Community Lens - Halton

Community Development Halton produces an online publication that is full of great facts and figures about Halton. Community Lens comes out several times per month and is very short (about 2 pages). Examples of topics covered in issues so far: Population, Children at home, Senior Population, Families and Family Structure, Households and Household Size, Dwelling Units and Tenure, Mobility, Migration, Immigrants, Non-Official languages, Visible Minorities, Aboriginal identity Population, Labour Force, Commuting Patterns, Postsecondary Education. Community Lens focuses on results from the 2006 Census, and lives up to its name by providing a lens on our community.

Accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities

AccessOn is a great place to look for information on the Ontario government's proposed accessibility standard. This standard, now under public review, outlines how businesses and organizations may be required to provide accessible public information in various formats such as online, print, verbal and digital. AccessON provides a quick summary and links to other information, including a link for submitting comments. Click here for a summary of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005) or here for a guide to the Act.

Canadian Social Trends

The Winter 2008 issue of Canadian Social Trends has just been issued. Canadian Social Trends is published by Statistics Canada and discusses the social, economic, and demographic changes affecting the lives of Canadians. This issue features some really good articles:
Inuit in Canada: Selected findings of the 2006 census,
Selected findings of the aboriginal children's survey 2006,
plus several articles about eldercare and retirement.
Clicking on the link above will bring you directly to these articles.
(N.B. We have the print copy of this periodical in Central Library)

Ontario adoption records

If you were involved in an adoption in Ontario go to AdoptionInfo and you can find information about an important change to your information and privacy rights. Effective June 1, 2009, Ontario adoption records will be opened, which means adopted adults and birth parents will be given access to identifying information from birth records and adoption orders. If the adoption order was made before September 1, 2008, a discolsure veto can be filed to prevent the release of information. This veto has to be filed before June 1, 2009.

New government publications at Oakville Public LIbrary

Some new government publications have just arrived:

Ontario Prospects 2008: Ontario's Guide to Career Planning

Development of a Regional Transportation Plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. Papers 1 and 2.

Supporting English Language Learners with Limited Prior Schooling: A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators Grades 3 to 12

National Apprenticeship Survey: Ontario Overview Report 2007

Canada's Engagement in Afghanistan: Setting a course to 2011

Official Historyof the Canadian Army in the Second World War

Changing Patterns in Canadian Homeownership and Shelter costs, 2006 Census

Healthy Canadians Resource

Physical & mental health & safety issues and initiatives are brought all together here at Healthy Canadians by the Government of Canada where you will find resources for expectant mothers, bunk bed safety, food recalls, nutritional information, and much more.

Yearbook of the United Nations

The Yearbook of the United Nations , the principal reference work on the United Nations and their various activities, has been digitized for the years from 1946 to 2005. Browse by year or search by keyword.
Sections in the Yearbooks include: Political & Security questions, Human Rights, Economic & Social questions, Legal questions, Institutional, Administrative and budgetary questions, Intergovernmental organizations related to the UN.

Caregivers in Canada from GovInfo

A new group is emerging in Canadian society - known as the Sandwich Generation These are individuals caught between the often conflicting demands of caring for children and caring for seniors.
VON Canada (Victorian Order of Nurses) has launched a groundbreaking new tool for Canada’s nearly three million caregivers: “Caregiver Connect…from Caring to Sharing". It provides access to information and resources that caregivers need to care for themselves, to provide better quality care to their family members and/or friends, and to connect and share with other caregivers through a virtual discussion forum. From the website there are many links to government programs and information.

Federal Election : promises affecting families

A guide to election promises regarding families from the Ottawa Citizen

Canada Votes Papers

Canada Votes Papers 2008 is a tool to help spark dialogue about social issues in Canada. A collaborative effort between SPARC BC, Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, Community Development Halton, Human Development Council St. John and Canadian Council on Social Development, it provides sample questions on social issues affecting communities that you can ask your candidates - issues such as crime, poverty reduction, accessibility, public safety.

