Three reasons why Canada should invest more in polytechnic education for innovation
The G7 met in late September to discuss how the nature of work is changing, and how, largely, automation is driving that change. Canada’s Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, along with her counterparts, discussed the challenges presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how to put “people and work at the heart of innovation.” But it […]
Mackenzie Valley Highway a road to resources, jobs
I am a huge proponent of investing in infrastructure, and for the Northwest Territories this means primarily investing in road infrastructure. It is hard to know where to start when explaining the importance of road access to those who take road travel for granted every day. Did you drive more than 25 kilometres to work […]
More choice, less retailer control wanted in possible Nutrition North overhaul
Food security experts are hoping the federal government’s lack of action six months after releasing a report highlighting criticism of the Nutrition North program is a sign of a coming overhaul that will lead to more choice for participant consumers and increased food security. The program is aimed at reducing high food prices in remote […]
Most unionized PS workers have contracts, but mental health, wages sticking points for holdouts
Seven federal public service union groups have been negotiating new contracts for so long that even if they reach a deal within the next month they will be back negotiating their next collective agreements come mid-2018, say unions. The Treasury Board negotiates 27 contracts for which it is considered the employer with 15 different core […]
Illiteracy: Canada’s hidden shame
OTTAWA—There is a country where almost half of the adult population cannot read this column. You might presume it’s in the developing world. It’s not: it is Canada. And sadly, few Canadians acknowledge it, and fewer still are doing anything about it. Here are the numbers: about 45 per cent of adult Canadians do not […]
A national poverty reduction strategy must include forgotten single adults
One of the most alarming trends in Canada’s food bank network is the increase in the number of single, working-age adults seeking food assistance. Single people have grown from 30 per cent of households helped by food banks in 2001, to 45 per cent in 2016. One in every three single adults in Canada lives […]
Union head warns of bullying ‘epidemic’ in public service, asks Trudeau to strike committee to investigate
The head of a federal public service union has called on the government to strike a committee to examine bullying and harassment in the ranks of its workers, a move the NDP’s labour critic says he would support. Todd Panas, the national president of the Union of Health and Environment Workers, made the request in […]
We need to listen to Inuit on global issues, says Ottawa reader
Re: “True North and true Nordic, new opportunities for global solutions,” (The Hill Times, letter to the editor, Sept. 18, p. 8). I was pleased to read the joint letter by the ambassadors of the Nordic countries in Ottawa in support of the prestigious Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. This […]
Innovation
Health Canada, CBSA under ‘wasteful spending’ reviews; Brison overseeing cabinet colleagues’ work
The federal health and public safety ministers are leading special reviews of their own institutions this year, looking for wasteful spending and obsolete programs, while Treasury Board President Scott Brison oversees their work. A Conservative MP on the Government Operations and Estimates Committee compared the arrangement to “having a fox in charge of the henhouse,” […]
