Food pulls up Canada’s inflation rate

Canada’s inflation rate rose to 1.4% in February after months of deflation dating back to September.  The increase in inflation was primarily due to rising food costs.  According to Julia Beltrame of Canadian Press,

The cost of food prices at grocery stores rose 8.9 per cent in February, but particularly pronounced was the 25.8 per cent spike in fresh vegetables, 9.7 per cent increase in baked goods and cereal and a 6.1 per cent rise in meat prices. (Beltrame)

If the increase in food prices is factored out, Canada’s inflation rate would likely be at zero according to Statistics Canada.  Rising food prices is not a new trend.  As grain and corn are increasingly used to make alternate fuel sources, prices will increase.  Also, transportation costs for food were extremely high in the summer when gas spiked to over $1.40 per litre.   The lower prices that we are experiencing now are not going to last forever and higher prices are expected in the next year or two. 

With the rising cost of food, localities should encourage buying locally grown foods.  Niagara has fertile soil that is ideal for farmland and growing fresh fruits and vegetables, but unfortunately much of the land has been wasted in the last several years.  The closure of the last fruit canning operation, CanGro Foods, in Canada during 2008, resulted in the removal of hundreds of acres of fruit trees from the area.  The closure of CanGro means that there is only one remaining fruit canning operation left in all of North America (it is in California).  Despite the fact that the Ontario government has been trying to push Ontarians to buy Ontario grown produce, the closure of this plant means that it will be more difficult to buy local produce.

 

Creativity limited by copyright

In this article on CBC News, cartoonist Nina Paley justifies her decision to release her new film, Sita Sings the Blues, for free on the internet.  She mentions:

The decision was motivated by both stick and carrot. Stick: the conventional distribution system isn’t working any more; independent filmmakers make virtually no money via commercial distributors anyway; copyright today functions as censorship. Carrot: letting people share the film gives it the widest possible exposure and outsources the otherwise expensive and laborious work of distribution, archiving and promotion to the audience; freedom feels great.(David MacQuarrie).

The existing copyright framework limited how she could release her work.  She had to pay $50,000 for music licensing and was limited to releasing 5,000 DVD copies.  Paley would have to sell each of the DVDs at $10 each JUST TO PAY FOR THE MUSIC!  She was forced to pay so much for music because she had to get a lawyer and work through copyright middlemen.  There was no direct source that she could approach.  She was able to obtain unlimited use of the music for promotion and therefore she decided to release her work online for free… as a “promotion” and accept donations from viewers.  Her movie can be downloaded here.

Obtaining music licensing has long been a sore spot for independent producers.  Are musicians entitled to payment for their creative works? Absolutely.  The problem becomes exhorbatant costs that create great barriers by record companies to small filmmakers who often won’t make much, if any, profit on their film. To talk to copyright holders, producers are forced to use copyright clearing agencies and lawyers.  Music licenses are often very VERY expensive. 

There are two licenses that you usually need to obtain: 

1) SYNCHRONIZATION LICENSE- this is the right to synchronize a song with your film.  The sync license is obtained from the copyright holder or publisher.  You can identify who the publisher is from ASCAP.

2) MASTER USE LICENSE- this is a right to use a specific recording in your film.  The master use license is usually obtained from the record label.

For example, if you wanted to use Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin) in a film, you would need to contact the publisher,

SUPERHYPE PUBL INC 
   WB MUSIC CORP 
    WARNER CHAPPELL MUSIC INC
    10585 SANTA MONICA BLVD
    LOS ANGELES , CA, 90025,

in order to obtain the sync license.  You would need to obtain this license whether you will be using the version recorded on Led Zeppelin II or whether you are using the cover by Ben Harper, or whether you are going to play the song yourself and use your own version.

If you plan on using the version from Led Zeppelin II, then you will have to contact the record company/music label for that recording to obtain the master use license (which I believe is Atlantic Records). If you are going to use Ben Harper’s cover, then you will have to contact his label to obtain his version.

This process is usually very VERY pricey… but there are some stories about independent filmmakers obtaining popular songs for little or no money after spending a large amount of time and energy calling and negotiating. Regardless, this process takes up a large amount of time, energy and money that could be better spent on production.

Instead, filmmakers will usually use original music from indie bands who are unsigned to avoid expensive licenses. 

Paley found a loophole in the system that enabled her to have unlimited use of the music licensed for promotion aka. online.  This is a loophole that does not exist in every music deal though.   Also, if free online distribution expands rapidly, you can bet that record companies and publishers will close that gap quickly. 

