Despite budget moves, EI changes not permanent, big enough: MPs, experts
Experts and advocates hoping that temporary employment insurance change would snowball into longer lasting, more permanent restructuring and reform say they’ve been left wanting and still waiting by the federal government. Changes to the employment insurance system were signalled in Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough’s (Delta, B.C.) supplemental mandate letter. In the Jan. 15, 2021 letter, […]
Federal budget includes commitment to explore employee ownership–and that’s a good thing
Hidden amongst the many newsworthy items in last month’s federal budget is a small, little-discussed section with the potential to reshape many Canadian industries. In it, the government committed to exploring options to remove barriers to employee ownership trusts in Canada. While that may sound pretty boring, we can look to the recent sale of […]
Urging Canada to do its fair share for international climate finance
“How can I use farming to get out of my desperation?” asks Mehsane Sahle, a small-scale farmer in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia. A mother of three in her late 50s, Mehsane’s livelihood depends on the crops and livestock she can raise on her small plot of land, but with poor soil, erratic rainfall, and […]
Vaping group tops April outreach in record-breaking month for lobbying
Health Canada’s regulatory plan proposing to restrict flavoured vaping products that appeal to youth, released last month, helped make it the busiest April on record for lobbying. The Canadian Vaping Association (CVA) reached out en masse to MPs, filing 258 communication reports as executive director Darryl Tempest attempted to secure one-on-one meetings with MPs to […]
Opposition MPs say they’re worried about lack of defence spending in budget, as experts to future of NORAD
A lack of defence spending in Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s first budget has some experts and MPs worried about the future of Canada’s military at a time when, they say, its responsibilities are getting bigger both at home and abroad and allied nations are beefing up their defence spending and reworking their strategies. The budget’s […]
How secure is defence funding in the future?
The Liberal government’s budget announcement on April 19 held little by way of new spending for defence beyond some very targeted incremental funding to deal with more recent issues not covered in the defence policy, like NORAD renewal, increased support to the NATO Alliance and sexual misconduct and gender-based violence. This should not be surprising […]
IAE warning: if we care about the planet, we need to get off oil and other fossil fuels, and we need to do it fast
TORONTO—Under the Trudeau government, Canada has joined the ranks of nations pledged to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050—a necessary target if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change. Since that announcement, Prime Minster Justin Trudeau has sharply upped Canada’s climate target for the current decade—in fact he has done it twice. […]
Feds risk falling behind on science investment, say policy experts, Naylor, as U.S., U.K., Germany forging ahead
The federal government’s 2021 budget, crafted in the middle of a debilitating pandemic, saw more than $2-billion allocated for the bio-manufacturing and life-sciences sector following a year where scientific capacity played centre stage in the lives of all Canadians. But a number of science policy experts say the federal budget, the first in more than […]
Where’s the plan? Budget needs better plan for the future
TORONTO—Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s first budget has come under strong criticism for, in the eyes of its critics, its failure to put the country on a strong growth path for sustained future prosperity. “I don’t think we really have a plan going forward and the budget is supposed to be a planning document,” David Dodge, […]
House Finance Committee dives into offshore tax havens again ‘to get answers for Canadians,’ says NDP MP Julian
The long-standing problems posed by the billions of dollars in offshore tax havens are once again on the front-burner in Canadian politics, following the release of the 2021 budget last month and the start of a study on the issue by the House Finance Committee. The work of the committee follows a report from the […]