Blocking telemarketers

As a direct result of legislation passed in 2006, CRTC today announced the "National Do Not Call List". This gives consumers a choice whether to receive unsolicited marketing calls. Registering your telephone number with the list (by phone 1-866-580-3625 or on the Internet) will reduce most telemarketing calls, with some exceptions. Canadian registered charities, political parties, and candidates are still allowed to call for donations. Newspapers may also call you to sell you a subscription. If you have done business with a company in the last 18 months or inquired about a product or service in the last 6 months the company is considered to have a relationship with you and is allowed to call you. Telemarketers are required by law to subscribe to the National DNCL and to download updates to the List. It is their responsibility to ensure telephone numbers on the National DNCL are not called.

Second Career

The Ontario Government has announced their assistance in helping Ontario residents find a Second Career for those recently laid-off or unemployed to find long-term training for high-demand jobs in their communities. Please follow this link for more information.

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/tcu/secondcareer/

The General Election, October 14, 2008

Most questions you have about the upcoming election can be answered at the Elections Canada website. From here you can find a list of MPs (alphabetical, by postal code, by riding), view a list of registered political parties and their financial reports, and get answers to questions about registering to vote, about identification required for voting (available in 27 languages as well as English), about getting time off work for voting, about employment during the election. The list is extensive - it even includes an answer to the question "Is someone allowed to eat a ballot?"
Released today is the 2006 Census FED Finder from Statistics Canada, providing statistical information about each federal riding (enter postal code) such as population, age, income and education.
For the individual parties' platforms, here are the links for :
Bloc Quebecois - Electoral platform
Conservative Party of Canada - Key issues
Green Party of Canada - Policy
Liberal Party of Canada - Vision
National Democratic Party of Canada - Plan

New Ontario portal for legal information

From the Government of Ontario, a new portal for legal information. Contains a wealth of information on subjects such as finding a lawyer, tickets and fines, lawsuits, family law, human rights, wills and estates. This access to the legal system is in line with the existing access to Services through Service Ontario and to employment and training through Employment Ontario
In addition, there is toll-free telephone access to the same information in 173 languages at 1-866-252-0104.

Help for teachers on Census 2006

Just in time for Back to School, Statistics Canada has today released the 2006 Census Results Teacher's Kit. Based on results from the 2006 Census, these excellent kits are classroom ready and cover the following subjects: English, mathematics, social sciences, geography, history, family studies and technology. Suggested grade levels are intermediate and secondary (Grades 7 to 12) and all necessary materials and links to articles, photos, graphs and data are included.
Lesson 1 Exploring the effects of population change
Lesson 2 Meeting the needs of an aging population
Lesson 3 What is a family?
Lesson 4 Immigration: the changing face of Canada
Lesson 5 The First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples of Canada
Lessons 6, 7 and 8 will be released on 17 September.

Listeria investigation and food recall

For information from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency about products recalled, click here. If you're wondering how to determine if the Maple Leaf ham in your fridge is part of the recall click here. The Public Health Agency of Canada provides more information about listeriosis, updated frequently. The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care has a fact sheet about listeria, the symptoms of listeriosis and how to avoid it. For more information contact your local Public Health Unit

Infrastructure funding for municipalities

All municipalities in Ontario will benefit from infrastructure funding under the Investing In Ontario Act. The Ontario government is investing an additional $1.1 billion in capital grants to municipalities. Click here to see how much Oakville will be receiving
This news release from CNW Group provides a good overview of the act, its implications, and the relationship building between the government and Ontario municipalities.

Identity theft. Warning from CRA

The following information is taken directly from the CRS website today:
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is warning taxpayers to beware of a recent scam where some Canadians are receiving a letter fraudulently identified as coming from the CRA and asking for personal information. The letter is not from the CRA. View a copy of the letter here PDF version of the letter
The letter claims that there is “insufficient information” for the individual’s tax return and that in order to receive any “claims,” they will have to update their records. The letter attaches a form specifically requesting the individual’s personal information in writing, via fax or email, including information on bank accounts and passports. This letter is not from the CRA and Canadians should not provide their personal information to the sender.
All taxpayers should be vigilant when divulging any confidential information to third parties. The CRA has well established practices to protect the confidentiality of taxpayers’ information.
The CRA has notified the proper law enforcement authorities of this scam.

