It’s Time to Focus on Workplace Wellness
Times are tough in the federal public service. They are especially tough on employees, supervisors and managers who are being asked to do more with less. Sometimes this causes tensions in the workplace that lead to conflicts. It can also lead to serious health problems like higher blood pressure and stress related ailments like heart problems, strokes or depression and anxiety. If you have some of these problems already or want to prevent them from happening in your workplace we can help.
For the last thirty years I have been working with other professionals to improve the workplace. This work has included building better workplace relationships, dealing with workplace conflict, and developing workplace wellness strategies. We have worked with managers and unions, with federal government departments and crown corporations.
Our Services
Together with a team of professionals that include former senior public service managers and union leaders, coaches and mentors, trainers and facilitators we offer specific services in a number of areas including:
Building Better Workplace Relationships
This range of services focuses on improving labour management relations, increasing manager’s and supervisor’s capacity to communicate with employees, and training all staff to better respect and trust each other.
Managing and Reducing Conflict
In this area we focus on dealing with specific interpersonal or group conflicts, helping supervisors and managers deal with conflict as it arises, and training all staff to identify and resolve conflict early.
Workplace Assessment Services
We can help you and your team pinpoint areas of employee/supervisor concern, identify potential sources of conflict, and make recommendations for specific workplace wellness initiatives based on your needs.
About Mike Martin
I have a wide range of experience including workplace interventions and conflict management, strategic planning, teambuilding, and Human Resources. I have been a senior policy adviser and manager with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a self-employed consultant and freelance writer, and a senior manager with several not for profit organizations. I am the former President of Springwinds Training Inc, a full service training company and the author of the book “Change the Things You Can: Dealing with Difficult People.”
There are many styles of leadership and many ways that people try to describe them. One of the least effective descriptions is the so-called three main leadership styles of autocratic, democratic or free reign leadership. When applied to the modern workplace about the only value these descriptors have is to show which style is currently in vogue in management today.
That’s easy because unless you are running a paramilitary organization or a kindergarten it would have be the democratic or participatory style of management. That’s mostly because of the disasters that companies and organizations have put themselves through when the managerial powers are given to dictatorial managers or to the children in the classic laissez faire model.
But there’s a better way to describe a leader and to me when it comes to the modern workplace I do want results but I also want someone who can get people to follow them. I want someone who is not just good at the x’s and o’s but who also has a vision of where they and the organization can be in the future. In other words I just don’t want a good manager. I want a leader. And there are a lot of differences between a manager and a leader.
One of the best lists that I’ve seen on the difference between a manager and a leader was prepared by Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal and a well-respected author on management issues. He said:
- The manager administers; the leader innovates.
- The manager is a copy; the leader is an original.
- The manager maintains; the leader develops.
- The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
- The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
- The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective.
- The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.
- The manager has his or her eye always on the bottom line; the leader’s eye is on the horizon.
- The manager imitates; the leader originates.
- The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.
- The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his or her own person.
- The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
Given those choices who would you rather follow? A manager or a leader?
This post originally appeared on my blog at www.jobs.ca
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and workplace wellness consultant.
Whatever you feel about the federal government’s recent cuts to federal public service jobs there is no doubt that their handling of the people side, the Human Resource, portion of this exercise has been a disaster. How bad has it been? If you have been on the inside it’s pretty effin bad.
First of all you have to picture yourself as a federal public service employee. You have been conscientiously going about your work while storm clouds have been gathering above your head. You have an employer, the Conservative Government, which actively makes a point of not telling you, ever, that you are doing a good job or that they appreciate your efforts. In fact they go out of their way to blame, denigrate and generally stereotype you and your colleagues as being a drain on the public purse.
Secondly you have learned to keep your mouth shut. You realized long ago that they did not want your ideas, your suggestions, or any information that you possessed that could help them make a decision. They especially hated the information piece. You saw what happened to anyone who stuck their head up out of the foxhole from senior foreign affairs advisers to the Chief Statistician of Canada to the head of Nuclear Safety, for Gawd’s sake!! They were soon no longer there.
Thirdly you have been watching all of the debate and discussion by the political parties and the media about how deep the cuts would, should or will be. Everyone in your section and department watched for any signal you could be next. This went on for an agonizing year and then the cuts started coming in waves like capelin on the beach in Newfoundland. You survived each round of cuts and were still swimming. Battered and emotionally bruised but still swimming. Until you heard the news that you have survived. For now.
