Canada-U.S. Relations

Early Visit to Canada by President Obama Offers Unique Opportunity

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other Canadian leaders should seize the opportunity to re-shape the Canada-United States relationship when President Obama visits Canada following the inauguration, says Thomas d’Aquino, Chief Executive and President of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives.

http://www.ceocouncil.ca/en/view/?area_id=1&document_id=1302

 

Obama and Canada: How Long Will the Love Affair Last? 

Glen Hodgson of the Conference Board of Canada predicts that three issues will prove crucial in determining the nature of Canada-United States relations once president-elect Obama takes office.  In this article, he examines the new administration’s projected policies on recession in the U.S., bilateral trade with Canada, and military strategy in Afghanistan.

http://www.conferenceboard.ca/economics/hot_eco_topics/default/09-01-07/Obama_and_Canada_How_Long_Will_the_Love_Affair_Last.aspx

 

 

Economy

The Developing Workforce Problem

In this paper published by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, Jim McNiven discusses how best to confront Canadian labour shortages in coming decades.  He warns that government policy, developed in the 1960’s and 70’s to handle the baby boomer impact on the labour market, needs to be overhauled. Job creation programmes, employment insurance, and early retirement all helped open jobs for the boomers. Now rather than a job shortage, Canada and most of the developed world is facing a labour shortage - a time when there won’t be enough people to do the work needed to support those too young or too old to work. http://www.aims.ca/library/WorkforceProblem.pdf

 

Boomer Bulge

In this C.D. Howe Institute publication, William Robson examines the potential effects of the baby boomer generation on Canadian provincial government budgets.  Demographic change, he predicts, may push the aggregate cost of programs for health, education, seniors and families from 15 % to 19.4% of the GDP in the next 50 years.  Among other recommendations, he calls for fiscal discipline, more tax room for provinces, and growth-friendly practices.  http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_71.pdf

 

Une aide discutable

Les aides et subventions gouvernementales de toutes sortes visent supposément à soutenir les entreprises privées, ecrit Marcel Boyer de l’Institut Economique de Montréal.  Neanmois, dit-il, cette stratégie est la voie royale vers l'inefficacité et la faillite éventuelle, une fois les fonds publics proprement dilapidés.

http://www.iedm.org/main/show_editorials_en.php?editorials_id=685

 

Investment in Non-Residential Building Construction

Investment in non-residential construction reached $11.0 billion in current dollars in the fourth quarter of 2008, up 1.7% from the third quarter, reports Statistics Canada. In 2002 constant dollars, however, investment was down 1.2% from the third quarter. http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/090115/dq090115a-eng.htm

 

Canada West’s Currents

The January 2009 issue of Currents, the Canada West Foundation’s monthly economic snapshot features  articles on economic stimulus plans in Canada, youth in transition, and an industry profile of food processing in Saskatchewan. http://www.cwf.ca/V2/files/Currents%200901.pdf

 

 

Energy and Environment

Queen’s University Joins Climate Change Monitoring Project

Geographers at Queen’s University have partnered with the University of New Hampshire in a project that, for the first time, uses digital web cameras to monitor changes in forests in Canada and the U.S. Images are saved to study changes over time, which could have implications for climate change research.

http://qnc.queensu.ca/story_loader.php?id=4964cb15e27a1

 

 

Social and Public Policy

Community Roles in Policy

Community organizations are increasingly recognizing that the problems faced by individuals and households living with low income result not from their own weaknesses but rather from problems and barriers in the broader economic and social system, notes Sherry Torjman of The Caledon Institute of Social Policy.  In this paper, she discusses a range of activities in which communities can engage with respect to reducing poverty. http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/738ENG%2Epdf

 

Canadian Aboriginal Policy Built on False Assumptions

The standard model for thinking about Aboriginal policy in Canada is fundamentally wrong, declares Gordon Gibson.  In A New Look at Canadian Indian Policy, recently published by the Fraser Institute, he urges a paradigm shift in which less weight is given to Aboriginals as a collective, and more emphasis is put on Aboriginals as individuals.

http://www.fraserinstitute.org/commerce.web/product_files/NewLookCanadianIndianPolicy.pdf

 

Building a Safer Work Environment for B.C. Construction Workers

On the 28th anniversary of the deaths of four construction workers on the Bentall Tower IV, the BC Building Trades Council and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released a new study calling on the province to significantly improve safety in the construction industry.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/~ASSETS/DOCUMENT/BC_Office_Pubs/BC_CCPA_construction_web.pdf

 

Caring for the Caregivers

Published in recognition of January as Alzheimer Awareness Month, this commentary by Sherry Torjman of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy asks how, in a world in which education, training and support are in place for nearly every profession, we have managed to overlook the need to gear such programs towards caregivers themselves. http://www.caledoninst.org/Publications/PDF/739ENG.pdf

 

Focus on Gender

The Canadian Foundation of the Americas’ latest issue of FOCALPoint gathers together gender-themed articles, drawing attention to persistent gender inequality throughout the Western Hemisphere.  Topics include: health concerns of women migrant farm workers in Canada, the formation of export markets for Peruvian women, and the high occurrence, in Latin America, of violence based on sexual orientation.  http://www.focal.ca/pdf/focalpoint_december08.pdf

 

 

Science and Technology

Old Gastrointestinal Drug Slows Aging

Recent animal studies have shown that clioquinol – an 80-year old drug once used to treat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal disorders – can reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. According to Siegfried Hekimi and colleagues at McGill University, clioquinol acts directly on a protein called CLK-1, often informally called “clock-1,” and might slow down the aging process.

http://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/news/item/?item_id=103574/

Weaving Broadband into our Cultural Fabric

Small communities can be beautiful, yet they lack basic education opportunities and health services. However, recent developments under the National Research Council of Canada are helping dozens of northern communities learn how to adapt high-quality two-way and multi-participant videoconferencing and online video sharing to improve their lives. Now, they're using broadband tools to talk with each other and the world, develop sustainable communities, improve their quality of life, and, in Indigenous communities, build self-determination across and between regions.

http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/highlights/2009/0901broad_e.html