Gas prices

If you want to know some interesting statistics about Canadians' use of energy read the following article from The Daily (Thursday, 14th August) Study: Over a barrel? Canada and the rising cost of energy. Some food for thought: 1. despite the steady increase of gas prices since 2002, our consumption of gas has gone up, and 2. We think of ourselves as being self-sufficient in energy, but Canada actually imports 19.8% of the energy it uses.

New government publications - at GovInfo

Some new government publications have just arrived. Check them out at the Oakville Public Library catalogue

Maintaining Seniors' independence: A Guide to Home Adaptations
From Canada Housing & Mortgage Corp., this publication identifies home adaptations/improvements that are easy to carry out and allow older people with disabilities to live independently at home.

Threats to Water Availability in Canada
From Environment Canada, a selection of 15 chapters written by experts from academe, industry and government addressing a range of threats to water availability, and detailing current status, trends and knowledge.

Federalism: An Introduction
A concise little book that will easily fit in your pocket, this provides a quick, straightforward introduction to the federal system of government, its origins and characteristics.

Local Government in Action
This is a simulation about a fictional, medium-sized municipality in Canada called Summerville. It provides an interactive teaching tool with a focus on governance and community development in municipalities in Canada. It also examines the major issues faced by communities on the periphery of metropolitan areas.

Canadian economic conditions, statistics and major events

The Canadian Economic Observer is Statistics Canada's flagship publication for Canadian economic statistics. Here are a few pointers to the wealth of information contained there. The July 2008 issue analyses current economic conditions and summarizes the major economic events that occurred in June. A separate statistical summary contains a wide range of tables and graphs on the principal economic indicators for Canada, the provinces and the major industrial nations. Recent Feature Articles contains a chronological index to feature articles from January 1990 to June 2008. Browse through this list to view the topics covered, such as cross border shopping, Canada-China trade, the gender divide in the labour force, household use of the Internet. To view one of the feature articles go to the Chronological Index available from the Canadian Economic Observer Main page
The Canadian Economic Observer, Historical Statistical Supplement contains annual historical data for all series reported monthly in Canadian Economic Observer (annual data up to 2007).

Analog-to-digital television transition

The final date for analog-to-digital television transition in Canada is August 31, 2011. In the United States. In the United States the date of transition is February 17, 2009. Why are we switching? What will it mean for you and your television? What do you need to know when buying a new television? To get the answers to all these questions, go to Canada's Office of Consumer Affairs.

Smoking ban in Ontario

Read about the new ban on smoking in cars with children under 16, just passed by the Ontario legislature. View the text of the bill here.

European government sources on climate change

On 23 January 2008 the European Commission put forth an integrated proposal for Climate Action
This website contains information on this proposal to reduce greenhouse gases and increase renewable energy sources in the European Union. It provides excellent Fact sheets on renewable energy for each EU country.

New government publications - at GovInfo

Some new government publications have just arrived. Check them out at the Oakville Public Library catalogue

Controversial Canadian claims over Arctic waters and maritime zones. 2008

Human Activity and the environment; Annual statistics 2007 and 2008

Employability in Canada: Preparing for the future

Canadian Cancer Statistics 2008

About Canada Series

The About Canada series is a collaborative effort of the Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University and the Canadian Studies Program, Department of Canadian Heritage. It is an exciting collection of online publications exploring a number of different aspects of Canadian history, culture and society. This series consists of articles, annotated bibliographies and study guides covering a diverse range of subjects, including Famous Women in Canada and Canada at the Movies. Great for school projects, teaching or just for fun, there is something here for everyone.


To check out the rest of the About Canada collection, click here.

