Trish Hennessy

The year as we saw it: Ten charts that defined Ontario in 2016

Behind The Numbers — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 14:05:10 +0000

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.

Ontario minimum wage goes up by 15 cents but still falls short of a living wage

Trish Hennessy — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 13:45:38 +0000

On October 1, the 800,000-plus workers who earn the minimum wage in Ontario received a raise, but don't celebrate too quickly: it went up by a mere 15 cents an hour.

To put that into perspective, that's $1.20 more a day or $6 more a week.

The hike represents the second year of the Ontario government's commitment to annually adjust the minimum wage to inflation, which is a good idea.

But, given the fact that a full-time, full-year minimum wage worker still lives below the poverty line, it's important to ask: what does a 15 cent raise buy in 2016?

Our researcher Jordan Perrault-Laird steadfastly set out on a shopping spree to find out.

Pressing the reset button: A progressive vision for Ontario

Trish Hennessy — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 17:14:00 +0000

The Ontario government has prorogued the provincial legislature, returning September 12 with a new throne speech.

The throne speech has been cast as government "pressing the reset button" following a recent by-election loss and ongoing controversies such as election finance scandals, hydro privatization, and high hydro bills.

Each of those controversies need to be tackled head on, but what should "pressing the reset button" look like for a government that is mid-term, purporting to be "activist" in its approach and less than two years away from a general election?

The answer starts with the question: what is the role of a provincial government in creating the conditions for decent work and reduced income inequality?

Ontario's $15 minimum wage campaign just got a boost

Trish Hennessy — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 14:07:07 +0000

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What a difference two years make.

In February 2014, Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was gearing up for a provincial election and announced that, if elected, her government would raise Ontario's minimum wage to $12 by 2016.

A $12 promise fell considerably short of the $14 minimum wage campaign that was being waged by grassroots workers in 2014.

Holiday reading for wonks: Best CCPA-Ontario reads of 2015

Trish Hennessy — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:47:36 +0000

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Maybe you take the quietude of the holiday season as a time to unplug and reflect. Maybe, like me, you curl up with a pile of progressive reading that you've been meaning to catch up on.

Making history: Cambridge opens the door to a living wage

Trish Hennessy — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 18:50:54 +0000

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Last week, I sat in the historic chambers of Cambridge's old city hall with about a half dozen contributors to the Waterloo region living wage committee to see if that city would become Ontario's first living wage municipality.

Ontario's newest trend: Living wage employers

Behind The Numbers — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 18:19:47 +0000

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When it came to raising the minimum wage in this province, for the longest time the typical small business owner would serve as the penultimate elephant in the room.

You could make the case for a higher minimum wage until you were blue in the face. It keeps workers below the poverty line. It hasn't caught up with inflation or productivity. It's not enough to make ends meet.

Only to be told: it'll put small businesses out of work.

Three things that would make Toronto public libraries even greater

Trish Hennessy — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 19:51:31 +0000

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$15 per day child care: Canada's hottest new political pledge?

Behind The Numbers — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:50:35 +0000

As Canada's Twitter elite (economists, pundits, partisans) broke out into a virtual policy brawl over yesterday's NDP national affordable child care pledge, I couldn't help but think the party might have hit a political sweet spot.

Of course there were the typical Twitter arguments between Liberals and New Democrats that break out every time one of them makes a political pledge.

But another line of argumentation unfolded on my Twitter news feed -- one designed to exploit class tensions. The argument advanced by a few well-off Twitterati asserts that universally accessible, affordable programs, like child care, aren't progressive because rich people can afford to pay for these services themselves.

$15 minimum-wage movement spills into Canada

Trish Hennessy — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:43:00 +0000

Today, the federal NDP is slated to use its Official Opposition Day to table a motion that would have Parliament Hill vote on a proposal to reinstate the federal minimum wage, which has been dormant since 1996.

The motion asks parliamentarians to consider incrementally raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour over a five-year period.

For a while there, it looked like it would never happen -- a Canadian $15 minimum-wage movement.

Time to scrap Ontario's archaic Taxpayer Protection Act

Behind The Numbers — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 17:21:09 +0000

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It seems like every newly elected Premier in Ontario who wins on even a slightly progressive platform feels like the first step in office is to help the boys on Bay Street relax.

And so it is, perhaps, that Premier-elect Kathleen Wynne came out of the gates post-election with two primary (albeit mixed) messages: she'll promote an activist government but "there's no new money" for even modest raises in the public sector.

Here's the thing: a broad swath of commentators agree Wynne managed to do the unexpected by securing a majority government.

What we should have been talking about in the Ontario election

Behind The Numbers — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 13:07:35 +0000

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The Ontario election is nearing its end and by Thursday night we will know the makeup of the next provincial government.

In some ways, this election featured a lot of substantive debate and policy discussion. For instance, a lot of focus was placed on the relative merit and credibility of the party platforms (and costing of those platforms).

On the other hand, a lot of important issues didn't get much airtime.

Ontario budget 2014: Not quite a May Day budget

Trish Hennessy — Fri, 02 May 2014 12:32:00 +0000

You may be forgiven for feeling like you already know what's in the 2014 Ontario budget -- it had more leaks than a sieve in the weeks leading up to budget day.

There weren't really any big surprises in the budget, but reading it in its entirety makes one thing crystal clear: the Wynne government is getting election battle ready.

This is very much an election budget.

It gives multiple nods to NDP Leader Andrea Horwath's insistence that middle-income Ontarians be spared tax and fee increases.

It extends the 2012 NDP-driven deal to implement a small marginal tax on Ontario's richest 0.2 per cent of tax filers. Now the Ontario government is asking the richest 2 per cent of tax filers -- those earning $150,000 or more -- to contribute a little more.

Why I'm not gloating about Canada's middle class

Trish Hennessy — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 11:54:47 +0000

This week Canada's nascent national debate about the problem of income inequality as it relates to the anxious middle class descended into ridiculous levels of un-Canadian gloating.

On Tuesday, Canadians awoke to news that the hypothetical middle-income Canadian outperformed its American counterpart in terms of after-tax income in 2010 (median, per capita, after-tax PPP-adjusted, inflation-adjusted income).

Right-wing politicians and pundits were quick to crow that their ideology was working and that Canada's middle class is not, in fact, struggling.

Ontario budget: Don't throw taxes under the bus

Trish Hennessy — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 12:55:23 +0000

As Ontario inches toward a potential spring election showdown, Premier Kathleen Wynne is making clear that she wants public transit to become the ballot box question.

That's heartening, because there is majority public support for greater transit investments after too many years of political and traffic gridlock.

But it looks like she's throwing needed new taxes under the bus in the process.

In her most recent announcement, Wynne committed to $29 billion in transit and transportation improvements over the next 10 years.