Canadian Social Research Newsletter

Canadian Social Research Newsletter
January 21, 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 1734 subscribers.
Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see some notes and a disclaimer.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO NEWSLETTER NEXT WEEK, JANUARY 28.
The newsletter will resume the first week of February...
Gilles
(January 22)

IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian Content

1. A family consumed by long hours, low pay (Ontario minimum wage) The Toronto Star - January 202.
2. On the Dole: Businesses, Lobbyists and Industry Canada’s Subsidy Programs (Canadian Taxpayers Federation) - January 16
3. What's New from Statistics Canada:
--- International mobility: A longitudinal analysis of the effects on individuals' earnings, 1982 to 2003 - January 18
--- Marriages, 2003 - January 17
--- Study: Earnings losses of displaced workers, 1988 to 1997 - January 16
4. War on Poverty (13 articles) - The Toronto Star
5. What's New from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (University of Toronto) - January 19

International Content

6. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs
7. Homelessness Counts (National Alliance to End Homelessness) - U.S. - January 11
8. What's New from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)?
--- Women and Men in OECD Countries - January 19
--- OECD Family database - NEW!
--- Minimum Wages, Minimum Labour Costs and the Tax Treatment of Low-wage Employment - January 2007
--- Social Assistance Policy Development and the Provision of a Decent Level of Income in Selected OECD Countries (August 2006)
--- Measures of Material Deprivation in OECD Countries (August 2006)
9. The State of the World’s Children 2007 (UNICEF) - December 2006
10. Website poverty resources restructured and updated (Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion - Paris) - January 17

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

E-mail:
gilseg@rogers.com

1. A family consumed by long hours, low pay (Ontario minimum wages) - January 20
(The Toronto Star)

A family consumed by long hours, low pay
January 20, 2007
Rita Daly
"You have to admire people like Sam Thuraisamy. For the last 14 years he has delivered tens of thousands of pizzas across the city and says he has only himself to blame for a lifetime of long hours and dismally low pay."
Re. the upcoming Ontario minimum wage increase
See also:
[Minimum Wage Review] Boards set wage in six provinces
January 20, 2007

Source:
The Toronto Star

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

2. On the Dole: Businesses, Lobbyists and Industry Canada’s Subsidy Programs - January 16
(Canadian Taxpayers Federation)

Time to get Big Business off the Dole
News Release
January 16, 2007
"(...)A new report from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, entitled On the Dole: Businesses, Lobbyists and Industry Canada’s Subsidy Programs tracks billions of dollars in handouts for the period April 1, 1982, to March 31, 2006. All said, the industry department authorized $18.4-billion in various subsidies, paid to businesses, associations and foundations in 47,960 separate grants, contributions, loans and loan guarantees from – incredibly – 150 different programs. This figure does not include subsidies from other departments, federal regional development agencies, or corporate welfare programs from other levels of government.

Complete report:

On the Dole:
Businesses, Lobbyists and Industry Canada’s Subsidy Programs (PDF file - 513K, 33 pages)
January 2007

Source:
Canadian Taxpayers Federation

Related Link:

Marriages 2003
This product presents statistical tables on the number and rates of marriage in Canada and the provinces and territories.The number of marriages by age, religion of bride, religion of groom, month, and type of officiant are presented. Free data tables are supplemented by methodology, data quality, definitions and complementary information.

January 16, 2007
Study: Earnings losses of displaced workers, 1988 to 1997
High-seniority employees who lost their job during the 1990s as a result of firm closures and mass layoffs suffered substantial losses in earnings, even five years after they were displaced, according to a new study. The study found that, five years after being displaced, workers who lost their job through firm closures and mass layoffs experienced average earnings losses that represented at least 9% of their pre-displacement earnings. Losses incurred by workers with substantial seniority were more pronounced.
Source:
Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series

The Daily - January 2007
NOTE: check the links to the complete collection of January StatCan releases.