Canada's trade with Russia - GovInfo

A study on Canada/Russia trade from Statistics Canada shows a rate of growth 4 times that of Canada's total world trade figures. In this decade Canada has always had a trade deficit with Russia, a deficit driven recently by imports of mineral fuels, which in 2007 amounted to more than two thirds of total imports from Russia.
Read more about what and how much is being traded between the two countries in the full report Canada's Trade with Russia 1998 - 2007

More of the Canada Gazette online - GovInfo

"A Nation's Chronicle: The Canada Gazette" is another major iniatiative from Library & Archives Canada.
The Canada Gazette is the newspaper of our federal government. Through it every Canadian gets to participate in the legislative process, so it's a very important part of our democratic tradition. The digitization of the Gazette, which began in 2007, is ongoing and it's expected that by the beginning of 2009 about 90% of all issues will be available in this searchable database from the Gazette's first issue in1841 until 1998. Approximately 30% of the Canada Gazette is now searchable online. This includes:
Part I - 1983-1997
Part II - 1950-1976, 1983-1997
Part III - 1985-1997

The database is searchable by issue and by keyword. Use Search Help for more information

You can also search the Consolidated Regulations of Canada. There have been five consolidations of regulations published (1874, 1889, 1949, 1955 and 1978). These are not officially part of the Canada Gazette, but have been included in the database for the convenience of researchers.

News from "The Hill" and What's Happening in Foreign Policy

Happenings on "The Hill" are published in the weekly "The Hill Times". Tagged as "Canada's politics and government newsweekly", you'll find lots of news stories about what's happening on Parliament Hill.

"Embassy" is Canada's foreign policy newsweekly. Check it out and you'll find news, embassy reports, diplomatic appointments and embassy contacts, etc.

General Rick Hillier Retires

General Rick Hillier announced his retirement yesterday. Succession plans are already underway. General Hillier will be leaving behind a strong legacy. Read more at CBC by clicking here.

Town of Oakville Pesticides Ban - GovInfo

As gardening season approaches, you may be getting enquiries soon about the pesticide by-law that came into force on 1 January/08 for the Town of Oakville. Go to the Town's website and under the section Residents and Environment, you'll find lots of information on the by-law, and links to lists of natural insecticides and permitted product brands available in stores, as well as the document Oakville's Guide to Gardening Naturally which contains a list of native plants for the Halton Region as well as tips for fertilizers to use and how to care for your lawn without chemicals.

Great new government publications - GovInfo

Some great new government publications have just arrived. Check them out at the Oakville Public Library catalogue:

The Economics of Climate Change (also known as the Stern Review)
The Book Retail Sector in Canada
Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan (also known as the Manley Report)
State of the Great Lakes 2007
2008 Ontario Municipal Directory
National Health Expenditure Trends 1975-2007
The Federal Budget, February 2008
Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnology in Canada

Canada Year Book Historical Collection - GovInfo

Canada Year Book Historical Collection was launched today by Statistics Canada. This digital collection, available free of charge from the Statistics Canada website, contains a wealth of historical data covering the first century of Canadian history following Confederation in 1867, through to 1967, with historical text, tables, charts and maps. It's a great site to show students and teachers, because it includes lots of learning resources, including lesson plans and worksheets, but it's also really good for historical statistics. To get an idea of the coverage, look at it under the heading “Browse by Topic” and follow the links , e.g. Photos and Lesson Plans. Topics there include The Great Depression, Canada at War, Ethnocultural Diversity and lots more.

UN Data - Worldwide Country Stats.

http://data.un.org/

Literally a world of information!

This is a free database for all those comparison stats, country profiles, and other questions of the sort from countries around the world.

It searches over 55 million records covering topics such as:
Agriculture
Education
Employment
Energy
Environment
Health
Human development
Industry
Information and Communication Technology
National Accounts
Population
Refugees
Trade
Tourism

A very easy interface to use and search. Try it out!

311 and 211 explained at GovInfo

311 Halton Government Services will be officially launched today Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 2pm.

What are the differences between 311 and 211?
311 is a three-digit telephone number for callers to get access to the following government services in Halton Region:

· Town of Oakville
· City of Burlington
· Town of Milton
· Town of Halton Hills
· Halton District School Board
· Halton Catholic District School Board
· Halton Regional Police Service (non-emergency calls)
Examples would be: program information, request a service or report non-emergency problems.

Ontario 211, on the other hand, provides information about many community, health and social services, regardless of whether the services are provided by government, not-for-profit or community groups. 211 service is available in Toronto, Halton, Windsor-Essex, Niagara, Simcoe County and Thunder Bay, with plans for further expansion. It's free, operates 24/7 and staff has expertise in 150 languages. See today's Toronto Star Budget to offer Hotline Aid for more information on this great service.

