Statistics Canada released its regular monthly Labour Force Survey report today (October 9, 2009) and it contains good news: Employment in Canada increased in September by 31,000 jobs, and unemployment dropped for the first time since the fall of last year. The increase marked the second month in a row in which employment increased in Canada. Unemployment now stands at 8.4% in Canada, at 9.2% in Ontario, and at 7.4% in British Columbia. (more…)

On September 3^rd (with a federal election looming) Steven Harper announced his Government’s decision to “invest” 80 million dollars into Ford’s future. Everyone looked happy: The Government of Ontario, the Opposition, the CAW… The Opposition and the CAW said that this decision was long overdue. Canada’s Industry Minister Jim Prentice claimed that this “investment” will help make the Canadian automobile industry more competitive and will “create or sustain” up to 750 jobs. A week later came another sobering announcement: Ford announced the elimination of one of its shifts and the layoff of 500 workers from the same plant where Jim Prentice had made his announcement the week before.

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This year’s G8 summit in Japan resulted in a commitment from the leaders of some of the world’s largest economies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. It is ironically symbolic that this resolution was made in a place not far away from another Japanese city where a similar – but much stronger – commitment had been made a decade ago. If the Kyoto treaty failed to produce the results it was intended to produce, why should the G8 summit’s resolution be any better? (more…)