 

Phone companies giving consumers the ‘busy signal’

It seems like major phone providers, like Bell Canada, have not learned their lesson about how to maintain customers.  Two stories in the headlines today featured Bell Canada:

1. One story from CBC News stated that Bell Canada wants to make it necessary that consumers make a ‘goodbye call’ before they leave.  Bell Canada wants this so that it can try to win back the consumer by offering incentives before he or she leaves.   Ultimately, it will make it more difficult to switch providers and slow down the transition. 

2. The second story from Yahoo News stated that several businesses have had their phone systems hacked and have received bills that are hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Bell Canada sent a 38-page bill to  one business that was for more than $207,000 worth of calls to Sierra Leone. Bell offered to halve the amount.  Bell Canada is arguing that hacked phone systems are the consumer’s problem. 

The article said that Bell’s vice president Peter Kerr wrote one hacked customer and stated: “Remember that you are responsible for paying for all calls originating from, and charged calls accepted at, your telephone, regardless of who made or accepted them.” 

This is absolutely crazy.  The businesses have argued that it is Bell’s infrastructure that allows hackers to split four phone lines into 400, allowing them to make hundreds of phone calls simultaneously. 

 

Both of these articles highlight the main problem with Bell Canada.  Rather than trying to make it harder for customers to leave, perhaps Bell Canada should address the reasons that customers want to leave in the first place: high cost of services and poor customer service.  Blaming customers for hacked phones and leaving them with bills that could bankrupt their businesses is NOT good customer service by any means. 

By making it more difficult for customers to switch providers, major phone companies would be continuing their assault on average consumers.  Phone companies have already made it difficult for customers to leave by creating lengthy service contracts with steep penalties for those who want to leave or cancel their services.  And god help you if you have problems with your services and must call customer service for help- I hope you can take a week off work to try and get the problems sorted out.  Now, they want to make it harder to leave after those contracts expire!?!  What is next?  Lifetime contracts that indebt you to a phone provider for your life and the lives of your next of kin?

 

Urgent action is needed to save Canadian economy

With 129,000 jobs lost last month, one wonders when will this end?  There has been speculation that the economy will recover half way through 2009 while other analysts speculate that the decline could last well into 2012.  Regardless of the length of the decline, it is clear that hundreds of thousands more jobs will be lost before it is over.  Unfortunately, most of the jobs that are being lost are good paying jobs.

It is no surprise that the manufacturing industry is steadily declining.  This trend has been ongoing in Ontario for the past decade.  The prominent manufacturing hubs of the 50s and 60s including Hamilton, Toronto, and Niagara have been losing factories and jobs at a slow pace since the 1970s.  Unfortunately, the economic decline has accelerated the decline of the manufacturing sector.  In Niagara alone, there have been numerous plant closures and layoffs announced for workers.  One only has to look across the border to Buffalo to see what the lower golden horseshoe area could become as the manufacturing industry collapses.  Buffalo underwent a major decline in the manufacturing industry since the late 1950s which has resulted in plant closures, population exodus and increasing crime. 

The declining well-paid manufacturing jobs are largely being replaced by precarious, low-paid jobs.  Before the economic decline, the decrease in manufacturing jobs was balanced by an increase in hospitality, tourism and service industry jobs.  Hospitality and tourism jobs are a major sector in Niagara, and although there are some high paid positions, the majority are poorly paid and seasonal employment.  Unfortunately, the hospitality and tourism industries in Niagara are also experiencing a decline.  Many hotel workers have been told that they will not be hired back next summer because they are no longer needed. 

Even the academic industry is experiencing a decline in Niagara.  Brock University, one of the region’s largest employers, announced that each department will have to cut 5-7% off their budgets for the next 3 consecutive years.  This will result in the loss of many part-time professor, teaching assistant, and research assistant jobs.  It is unclear how the secondary and elementary systems will be affected in the short term, but if the decline stretches into 2012, surely the population will decline and there will be less demand for grade-school teachers as well.

Clearly urgent action is required.  The NDP, CAW and other unions are calling for a Buy Canadian policy.  This would be effective, but greater action is required.  Many jobs and businesses have already exited Canada.  Canada should also spearhead new international trade agreements to replace the old ones that have caused North America to bleed jobs and businesses for 2 decades.  New trade agreements should set minimum worker wage levels and health and safety standards as requirements for countries to gain access to the free trade zone.  This would discourage businesses from re-locating to countries where they can pay workers less than $1 per day.  New international trade agreements should follow the example of NAFTA- in particular chapter 11 of NAFTA. 

