Visiting here is bringing you the knowledge of how your Association operates to support and protect your best interests and connect you to the top resources and expertise in the key areas of concern that could affect your rights and reasonable enjoyment of property. Like a family we are here to stand by you and fight adversities that will in turn make us all stronger and closer.
WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER.
After a year that saw food prices soar higher than predicted, costs at the grocery store are expected to continue to increase even further in 2023, say the authors of Canada’s Food Price Report.
The annual forecast, prepared by the University of Guelph, Dalhousie University, University of British Columbia and the University of Saskatchewan, predicts Canadian families will pay at least $1,000 more for food in 2023 than they did last year.
HIGHER COSTS MEANS EATING LESS
Overall, prices will rise by five to seven per cent this year. A family of four consisting of two adults and two children will pay an average of $16,288.41 in 2023 — an increase of $1,065.60 over their annual costs in 2022.
“Given the increases Canadians saw at the grocery store this past year, many are likely hoping to hear 2023 will bring some relief. But our models tell us that isn’t likely to happen just yet,” he said.
Vegetable prices are expected see the largest increases in 2023, in the range of six to eight per cent, although meat, dairy and bakery items are also expected to see increases of five to seven per cent.
Restaurant prices, too, will continue to rise as food outlets contend with rising food costs, rent increases and ongoing labour challenges.
Rising geopolitical tensions, high transportation costs, high oil prices and a falling Canadian dollar take much of the blame for the predicted increases, say the report’s authors.
“Conflicts in other parts of the world can impact food prices in Canada by restricting trade and exports and disrupting the supply chain,” said Somogyi. “The ongoing war in Ukraine has especially impacted the supply of wheat, fertilizer and sunflower oil, which is widely used in processed foods.”
Canada's housing affordability problem too big for governments to solve alone: CMHC report
'The scale of the challenge is so large that the private sector must be involved'
MAJOR CRISIS IN THE MAKING
The scale of Canada’s housing affordability problem is too big for governments to solve alone, according to a new report released Monday by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“The scale of the challenge is so large that the private sector must be involved — governments cannot do this on their own,” the CMHC argued, suggesting solutions that vary from financial support and more construction of social and affordable housing for those with lower incomes, as well as increased supply of housing aimed at the market.
The report, authored by the agency’s deputy chief economist, Aled ab Iorwerth, cited statistics showing Canada has experienced the second-highest rate of growth in house prices among a range of developed countries over the last decade.
Since 2010, the price of housing in Canada has skyrocketed by 105 per cent — just behind New Zealand’s 111 per cent growth — the report released Monday said. By comparison, prices in the United States have grown 47 per cent over the same period.
Now I'm a union man (GENERIC) Amazed at what I am I say what I think, that the company stinks Yes I'm a union man
… When we meet in the local hall I'll be voting with them all With a hell of a shout, it's "Out brothers (SISTERS), out!" And the rise of the factory's fall
… Oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union You don't get me, I'm part of the union You don't get me, I'm part of the union Til the day I die Til the day I die
… Us union men are wise To the lies of the company spies And I don't get fooled by the factory rules 'Cause I always read between the lines
… And I always get my way If I strike for higher pay When I show my card to the Scotland Yard And this is what I say
… Oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union You don't get me, I'm part of the union You don't get me, I'm part of the union Til the day I die Til the day I die
COME AND SING ALONG
… Before the union did appear
My life was half as clear Now I've got the power to the working hour And every other day of the year
… So though I'm a working man
I can ruin the government's plan And though I'm not hard, the sight of my card Makes me some kind of superman
… Oh, oh, oh, you don't get me, I'm part of the union
You don't get me, I'm part of the union You don't get me, I'm part of the union Til the day I die Til the day I die
The expedited legislation passed by Congress to avert a strike by railroad unions dealt one more blow in the decades long war waged by the two ruling parties against the working class.
THE BETRAYAL OF THE WORKING CLASS
The Congressional decision to prohibit railroad workers from going on strike and force them to accept a contract that meets few of their demands is part of the class war that has defined American politics for decades. The two ruling political parties differ only in rhetoric. They are bonded in their determination to reduce wages; dismantle social programs, which the Bill Clinton administration did with welfare; and thwart unions and prohibit strikes, the only tool workers have to pressure employers. This latest move against the railroad unions, where working conditions have descended into a special kind of hell with massive layoffs, the denial of even a single day of paid sick leave, and punishing work schedules that include being forced to “always be on call,” is one more blow to the working class and our anemic democracy.
The rage by workers towards the Democratic Party, which once defended their interests, is legitimate, even if, at times, it is expressed by embracing proto-fascists and Donald Trump-like demagogues. Dating back to the Clinton administration with NAFTA, the greatest betrayal of the working class since the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, the Democratic Party has become a full partner in the corporate assault on workers. The cloying feel-your-pain rhetoric, a staple of the Joe Biden White House, is offset by a hypocritical subservience to the billionaire class.
ARE POLITICAL PARTIES MORE EQUL THAN OTHERS?
In 1926, the havoc wreaked by rail strikes led to the federal government passing the Railway Labor Act to give itself the power to impose labor settlements on the rail industry. The Biden administration used this authority to broker a tentative labor agreement that would ensure a 24 percent pay increase by 2024, annual $1,000 bonuses and a freeze on rising health care costs. But workers would be permitted only one paid personal day and no paid sick leave. Of 12 unions voting on the deal, four of them — representing 56 percent of union membership in the industry — refused to ratify it. Biden signed the legislation into law on Friday.
The railroad barons refuse to permit sick days because they have stripped the railroads down to skeleton crews in a process known as precision scheduled railroading, or PSR. In essence, no spare labor is available, which is why the reduced labor force is subjected to such punishingly short periods of time off and onerous working conditions.
Class struggle defines human history. We are dominated by a seemingly omnipotent corporate elite. Hostile to our most basic rights, this elite is disemboweling the nation; destroying basic institutions that foster the common good, including public schools, the postal service and health care; and is incapable of reforming itself. The only weapon left to thwart this ongoing pillage is the strike. Workers have the collective power to slash profits and cripple industry, which is why the ruling class has gone to such lengths to defang unions and outlaw strikes. A rail freight strike, it is estimated, would cost the U.S. economy $2 billion a day, with daily losses increasing the longer a strike continued.
100 YEARS LATER WITH LITTLE WORKER IMPROVEMENT
THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON DEMOCRCY AND WORKERS' RIGHTS EVERYWHERE