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

4. War on Poverty
(The Toronto Star)

From The Toronto Star:

Child benefit plan vital for province
Editorial
January 16, 2007
"Elita McAdam, a single mother of a 7-year-old boy, receives $1,008 in social assistance each month and spends 80 per cent of it on rent and utilities for her east-end Toronto apartment. As she explained in a front-page story yesterday in the Star, that leaves her barely $250 for food, clothing and transportation for the two of them, not enough to allow for fresh fruit, sports programs for her son Liam or even an occasional movie. But McAdam should be getting another $122 a month for Liam under the National Child Benefit Supplement, enough money to pay for nutritious food and to allow Liam to participate in sports and other programs that many other children take for granted..."

The above editorial is part of an ongoing series about the plight of our neediest and possible reforms.
Other articles in the same series:

- Struggling on $1,080 a month - January 15
McGuinty government has raised assistance rates 5.3%, gains wiped out by jumps in the cost of living

- New way to fight hunger - January 15
Pilot project aims to bring volunteers, poor together to look for solutions beyond food banks

- Poverty today - January 13
If the poor weren't so conveniently invisible, maybe we'd come to our moral senses and devise a national strategy for eliminating poverty.

- Editorial: Tackling poverty benefits all society - January 13
As Canadians, we like to think we live in a just society, one that gives fair treatment and opportunity to individuals and groups and a rightful share of our common wealth. But how just and inclusive is a society where children go hungry, some working people cannot earn a living wage, and the homeless crowd into shelters because they cannot afford a place to live?

- Poverty equation (.pdf)
(% of workforce making minimum wage in Canada compared with OECD countries, plus change in welfare benefits in Canada from 1989-2005)

- Editorial: Hidden face of Canada's poor - January 1
Tragically, the number of people living in poverty has grown – not dropped – in recent years despite economic boom times in many parts of this nation. Those good times, though, have bypassed many Canadians. Today, one in six Canadians, including 1.2 million children, live a miserable existence on incomes well below anyone's definition of poverty.

- Editorial: Targeted strategy can uproot poverty - January 2
In a unanimous 1989 vote, Parliament set itself the bold goal of eradicating child poverty by the year 2000. Yet today, 18 years later, the percentage of children living in poverty is higher than it was when that pledge was made, while poverty among all Canadians is as rooted as ever.

- Editorial: Defining poverty crucial first step - January 6
How many Canadians are really living in poverty today? How much money would it take to lift them over the poverty line? Regrettably, no one can say for certain because Canada lacks an official measure of poverty. And without such a measure, governments and advocates for the poor can only guess at how widespread poverty is, whether it is getting better or worse, and what must be done to eliminate it or even cut it in half.

- Editorial: Foreign governments point way on homeless - January 7
Political leaders and social activists in France, Scotland and, increasingly, the United States are changing their views on what to do about the homeless crisis in their countries. Frustrated by persistent homelessness, they have adopted concrete measures to eliminate it, rather than merely trying to manage the issue. It is a tactic Toronto, Queen's Park and the federal government would do well to study carefully and, where appropriate, to act on.

- Goar: Rich-poor gap a chasm - January 10
On Nov. 20 (2006), the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives launched its "Growing Gap" project. Its aim is to convert people's unease about the concentration of wealth into an active conviction that something is wrong when the economy is doing better than most of the population; when families are working longer and harder to stay in the same place; and when governments sanction this arrangement.

- Two jobs, almost invisible - October 5, 2006
After 13 years in Canada, she still can't afford to buy a sofa
650,000 other working Canadians struggle just like her
HINT: this article includes links to nine more related articles from the fall of 2006

- Editorial: Raises big and small - January 5
Just before Christmas, Ontario's MPPs gave themselves a 25 per cent pay hike. On Feb. 1, the province's poorest workers will get a 3.2 per cent raise to a paltry $8 an hour.

