The Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba (CCPA-MB) seeks to hire a Director, to start May 1, 2013. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with issues of social, economic and environmental justice. Founded in 1980, the CCPA is one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates. CCPA has a National Office in Ottawa, and provincial offices in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, as well as Manitoba.
The successful candidate will have the skills and experience, and the energy and commitment, to provide the organization with the following:
by David M. Neufeld and Magdalene Andres
Our family business includes growing bedding plants. In the spring of 2010 every tomato, pepper and marigold we started curled up grotesquely and died. After weeks of trying new fixes and consulting with a plant pathologist, we discovered that the culprit was in our compost. It looked like herbicide damage so we asked the municipality what they had been spraying. Bingo. Tordon 101.
A decade of being certified organic taught us to be careful about what we use in our growing mediums. But in 2008 we missed asking our Rural Municipality (RM) to not spray the ditches where we made hay to feed our horses and later used the composted manure in our growing medium.
We researched Tordon/picloram, and learned Health Canada (through the PMRA – Pest Management Regulatory Agency), by law, forbids picloram to be sprayed in ditches. It is highly mobile in water and a variety of sources clearly show this herbicide damages ecosystems and human health.
[Ed. Note: The funeral for Errol Black will be held at 1:30pm on November 8, 2012, at the Westman Manitoba Centennial Auditorium, Brandon University.]
by Jim Silver
If we’re very lucky, every once in a while someone special will come into our lives. Errol Black was special.
He would be the first to claim otherwise, and to insist that we are all special, he no more than others. That was Errol’s way. He was down-to-earth, friendly with everyone, always had time for others, and he was loyal to family, friends, and the progressive, people-based ideas that he fought for during his entire life.
Errol died late in the evening of November 3, 2012. He had been suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
It was a cold, late autumn morning, but the atmosphere could not have been warmer inside the Fort Garry Hotel this past Sunday. CCPA Mb. held its Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues fundraising brunch, selling an impressive 175 tickets.
Event -organizer extraordinaire Shirley Lord (seen here with her partner and fellow hard-working volunteer, George Harris) said that this was the easiest fund raiser she ever put together: Errol is a big draw, and for good reason.
Manitoba Preview of The End of Immigration
Monday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m.
Ellice Theatre at Ellice and Sherbrook
By Lynne Fernandez
Every year thousands of migrant workers come to Canada to do the work Canadians don’t want to do. According to Fay Faraday’s report published by the Metcalf Innovation Fellowship, in 2006 more temporary foreign workers entered Canada than did the number of economic immigrants receiving permanent resident status. This fact begs the question of whether we are seeing the end of immigration as we know it in Canada.
Many of these workers end up in Manitoba. They arrive under the auspices of different programs, including the Live-in Caregiver Program and the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. For example, every year, 400 mostly Mexican workers toil on Manitoba farms to make sure that we can all enjoy low-cost produce. But these workers do not have the same rights we do, even though they pay taxes, EI and CPP, and many come year after year for up to 6 months every year. Some have been coming for over 20 years, but they are NEVER allowed to immigrate.
A Canadian Press article yesterday noted that the United Nations committee on the rights of the child has spoken out about Canada’s treatment of children and youth in the justice system.
Canada’s new ‘tough on crime’ approach – encapsulated in Bill C-10, the Omnibus Crime Bill – makes it easier for children to be tried as adults. It also includes restrictions on conditional sentences and the additional mandatory minimum sentences, making it more likely that more children will spend more time in jail.
In March 2012, the CCPA-mb released a report entitled The Truth About Consequences, which outlined many of these issues. It also estimated the high cost of a punitive justice system, and suggested alternatives for how the $90 million that implementing Bill C-10 is expected to cost in Manitoba.
There are many voices in Canada calling for children’s rights to be protected. Now the international community is taking notice. Hopefully Canada will listen.
by Kirsten Bernas and Lynne Fernandez
In July, 2012, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba was invited by the federal government to participate, together with other groups representing a variety of industries, in consultations for its long-term infrastructure plan. Most presentations emphasized the need for traditional physical infrastructure projects related to roads, sewers, water treatment, etc. However, investment in social infrastructure is an equally critical investment in job creation and as such, a legitimate economic driver. If Manitobans are under-educated, under-trained, poorly housed, poorly paid and suffer from poor health, all the physical infrastructure investment in the world will not increase our economic performance or quality of life.
The scope for investment in social infrastructure is vast, but it has been noted that two of the most important areas to concentrate in are education and training, and housing (which includes, of course a physical infrastructure component). The first area includes investments in early childhood education and care, which can also stimulate the economy through the building of the required physical infrastructure. Quality childcare services lay the groundwork for a productive economy by providing children with the start they need to succeed in education and later, employment. Accessible childcare services allow parents to upgrade their skills so they can participate in gainful employment. Investment in low-income housing should include the hiring and training of local under-skilled people who would gain a foothold in the construction trades. By incorporating the training component in the provision of much needed physical infrastructure, we get a double payback on public investment.
by Lynne Fernandez
Here at the CCPA we have recently focused on whether the straightjacket imposed by Balanced Budget Legislation (BBL) is good for Manitoba. It is gratifying to note that the British Columbia NDP is asking the same question for BC. The undue pressure this punitive legislation imposes on government’s ability to significantly address social and economic problems is well known.
A glaring example of the perverse results that can result from BBL is the news that is making a slow burn through the Manitoba environmental community, news that the Manitoba Government intends to close the Environment Library at the VIA Rail Station, 123 Main Street. The Environment Library supports the technical and knowledge-based work that the Department of Conservation and Water Stewardship is responsible for and the regulatory and licensing intelligence necessary to adequately protect Manitoba’s environment. The Library also houses the primary Public Registry under the Environment Act. As the province moves into significant public hearings around several major infrastructure projects, the timing seems especially ill advised.
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