Clearly urgent action is required.  This country is in desperate need of leadership that will take the help and lead Canada into a prosperous future.

 

Ont. NDP leadership candidate Michael Prue and Ontario’s municipalities

Three Ontario NDP leadership candidates recently visited the St. Catharines and District Labour Council meeting on February 4th.  Gilles Bisson, Andrea Horwath, and Michael Prue each were given time to discuss their priorities and were able to answer a few questions posed by labour council members.

At the end of the presentations and questions there was no clear front runner.  All of the candidates did discuss relevant and important issues such as the economy and labour legislation.  The economy is a very important issue to the Niagara area given the staggering job losses in the area due to major manufacturing facility closures.  All candidates gave pertinent opinions.

Michael Prue spent some time discussing reform for Ontario municipalities.  Ontario’s municipalities have faced greater responsibilities since the downloading of many programs under the Harris government.  With greater responsibility has not come greater fundraising mechanisms.  Municipalities must rely upon property taxes as their main source of own-source revenue.  User fees consist of a very small revenue source for municipalities. 

Michael Prue discussed extending the revenue raising alternatives that Toronto has been given under the City of Toronto Act to other Ontario municipalities.  New sources of revenue for the City of Toronto includes the land transfer tax, personal vehicle tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, parking lot tax, billboard tax, entertainment tax (movies, sporting events, live entertainment), and road pricing.  Some of the new revenue sources have been adopted by Toronto.  If these new sources of revenue are extended to Ontario municipalities, they will gain greater independence, responsibility and autonomy.

 

High job losses in January

The first month of 2009 resulted in the largest job losses in over 30 years.  143,000 workers lost their jobs in Canada during January according to Statistics Canada.  The unemployment rate rose to 7.2% from 6.6% in December.  TD forecasted job losses around 300,000 for 2009- that figure may be off since we have lost almost half that number of jobs in the first month of 2009. 

Mosat of the job losses came from Ontario (71,000).  This is no surprise since the bulk of the job losses came from the goods-producing sectors.  The manufacturing industry in Canada lost over 100,000 jobs in the past month. 

There were slight increases in health care workers with approximately 30,000 health care and social assistance jobs added in the past month.  The finance, insurance, and real estate industry added 13,000 jobs in the past month followed by the food service and accomodation industry adding approximately 11,000 jobs. 

One interesting trend is the increase in self-employed workers.  There was an increase of 14,000 self-employed workers from December to January.  As people lose their jobs, they may be forced to start their own home-based businesses to make extra money after being unable to find other stable employment.  Much of this likely consists of precarious work- work that may pay lower than minimum wage and is highly insecure.

 

Ignatieff fails Newfoundlanders and shows his weakness as Liberal leader

Ignatieff said that he would allow Newfoundland MPs to break ranks and vote against the federal budget because the Harper budget made significant “unilateral and ‘radical’ cuts to federal transfers to the province,” (Yahoo news, CBC News).  The budget will cut $1.6 billion in federal transfer payments to Newfoundland. 

Ignatieff has displayed the continuing weakness of the Liberal party and of his leadership.  Ignatieff has the opportunity to stand up to Harper and force him to make significant changes to the budget or provoke an election.  Instead he has only demanded a ‘review’ of economic stimulus activities as the only requirement for his support of the Harper budget.  Ignatieff sees the toll the budget will have on Newfoundlanders, but chooses not to do anything about it.  Allowing NF Liberal MPs to vote against the budget does not accomplish anything. 

According to CBC News “Ignatieff said he met with Harper on Monday and asked him to “pause” the cut until they can come up with a reasonable solution. He said the prime minister said no.”  Instead of forcing Harper to make the changes, he has accepted Harper’s position and ran back to the party with his tail between his legs. 

Why are the Liberals so scared of triggering an election?  With Dion out of office they had a great opportunity to improve their position in parliament.  There could be a number of reasons:

(1) The Liberal party is in financial ruin and is ill prepared for another election;

(2) The Liberals are afraid to be labelled as the party that caused another election when Canadians ‘don’t want another election’ according to some polls.

(3) The Liberals see that there will be major defecits in the near future and no clear way out.  Instead of walking into leading a country while it falls into economic ruin, Ignatieff would rather that Harper bear the brunt of the mess.  Perhaps Ignatieff is planning to bring down the government during one of his proposed budgetary ‘reviews’ and step into the PM position just before the economy turns positive again. 

