We all want to feel good about what Canada stands for. From progress on LGBTQ rights, to communities coming together to support new immigrants, to modest steps toward reconciliation, there are reasons to be proud of how far we’ve come in 2017. But are we prepared to move beyond pride—to…
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To end homelessness, provincial and territorial governments need to adequately finance social spending—especially spending on affordable housing, social assistance, child benefits, and homelessness services. And any provincial government wanting to increase social spending needs a solid fiscal plan to get there. Here are 10 things to know about the fiscal…
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The production and consumption of oil, gas and coal has been one of the primary drivers of global growth and development for more than a century. Unfortunately—and ironically—those same fuels are now the greatest threat to our future wellbeing and prosperity. Fossil fuels are the main source of human-made greenhouse…
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Halifax City Council should heed their staff’s recommendation to “engage external stakeholders and conduct further investigation on whether or not to adopt an employee compensation/living wage policy for Council’s consideration.” There is enough evidence in Canada that becoming a living wage employer is possible for municipalities — indeed, they can…
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When the Ontario government rolled out its five-year child care action plan for children under 4 years earlier this month, the child care movement applauded—perhaps for the first time, and?more or less enthusiastically, since the Paul Martin Liberals introduced their Canada-wide “QUAD” plan in 2004, which advanced quality, universal inclusivity…
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The City of Toronto has responded to the explosion of Airbnb-type short-term rentals in a staff report detailing measures to regulate this emerging sector. The number of Airbnb listings in Toronto grew by a whopping 288 per cent between 2013 and 2016 but these types of online platforms that…
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When federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled his 2017 federal budget in March, he pledged to make Canada’s tax system fairer. To his credit, he has closed several of the smaller tax credits in the past two budgets, but this hasn’t made a dent in how unequal the tax system…
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The morning after the Liberals won another majority government in Nova Scotia, a headline on the CBC Nova Scotia website read: “Nova Scotia teachers ‘worried about the next 4 years’ under Liberals.” And no doubt other Nova Scotians have similar concerns: what can we expect from the new government when…
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