The Convoy that took over Ottawa for a month last year just met outside Winnipeg this past weekend. While the right to protest is an essential part of our democracy, it is important to look critically at this movement that has harboured white supremacist, libertarian and in some cases even fascist beliefs. These ideas have originated most recently in the USA, but have a long and odious history elsewhere in the world.
Economy and economic indicators
Click here to read the full report online.
What's driving inflation in Canada? Between 2020 and 2022, business prices increased by a whopping 19 per cent in the country on average. Where did those dollars go?
OTTAWA—Of every dollar spent on higher prices in the last two years, 47 cents was converted into corporate profits in four industries, led by mining, oil and gas extraction, explains a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
In Where are Your Inflation Dollars Going, CCPA Senior Economist David Macdonald examines what’s driving inflation in Canada, using a new approach. It shows four industries are dominating in inflationary corporate profits. Of every additional dollar spent on inflation:
Issue highlights:
Corporate profits capturing more of economic recovery compared to any recession in last half century
OTTAWA—Inflation is holding back a worker-led pandemic economic recovery, but corporate profits have captured more in this recovery than after any previous recession, according to new analysis by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Senior Economist David Macdonald.
Macdonald examined how corporations and workers fared following the six recessions over the past 50 years and discovered corporate profits went up by an unprecedented 2.8 points of GDP amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
This spring, Global Affairs Canada sought advice on the development of a reciprocal procurement policy that would “reduce access to Canadian federal procurement opportunities for foreign suppliers, goods, and services from countries that do not provide a comparable level of access to Canadian suppliers.” The department frames the policy as a means of ensuring fairness and mutual benefit in Canada’s international trade relationships.
OTTAWA—Nearly two-thirds of Canadian workers’ wages are falling behind rising inflation, leaving them increasingly in a pressure cooker situation, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The report, Pressure Cooker: Declining real wages and rising inflation in Canada during the pandemic, 2020-2022, examines wages across all industries and finds 64 per cent of Canadian workers have experienced real wage losses over the past two years, after adjusting for inflation.
Ce rapport décrit la composition de la population active au salaire minimum et explique en quoi la hausse du salaire minimum dans l'Ontario en 2018 a affecté l’écart salarial racial des hommes et des femmes qui travaillent. Lorsque le salaire minimum de 14 $ l'heure a été introduit, les lobbyistes du monde des affaires ont fait de sombres prédictions. En fait, la hausse des salaires en Ontario a été loin d’être une « tueuse d’emplois » : l’emploi total a affiché une croissance de 1,7 % en 2018 et de 2,8 % en 2019.
This report examines the impact of increasing Ontario's minimum wage to $14 per hour in 2018.
Despite dire predictions that increasing minimum wage would eliminate jobs, employment actually increased in the period after the change.
The study, funded by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), also found racialized workers, especially women, benefitted from the minmum wage increase, largely due to the gendered and racialized nature of low-wage work.
Employment in almost all industries with lower-than-average wages increased.
A version of this was printed in the Winnipeg Free Press March 18, 2022