Joseph Marchand – Alberta’s Minimum Wage Should Move With Increases In Labour Demand (i.E. Energy Prices)
From: Joseph Marchand To: Concerned Albertans Date: September 20, 2016 Re: Alberta’s Minimum Wage Should Move with Increases in Labour Demand (i.e. Energy Prices) In the Spring of 2015, the newly-elected Government of Alberta committed to a $15 minimum wage by 2018, from an initial rate of $10.20 in 2014. The first $1.00 hike in […] Taylor & Yeates – Building up and deploying our human capital
From: Kathleen Taylor and Neil Yeates To: Human Capital Council members, federal, provincial and local governments Date: September 19, 2016 Re: Building up and deploying our human capital How we develop the skills of Canadians and how we put them to best use are two central issues confronting a wide range of policymakers today. Getting the answers right will […] Ontario’s Math System Is Broken. So Why Isn’t The Government Fixing It?: Globe And Mail Op-ed
Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) 2015/2016 results from mathematics assessments should give parents in the province reason to worry. There was some positive news in that reading and writing scores increased over five years, but mathematics scores plummeted. The percentage of Grade 3 students who met the provincial math standard fell to 63 per cent from 68 per cent over five years. The results were worse for Grade 6 students. Only 50 per cent met the provincial math standard, down from 58 per cent five years ago.
Early achievement in math has been shown to predict later academic achievement, financial success and future career options. The recent EQAO results should further increase government efforts…
Andrew Parkin – Leapfrogged
From: Andrew Parkin To: Provincial Ministries of Education and Advanced Education Date: July 21, 2016 Re: Leapfrogged Canadians are used to seeing themselves outclassed in international learning assessments such as PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) by East Asian countries and city-regions such as Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei. That’s why, when […] John Richards – Gaming the MDGs
From: John Richards To: Hon. Marie-Claude Bibeau Date: July 18, 2016 Re: Gaming the MDGs In May, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development, announced a policy review of Canada’s international assistance policy. This is a worthwhile initiative, but it will bear fruit only if it prompts blunt discussion of governance. In the minister’s Backgrounder is mention of […] First Nations Elementary-Secondary Education: A National Dilemma
Bill Robson – Welcome to the Intelligence Memos
From: William B.P. Robson To: Friends and Supporters of the C.D. Howe Institute Date: May 24, 2016 Re: Welcome to the Intelligence Memos I hope the C.D. Howe Institute’s many friends and supporters share my pleasure at the launch of the Institute’s Intelligence Memos. This new series of blog posts represents a fresh vehicle for us to get […] Unequal Access: Making Sense of EI Eligibility Rules and How to Improve Them
Improvements, not an overhaul, are needed for Employment Insurance (EI) eligibility, states a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. In “Unequal Access: Making Sense of EI Eligibility Rules and How to Improve Them,” authors David Gray and Colin Busby find that the degree of alleged deterioration of the EI program as a social safety […] Ontario math training needs a full revamp: Globe and Mail Op-Ed
Ontario Education Minister Liz Sandals has announced a $60-million plan to improve math training in elementary schools.
The move comes in response to declining scores in standardized math tests, which showed that the portion of Grade 6 students meeting provincial standards fell to 54 per cent from 61 per cent over a five-year period. In that same period, scores in reading and writing increased, suggesting that policies specific to math education caused the decline.
The Ontario government is to be commended for addressing the problem, but it is important to consider carefully what might be contributing to the decline and how it is best corrected. For example, what resources were used over the period of decline?…
No luck for Edmonton in employment insurance lottery: Edmonton Journal Op-Ed
A decade of failure has propelled the Edmonton Oilers to win four of the last six NHL draft lotteries. The most recent lottery win landed Edmonton the hockey phenom, Connor McDavid, giving down-trodden Oilers fans a glimmer of hope.
However, when it comes to EI, Edmontonians are not so lucky. According to the 2016 federal budget, only Albertans outside Edmonton will see increases to EI benefit duration between five and 20 weeks.
These changes, which are well timed for the majority of Albertans caught in an avalanche of energy-related layoffs, also expose the major flaws in Canada’s regionally-based EI system.
In the words of professor Keith Banting and Vuk Radmilovic, EI is a postal code lottery. A laid-…
The Problems In Canada’s Job Market Aren’t What The Headlines Tell Us: Financial Post Op-ed
Statistics Canada’s latest jobs report, released on Friday, paints a picture of an economy struggling to adapt to the collapse in commodity prices. Fully 2,300 jobs were lost, but the headline-grabbing number was the 7.3 per cent unemployment rate — the highest since March 2013. The sobering labour market performance will almost certainly fuel demands for the federal government to include boosts for the economy in next week’s budget. But to assess how the government can best provide support, one needs to look beyond the unemployment rate, which only tells part of the story.
The unemployment rate comprises both a numerator and a denominator. Without getting too deep into the weeds, the numerator tells us how many people…
National Priorities 2016
The National Priorities 2016 series provides a high level overview of key issues that the federal and provincial governments need to address, and provides an opportunity to highlight policy recommendations made by prior C.D. Howe Institute research on these topics. Fiscal and Tax – Tax Reform Priorities for Canada: Creating More Income to Go Around […]