Top: Front Row: Kate Sjoberg, Jackie Hogue Back row: Molly McCracken, Mary Walsh, Noel DePape, Jessica Irvine at the Mary Walsh Fundraiser 2009
Bottom: The View From Here launch 2015.
June 1 – 7th is our second annual Supporter Drive Week. Help us continue to be your local source for alternative policy ideas and analysis.
When was the first time you heard about the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Manitoba? It may have been through the community-based research we do in inner city Winnipeg. This past year marked the 10th anniversary of the State of the Inner City Report. The State of the Inner City Reports celebrate community-based development and advance progressive policy alternatives put forward by those working and living directly in the community. These reports continue to have the highest downloads from our website and are used widely by community practitioners and policy makers alike.
This editorial on the housing needs of refugee newcomers was published in the Winnipeg Free Press. The research referenced in the editorial is through the Manitoba Research Alliance Partnering for Change grant funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Trish Hennessy Founding Director of CCPA Ontario
Getting progressive values on the public agenda
As part of CCPA Manitoba Supporter Drive Week June 1-7, please join us for Trish Hennessy, the founding director of CCPA Ontario and former journalist.
Trish will speak about the dominance of conservatism in Canada and how Canadians at the federal and provincial levels can promote an alternative vision.
Trish’s “Hennessy Index” is a regular column in the CCPA Monitor and she is in high demand as a speaker across Canada.
4 – 6 pm (program 4:30)
Social Enterprise Centre
765 Main St.
(Between Sutherland and the tracks)
Bus # 15,16,18 20, and 45
(Sutherland stop)
Parking on Sutherland or Austin St.
Bike rack available
Free event, all welcome
Winnipeg journalist Frances Russell’s latest article quotes CCPA MB’s Lynne Fernandez, Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues.
Governments focus on the top income quintiles while low income and working people’s incomes stagnate. Constant tax reductions for corporations and the wealthy have depleted government revenues and jeopardized services Canadians rely on. Fernandez argues that corporations must be reminded that nobody succeeds in the private sector without tremendous supports from the public sector, be it infrastructure, education, public services, education.
Read The New Feudalism by Frances Russell in National Newswatch
Numerous studies have demonstrated that quality child care has a positive correlation with improved childhood outcomes, notably higher social and cognitive scores upon school entry, especially with children living in poverty. On Wednesday May 13th child care advocates from across Canada are joining together to call for a universally accessible, quality and comprehensive child care system. This system would benefit all children, especially the most vulnerable to poverty and social exclusion.
Homelessness has recently been much in the news, because of the tragic deaths of three homeless people in Winnipeg and also because of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association’s National Congress on Housing and Homelessness, held recently in Winnipeg. Canada is one of the very few advanced industrialized countries in the world that does not have a national housing strategy, and for low-income people in particular the consequences are severe, and sometimes deadly.
It is unfortunate that the sitting government has to waste valuable political capital maneuvering around obstructionist balanced budget legislation (BBL), but the media and opposition continue to place recent budget analyses in its distorting frame. Contrary to established economic theory and practice, BBL always equates balanced budgets with prudent fiscal practice. But just as no household would forgo taking out a mortgage to buy a home, no government should shy away from running responsible deficits when strategic investment will lead to improved physical and social infrastructure that will allow our economy to grow.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver had a chance Tuesday to prove the Harper government’s economic prowess. The budget he delivered, however, failed miserably to do that.
On April 16th, 2014, a fire broke out in a rooming house on Enfield Crescent in Winnipeg’s St. Boniface neighbourhood. The fire resulted in the death of an elderly man and injuries to several other residents of the building. This tragic event served as somber precursor to the release of the May 2014 report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives- Manitoba, Rooming Houses to Rooming Homes. With the release of this report, a community forum was held and drew an audience of over 100, including community members, community agency staff, rooming house tenants, City and Provincial employees, and others. The community forum started an important and long-overdue dialogue about the many complicated issues surrounding Winnipeg rooming houses.
By Kirsten Bernas and Shauna MacKinnon
There is a growing opportunity in Manitoba to bridge the economic and social divide between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. First of all, Manitoba employers are looking for skilled workers. Second of all, our large and young Aboriginal population continues to increase at a faster rate than the non-Aboriginal population.
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