October 25, 2012
- Facing a Slow Growth Future
- Canadians Quality of Life is Falling
- Two Years Later: Ontario Midwives Still Without a Contract
- Ontario Considers Abolishing Articling Requirement
- Compensation Planning Outlook 2013
- Is Success Based on Your Birth Month?
- Temporary Relief From Rising Benefit Costs
- Conference Board of Canada Smoothing the Way for China
- Youth Still Struggle with Post-Recession Unemployment
- The Games We Play
- Annals of Heartlessness: Anti-Homeless Benches
- Open Data Comes to Canada
- Gender Wage Gap in the EU & US
- Follow us on Facebook
- Book of the Week
Facing a Slow Growth Future
The Department of Finance has released a new study, Economic and Fiscal Implications of Canada’s Aging Population, which supports the government’s position that that spending cuts are needed to sustain social programs into the future. Between now and 2030, the ratio of persons aged 65 and over to the working age population (ages 15-64) will rise from 21% to 37%. Andrew Jackson points out, however, that the report ignores positive feedback that could occur as a result of the labour force slowing. This could include a rise in wages, as well as investment by employers in equipment and in upgrading the skills of their workers.
The Globe and Mail, Oct. 25, 2012: The upside of slow growth in the labour force by Andrew Jackson
Department of Finance, 2012: Economic and Fiscal Implications of Canada’s Aging Population (65 pages, PDF) (Table of Contents, HTML)
Canadians Quality of Life is Falling
The second Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) composite report shows in the seventeen year period from 1994 to 2010, Canada's GDP grew by a robust 28.9% while our quality of life only improved by a very modest 5.7%. Further, it reveals Canadian wellbeing dropped by 24% between 2008 and 2010 and the decline in our wellbeing continues despite subsequent economic recovery.
The findings uncover some troubling truths about the connection between our economy and our wellbeing. When Canada’s economy was thriving, Canadians saw only modest improvements in their overall quality of life, but when the economy faltered our wellbeing took a disproportionate step backward. It begs the question: Are our governments truly responding to the needs and values of everyday Canadians?
Canadian Index of Wellbeing, Oct. 2012: How are Canadians Really Doing? (82 pages, PDF) (Summary)
The Globe and Mail, Oct. 23, 2012: Study finds Canadians aren’t feeling economic growth in their daily lives by Tavia Grant
CBC News, Oct. 23, 2012: Canadian quality of life hammered by recession
OECD, July 2012: Create Your Better Life Index
Two Years Later: Ontario Midwives Still Without a Contract
Midwives have been negotiating a contract with the government since October 19, 2010. After two years of stalled negotiations, they are still working with an expired contract, delivering 25,000 babies in the interim. The Association of Ontario Midwives launched the Born Without a Contract campaign to pressure the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to return to the bargaining table. Buffy Fulton-Breathat, of the Sudbury Community Midwifery Practice, says that "the government is currently not honouring the scale of pay."
According to OECD figures, there are 4.5 registered midwives per 100,000 females in Canada. The services that midwives provide save the health care system money. Without a contract and wages that keep pace with others in the health care profession, there is fear that midwives will leave it for nursing and other careers.
Association of Ontario Midwives: Back to the table campaign
CBC News, Oct. 21, 2012: Still without a contract
The Sudbury Star, Oct. 22, 2012: “Ontario midwives rallying to ask province to bargain for new contract,” by Carol Mulligan
CIHI, Nov. 2011: Learning From the Best: Benchmarking Canada’s Health System (26 pages, PDF)
Ontario Considers Abolishing Articling Requirement
The Law Society of Upper Canada is considering changes to the articling process, which has long been a requirement to become a licensed lawyer. This debate has been prompted by a shortage of law firms willing to hire articling students. There are currently two proposals on the table: the first would implement a licensing process that would bypass articling, while the second would abolish the requirement altogether. Articling has faced chronic criticism for being outdated and discriminatory.
