The experts at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Ontario office have been tracking economic developments in Ontario throughout the year. Some problems persist: the gender pay gap, social assistance poverty, the use of expensive payday loans as a last resort because traditional banks fail to serve low-income customers as well as they should.

Some things are shifting. For instance, in some pockets of Ontario, the employment rate has been on the rise. Oshawa, Windsor and Sudbury are the beneficiaries in that department. More attention needs to be paid, however, to job growth in London, Barrie, Guelph, St. Catharines, Kingston, Peterborough and Toronto.

Here are 10 charts that helped define the state of income, work, and the role of government in 2016.

It's no surprise -- to anyone with even a modest awareness of the subject -- that child care is expensive.

But when we released our recent report (A Growing Concern: 2016 child care fees in Canada's big cities), what did raise some eyebrows was the speed and intensity with which fees have increased over the past two years: on the whole, far more than we (and probably most others) expected.

Income inequality is mounting in Canada, making an already inexcusable wealth gulf worse.

And with wealth comes privilege -- especially in Canadian banking.

Low-income residents of Canada face a significant double standard when it comes to accessing banking services despite urgently wanting them, according to a survey of 268 ACORN Canada members, whose findings were published today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Ontario office.

The survey results show many have been denied access to very basic banking services -- such as cheque cashing or overdraft protection -- from traditional banks.

It is more dangerous to be a woman than a man in Canada today.

The most recent survey of violent victimization in the country found that women are now more likely to be victims of violent crime than are men. And the reason is this: while most violent crime has declined over the past decade in Canada, one violent crime has not: sexual assault. Because women make up the majority of victims of sexual assault (87 per cent), they are not sharing in the benefits of declining crime rates.

Every December 6, we remember the women who lost their lives in the brutal and targeted attack at École Polytechnique. We say their names aloud. We remember, so that the violence will not be repeated.

Have we learned from the past?

In his fall economic update, Ontario's Minister of Finance Charles Sousa promised relief to homebuyers, but is it enough to cool rising housing costs in hot markets like Toronto?

The economic statement changed the existing land transfer tax rates listed below that were set in 1989. The changes include increasing the rebate on the land transfer tax from a maximum of $2,000 to $4,000. It also takes into account the reality of skyrocketing home prices by increasing the tax rate on homes above $2 million to 2.5 per cent.

The Saskatchewan government's recent legislative efforts to define what is -- and what is not -- "privatization," has left us all floundering in a game of useless semantics. Does the sale of a 49 per cent stake in a provincial Crown corporation constitute "privatization?" Or is it merely "partial privatization?" Can something only be "partially privatized?"

A week of pressure from four Belgian regions opposed to CETA, led by the courageous Walloons, produced a revised "joint interpretive instrument" and, importantly, a new list of conditions that must be met before Belgium can ratify the deal.

This fall, Canada's Parliament will debate a recent proposal to expand the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Indeed, since the 2008-2009 world financial crisis, Canada has witnessed a renewed public debate on the CPP. Two factors have prompted this. First, as a result of the crisis, employer-sponsored pension plans lost substantial value. Second, partly in response to this loss in value, many employers either reduced their pension coverage or stopped offering them to workers altogether.

With all of the above in mind, here are 10 things to know about the CPP:

This week the regional government of Wallonia in Belgium rebuffed Canada's last-minute efforts to salvage a deeply flawed and increasingly unpopular transatlantic free trade agreement. By standing firm under incredible pressure (and a considerable amount of bullying), First Minister Paul Magnette gave a voice to millions of citizens who feel the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) fails to represent their interests.

Across the nation, talk of minimum wages and their impact is always the stuff of vigorous debate. This month it was the focus of an episode of CBC Radio's Cross Country Checkup with new host Duncan McCue from 4-6 p.m. EST. I was asked to kick off the discussion, which was both rich with experience and nuanced with different perspective. It's available here, in case you missed it.