But this is the just the beginning salvo and you can expect these types of cuts again next year as the program review kicks into gear. And maybe again in the year after. You, and tens of thousands of others are left dazed, confused, sad, and angry.
Now imagine that you are a manager in the federal public service. You have a section to look after in a large department. You do not make widgets or manufacture stuff. Your natural resources are your people. You have just witnessed what has been described above happen over and over and over again to your staff. Yes, you still have a team. But it is much smaller with the same amount of work and now the team members are totally devastated and demoralized.
What can you say to them? Things will get better? I don’t think so. We’ll be okay? You can’t say that for sure.
You know what you say to your people. I am sorry that these bastards treated you and our team this way. Let’s find a way to work together and stay tight. That’s our only defense.
So where does that leave the federal public service? In disarray, in desperation and absolutely demoralized. Good luck in getting them re-motivated to serve Canadians.
But maybe that’s the point. The Conservatives Human Resource policy is to demoralize people so that they will quit before they fire them. As a political strategy it is cruel, mean and inhumane. As a Human Resource policy it is a disaster.
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and workplace wellness consultant.
A manager friend of mine wants to make some changes in her section but she has opposition. A small but vocal group of dissenters are holding her back. What she doesn’t realize fully is that she has a lot more resources to pull her change forward. This situation is the most common and certainly most frustrating reason why many positive changes don’t get done. And it’s more than a shame, it’s preventable.
Going back to my friend she has about forty employees in her section and of these seven or eight staff are the holdouts. She has tried everything to bring them along from bribery to coercion, from flattery to threats. She has tried to bring them “into the circle” and done everything but make them home-made cookies, which she would do if she thought it would work, and nothing budges them from their oppositional point of view.
At the point of giving up she finally took some sage advice (not just from me) and decided to move ahead with her changes. She had the support of her superiors and the power to make it happen so she set a date and went about implementing the change. So what happened? Things went great, the positive changes infused the workplace with new and creative energy and both profit and productivity rose.
Once she made the decision to move forward then the majority of the staff who were with her jumped in and made it a success.
And the naysayers? Well, two of them are still there. They are still unhappy but are not blocking the flow of changes. They have become isolated and apart from the main group and my manager friend thinks they will leave soon. The others have either quit or been let go already. They maintained their opposition to the change process and paid the price. It’s too bad but life does go on.
My friend has once again learned one of the most important lessons in change management. You don’t need everybody rowing all the same way at the same time to make effective change happen; you just need a critical mass and some momentum. The manager provided the momentum by making her decision and the rest of the staff just rowed along to her direction.
So the lesson for today is: Don’t let the background noise drown out the applause.
This post first appeared on my blog at www.jobs.ca
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and workplace wellness consultant.
Modern workplace wellness programs are a success by any standard you wish to measure. And now we have the data to prove it. First of all a little history lesson. The evolution of workplace wellness came about as a result of a number of factors. First of all research began to confirm that poor lifestyle choices like physical inactivity, poor diet, and tobacco smoking were direct factors in most chronic illnesses and diseases.
Secondly as the level of stress increased in society and the workplace, the costs of providing employee benefits like prescription drugs to treat mental illness and depression were skyrocketing. Thirdly employers began to realize that they were losing valuable time and productivity that was directly related to their employee’s health. It just made good business and economic sense to invest in their employee’s health and so the workplace wellness boom began.
Now that we are about twenty years into the modern version of workplace wellness there is no doubt that they work. Research shows that workplace wellness programs are having a real and tangible impact on not only the health of the workers involved but on the companies who made the investments bottom line. Workplace wellness programs have been proven to deliver returns to employers of anywhere from $2.00 to $10.00 for every dollar spent.
These returns have come in the form of increased productivity, reduced sick time and absenteeism, lower costs to provide employee health benefits, and reduced Workers Compensation claims.
There are lots of examples to prove the point including:
- Canada Life Insurance which reported a return of $3.43 on their fitness program, and an overall return on investment of $6.85 on each corporate dollar invested in productivity gains, reduced turnover and decreased medical claims.
