development (now in Agriculture Food and Rural Development) as well as the Northern Alberta Development Council."
- includes five priorities for Stelmach's new administration and new government structure (changes in dept. mandates)

Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry (EII)
Departmental home page

- Go to the Alberta Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/abkmrk.htm
- Go to the Key Provincial/Territorial Welfare Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/welfare.htm

2. What's new from Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry:
--- Debit cards replace Alberta welfare cheques - February 13
--- Alberta Income Support Class Action Settlement AISH, Income Support and Widows' Pension clients given more time to make claims - January 11

Alberta Works implements debit card program province wide:
Debit cards save government and Albertans with low incomes time and money
February 12, 2007
Edmonton... Starting in summer, 2007, Albertans who receive income support through Alberta Works and who do not have bank accounts will have the option to receive their benefits with a debit card. A successful six-month pilot project showed debit cards to be faster and less expensive to administer than conventional cheques and that Albertans on social assistance overwhelmingly preferred the cards. The program is the first of its kind in Canada.
- includes a backgrounder on the pilot project

Alberta Income Support Class Action Settlement
READ THIS if you or someone you know received assistance from
AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped), Widows Pension or Income Support between 1979 and 2005.

AISH, Income Support and Widows' Pension clients given more time to make claims
January 11, 2007
Edmonton... The deadline for submitting claims under a class action settlement involving social benefits has been extended to March 31, 2007.

Source:
Alberta Employment, Immigration and Industry

- Go to the Alberta Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/abkmrk.htm

3. What's new from Emploi et Solidarité sociale Québec:
--- asset exemption levels
--- Employment assistance statistics

What's new from Emploi et Solidarité sociale Québec (English home page):

February 8th, 2007
Social Assistance Program and Social Solidarity Program
The mini brochure “Last-resort financial assistance programs and liquid assets” (cash and negotiable assets) is now available.
Brochure (PDF file - 271K, 15 pages)

February 7th, 2007
Statistics on employment-assistance recipients
Official employment-assistance statistics are available in the official databanks on the website of the Banque de données des statistiques officielles du gouvernement du Québec.

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

Quoi de neuf d'Emploi et Solidarité sociale Québec :

8 février 2007
Le Programme d’aide sociale et le Programme de solidarité sociale
La mini brochure « Les programmes d’aide financière de dernier recours et l’avoir liquide (sommes d’argent et actifs) » est maintenant disponible.
Brochure (fichier PDF - 322Ko., 15 pages)

7 février 2007
Les statistiques sur les prestataires de l’assistance-emploi
Les statistiques officielles de l’assistance-emploi sont disponibles dans le site Internet de la Banque de données des statistiques officielles du gouvernement du Québec.

- Go to the Québec Links (English) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/qce.htm
- Rendez-vous à la page de liens de recherche sociale au Québec: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/qcbkmrk.htm

4. Does the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) violate the Charter of Rights? - January 2007
(ODSP Support and Activism Website)

Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP)

Open Challenge to all Ontarians
January 2007
David Thomasson Challenges:
Prove that the ODSP Act / Legislation Fully Conforms to Human Rights Legislation and I Will Give You $1,000.00

NOTE: this link is hosted by the ODSP Support and Activism Website. As a rule I don't link to individual or group campaigns (see #2 of my link submission guidelines), but this "$1000 Challenge" is a unique and bold way of raising awareness about an issue that has serious implications for the Ontario government if no one collects the $1,000 reward. The David Thomasson Challenge can be found on the ODSP Support & Activism Website - and that site includes this great collection of links:
Links to ODSP Resources online - 70+ links to related info

Source:
ODSP Support & Activism Website

Related Links:

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

Link to the CRRU home page:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) - University of Toronto

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

10. Poverty Dispatch:
U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs

Poverty Dispatch - U.S.
- links to news items from the American press about poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, education, health, hunger, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.
NOTE: this is a link to the current issue --- its content changes twice a week.

Past Poverty Dispatches
- links to two dispatches a week back to June 1 (2006) when the Dispatch acquired its own web page and archive.

Poverty Dispatch Digest Archive - weekly digest of dispatches from August 2005 to May 2006
For a few years prior to the creation of this new web page for the Dispatch, I was compiling a weekly digest of the e-mails and redistributing the digest to my mailing list with IRP's permission.
This is my own archive of weekly issues of the digest back to August 2005, and most of them have 50+ links per issue. I'll be deleting this archive from my site gradually, as the links to older articles expire.

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

11. What's New from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
--- Myths and Realities about the Alternative Minimum Tax - February 14
--- Myths and Realities about the tax cuts - Revised February 13
--- Implementing the TANF changes in the Deficit Reduction Act - February 9

MYTHS AND REALITIES ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX
February 14, 2007
by Aviva Aron-Dine
Public discussion of issues surrounding the AMT suffers from several misconceptions, which seem to be widespread among policymakers and others.

The Alternative Minimum Tax was created in 1969 to ensure that the highest-income households could not exploit loopholes, exclusions, and deductions to avoid paying any federal income tax. The AMT acts as a stop-gap tax system, with taxpayers owing their regular income tax or AMT liability, whichever is higher. Because the AMT parameters were never indexed for inflation, and because the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts substantially lowered taxpayers’ liability under the regular income tax without changing the structure of the AMT, the tax will affect a rapidly increasing number of taxpayers in future years in the unlikely event that no changes are made.

This piece examines 1) who pays the AMT, 2) the causes of the AMT problem, and 3) options for AMT reform.

http://www.cbpp.org/2-14-07tax.htm
http://www.cbpp.org/2-14-07tax.pdf 6pp.

