I've come across some excellent articles and ideas I wanted to pass along. It's so frustrating to me that governments and other stakeholders don't understand that investing and strengthening the social infrastructure has so many benefits. There are so many people who are on the tipping point from a socio-economic perspective right now. We need to move fast to stop the increasing numbers of people who are being pulled down by the undertow.
When governments strategically and adequately fund social, health and community services it benefits the recipients of those services directly by improving their quality of life, stability. participation in the labour market and other activities which benefit society.
We can't seem to get past the old school idea of infrastructure jobs as being building roads, bridges and structures. Those are important jobs and definitely contribute to our society but it is time to recognize that jobs in the social, health and community sector are of equal importance for a many reasons. One of those is the intrinsic gains and benefits to recipients, their families and communities. Another is the economic benefits of the jobs in these sectors in local communities and the larger economy of the province.
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Watch the video:
Baby boomers retire rich, young couples with kids stuck in economic squeeze: report
SASKATOON - A Canadian research institute says babyboomers are retiring as the wealthiest generation in history while couples with young children are stuck in an economic squeeze.
Watch the video:
Baby boomers retire rich, young couples with kids stuck in economic squeeze: report
SASKATOON - A Canadian research institute says babyboomers are retiring as the wealthiest generation in history while couples with young children are stuck in an economic squeeze.
Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix
Canada
needs a "New Deal for Families" to solve the enormous social and economic
upheaval caused by soaring housing costs, creators of a study released Tuesday
at the University of Saskatchewan say.
The
generation raising children today has less money and time than Baby Boomers,
despite a doubling of the Canadian economy since 1976, said Paul Kershaw, a
family policy expert from the University of British
Columbia.
The
lack of time for children is showing up in a growing number of kindergarten
pupils who are not ready for school. One in three are not ready in areas of
social, emotional, and physical health or language and communications skills,
Muhajarine said.
The
solution is a "New Deal for Families," built on three major public policy
changes, Kershaw argues.
The
New Deal includes:
- extending benefits for new parents to 18 months from 12 for all single and dual earner households, including self-employed and unemployed parents and should provide a minimum benefit that would eliminate poverty for families with children under 18 months, he said.
- providing $10 per day childcare and finally, promoting flextime to help employees combine work and family, making them more productive while at work.
- providing incentives for employers to limit work weeks to 35 hours.
