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.