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

5. What's New from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit - January 19
(University of Toronto)

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

19-Jan-07

---------------------------------------------------
What's New
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WOMEN AND CHILDREN: THE DOUBLE DIVIDEND OF GENDER EQUALITY
UNICEF's The State of the World's Children 2007 examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives and what must be done to empower women and girls.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95198

MAKING SPACE: AWARD WINNING DESIGNS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Book and online photo gallery from Children in Scotland documents an international competition in architecture and design for young children.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95196

MINISTER REID – IT'S TIME TO RESIGN
Media release from the Coalition of Child Care Advocates BC in response to Minister Linda Reid's Letter to the Child Care Community.
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95195

CHILD CARE: WHAT CANADIAN PARENTS NEED NOW
Today's Parent magazine conducted a national survey of readers' child care needs, finds there is "nothing simple" and "no easy solutions".
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95194

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Child Care in the News
--------------------------------------------------

France claims EU fertility crown [FR]
BBC News, 16 Jan 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95187

Still waiting for daycare relief [CA]
Toronto Star, 16 Jan 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95188

Parents using patchwork of child care: survey [CA]
CTV.ca, 15 Jan 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95181

No program and no plan [CA]
Edmonton Sun, 15 Jan 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95182

Concerned mom takes a close look at city daycare menus [CA-ON]
Toronto Star, 13 Jan 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95185

Child care cuts hurt B.C.'s future [CA-BC]
Victoria Times-Colonist, 12 Jan 07
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=94820

Child-care crisis already here: Letter to the Editor [CA-BC]
Victoria Times-Colonist, 19 Jan 92
http://action.web.ca/home/crru/rsrcs_crru_full.shtml?x=95189

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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 Link:

Of 744,000 homeless estimated in US, 41 percent are in families
By Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
January 11, 2007
WASHINGTON -- There were 744,000 homeless people in the United States in 2005, according to the first national estimate in a decade. A little more than half were living in shelters, and nearly a quarter were chronically homeless, according to the report yesterday by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, an advocacy group.
Source:
Boston Globe

- Go to the Homelessness and Housing Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/homeless.htm
- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (M-Z) Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us3.htm

8. What's New from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)?
--- Women and Men in OECD Countries - January 19
--- OECD Family database - NEW!
--- Minimum Wages, Minimum Labour Costs and the Tax Treatment of Low-wage Employment - January 2007
--- Social Assistance Policy Development and the Provision of a Decent Level of Income in Selected OECD Countries (August 2006)
--- Measures of Material Deprivation in OECD Countries (August 2006)

What's New from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)?

Women and Men in OECD Countries (PDF file - 2MB, 33 pages)
January 19, 2007
"..describes a few of the most important recent and ongoing projects aimed at improving gender policy in OECD countries. Information on OECD work on gender issues in developing countries follows."
- including Canada

OECD Family database - NEW!
Following up on the OECD Babies and Bosses reviews on the reconciliation of work and family life in selected Member States, and in view of the strong demand for cross-national indicators on the situation of families and children, the OECD has developed an on-line database on family outcomes and family policies with indicators for all OECD countries. The database brings together information from different OECD databases (for example, the OECD Social Expenditure database, the OECD Benefits and Wages database, or the OECD Education database, and databases maintained by other (international) organisations.

Minimum Wages, Minimum Labour Costs and the Tax Treatment of Low-wage Employment (PDF file - 256K, 24 pages)
January 16, 2007
By Herwig Immervoll
International comparisons of minimum-wage levels have largely focused on the gross value of minimum wages, ignoring the effects of taxation on both labour costs and the net income of employees. This paper presents estimates of the tax burdens facing minimum-wage workers. These are used as a basis for cross-country comparisons of the net earnings of these workers as well as the cost of employing them. In addition, results show the evolution of net incomes and labour costs during the 2000-2005 period and the relative importance of minimum-wage adjustments and tax reforms in driving these changes.
(...) Statutory minimum wages are in place in 21 OECD countries [including Canada - text and bolding added], ranging between USD 0.7 and USD 10 per hour.
This paper is the working paper version of a chapter to appear in the 2007 edition of Taxing Wages, an annual OECD publication.

