How much do working parents need to earn to be able to afford to live in our community? There reports released today provide the answer for the three largest regional districts in BC, home to 2/3 of this province’s population: $19.62/hour in Metro Vancouver, $18.73/hour in Greater Victoria and $16.37/hour in the Fraser Valley.
Entries Tagged as 'Women'
Living wage reports reveal a big gap between actual wages and the costs of raising a family in BC
May 2nd, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes, Women
Plan for $10 a day child care striking a chord with British Columbians
October 15th, 2012 · Rita Chudnovsky · Comments Off · Children & youth, Women
More than thirty years ago, the women’s movement put child care on the public agenda. And while there have been important successes along the way, it can get depressing for grandmothers like me to see so little political progress. Parent fees are too high, staff wages are too low, there are nowhere near enough spaces [...]
The case for exempting child support from welfare
July 20th, 2012 · Kendra Milne · Comments Off · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Women
Based on recent announcements, it seems that the Ministry of Social Development is in the mood to address some of the long-standing problems within BC’s welfare system (although welfare rates remain distressingly low). Seth Klein recently recapped the Ministry’s June 11th announcement, which set out almost 30 proposed changes to the system. More recently, the [...]
Federal Budget Bill and Employment Equity
June 1st, 2012 · Marjorie Griffin Cohen · 2 Comments · Employment & labour, Women
So many big changes are happening in the Federal government’s budget bill — Bill C-38 — that some significant issues like the changes to the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) have escaped attention. Part 4 Division 42 of C-38 is very short. It merely says that subsection 42(2) of the Employment Equity Act is replaced by [...]
Tags:
Breaking down financial barriers to higher education is more affordable than you think
January 25th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Women
In a new report released today by the CCPA, I revisit the important question of who really pays for university education. Convention wisdom has it that the public heavily subsidizes post-secondary education. The illusion of a subsidy comes from the fact that tuition fees, high as they are, don’t cover the entire cost of education. [...]
Tags:
Social Determinants of Health
June 7th, 2011 · Peter Prontzos · Comments Off · Children & youth, Economy, Employment & labour, Health care, Housing & homelessness, Human rights, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Women
It is now clear that economic, and social variables – more than individual behaviour – are the most salient factors in determining people’s well-being. Working and living conditions, the distribution of wealth, and where we live are some of , “the primary factors that shape the health of Canadians” (CCPA Monitor, June 2010). Almost everything [...]
Tags:
BQ demise a big loss
May 3rd, 2011 · Marjorie Griffin Cohen · 2 Comments · Women
We have a lost a lot with the demise of the Bloc Quebecoise as a significant presence in Parliament. Social policy in Quebec has been more progressive than elsewhere in Canada for a long time. This is particularly important for policy related to women’s rights, including labour and social policy that allow women’s full participation [...]
Tags: election 20211·NDP
How income splitting works and who does it work for: some practical examples
March 29th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes, Women
Income-splitting works by allowing families to allocate more of their earned income to a lower tax bracket by sharing the earned income between the spouses when filing taxes. The maximum amount of income that can be split this way is $50,000. Income-splitting makes a difference to a family’s tax bill because we have a progressive [...]
Income splitting: a poorly targeted non-commitment with negative labour market implications
March 29th, 2011 · Iglika Ivanova · 6 Comments · Economy, Education, Employment & labour, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes, Women
I was on the CBC Early Edition this morning, discussing Stephen Harper’s first election promise: income splitting for families with children. If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast here (I’m at about 1:08:00 onwards). Since five minutes is too short for any kind of informed discussion, and I think that informed discussions [...]
Tags: Conservatives·families·income splitting·Stephen Harper·Taxes
A Paradigm Shift is Happening
November 21st, 2010 · Peter Prontzos · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Economy, First Nations & Aboriginal, Health care, Housing & homelessness, Human rights, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Women
A “paradigm shift” was the theme of Dr. Marti Glenn, one of the keynote speakers at the 2010 International Congress of The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology & Health, which took place from November 11-14 at Asilomar, California. Dr. Glenn, who is the Dean of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, began by saying that, [...]
Tags:
