CPC Report Economic Action Plan for Workers

This is what I found on the PM's website that outlines his Econimic Action plan for Canada. Here are the outlines, please visit PM's website for full details. At the end of the next 4 years, lets see how much of his action plan is implimented, how sucessful his plan will be and how he funded each plan. While Harper's economic action plan is prior to this election it still is relevant since much of it is yet to be implimented.

Harper's Economic Action Plan for Workers

1) Aborigional Skills and employment Partnership plan.  Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government is providing $100 million in funding for the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership (ASEP) program. This additional funding is expected to support the creation of up to 6,000 jobs for Aboriginal Canadians


2) Aboriginal Skills and Training Strategic Investment Fund  Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government is investing $75 million of new funding over two years to establish the Aboriginal Skills and Training Strategic Investment Fund (ASTSIF). The fund will support short-term, focused initiatives designed to help Aboriginal people get the specific skills they require to benefit from economic opportunities, including those generated by the stimulus package. The fund will be an important step toward implementing the partnership- and results-based successor to the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy (AHRDS), to be put in place in April 2010. Note: Anyone know if this has been put in place?

3) Apprenticeship Completion Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government made a commitment to encourage skilled trades and apprenticeships by investing $40 million per year in a new Apprenticeship Completion Grant (ACG), which complements the existing Apprenticeship Incentive Grant (AIG). It is estimated that approximately 20,000 apprentices who complete their apprenticeship program and become certified in a designated Red Seal trade will be eligible for the ACG each year.

4) Career Transition Assistance Initiative Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government has implemented the Career Transition Assistance (CTA) initiative to help long-tenured workers update and acquire new skills. This initiative, implemented in partnership with provinces and territories, has two components and was estimated to cost $500 million over two years. Long-tenured workers are benefiting from the Extended Employment Insurance and Training Initiative (EEITI) and participating in the Severance Investment for Training Initiative (SITI).

5) Community Adjustment Fund Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government is helping mitigate the short-term impacts of restructuring in communities through the Community Adjustment Fund. Budget 2009 provided $1 billion over two years for the fund.

6) Employment Insurance and Extended Benefit. Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government has provided an extra five weeks of Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, available nationally, at an estimated cost of $1.15 billion over two years

7) Employment Insurance Premium Rate Through Canada's Economic Action Plan, the federal government has taken important steps to ensure that Employment Insurance (EI) premium rates for workers and employers remain low and stable over time. To provide certainty for workers and employers that EI premium rates would not increase during the downturn, the federal government froze the EI premium rate for 2010 at $1.73 per $100 of insurable earnings − the same level as in 2008 and 2009, and its lowest level since 1982. Keeping the EI premium at the same level in 2009 and 2010, rather than raising it to the break-even level, will achieve a projected combined economic stimulus of $4.5 billion. Canada enjoys some of the lowest payroll taxes among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, providing a competitive advantage to employees and their employers

8) Employment Insurance Special Benefits for the Self-Employed Through Canada’s Economic Action Plan, on November 3, 2009, the federal government tabled the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, legislation to provide EI maternity, parental/adoption, sickness and compassionate care benefits to self-employed Canadians on a voluntary basis. This legislation, which received Royal Assent on December 15, 2009, allowed the self-employed to opt into the EI program in January 2010, and benefits will start being paid in January 2011. This measure responds to the government’s 2008 pledge to provide access to EI for maternity and parental benefits to the self-employed.Residents of Quebec continue to receive maternity and parental benefits through the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan and are eligible to opt into the EI program for sickness and compassionate care benefits

Stay tuned for more to come.

NDP Report

This first bit of news is prior to election but I do not believe it to be public knowledge so it will

May 9/11
Layton and his wife Olivia Chow both sat on Toronto City Council for years before making the move to federal politics. While on City Council, they were making $100,000 a year. They used a fraudulent scheme to get into subsidized housing. What they did was register the house in the name of Chow's mother who was an unemployed immigrant. In this way, they lived for years in a taxpayer funded house while being paid $100,000 yearly from taxpayers. They only moved when a reporter exposed the story. Chow styled herself as an advocate for the homeless on City Council.

Layton and Chow earned $350,000 together as MPs. They each get a housing allowance for living in Ottawa although they live together. According to House of Commons records for 2010, they spent one million dollars last year on travel and perks. Because they're MP's there is no detail. When asked, Layton said that most of it was for travel back to Toronto to visit their constituents. That comes out to $20,000 a week for travel. Toronto is 300 miles from Ottawa.

Political Updates

Over the next four years I will post to this blog things I find that are based on facts. Whether good or bad on all parties in our government. Hopefully, this collection of facts, figures and fact based opinions will help when the next election rolls around. Please check back frequently. I will not focus on past events, most things should be happenings since this last election. The only exceptions will be anything that may not already be public knowledge. Any comments that are fact based, current and/or new would be appreciated. Please don't use this blog to debate it isn't about what one of the party leaders should or shouldn't do. This blog is about organizing  what the parties are or are not doing. So, here we go.....