- In Toronto civic employees who participated in the “Metro Fit” fitness programs missed 3.35 fewer days in the first six months of the program than employees not enrolled in the program.
- And in British Columbia B.C Hydro employees who participated in their workplace fitness program had a turnover rate of just 3.5% compared with a company average of 10.3%. Workplace wellness programs deliver results for both the employer and the employee.
Employers benefit from workplace wellness programs by reducing the costs of disability claims, prescription drugs, and absenteeism. They also benefit by improving morale which leads to happier and more productive employees. In addition these programs help reduce the stress in the workplace and make it easier for employers to attract and retain their employees. Employees who participate in wellness activities in the workplace attain some improvement in their overall health and many report greater job satisfaction and improved morale. They are also less likely to be injured at work and are able to reduce their personal health costs.
Workplace wellness programs are alive and thriving because they work for both employees and the employer. They are an undeniable success!!
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and workplace wellness consultant.
There are many mistakes being made by the Conservatives in the recent Federal Budget including using a bazooka when it could have better utilized a laser to pin point savings and reduce the deficit. But they also are making a number of other strategic mistakes that appear to be ideologically driven and will end up costing all Canadians much, much more in the long run.
One of their worst mistakes is the de-funding of Aboriginal organizations who are engaged in the research, policy development and gathering of information on Aboriginal health. They say that they will continue to fund direct front-line services at the same level (because they have to) but as we have seen from Attawapistat, the status quo is not a place that many of us would like to live.
This is a strategic mistake because it ignores both the reality on the ground and the future at the same time. Right now it costs a lot of money to provide basic health care services to Aboriginals in their communities. It costs more than other Canadians and not just because they live in isolated, remote or Northern communities, although that is a big factor. It costs more also because First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people have a number of more acute health care problems than the rest of us.
Here are some of the stats about Aboriginal Health from Statistics Canada. First of all compared with the general population, the percentage of Aboriginal peoples living in overcrowded housing is five to six times higher on reserves and in the North. Poor housing conditions allow diseases such as tuberculosis to spread. In 2005, the tuberculosis rate was 27 active cases per 100,000 in Aboriginal peoples compared with 5 active cases per 100,000 in the Canadian population.
HIV/AIDS rates among Aboriginal peoples is an ongoing concern, especially for Aboriginal women and youths. From 1998 to 2005, women made up 47% of all new HIV diagnoses among Aboriginal people, compared with 21% among non-Aboriginal people. Moreover, Aboriginal people receive a diagnosis of HIV at a younger age than non-Aboriginal people—one out of three Aboriginal persons newly diagnosed with HIV is under 30 years of age. By contrast, one out of five non-Aboriginal persons newly diagnosed is under 30.
Higher rates for diabetes mellitus among Aboriginal peoples is also of great concern. In 2001, 11% of Aboriginal adults on reserves had been diagnosed with diabetes, compared with 8% of First Nations adults off reserves, 6% of Métis, 2% of Inuit and 3% of the general population. High rates of diabetes are linked to key health determinants such as income, employment levels, education, social conditions and access to health care.
By almost every standard Aboriginal communities are worse off than the rest of the Canadian population. This applies to suicide rates, binge drinking, alcohol-related deaths, drug use and abuse, domestic violence, sexual assaults, and a woefully inadequate child welfare system that does not meet the needs of aboriginal children, families or communities. First Nations and Inuit are also the most likely in Canada to be undiagnosed or under diagnosed for mental illness.
The cuts in this budget means not only will the dire status quo continue but all of the work that these organizations have been doing on prevention, health promotion, suicide prevention will be lost. So too will the work helping their people regain their pride and their culture as they heal from residential schools, all forms of abuse at the hands of church and government officials, forced relocation and the denial of their language and culture.
What will also be lost is the hope of individuals and communities who are slowly recovering from intergenerational trauma. They are making progress in developing and regaining perseverance, resiliency, and healthy coping skills as well as reclaiming and strengthening their language and culture. They are combining traditional knowledge and medicine with new approaches and getting people out onto the land to reconnect with nature. They have been trying and making progress but now their funding has been decimated.
