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It is very interesting to hear the minister of training colleges and universities claim that the second career program will survive the upcoming budget when for the vast majority of recent applicants the program is already dead.
The ministry "eliminated a backlog that unexpectedly built up last fall," by simply rejecting most of the applicants and many were abandoned in the middle of the process. Far from "staying on track" this program is already off the rails.
It is highly revealing that the only success story in the article is dated 2008-09.
In September 2009 the ministry imposed arbitrary guidelines for the sole purpose reducing the number of participants in the program. Many applicants have asked why the government would limit a program that it claims is working, when the only alternative being offered is going on welfare.
Unemployed Ontario workers are prepared to invest in re-training. The Ontario government must be prepared to provide it.
Rosario Marchese,
MPP for Trinity Spadina,
NDP Education Critic
We are encouraging all those who have been abandoned by the second career program to share their experiences with the Toronto Star at:
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Note: Dr Watts' US court case is ongoing, as he faces charges stemming from his detention. According to his website, he returns to the US for a March 16 trial date.
Recently
there has been an apparent increase in police brutality and the
coercive use of force by governments around the world. There have been
several high-profile cases of Canadians held behind foreign borders,
facing imprisonment and malicious prosecution. The Canadian government
has been slow to act in these cases, or sometimes even actively
supports their detention.
While many of the recent cases have involved wartorn or developing
countries, this is not always so. I was recently alerted to a worrying
situation involving a Toronto resident attempting to re-enter Canada at
the Sarnia/Port Huron border crossing.
On Dec. 9, marine biologist Dr. Peter Watts, a Hugo
Award-nominated science fiction writer, and St. Lawrence Neighbourhood
resident, was travelling from the U.S. back into Canada. According to
varied reports, U.S. Border Patrol guards stopped him before he reached
the Canadian border to search his vehicle. When he exited the car to
ask why he was being searched, the situation rapidly escalated.
How secure is your retirement? Will
you have enough to maintain a comfortable standard of living once you leave the
workforce?
A majority of Canadians will see
their standard of living fall in retirement. Six out of 10 Ontarians don’t have
a workplace pension at all.
People want, and deserve, the chance
to retire from their jobs knowing they’ll be able to enjoy their retirement
without wondering how they’ll pay their bills. As baby boomers begin leaving
the workforce in an unprecedented wave, we need sound, workable pension options
more than ever.
In January, we proposed a new Ontario
Retirement Plan. It’s a pension strategy modeled on successful targeted benefit
plans like the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Hospitals of Ontario
Pension Plan.
