News

New Democrats want vital services improved, not slashed
 
OTTAWA – Reports that Stephen Harper’s government may shrink or even eliminate the Department of Veterans Affairs (VAC) are distressing to Canadian Forces and RCMP veterans and their families, New Democrats said today.
 
“The Conservatives are very short-sighted to be musing about closing the Department of Veterans Affairs or slashing staff at this time,” said New Democrat Veterans Affairs Critic Peter Stoffer (Sackville-Eastern Shore).

DUNCAN, BC– New Democrat MP Jean Crowder (Nanaimo-Cowichan) hopes today’s meeting between Aboriginal leaders and the Premiers will be a catalyst for a change in how education is delivered to Aboriginal students.

In their appearance March 24, 2010 before the HUMA Committee studying a national poverty reduction strategy, Senators Art Eggleton and Hugh Segal made several references to the economic benefits for a poverty plan. The senators are the chairs of The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology who released their report on urban poverty in December 2009.

(Beyond Compassion: Measuring the External Costs of Poverty in Sault Ste. Marie, Cost of Poverty in Sault Ste. Marie, Community Quality Improvement, for District of Sault Ste. Marie Social Services Administration Board, 2009)

Janet French, Saskatoon Star, Nov 18, 2008

A new report unveiled Monday is the first to paint such a comprehensive picture of the health gaps between Saskatoon's rich and poor. Health disparity in Saskatoon: Analysis to intervention, published by public health experts at the Saskatoon Health Region, also reviewed 10,000 research papers to find some of the most effective interventions for lifting people out of poverty and into better health.

"This Act would anchor federal action on poverty to Canada's international human rights commitments," says Rob Rainer, Executive Director of Canada Without Poverty and the CWP Advocacy Network.  "The law would also ensure the government is held to account for its action or inaction.  Whether one is poor or not, we are all hurt by poverty and so there is a powerful self-interest in seeing this law triggering a robust federal response to poverty and everything that spirals downward from this condition."

 

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2006

Introduction and Background
Recent policy redesign in the European Union and in Canada can be understood as a part of a paradigm shift, where economic and social policies are increasingly interdependent as the notion of the welfare state is transformed (Saint-Martin, 2004; Jenson, 2004).

Northern Gateway Pipeline would bring oil supertankers to the coast of BC

TERRACE/VANCOUVER – As the Governor of Michigan declares a state of disaster due to a three million litre oil spill from an Enbridge Pipeline near Kalamazoo, New Democrats are dismayed that the company still expects British Columbians to accept assurances a much bigger pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat would be safe.

Tom Walkom, Toronto Star, Nov. 19, 2008

Canada's federal and provincial governments have agreed to stimulate the economy. That's good. But the key question is how they'll do it. Here, the signs are far less reassuring.

First, remember where we sit in this global slump. Canada is not at the point of bread lines and mass unemployment. Even big layoffs in manufacturing haven't yet caused Canada's jobless rate to soar.

Calgary United Way, 2004

Highlights
This report was compiled in response to a request from United Way of Calgary and Area for information on the costs of poverty in Calgary. We provide an estimate of the ‘external’ costs of poverty as a contribution towards constructing a compelling case for sustained poverty reduction in the city. By external costs we mean costs incurred by people other than those who live in poverty.