When On-Site Magazine published an article on Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs), which also referred to some of our research, it generated a lot of feedback from readers in the construction industry. Chris Gardner, President of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, wrote in to plead for more complete coverage of the damage caused by the way British Columbia handles CBAs. And Gardner brings in other recent Cardus research to bolster his argument.  

Paul de Jong from the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada discusses Ontario's Bill 66, "Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act," and its importance to ensuring all construction workers have equal access to work through competition in the Toronto Star. Research from the prominent think tank Cardus, shows the Region of Waterloo, which adopted the legislation, is already benefiting from construction competition. More bids have lowered costs, saving the region $24 million so far. 

Federal political leaders fail to protect Canadians’ rights by staying out of Quebec’s secularism law, Bill 21, says Father Deacon Andrew Bennett, program director for religious freedom and faith community engagement at the faith-based think tank Cardus.  “Religious freedom is not just any freedom,” Father Deacon Andrew Bennett told Canadian Catholic News. “It is one of the fundamental freedoms.” If politicians won’t speak out against the law during a federal election, he wonders when they will stand up for religious freedom.

Not all election promises are created equal when it comes to child care policies. In this episode of TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Armine Yalnizyan, Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers; and Andrea Mrozek, Senior Fellow with Cardus Family look at what each party has on offer and evaluate their feasibility.  A recording of this debate can be viewed at this link.

As the federal election campaign reaches its final stretch, it’s increasingly clear, based on a combination of public polling and how the party leaders have allocated their own time, resources, and attention, that housing, health care, and childcare all rank near the top of the public policy agenda.  Although these three policy issues may seem quite different, they share one major commonality: they’re all cases of a persistent supply-demand gap that’s leading to shortages and in turn driving up prices or producing long wait lists, write Brian Dijkema, Sean Speer, and Aaron Wudrick.

“It is disingenuous to say the Liberal plan offers broader benefits when we know it will only reach less than a third of all families,” Andrea Mrozek told the C2C Journal. “They are only subsidizing one part of the entire ecosystem of care.”   If there’s another lesson to be learned from Quebec, it’s that government-funded childcare tends to cost a lot more than originally promised, which creates knock-on effects elsewhere. Mrozek’s research for Cardus suggests that despite its eye-popping $30 billion price tag over the next five years, the current Liberal proposal will be insufficient to meet all its stated objectives and that an additional $4 billion to $23 billion per year will be required to fulfill all its promises. If so, that money will have to come from somewhere.

The Liberals entered the election with the promise of $10-a-day licensed childcare spaces while the Conservatives are advocating a tax credit that would give parents more choice in meeting their children's care needs. But there are even more factors to consider, write Andrea Mrozek, Peter Jon Mitchell and Brian Dijkema of the think-tank Cardus.    

Brian Dijkema, vice president of external affairs at Cardus, shares his thoughts on the Conservatives' Canada-wide child-care plan. A glance at the available details of the CPC plan suggest that it is expansive, equitable, comprehensive, remarkably progressive, and takes significant steps to modernize child-care and family policy in Canada. How? While there are some who believe that “tax credits do nothing to create desperately needed spaces” or that the plan will not have an impact on women’s participation in the labour market, evidence suggests otherwise.

"The excellent report from Cardus objectively compels governments across the country to think more carefully before implementing [Community Benefits Agreements], by making sure they’re fair, open and inclusive," writes Paul de Jong, President of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada, in the Times Colonist. "Unfortunately, it’s a little late for that in British Columbia, where the best move now is a hard stop." Paul's hard-hitting opinion piece in Victoria's newspaper of record is well worth a read.