We need to not only stop the problems in Aboriginal communities from getting worse we need to make the situation better. And we need to do that not just because it is the right thing to do but also because it will save us money in the long term. From 1996 to 2006 the Aboriginal population has increased by 47% compared to 8% for non-Aboriginals. And 48% of Aboriginal people are less than 25 years old. Aboriginal youth is the fastest growing demographic in the country. They also have the highest suicide rates, the highest prison rates and the highest rates of involvement in gang activity inCanada.
Unless we take active steps to restore the health care funding to aboriginal organizations we run the risk of more Inuit youth suicides. In Iqaluit lat year there were 11 suicides. If that rate was repeated in a city like Ottawa it would mean over 1,500 suicides. We run the risk of more Aboriginal people in jail. That would raise their 20% of the prison population even higher. And we run the risk of more young Aboriginal women ending up on drugs and on the street, most of whom will be abused, some of whom will die.
I am not a health care expert, a statistician, a scientist or Aboriginal. But I have seen the television pictures of Attawapistat and the all too often posters of missing Aboriginal girls and women. I also know that we have not treated our First Nation, Métis, and Inuit people well in the past and that there is little we can do about that other than to say we are sorry. We can however make changes in that relationship in the present that can positively influence the future. And the time to do that is right now.
I guess the really sad part about the decision to take these monies away from Aboriginal organizations is that it sends a clear message that the Conservative government doesn’t care about Aboriginal people. How else could you justify treating them in this way?
What makes a workplace a good place to work? According to all the surveys I have seen a number of common themes keep recurring when it comes to how they handle their employees. These characteristics include having policies that promote a balance between work and the rest of their lives, flexibility in work scheduling, environmentally responsible policies, good communications systems that value employee input, and a wide range of employee benefits. Not surprisingly these are also some of the all basic elements of an employee wellness program.
It’s also evident from both research and informal networking that successful small and medium organizations are always looking to improve. So if your small business has some elements of an employee wellness plan already in place, why not take the few extra steps to make it better? Here are a few tips courtesy of “Healthy Alberta”:
- Start an online “wellness” newsletter that offers weekly or monthly tips on healthy living
- Participate in on-going activities and programs like Healthy Workplace Week.
- Get pedometers for employees and track their steps.
- Rent a nearby school or community gym and offer exercise classes.
- Hire a local fitness instructor to give classes or lead stretch breaks
- Install more bike parking.
- Serve healthy alternatives at company meetings and lunches.
- Hire an ergonomics specialist to assess workstations.
- Provide a wellness subsidy for a variety of health and leadership activities and courses.
- Offer wellness incentives as rewards and recognition for a job well done.
- Spread the workload by establishing an employee wellness committee.
If you haven’t yet established a formal employee wellness program it’s not too late to start. One of the best places to begin is by gathering information about what types of wellness programs your employees would like to see and ones that they are most likely to participate in. There’s no point in setting up smoking cessation programs if only one of your employees is a smoker or building bicycle racks if most employees already take public transit to work.
After you determine your needs you can about putting these ideas into action. It is often best to begin slowly by setting up a couple of activities that you know you will have the financial and human resources to support. If your priority is physical fitness and your employees will participate you can have a once a week yoga class in your boardroom. If you have a number of smokers there are lots of free smoking cessation programs out there that you can supplement with a small bonus that rewards extended periods of smoking cessation.
You should also take the opportunity to review all of your company or organizational policies and procedures with an employee wellness lens. Is there a way to help reduce the stress on employees who are working a lot of overtime by rescheduling or reorganizing the workload? Do you have the ability to offer flexible working hours or assist with child or elder care? Do people have healthy eating choices in the cafeteria, in vending machines, or at corporate meetings? It’s not that expensive to have a bowl of fruit at a breakfast meeting along with the muffins and croissants.
Communications are the key as you begin your employee wellness program and it is one of the major reasons why some programs peter out or die. If you have a wellness committee you can task them with providing a communications feedback loop that ensures that employees know about activities and can offer their suggestions to improve them as you go along. You shouldn’t be afraid to drop the yoga class if attendance dwindles but you need to know why it wasn’t successful and what you can replace it with that might encourage greater participation.
There is no one size fits all approach that will work in every small workplace but over time you will find one that works for you and more importantly helps your employees become healthier and happier at work and in the rest of their lives.
