Canadian Social Research Newsletter
May 20, 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 1809 subscribers.
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see some notes and a disclaimer.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian Content

1. National Seniors Council - Government of Canada
2. The Economics of the Minimum Wage (Canadian Labour Congress) - February 5, 2007
3. What's New from Statistics Canada:
--- Consumer Price Index, April 2007 - May 17
--- Canadian Economic Observer, May 2007 - May 17
--- 2006 Census of Agriculture: Farm operations and operators - May 16
--- Study: Workaholics and time perception, 2005 - May 15
--- Aboriginal Languages in Canada: Emerging Trends and Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition - May 15
4. Canada News Centre - all the news that's fit to post from Canada's New Government
5. The Poverty Business (U.S) - May 21/07 issue of Business Week
6. What's New - from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (University of Toronto) - May 18

International Content

7. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs
8. The Twelve Tribes of American Politics (Beliefnet) - 2006
9. CIA: The World Factbook 2007 (Central Intelligence Agency) - May 2007
10. Indicators of Welfare Dependence Annual Report to Congress, 2006 (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services)
11. Australian Policy Online Weekly Briefing

Have a great week!

National Seniors Council
The National Seniors Council provides advice to Canada's New Government on all matters related to the health, well-being and quality of life of seniors.

Canada's New Government Announces Appointments to National Seniors Council
May 3, 2007
- incl. a backgrounder with info about federal initiatives for seniors and biographical notes concerning the Council members.

Canada's New Government Improves Access to Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Benefits
May 3, 2007
Bill C-36, which makes amendments to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and the Old Age Security Act is now law. Once in force, the changes will make it easier for people to apply for benefits and will make it easier for more Canadians with disabilities to receive benefits.
- incl. a backgrounder with a detailed summary of Bill C-36: An Act to Amend the Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Security Act.

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

Does a higher minimum wage mean fewer jobs?

The Economics of the Minimum Wage
February 5, 2007
"(...) Predictably, the growing momentum for a higher minimum wage has generated cries from business and employer-friendly governments that such a move is an “inefficient” way of fighting poverty, and will come at the cost of jobs. (...) With respect to the job loss argument, individual studies by economists can be and are endlessly cited on one side or other of this endless debate. However, the consensus of even the impeccably orthodox and mainstream economists at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is now that minimum wages set at “reasonable” levels do not have significant negative impacts on the employment of so-called lower-skilled adults.

The Economics of the Minimum Wage (PDF file - 40K, 3 pages)
January 2007
Andrew Jackson

Source:
Canadian Labour Congress

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

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

May 17, 2007
Consumer Price Index, April 2007
Consumers paid 2.2% more in April for the goods and services in the Consumer Price Index basket than they did in April 2006, a slightly slower growth than the 2.3% increase recorded in March. However, excluding energy components, consumer prices increased at their fastest pace (+2.4%) in almost four years.
Related links:
Consumer Price Index, April 2007
- incl. links to : Highlights - Tables - Charts - Data quality, concepts and methodology - User information - Products and services - PDF version
Earlier issues of The Consumer Price Index

May 17, 2007
("New products")
Canadian Economic Observer, May 2007
- incl. links to : Current economic conditions - Economic events - Feature article - Tables - Charts - User information - PDF version

May 16, 2007
2006 Census of Agriculture: Farm operations and operators
Today, Statistics Canada provides the latest snapshot of the nation's agricultural industry using new data from the 2006 Census of Agriculture. Comprehensive information about agricultural operations across Canada and the people managing those farms is available in three reports.
Snapshot of Canadian Agriculture looks at the products and people of Canadian farming.
The Financial Picture of Farms in Canada reviews agriculture's performance from the perspective of small and large farms.
Farming in Canada's CMAs profiles the farms that share space with urban areas in Canada.

From the May 2007 issue of
Canadian Social Trends:

May 15, 2007
Study: Workaholics and time perception, 2005
One out of every three Canadians identifies themselves as a workaholic, and these individuals are much more likely to be dissatisfied with the balance between their work and family time than other workers, a new study has found. The study, published today in the May online edition of Canadian Social Trends, used data from the 2005 General Social Survey (GSS) to examine whether quality of life is different for workers who describe themselves as workaholics than for those who do not self-identify as workaholics.