The Law Society of Upper Canada, Oct. 25, 2012: Pathways to the Profession: A Roadmap for the Reform of Lawyer Licensing in Ontario by Articling Task Force (100 pages, PDF) (Summary)
The Globe and Mail, Oct. 22, 2012: “The end of forced articling for lawyers on the table,” by Kirk Makin
Compensation Planning Outlook 2013
The average pay increase for non-unionized employees is projected to be 3.0 per cent in 2013. The projected inflation rate is forecast at 2.2 per cent. The overall increase for 2012 was also 3.0 per cent. Other results from the survey included in the report address base pay, short- and long-term incentive plans, pensions, rewards strategy and priorities, recruitment and retention, and negotiation issues.
Conference Board of Canada, October 24, 2012: Compensation Planning and Outlook 2013 (35 pages, PDF) is available to the University of Toronto community via your Conference Board of Canada e-Library account (If you do not have an account follow instructions here using your University of Toronto email address)
Is Success Based on Your Birth Month?
Maurice Levi, a professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, has released a study showing that CEOs are statistically more likely to be born before June. A few months of extra development can make a lasting impact when it comes to performing in school and afterward. Levi says, “The confidence that people gain feeds upon itself, because if you’re self-confident you assert yourself, and if you assert yourself you get noticed… So it’s a lifetime effect.” This reinforces the findings of a study conducted by Kelly Bedard and Elizabeth Dhuey, which determined that important early relative maturity effects propagate themselves into adulthood through the structure of education systems.
The Globe and Mail, Oct. 23, 2012: Want to be a CEO? Watch when you’re born
The Toronto Star, Apr. 6, 2012: Age differences play key role in early learning by Sachin Maharaj
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2006: The Persistence of Early Childhood Maturity: International Evidence of Long-Run Age Effects by Kelly Bedard & Elizabeth Dhuey (35 pages, PDF)
60 Minutes, Mar. 4, 2012: Redshirting: Holding kids back from kindergarten
Temporary Relief From Rising Benefit Costs
Canadian organizations got a modest reprieve from the increase in benefit costs in the past three years, but the relief will be short-lived – making cost containment and absence management the priorities for employers. These findings, based on The Conference Board of Canada’s second national survey of benefit programs, were issued at the Benefits Summit 2012.
Conference Board of Canada, October 23, 2012: Benefits Benchmarking 2012 (75 pages, PDF) is available to the University of Toronto community via your Conference Board of Canada e-Library account (If you do not have an account follow instructions here using your University of Toronto email address)
Conference Board of Canada Smoothing the Way for China
The Conference Board of Canada has released a ‘free’ publication, Fuel for Thought: The Economic Benefit of Oil Sands Investment for Canada’s Regions in the midst of the debate surrounding the takeover of Nexan by China’s CNOOC Ltd. Because of the lack of clarity surrounding the government’s varied interpretations of “net benefit” one writer surmises, “Canadians will be left believing that the federal government’s recent rejection of the Petronas takeover bid was nothing more than political cover for the expected approval of the pending Nexen bid.” [Toronto Star]
Toronto Star, October 23, 2012: “Canada caught in geopolitical energy struggle between China and the U.S.’” by Matthew Lombardi
The Globe and Mail, July 26, 2012: “Nexen deal: The only standard is reciprocity,” by Roger Martin
Financial Post, October 25, 2012: “Nexen still expects CNOOC deal as profit tumbles”
The Globe and Mail, Sep. 27 2012: “To whose ‘net benefit’ in the oil patch?”
Youth Still Struggle with Post-Recession Unemployment
A study released by Statistics Canada shows that the recovery of the employment rate for older works has not spread to the young. It reports that “…youth employment has not yet recovered to its pre-recession peak in September 2008. By contrast, adult employment recovered by April 2010 and has continued to expand. Employment among workers aged 55 and over increased substantially during the recovery.” Miles Corak suggests that “These patterns have been clear for some time, and in fact might be worse than the picture suggests because they do not even correct for the growth in the underlying population.”
