On Tuesday, Food Banks Canada (the national association of food banks) released its annual Hunger Count report. While the report received some good national coverage (particularly on CBC), I was surprised to see no mention of it in the Vancouver Sun.
The report, which surveys food banks across the country every March, found that in March [...]
Entries Tagged as 'unemployment'
Food Bank use takes a distressing jump
November 19th, 2009 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Poverty, inequality & welfare
Where's Our Danny Boy (2)? Mayor of embattled town weighs in on needed forest reforms
May 11th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Municipalities
Few British Columbia communities have been hit as hard by the forest industry crisis as Mackenzie.
Some 1,500 jobs, by mayor Stephanie Killam’s estimate, have been lost in the community as sawmills, planer mills and pulp and paper mills closed. With hundreds of good paying mill jobs gone, jobs in related service industries have disappeared at [...]
Tags: Canfor·Danny Williams·Interfor·Mackenzie·Newfoundland·pulp and paper·unemployment·West Fraser
Poverty reduction and the party platforms
May 7th, 2009 · Seth Klein · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Poverty, inequality & welfare
The CCPA is a member of the BC Poverty Reduction Committee, the network that has been pressing all the BC political parties to commit to a comprehensive poverty reduction plan. Over 280 organizations have now signed an Open Letter to all the political parties calling on them to commit to a poverty reduciton plan with [...]
Tags: campaign·child poverty·children·employment·Greens·Liberals·NDP·platform·poverty·Poverty Reduction Coalition·Steve Kerstetter·unemployment
There is more to good economic policy than protecting the interests of employers
May 6th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Employment & labour, Environment, resources & sustainability
Next week’s election will take place in the midst of an economic crisis which hit our province seemingly out of the blue last fall and hit us hard, causing 69,000 job losses between November and March (the April numbers will be released on Friday, May 8, and are expected to be just as grim as [...]
Tags: campaign·green infrastructure·inequality·Liberals·NDP·Obama·platform·recession·tax cuts·unemployment
BC's soaring EI claims
April 28th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Employment & labour
Today’s Statistics Canada release features the latest (February 2009) stats on Employment Insurance claims. From February 2008 to February 2009, the number of EI beneficiaries is up 69%. And the number is up 11.6% just between January and February. More evidence that the BC economy is in much worse shape than the major political parties [...]
Tags: EI·employment·recession·unemployment
The NDP Platform and BC's Economic Challenges
April 20th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Climate change, Economy, Provincial budget & finance
Below is an oped of mine that was done at the request of the Vancouver Sun and that ran in today’s paper. Unfortunately, for reasons that are not entirely clear, the last two paragraphs were cut off, leaving the oped hanging. I put them back in below, and have requested that the online version be [...]
Tags: budget·cap-and-trade·carbon tax·deficit·flaring·green infrastructure·greenhouse gas·NDP·oil and gas·platform·recession·tax cuts·unemployment
March unemployment hits women and young
April 10th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Employment & labour
There is an interesting side story to the information that came out last week showing a big jump in unemployment in BC.
Almost all of the increase was among two groups – women and young people. The overall unemployment rate jumped from 6.7% to 7.4%. The increase for men over the age of 25 [...]
Tags: unemployment·Women
Unemployment surges again in March
April 9th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance
Just in time for a heated election campaign, the latest unemployment numbers paint a grim picture for BC. Just a year ago, BC was coasting along with an unemployment rate of just over 4%. By the end of 2008 that had crept up to 5%. And now a truly brutal first quarter that saw the [...]
Tags: construction·unemployment
BC leads country in rising EI claims
March 24th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Employment & labour
According to today’s Statscan release, unemployment insurance (EI) claims were up 47% in January 2009 compared to January 2008. This makes BC the leader in Canada when it comes to rising EI claims. I don’t think that was one of the Great Golden Goals.
There is a lag in the EI numbers, since the most recent [...]
Tags: EI·unemployment·welfare
Social assistance caseload way up
March 15th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance
In our pre-budget Reality Check, we noted that a recession would lead to upwards pressure on social assistance expenditures. The 2009 Budget notes that every 1% increase in the temporary assistance caseload increases expenditures by $3.5 million (and $7 million for the disability caseload). During a major recession it would not be unrealistic to project [...]
Tags: recession·unemployment·welfare