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and workplace wellness consultant. He is the author of “Change the Things You Can” (Dealing with Difficult People)
Mental health issues and mental illnesses are a cause of great concern in our society and in our workplaces. Yet no one seems to want to talk about them. It’s time to bring these issues out into the open so that people and our workplaces can get the help they need. Here are a few things you should know about anxiety, one of the major mental issues facing Canadians at home and at work.
Anxiety can affect everyone
Almost everyone has experienced anxiety at one point in their life. It could be nervousness before a job interview or being anxious in a new workplace situation. But when this anxiety creates a significant distress in your life or you have any one of a number of serious symptoms as a result of anxiety then you may be suffering from an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders range from general or social anxiety to panic disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders. If you think you have an anxiety disorder you are not alone. About 12% of all Canadians are affected by an anxiety disorder every year.
Anxiety is a big problem for young people
Statistics Canada’s 2006 Community Health Survey of Mental Health and Well-being revealed that people aged 15 to 24 are most likely to experience anxiety disorders and studies in Canada and the U.S. have also shown that about 30 per cent of post-secondary students suffer from a mental health or substance abuse issue, compared to 18 per cent of the general population. There are also few resources or services to assist young people who experience higher stress or anxiety.
Your workplace can cause anxiety
Statistics Canada has reported that 38.8% of Canadians between the ages of 15 and 75 are slightly stressed at work, 25% are relatively stressed at work, while 5.4% are extremely stressed at work. Stress, anxiety and depression are rampant in many workplaces and the reasons for the added pressure could come from a myriad of factors including longer hours and more work after the downsizing in the mid 1990’s or lack of personal control over an individual’s work and work priorities.
Anxiety can be treated
The good news is that most anxiety disorders can be successfully treated. The first step is to get a proper diagnosis from a specialist in anxiety disorders and then follow their recommendations. For most people this means a combination of drug therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The most common drugs prescribed are anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs and it is important to inquire about possible side effects of any medication. CBT involves helping people turn their anxious thoughts and feelings into more rational ones.
If you think you have an anxiety disorder then talk to someone who might be able to help. If you know someone with an anxiety problem talk to them and tell them there’s help out there. It’s time to talk about mental health issues.
This article first appeared on my blog at www.jobs.ca
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and a workplace wellness consultant.
First of all you can tell all your friends where you work and watch their wordless OMG responses. Then you go to work in a place that’s been described as more of a summer camp than a workplace. You can wear whatever you want, although the team uniform is jeans and t-shirts and when you are bored from work you can try out the rock climbing wall, the indoor putting green or the outdoor Frisbee golf course. Hungry? No prob. Just amble over to the gourmet café where you can get free eats all day.
The question is not really why you wouldn’t want to work here. It’s how does any work ever get done. Yet despite all the glitz and glam You Tube, which is part of the gigantic Google empire, gets a lot of work done, and makes googles of money for its shareholders. That’s because You Tube and Google have discovered the magical elixir for motivating employees.
Now your company may not have the moolah for a 200 foot waterslide that cascades into an Olympic sized swimming pool, but you can add some of the basic elements that make You Tube a desirable place to work. Google has figured out that if they don’t care what people wear people think that they trust them to make their own choices. They know that some of the younger generations like to play hard so they have a foosball table waiting for people who need a break or have finished their work.
But You Tube is not some fairyland workplace where people only party all the time. Work is very serious business and their standards and expectations are very high. They don’t mind people who party hard, they just people who can work hard as well. And they value and measure performance. A lot. They have intense quarterly performance appraisals where you are not judged by your supervisors but your peers as well.
They also place a premium on work-life balance at You Tube. Something that many companies would do well to emulate. They believe and expect their managers to model the belief to leave work at work during the weekends. That means turning off all the electronic gadgets that tie you to work and spend time with your family and friends. Then come back to work, whatever time you get there, on Monday re-energized and ready to go.
So underneath the fun and games there’s a serious side to You Tube. One that features a nurturing of individual freedoms, a very serious work ethic, and lots of toys to play with when you’re done. Who wouldn’t want to work there?
This post originally appeared on my blog at www.jobs.ca
Mike Martin is a freelance writer and workplace wellness consultant.
Sorry for the longish post but I wanted to think about the latest Federal Budget before I started talking too much about it. Now that my head really hurts I offer my one cents worth before it is too late.