Complete study:

Time escapes me: Workaholics and time perception
By Leslie-Anne Keown
HTML
PDF (75K, 5 pages)

Also in the same issue of Canadian Social Trends:

Aboriginal Languages in Canada: Emerging Trends and Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition
By Mary Jane Norris
Aboriginal people are confronted with the fact that many of their languages are disappearing. Over the past 100 years or more, at least 10 once-flourishing languages have become extinct. However, declining trends in the intergenerational transmission of Aboriginal mother tongues are being offset (to a degree) by the fact that Aboriginal languages are increasingly being learned as second languages.
HTML
PDF (104K, 9 pages)

Earlier issues of Canadian Social Trends

- Go to the Federal Government Department Links (Fisheries and Oceans to Veterans Affairs) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fedbkmrk2.htm
- Go to the First Nations Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/1stbkmrk.htm
- Go to the Work-Life Balance Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/work_life_balance.htm

Canada News Centre
CATEGORIES * News Releases * Media Advisories * Warnings and Advisories * Speeches and Statements * Reports
VIEWS * National News * News by Region * News by Audience * News Centre Archives
RESOURCES * Media Contacts * Government Initiatives * Weather * Canada Gazette * Hansard Index * What's New (Canada Site) * Info Source * Laws in Canada * Population Affiliation Report * Provincial and Territorial News
Source:
Government of Canada

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

The Poverty Business
Inside U.S. companies' audacious drive to extract more profits from the nation's working poor
May 2007
"(...) In recent years, a range of businesses have made financing more readily available to even the riskiest of borrowers. Greater access to credit has put cars, computers, credit cards, and even homes within reach for many more of the working poor. But this remaking of the marketplace for low-income consumers has a dark side: Innovative and zealous firms have lured unsophisticated shoppers by the hundreds of thousands into a thicket of debt from which many never emerge."

NOTE: you'll find links to the following related items on the same page as the above article:

* Chart: Borrowing Binge
* Graphic: Extreme Interest
* Chart: The Other Banking System
* Graphic: From Thin Wallets, Big Money
* Study Now—And Pay And Pay And Pay Later
* Chart: Expensive Debt
* The Economics of the Poverty Business
* Cutting the Cost of Poverty

Source:
Business Week - May 21/07 issue

- Go to the Banks and Business Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/bookmrk3.htm
- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (A-J) Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us2.htm

What's New - from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) - University of Toronto

The Childcare Resource and Research Unit offers a free weekly "e-mail news notifier" service.
Below, you'll find selected content of the latest issue of this bulletin.

For more information about this service,
including instructions for (un)subscribing, see:
http://www.childcarecanada.org

18-May-07

---------------------------------------------------
What's New
---------------------------------------------------

BILL C-303: EARLY LEARNING AND CHILD CARE ACT
Private member’s bill to "establish criteria and conditions in respect to funding for early learning and child care programs" has passed Committee hearings and will return to Parliament for final vote.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=92897

OPPORTUNITIES TO RECONCILE FAMILY AND WORK
Report from the Finnish government features a comparison of parental leaves, child care policies and mothers’ employment in Finland and Sweden.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102347

BC CHILD CARE SURVEY
Online survey from the BC Child Care Advocacy Forum asks for BC parents’ opinions on child care in the province.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102346

SPECIAL ELECTION BULLETIN
Press release from the Child Care Coalition of Manitoba features parties’ answers to three key child care questions in the run-up to the May 22nd Manitoba election.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102344

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Child care in the news
--------------------------------------------------

Ottawa pressured to provide funding [CA]
Vernon Morning Star, 18 May 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102324

Child care funds drying up [CA-BC]
Georgia Straight, 17 May 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102325

City says child care subsidies at risk [CA-ON]
Annex Guardian, 17 May 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102327

Feds can’t say for sure where $2 billion in child care funding went [CA]
Canadian Press, 14 May 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102326

Women MPs blur party lines [CA]
Toronto Star, 9 May 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=102343

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

The Childcare Resource and Research Unit
University of Toronto, Canada
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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

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

The Twelve Tribes of American Politics
The religious groups that comprise the U.S. electorate--and how they voted in 2004.
Source:
Beliefnet