Featuring Canadian War History in GovInfo

Veterans Affairs Canada is a great place (and often overlooked) to refer those Grade 10 history students who are looking for information on the First and Second World Wars. They will find details of the battles, background to the wars, video clips and interviews with veterans. The website also contains information on the Boer War the Korean War and Canada's peacekeeping operations in the last 50 years. It's best to look under the History link on the sidebar, but this is a good website to explore a little as there are several hidden gems.
You'll find that the library has some print publications from Veterans Affairs too, such as Valour Remembered: Canada and the Second World War , Canada's Nursing Sisters and Native soldiers, Foreign Battlefields and these are in French and English, so particularly helpful for French Immersion students.

Oakville's highly educated population

Figures released yesterday from the 2006 Census show Oakville and Richmond Hill residents holding the highest percentage of university degrees in the Greater Toronto Area. Approximately 42% of the residents in both municipalities have university degrees at the bachelor level or higher. The average for Ontario is about 31%. Click here to see full details of Oakville residents' educational attainment.
View this map from the Globe & Mail for a complete snapshot of education, employment and commuting in the provinces, territories and metropolitan areas of Canada in 2006.

New from the Census

Statistics Canada today released data from the 2006 Census this morning, and most of the media coverage has been about labour market activities, and particularly the graying of the workforce (half now over the age of 40). However, there is much more to peruse there – data on industry, occupation, education and language of work. Take a look.
Also provided are three excellent on-line documents Canada's Changing Labour Force, Educational Portrait of Canada, and Using Languages at Work in Canada,

Spending Patterns in Canada

To read a post on what people are buying and where they are buying it in Canada, please check out a post from February 26, 2008 on the Resources for Small Business blog. It references Statistics Canada's 2006 data in a report called Spending Patterns in Canada. Also included in this post is information on doing business in Alberta (because spending growth is very high there).

The Budget

Time for a budget refresher as today is budget day.
Budgets are tabled usually early in the year. They are generally preceded in the fall by another major statement The Economic and Fiscal Update. Past statements and budgets can be viewed at the Department of Finance website
To find out more about how budgets are tabled in the House of Commons, what happens to budgets after they are tabled, and how they fit into the government’s annual financial cycle click here
To follow the Budget today, you can't do better than go to CBC. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. ET with a pre-budget special on CBC Newsworld, then live federal budget coverage at 4 p.m. ET on CBC Radio, CBC TV & CBC Newsworld and live streaming on CBCNews.ca.

Health Issues

Sometimes it seems that people are turning more and more to libraries and the Internet for health information, and either bypass doctors completely, or go to their doctor with information gleaned from the Internet. Two interesting studies in Health Reports, Feb 2008 tend to confirm this. The first Chronic Pain in Canadian Seniors indicates just how great the problem of chronic pain is in the older population. The second article, Getting a Second Opinion: Health Information on the Internet, bases its findings on a 2005 survey and offers many insights into Canadians' habits in getting health information. Needless to say, the Internet figures prominently.

Questions about tax?

If you have questions about personal or corporate tax in Canada, a lot of information is now freely available on the web. This can be supplemented by print publications in the library.

The Department of Finance and Canada Revenue Agency (CDA) are the two federal government bodies that deal with taxes.

Department of Finance
While CDA collects the taxes, it’s the Dept. of Finance who prepares the policies and legislation that determine who gets taxed, how, and how much. Budget papers from 1994 describe tax changes and how taxes will be spent. Coming tax changes are often first mentioned in Department of Finance News Releases. If you want to receive notification by email of new press releases or the posting of a new budget, you can register here.
If you have a question about tax regulations in general, such as how much tax we pay on alcohol, what tax measures are available to help students or families, or about car deduction rates, go to the excellent and lengthy FAQ page. This also gives useful links to websites that deal with related issues, such as student loans or the CPP.