There was no real economic reason to bring in an austerity budget. And no matter how much the Conservatives keep saying that this is a “moderate” budget it can only be considered that if you choose to compare it to the Paul Martin/Jean Chretien budget of the 1990’s. Any budget that slashes five and a half billion dollars and results in the direct loss of twenty thousand jobs is austere, harsh, and draconian. And it doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, Jimmy, there are alternatives.
Mario Seccaraccia, an economics professor at the University of Ottawa whom I have no reason to believe is anything but impartial told the Ottawa Citizen that this federal budget “is more ideologically driven”. He went on to say that our fiscal position is the envy of the world. “Our debt-to-GDP ratio is around 30 per cent. Japan’s is 230 per cent. The United States is over 100 per cent.”
The fact is that we are in a deficit position, not because of an overspending problem, except on the war in Afghanistanand gazebos in Huntsville for Tony Clement’s G-20 garden parties. We have a public revenue problem brought about by “reckless” (I love describing the Tories as reckless) tax cuts to the rich and powerful like the neverending corporate tax cuts and an ill-thought out cut to the GST which saved all of us a few pennies on purchases but drove the treasury into debt.
So that’s how we got there. How do we get out? The solution proposed by the Conservatives is outlined in their budget which promises more cuts to jobs and the unemployed and an increase in the retirement age. It is a reverse Robin Hood approach to public finances: make the poor and working class pay for the rich. It also proposes an unfettered approach, way beyond laissez-faire to business by removing taxes, regulations, and environmental rules and guidelines. So we will not just get poorer but our environment will go down the toilet faster too.
The good news is that there are many, many smart people in Canada who have had a look at this situation and have other ideas to propose. Here are just some of them.
Pull the Band-Aid Off Slowly
There’s no real reason to have massive spending cuts or to lay off thousands of people. Our deficit is quite reasonable in comparison to any other country in the world and instead of trying to pay our bills off over three years we could take six years and reduce and maybe even eliminate the pain. Or we could just yank it off right now. Which would you prefer?
Invest in Public Infrastructure
Our crumbling roads and bridges and municipal water and sewage systems need a lot of work and neither provinces nor cities have this money. The federal government could have used the budget to announce a major, multi-year, public investment program that could have included roads, sewers, and basic municipal infrastructure; health and educational facilities; mass transit; passenger rail and affordable housing. Yes this would have cost money but almost everyone (even the Department of Finance) accepts that these kinds of investments create five times as many jobs per dollar spent as corporate tax cuts. So we could have had more jobs and get our infrastructure repaired too.
Invest in the Environment
This budget goes in almost completely the wrong direction to protect our environment. So the first step would be to end subsidies for non-renewable energy sources and focus on fiscal policies that actually support the environment. One of these policies will have to be some form of carbon pricing. There really is no other way to keep our planet sustainable. So unless you are planning to join Richard Branson’s trip to the moon we will need a carbon tax. It can be revenue neutral and shared amongst provinces and municipalities but there must be one. And without taking up too much carbon in talking about it there are hundreds of good ecologically sound ideas that not only cost little but actually generate more green jobs and “green” money. Check out your favourite eco organization for more info and vocally support the ones you like.
Focus on Tax Fairness
Our taxation systems at every levels are basically f*&$ed. There really is no other way to talk about it. The good news is that we can have a fair and equitable tax system inCanadathat still encourages sustainable economic growth and individual and collective advancement. I will not go through the reasons and rationale. Rather for those of you who are interested I direct your attention to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives website and the Alternative Federal Budget in particular. You can and should read the whole thing but if you only have time for one section then read the Fair Taxation section beginning on Page 23.
Look at the Revenue Side of the Ledger
To balance any budget we need to reduce expenditures and increase revenues. The latest budget does a lot of one but none of the other. To rectify that they could have reversed recent corporate tax cuts, ensured that the wealthiest Canadians pay their fair share, close tax loopholes and introduce a financial transactions tax. All of these measures are practical, reasonable and doable. Why don’t we have them? Because we have a government that believes in the power of business and protects their interests against ours. Their approach is at the molasses slow end of the trickle down economic model. These modest changes on the revenue side could wipe out our deficit and have the government thinking about lowering and not raising the retirement age!!
Thanks to the CCPA, the CLC and NUPGE for some of the info contained in this post.
mike54martin 