
TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT CREATES ROADBLOCKS FOR CAREGIVERS
By Samantha Ponting
The Trudeau government has recently cancelled a path to permanent residency for many caregivers, without any consultation with workers participating in Canada’s caregiver program.
A new announcement posted on the Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada website states:
These 5-year pilot programs [Caring for Children and Caring for People with High Medical Needs] are scheduled to expire on November 29, 2019. To be eligible to apply for them, you will need to have two years of full-time work experience as a caregiver and submit your application before that date.” Read more!
The NDP convention starts this afternoon, but right before, delegates will engage in a mad dash to organize so that their favoured motions will hit the floor for debate.
This will be no small feat, as there are hundreds of motions that have been loosely organized in themes.
Sixteen motions were served on various aspects of Indigenous rights, 26 on workers’ rights, 22 on issues relating to foreign affairs and 19 advocating for more public ownership in different ways. Read more!
DON'T BELIEVE THE SPIN ABOUT JANUARY'S JOB NUMBERS
By Pam Frache and Alex Hunsberger
Don’t believe the spin from the business press. StatsCan data show provinces that significantly hiked minimum wage rates in 2017 are doing better than they were this time last year.
What’s more, these provinces are actually outperforming their low-wage counterparts, as their unemployment rates are declining most quickly among the provinces. Read more!
The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) recently announced that it will no longer reduce certain kinds of benefit payments for injured workers as a result of non-symptomatic pre-existing conditions. The change comes as a result of a long struggle by of injured workers, labour activists, and legal representatives, who have been fighting against this use of “pre-existing conditions” Read more!
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