The Bible of federal income tax is the Income Tax Act. Neither the Canada Revenue Agency nor the Department of Finance publishes the act in print or electronically (it is extremely difficult to maintain due to its length and frequent amendments). Go to the Department of Justice website for the unofficial version of the act. Income and tax regulations are published in the Canada Gazette Part II . Consolidations of the Act are available from commercial publishers. The best place to go to see a print copy is the library, Central Branch. You’ll also find the Canada Gazette Part II there, as well as many other books related to tax. Here is a small sample of what you can find:

Canadian Master Tax Guide
How to Reduce the Tax you pay
Income Splitting
Preparing your Corporate Tax Returns..
The Taxman is Watching
Winning the Tax Game

Canada Revenue Agency

This is a website packed full of information. Here are a few pointers to help guide you, though the site is very easy to navigate. If you are a business owner go straight to the link for business on the sidebar Clickherefor current corporate tax rates.
Click here for current personal tax rates.
You can find tax forms listed by number or tax forms listed by topic.
Access the excellent series of Tax Guides and Pamphlets that CRA produces on a variety of topics, for example Canadian Residents Abroad, Preparing a Tax Return for a Deceased Person, Canadian Residents Going Down South, Using your Home for Day Care.

Additional useful websites with free tax related information:
BDA Dunwoody Tax Publications – excellent electronic bulletins and newsletters, tax rates, tax tips, budget updates.
Tax Facts and Figures for Individuals and Corporations - an annual electronic publication from PricewaterhouseCoopers
Deloitte & Touche’s Quick Tax Facts
Canadian Income tax FAQs for Small Businesses .

For more on Canadian tax see:
Caruso, Agnese. “What a Taxing Day! A Survival Guide for Researching and Answering Canadian Tax Questions.” Feliciter, Issue 1, 2007, p.40.

Ontario Gov. Docs archive now online

Gov. Docs. from the Legislative Library of Ontario are now available on the OurOntario site http://govdocs.ourontario.ca/index.html and searchable by keyword - Advanced search option also available. There's a browsable index by author, title, department, subject, date. Documents are captured from publicly available websites and archived in PDF format. Not all Government of Ontario documents are included, but at the moment there are 14,000 monographs and 900 serials, and the archive will be added to on a monthly basis. This has been in the works for some time so it's great to see it up and working with a good search engine. Try it out using keywords like "Walkerton" or "Ipperwash" or "ontario electricity system" - it brings up good results

New series of articles - cities and suburbs

Canadian Social Trends is a quarterly magazine from Statistics Canada that contains a wealth of information. It's available electronically from the Statistics Canada website (look under Publications, free Internet publications, then under Society & Community). OPL also has a print subscription. The magazine has just launched a new series of articles that explore a wide range of issues related to life in our cities and suburbs. The first two articles have just been published in the Jan. 2008 issue, entitled "The city/suburb contrast: How can we measure it" and "Dependence on cars in urban neighbourhoods". Take a look. The articles are short - and relevant to Oakville.

Profile of Oakville

With so much data now released from the 2006 Census (population & dwelling counts, housing, immigration, and language, among others) it's interesting to take a look at Oakville and see how it's evolving. What is the population? How has it increased from 2001? What is the median age? How many people in Oakville are widowed? Divorced? Single parents? How many dwellings were built between 1986 and 2006? How many families are French speaking? How many immigrants have come to Oakville since 2001? Since 1991? How many aboriginals live here? How does our community compare with Ontario in general? This and much more can be found by clicking on Community Profiles from the Statistics Canada home page
It's worthwhile taking a look, and play around with the "Select a View" capability, which allows you to pick and choose the data you want, then click on the Print-friendly button or download the data to an Excel spreadsheet.

2006 census data for Aboriginal peoples

The new release of 2006 data from Statistics Canada presents the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and their demographic characteristics, including the growth of the Aboriginal population, information on age distribution, Aboriginal languages, living arrangements, housing characteristics and geographic mobility. Separate data are provided for Inuit, Métis and First Nations people. Click here to view. If you want all that information in a nutshell, then read the excellent summary provided in Aboriginal Peoples in Canada in 2006: Inuit, Métis and First Nations, 2006 Census

Trans fat comparisons

From Health Canada, results of the trans fat monitoring program. Great place to find the fat content of a Krispy Kreme jam buster doughnut as opposed to a Tim Hortons honey glazed! And lots more - main fast food restaurants monitored in 2006/7.