Source:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)

Also from CBPP:

Tax Cuts : Myths and Realities
Revised February 13, 2007
Since 2001, the Administration and Congress have enacted a wide array of tax cuts, including reductions in individual income tax rates, repeal of the estate tax, and reductions in capital gains and dividend taxes. Nearly all of these tax cuts are scheduled to expire by the end of 2010. Making them permanent would cost about $3.5 trillion over the next decade (when the cost of additional interest on the federal debt is included). Because important decisions about these tax policies must be made in the next few years, it is essential to understand their effects on deficits, the economy, and the distribution of income. Supporters of the tax cuts have sometimes sought to bolster their case by understating the tax cuts’ costs, overstating their economic effects, or minimizing their regressivity. Here, we address some of the myths heard most frequently in recent tax-cut debates.

Implementing the TANF changes in the Deficit Reduction Act:
“win-win” solutions for families and states
Second Edition
February 9, 2007
In the coming months, states will face key choices as they decide the next direction for their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. After a lengthy and contentious reauthorization process, Congress enacted changes to TANF in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) that substantially increase the proportion of assistance recipients who must participate in work activities for a specified number of hours each week. In June 2006, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new regulations that implement these changes and significantly limit states’ flexibility in assigning recipients to work activities. The new requirements will be challenging for most states to meet and likely will require increased investments in welfare-to-work programs and work supports. (...) This guidebook, intended for state policymakers, human service agency staff, policy analysts, and others, discusses strategies that can help states as they consider their policy options for this next phase of welfare reform.

Complete report (PDF file - 665K, 129 pages)
Executive summary (PDF file - 156K, 6 pages)
Table of contents - download the individual chapters and appendix by clicking on the links appearing in the right-hand margin of the page:
--- Chapter 1: Changes to TANF Requirements Under the Deficit Reduction Act
--- Chapter 2: Improving Welfare-To-Work Programs and Increasing Engagement
--- Chapter 3: Income Supplements for Working Families
--- Chapter 4: Making TANF Work for Individuals with Disabilities
--- Chapter 5: Examining TANF Spending Priorities
--- Appendix: Additional Resources on Work Support Programs

- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (A-J) Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us2.htm

12. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (Washington, Paris)

The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor
With offices in Paris and Washington, DC, The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is a consortium of 33 public and private development agencies working together to expand access to a variety of financial services for the poor in the developing world. The agencies involved with this project include The World Bank, the European Commission, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For those who are less well versed in the world of microfinance, the “About Microfinance” section is a great place to begin, as is its counterpart, “Key Principles of Microfinance”. Included in the other sections (such as “Financial Transparency” and “Poverty Outreach”) are well-written briefs and reports that explain a wide range of related matters, including their poverty assessment tools, microfinance regulation, and documents on how to train people in the nuances of microfinance lending. Rounding out the site is a link where visitors can offer feedback or also just ask questions.
Review by:
The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2007.
http://scout.wisc.edu/

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

13. Government Social Research Bulletin - February 2007
(Government of the United Kingdom)

Government Social Research Bulletin (U.K)

Today we publish the latest Government Social Research Bulletin at
http://www.gsr.gov.uk/new_research/bulletin/2007/0702.asp

You will find a host of additions to GSRweb in the month up to 13 February, including the latest GSR news, updates on Continuing professional development, Forthcoming research, Research outputs,
plus a Website of the month feature.

As well as news of new research publications from Departments like:
* Home Office publish research on Risk, protective factors and resilience to drug use: identifying resilient young people and learning from their experiences.
* Department of Transport publish Attitudes to transport security after Jul 05 London bombings

...the bulletin also features other reports like:

* GSRU publish Ethics in social research: the view of research participants
* UK Data Archive publish data from the first wave of the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)
* National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) publish British Social Attitudes 23rd report: perspectives on a changing society

News items, for all with an interest in Government Social Research, will continue to be added to the homepage at http://www.gsr.gov.uk/
and to the Research news page at http://www.gsr.gov.uk/new_research/index.asp

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

14. Child Poverty in Perspective: An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries - February 14
(UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre)

What's New from the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre:

Child Poverty in Perspective :
An Overview of Child Well-Being in Rich Countries (PDF file - 64K, 2 pages)
Press Release
14 February 2007
"The six dimensions taken to measure the well- being of children – material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, behaviours and risks, and young people’s own subjective sense of well-being – offer a picture of the lives of children, and no single dimension can stand as a reliable proxy for child well-being as a whole. The landmark report shows that among all of the 21 OECD countries there are improvements to be made and that no single OECD country leads in all six of the areas."

Complete report:

Child poverty in perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries -
A comprehensive assessment of the lives and well-being of children and adolescents
in the economically advanced nations (PDF file - 1.5MB, 52 pages)
February 2007
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre Report Card 7

Companion document:

Comparing Child Well-Being in OECD Countries: Concepts and Methods (PDF files - 778K, 117 pages)
Jonathan Bradshaw, Petra Hoelscher and Dominic Richardson
Innocenti Working Paper
December 2006

Innocenti Report Card 7
- includes links to the above release and report in French, Italian and Spanish, along with key findings and background papers

Source:
UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) works to strengthen the capacity of UNICEF and its cooperating institutions to respond to the evolving needs of children and to develop a new global ethic for children. It promotes the effective implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, in both developing and industrialized countries, thereby reaffirming the universality of children’s rights and of UNICEF’s mandate. [ About IRC ]

Another recent release from IRC:

Innocenti Report Card no. 6
Child poverty rising in OECD countries
March 2005