Social Assistance Policy Development and the Provision
of a Decent Level of Income in Selected OECD Countries (PDF file - 420K, 33 pages)
August 2006
By Willem Adema
In many OECD countries, social assistance policy has a focus on promoting independence of claimants through social help and employment support policies. Nevertheless, financial support provided to address the immediate needs of households remains an important plank of social assistance policy. How is the level of such support determined in OECD countries? Do countries use measures reflecting a .basket of goods. that is considered to provide a minimum subsistence level, or a somewhat more generous standard of living? Are benefits increased automatically, along mechanisms triggered automatically by observable changes in price levels, or are benefit payment rates revised regularly in view of (minimum) wage developments, trends in the consumer price index or the changing state of public budgets?
(...) The paper has a focus on [social assistance] rate setting mechanisms in Belgium, Canada [bolding added], the Czech Republic, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Measures of Material Deprivation in OECD Countries (PDF file - 808K, 71 pages)
August 2006
By Romina Boarini and Marco Mira d'Ercole
Poverty is a complex issue, and a variety of approaches are required for its measurement and analysis. While monetary measures of income poverty are widespread, a long-standing tradition relies on non-monetary measures, based on either the respondent’s self-assessment of their own conditions or on measures of ownership of consumer goods and living standards. Measures of material deprivation fall into this latter category. These measures rest on shared judgments about which items are more important to provide a "decent" living standard, irrespective of people’s preferences and of their capacity to afford these items. (...) This paper discusses the use of material deprivation measures for an analysis of poverty in OECD countries [including Canada - text and bolding added].

Source:
OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers <===links to 45 more papers!
[ Directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs ]
[ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development - OECD ]

- Go to the Government Social Research Links in Other Countries page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/internat.htm
- Go to the Minimum Wage /Living Wage Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/minwage.htm
- Go to the Poverty Measures - International Resources page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/poverty2.htm

9. The State of the World’s Children 2007 - December 2006
(UNICEF)

The State of the World’s Children 2007
December 2006
The State of the World’s Children 2007 examines the discrimination and disempowerment women face throughout their lives – and outlines what must be done to eliminate gender discrimination and empower women and girls.
- incl. links to all related material --- news release, full report, profiles, statistics, youth centre, Gender and the life cycle (multimedia feature), and more...

Empower Women to Help Children
Gender Equality Produces a ‘Double Dividend’ that Benefits Both Women and Children, UNICEF Reports
Press Release
11 December 2006
NEW YORK/GENEVA, 11 December 2006 – Eliminating gender discrimination and empowering women will have a profound and positive impact on the survival and well-being of children, according to a new UNICEF report issued on UNICEF’s 60th anniversary. Gender equality produces the “double dividend” of benefiting both women and children and is pivotal to the health and development of families, communities and nations, according to The State of the World’s Children 2007.

Executive Summary (PDF file - 697K, 44 pages)
Full report (PDF file - 1.8MB, 160 pages)
Download the report by chapter (HTML table of contents + links to individual PDF files)
Chapters: A call for equality * Equality in the household * Equality in employment * Equality in politics and government * Reaping the double dividend of gender equality
View previous issues of this report - annual, back to 1996

Source:
UNICEF

- Go to the International Children, Families and Youth Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chn2.htm
- Go to the Children's Rights Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnrights.htm

10. Poverty resources restructured and updated - January 17
(Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion - Paris)

New from the Council for Employment, Income and Social Cohesion - Paris
Conseil de l'emploi, des revenus et de la cohésion sociale - CERC[version française]

"The topic Poverty has been restructured.
The following new headings have been added:
- an introduction to the main concepts
- a statistical portal
- updated recommended websites
You will find approximately 1500 documents online."
HINT: click on the links in the right-hand margin of the Poverty page for more content

CERC themes - incl. Poverty * Social minima * In-work benefits * Minimum wage * Unemployment and return to work

- Go to the Government Social Research Links in Other Countries page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/internat.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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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 mention Canadian Social Research Links when you do.

Cheers!
Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com

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Interesting Real Facts (Strange but True)

1 - Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

2 - A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

3 - 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

4 - 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

5 - On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

6 - Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

7 - Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.

8 - Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

9 - Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

10 - There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

11 - Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

12 - Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves.

13 - Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
(Ewwwwww.)

14. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

15. Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.
(Eh?)

Source:
108 Interesting real Facts
http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/winfo/realfact.htm

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