Statistics Canada, Oct. 2012: Recent Developments in the Canadian Economy: Fall 2012 by Cyndi Bloskie and Guy Gellatly (9 pages, PDF)
Economics for Public Policy, Oct. 23, 2012: “No job growth for Canada’s youth,” by Miles Corak
The Globe and Mail, Oct. 22, 2012: “Older workers have the edge in current recovery,” by Tavia Grant
The Games We Play
Originally, the game we now know as “Monopoly,” was a game created through “communal labour.” One “professor said he had learned to play the game around 1910, while living in Arden, then taught it to his students at Wharton in order that they might learn, in his words, “the antisocial nature of monopoly,” and in particular “the wickedness of land monopoly.”
In the words of Richard Marinaccio, the 2009 U.S. national Monopoly champion: “Monopoly players around the kitchen table”—which is to say, most people—“think the game is all about accumulation,” he said. “You know, making a lot of money. But the real object is to bankrupt your opponents as quickly as possible. To have just enough so that everybody else has nothing.”
Harper’s Magazine, October 19, 2012: “Monopoly Is Theft: The antimonopolist history of the world’s most popular board game, By Christopher,” by Christopher Ketcham
Amazon.ca: The Billion Dollar Monopoly Swindle: During a David and Goliath Battle, the Inventor of the Anti-Monopoly Game Uncovers the Secret History of Monopoly, by Ralph Anspach
Annals of Heartlessness: Anti-Homeless Benches
“Some would argue that the same amount of ingenuity and funding could have been directed towards help for the homelessness rather than help for those annoyed by the homeless. Apparently, the latter are not entirely satisfied with the solution, since sitting on these benches is said to be just as uncomfortable as sleeping on them.”[Filip Spagnoli]
P.a.p.-Blog , Human Rights Etc., Filip Spagnoli's blog, October 23, 2012; Annals of Heartlessness (29): Anti-Homeless Benches
Open Data Comes to Canada
The Government of Canada developed the Open Data Pilot Portal to create a central location for making government data freely available in machine-readable formats. Canadian Open Data Sitesprovides a list of Provincial and Municipal Open Data sites that have been created to release freely available open data in Canada.
The Ten Most Downloaded Datasets includes Canada - Total entries of foreign workers by province or territory and urban area - English version which can be downloaded from this page
See Open data from Wikipedia for more information
Gender Wage Gap in the EU & US
European Union Justice Minister Viviane Reding has had to scrap a plan to implement a quota that would see women make up 40% of members on supervisory boards of publicly traded companies. Companies that did not comply would have faced sanctions and fines. The proposal was found to lack a sufficient legal basis, and a new plan is in the works that will put the 40% mark as an objective for companies to meet.
A map produced by Slate illustrates pay disparity for women in the United States. It is most pronounced in Utah, where the average working woman makes 55 cents for every dollar earned by the average working man. Not far behind are Wyoming (56 cents), Louisiana (59 cents), and North Dakota and Michigan (62 cents). The best states for income equality are Hawaii, Florida, Nevada, Maryland, and North Carolina, where women make about three-fourths of what men make.
Slate, Oct. 18, 2012: “Map Shows the Worst State for Women To Make Money: Gender income inequality by state and county,” by Chris Kirk
The Globe and Mail, Oct. 23, 2012: “EU drops women board quotas plan,” by James Fontanella-Khan
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Book of the Week
The Making of Global Capitalism: the Political Economy of American Empire, by Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch. London ; Brooklyn, NY : Verso, 2012. 456 p. ISBN 9781844677429 (hardcover)
UTLibraries link to catalogue record: http://go.utlib.ca/cat/8572369
In this groundbreaking work, Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin demonstrate the intimate relationship between modern capitalism and the American state, including its role as an “informal empire” promoting free trade and capital movements. Through a powerful historical survey, they show how the US has superintended the restructuring of other states in favor of competitive markets and coordinated the management of increasingly frequent financial crises.
About the Authors:
Sam Gindin is the former Research Director of the Canadian Autoworkers Union and Packer Visiting Chair in Social Justice at York University.
Leo Panitchis Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University.
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