I would imagine that all three of these factors were at work in Ignatieff’s mind when he decided to simply allow NL MPs to vote against the budget rather than taking a substantial position.  Therefore is this a good move?  For Ignatieff…. maybe.  For Canadians- definitely not.

 

Buy Canadian; buy local

There have been numerous news articles that have raised concern over Obama’s ‘Buy American’ clause due to a fear that it will cause a resurgence of protectionism.  There has been concern that Canadian steel companies will be hard hit by a policy that encourages the purchase of American-made steel in new public works projects (CBC News). 

Rather than criticizing the policy, perhaps Canadians should learn from the ‘buy american’ clause.  We should have been supporting our own Canadian businesses for years now, but instead we have chosen to purchase cheaper, poor quality goods and merchandise manufactured in China and many east asian companies. 

Buying Canadian goods and services creates work in Canada and helps increase the ‘half-life’ of spending within the country.  The half-life of spending is the number of times a dollar is ‘recycled’ or re-spent within the local economy.  If you buy a widget from a store that is locally owned and locally made, the profit from that widget is recycled within the local economy.  If you buy a widget from an internationally owned franchise, like Wal Mart, a portion of the profit is sent out of the country to the international head office.  Also, if the widget is made in China, another portion of the profit is sent out as well.  There is a much smaller chunk that is recycled into the local economy (the small chunk includes the employees that work at the store/manufacturer and perhaps the owner).  Buying products that are made-in-canada or locally produced therefore increases the half-life of money within the local economy.  This AFL-CIO article explains how jobs are exported to China when buying from WalMart.

Of course there are always things that you cannot purchase or manufacture locally, and therefore you will always have to be able to trade on an international level.  But why not try to purchase those things that can be produced locally from local businesses rather than international locations?   Increasing the half-life of money within the local economy will ’spread the wealth’ in the community and help create a stronger economy.

 

Illegal billboards and signs

Illegalsigns.ca is a website that was developed by a group of individuals to raise awareness and stop the proliferation of illegal signs and billboards in the City of Toronto.  The group has successfully resulted in the removal of many illegal signs within the downtown core.  People have argued that signs can be distracting to drivers and create ad nauseum (ad nauseum= overwhelming exposure to multiple, cluttered advertising and signage). 

Are signs that much of a nuesance?  In a society that depends upon advertising in order to raise awareness for not only products but also events and community groups, it makes you wonder how far should we go to remove ‘illegal’ signs?  What makes a sign “illegal” in the first place?  Clearly, an illegal sign is a sign that is disallowed by local municipal by-laws, but what if those municipal sign by-laws are too strict? 

It raises the age old debate about municipal property rights: “why should you be able to tell me what I can and can’t do with my own property? If I want to put up signs all over my building, then why can’t I?”  Clearly, signs can be both positive and negative.  A billboard that covers a decrepid building may make the streetscape more visually appealing.  On the other hand, a billboard that covers up a historical building may negatively impact a streetscape.  If we regulate which buildings are able to be covered with signs and which ones are not, it raises a number of questions about how to quantify the regulation of signs.  It can be a very subjective process.

Below are two examples of billboards that were built over historical buildings (taken from illegalsigns.ca).

 

Here are some more examples of billboards and signs in the city of  Toronto.

 

Niagara’s Growth Strategy

The Niagara Region has proposed a new growth strategy that would freeze urban development boundaries in an effort to promote infilling and intensification in existing urban areas.  The plan would also focus new development to the southern area of the region.  There were dozens of speakers who critcized and supported the idea at the presentation. 

Although critics thought the idea was controversial since it may magnify the current economic downturn in the region, the strategy is a good one and consists of nothing that is out-of-the-ordinary.  The report, called Anticipating Niagara, identifies three growth options for the area: 1. Current Trends; 2. Growth South; 3. Multi-Nodal. 

All of the options encouraged new development in the southern area of the region and encouraged intensification in existing urban areas.  St. Catharines, the region’s largest city, has already had its boundaries limited by the Ontario Greenbelt Act and therefore intensification and infilling of residential units should be a priority.  Growth is naturally occurring over the tender fruit and farmland near Lake Ontario and therefore limits to urban sprawl in these areas is justifiable. 

The region needs to develop a regional transit network to help transport people throughout the urban centres in the region.  Currently, most residents must rely upon their cars to commute to work, go shopping, and do their daily activities.  Infilling, intensification, and developing a better regional transit network would reduce reliance on automobiles.  Intesification would also be beneficial by encouraging more social interaction from residents who live and work in urban centres according to social capital theory.