NOTE:
Although this is not Canadian social policy as such, I was nonetheless compelled to include a link to this short (8-page) synopsis after the death last week of Jerry Falwell, icon of the Religious Right.
Religious groups that work to influence American public policy include:
• the "religious right" • heartland culture warriors moderate evangelicals • white bread protestants • convertible catholics • the "religious left" • spiritual but not religious • seculars • latinos • jews • muslims & other faiths • black protestants

- incl. info for each group on:
• Percent of voting-age population • Percent of 2004 voters • Who they are • Examples • Ideology • Political Party • Political trend • How they voted • What they care about

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

CIA: The World Factbook 2007
("Country information has been updated as of 15 May 2007")
The World Factbook remains the CIA's most widely disseminated and most popular product; millions of visitors frequent the online Factbook each month. In addition, tens of thousands of government, commercial, academic, and other Web sites link to, or replicate, the online version of the Factbook. This reference site is updated biweekly throughout the year to provide wide-ranging and hard-to-locate information about the background, geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Included among the 271 geographic entries is one for the "World," which incorporates data and other information summarized where possible from the other 270 country listings.
- the home page of the Factbook includes links to the following:
* Appendixes * Reference Maps * Notes and Definitions * Guide to Country Profiles * Guide to Rank Order Pages * History of The World Factbook * Contributors and Copyright Information * Purchasing Information *
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) * Flags of the World * Gallery of Covers * Text/Low Bandwidth Version * Download This Publication * Submit a Factual Update * Search The World Factbook

Download the Factbook
NOTE: read the Download page carefully, because they give you a number of options to download the Factbook. If you have a fast Internet connection, I'd recommend downloading the entire report in one zip file - it's almost 39MB, but it's a simpler download...

Source:
Central Intelligence Agency

Related link:

The World Factbook - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- Go to the Links to American Government Social Research Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us.htm

Indicators of Welfare Dependence
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Annual Report to Congress, 2006

Complete report:
HTML version
PDF version (11MB, 176 pages)
NOTE: if you scroll down to the bottom of the HTML version, you'll find links to individual chapters that you can download (smaller filesizes, faster to download)

Executive Summary:
HTML
PDF (122K, 3 pages)

Contents:
I - Introduction and Overview
II - Indicators of Dependence
III - Predictors and Risk Factors Associated with Welfare Receipt

************
NOTE: this report includes a number of appendices, the main one in my view being Appendix A (the link below). This is the most recent national statistical snapshot providing expenditure trends and caseload information related to American welfare programs under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and its predecessor the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, as well as the Food Stamp program and Supplemental Security Income program.

Appendix A. Program Data
The Welfare Indicators Act of 1994 specifies that the annual welfare indicators reports shall include analyses of families and individuals receiving assistance under three means-tested benefit programs:
• The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program authorized under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (replaced with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996);
• The Food Stamp Program under the Food Stamp Act of 1977, as amended;
• The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program under title XVI of the Social Security Act.
This appendix includes information on these three programs, derived primarily from administrative data reported by state and federal agencies instead of the national survey data presented in previous chapters. National caseloads and expenditure trend information on each of the three programs is included, as well as state-by-state trend tables and information on the characteristics of program participants.
************

Recommended reading!
The Factbook includes longitudinal and current caseload and expenditure data for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Food Stamp Program and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). In addition, you'll find dozens of tables and charts showing predictors and risk factors associated with welfare receipt, such as : Poverty Rates - Deep Poverty Rates - Experimental Poverty Measures - Poverty Spells - Child Support - Food Insecurity - Lack of Health Insurance - Labor Force Attachment - Earnings of Low-Skilled Workers - Educational Attainment - High School Dropout Rates - Adult Alcohol and Substance Abuse - Adult and Child Disability Births to Unmarried Women/Teens - more...

Earlier annual reports - back to 1997

Source:
Human Services Policy (HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

Related link:

2004 Green Book
This is the definitive American government source for information on U.S. social programs.
(The 2004 edition is the latest that's currently available.)

NOTE: for links to Canadian welfare statistics, go to http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/stats.htm#welfare

- Go to the Links to American Government Social Research Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us.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 50+ events of interest to social researchers...
Source:
Australian Policy Online (APO)
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

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 ]

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

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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