Finance Minister Bill Morneau was told weeks into the Liberals’ second mandate that Canadians are most worried about affordability in areas where governments have a lot of power over prices — particularly child care.
The Canadian Press obtained the November presentation through the Access to Information Act.
Though wage growth has stayed ahead of inflation over the past 15 years, officials told Morneau that the costs of “highly visible items” like child care, education, and prescriptions have surged faster.
The documents note that “differences in policy prioritization” among provinces have led to wide gaps in affordability and access to child care.
Morneau was also provided policy options, but the recommendations were not released because officials say they are sensitive government advice.
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The federal finance minister is weeks away from delivering his first budget of the Liberal government’s minority mandate, which he has said will prioritize climate change and easing Canadians’ worries about the cost of living.
1:36 Morneau says pre-budget consultations underway, talks with opposition parties will be ‘more robust’
Morneau says pre-budget consultations underway, talks with opposition parties will be ‘more robust’
Officials wrote that there is an argument to invest more in child care because of its connection to increases in women’s ability to work, and incomes.
The budget is supposed to include details on a Liberal campaign promise to create 250,000 before- and after-school care spaces. Combined with a pledge to cut fees by 10 per cent, the Liberals estimated the measures would cost $535 million a year.
The presentation can be seen as making a case for more government action in areas where costs are determined by public policy — unlike prices for things like clothes and gasoline, which are market-driven, said David Macdonald, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
“In that sense, affordability isn’t something the market can help with. Instead of getting government out of the way, we need to get it in the way of rising costs for Canadians,” said Macdonald, who studies the cost of child care in Canada.
2:04 Morneau says they’ll analyze proposal over possible changes to financial stabilization program
Morneau says they’ll analyze proposal over possible changes to financial stabilization program
Macdonald co-wrote a report in 2017 that surveyed child-care costs across the country. Although prices depend on the age of the child, spaces cost about $1,000 a month on average.
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But the variation was huge among provinces: in Quebec, where the government subsidizes child-care very heavily, median fees were under $200 a month; in Toronto, a space for a pre-schooler cost $1,212 a month and one for an infant was $1,758 a month.
There are also expectations the budget will increase the value of the Canada Child Benefit for children under age one, a pledge the parliamentary budget officer estimated would cost $252 million in its first year.
Garima Talwar Kapoor, policy and research director at Maytree, an anti-poverty foundation, said child benefits are critical to increasing family incomes, but it is less clear how much they address child-care costs.
“If I were in government and were trying to address the child-care affordability challenges that families face, I’d ask whether further investments in child benefits … alleviate child care concerns, or whether systemic responses to child-care spaces are needed,” she said.
Inflation in housing costs has stayed just behind median wage growth, helped by “downward pressures from falling interest rates” that have lowered the cost of ownership, the presentation said.
Costs remain high in many cities owing to a shortage of places to buy or rent, though.
1:59 Billions added to federal budget deficit
Billions added to federal budget deficit
Finance officials calculated Toronto is the most unaffordable city in Canada, followed closely by Vancouver, in an analysis that compared average weekly wages in 12 cities once adjusting for the cost of living in each place.
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Elsewhere in the country, there are “uncertain and regional effects of policy response on jobs and cost of living” when it comes to the federal approach to environmental concerns.
Looking ahead, about one-quarter of people nearing retirement might not have enough money to pay for their golden years, notably those without workplace pension plans, the document says. Meanwhile, even the expanded Canada Pension Plan may not “fully offset the decline in private pension coverage, leaving workers more exposed to risk.”
If people aren’t saving on their own for retirements, that might eventually reduce tax revenues coming into the federal treasury and increase money going out through old-age security payments, said Jennifer Robson, an associate professor of political management at Carleton University in Ottawa. That would be tough on the federal budget.
She said it’s not clear whether an expansion of the Canada Pension Plan — by raising benefit amounts but also premiums over time — will be enough.
“Government can actually do quite a lot for people at the bottom end who don’t have pensions,” Robson said, “but the ones that they tend to think about are the ones in the middle.”
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Schools in Mexico will have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or else face heavy fines, officials said Monday.
The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile. School administrators who violate the order will face fines equivalent to between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense, amounting to nearly a year’s wages for some of them.
Mexico’s children have the highest consumption of junk food in Latin America and many get 40% of their total caloric intake from it, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund which labeled child obesity there an emergency.
The new ban targets products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday schools would have to offer water fountains and alternative snacks, like bean tacos.
“It is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” Sheinbaum said. “It is much better to drink hibiscus flower water than soda.”
However, the vast majority of Mexico’s 255,000 schools nationwide do not have free drinking water available to students. According to a report in 2020, the effort to install drinking fountains succeeded in only about 10,900 of the country’s schools, or about 4% of them. Many Schools are located in areas so poor or remote that they struggle to maintain acceptable bathrooms, internet connection or electricity.
Also the most common recipes for beans, refried beans, usually contain a significant dose of lard, which would violate rules against saturated fats.
Mexico instituted front-of-package warning labels for foods between 2010 and 2020, to advise consumers about high levels of salt, added sugar, excess calories and saturated fats. Some snack foods carry all four of the black, octagonal warning labels.
But under the new rules, schools will have to phase out any product containing even a single warning label from school snack stands. It wasn’t immediately clear how the government would enforce the ban on the sidewalks outside schools, where vendors usually set up tables of goods to sell to kids at recess.
Mexican authorities say the country has the worst childhood obesity problem in the world, with about one-third of children overweight or obese.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
