Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released the 2010 version of its Alternative Federal Budget. The budget is produced in collaboration with unions, including the PSAC, and other progressive groups and individuals. As its name suggests, the Alternative Federal Budget offers a different economic approach, one that supports strong public services and working people. Read more at the national website.

OTTAWA-Today the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) released The Harper Record, the most comprehensive analysis of the Conservative minority government’s record to date.

“Scheduled for broad release in early October, we are releasing the electronic version of this book today, to help Canadians make informed choices about the future of their country,” says CCPA Executive Director Bruce Campbell.

• Download the entire book at the CCPA website.

Edited by Canadian Labour Congress Researcher Teresa Healy, Ph.D., with contributions from 47 policy analysts and economists, The Harper Record documents in exhaustive detail the Conservative government’s performance over the last two-and-a-half years.

(more…)

BOOKKEEPER / ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

The Vancouver office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — Canada’s leading progressive research institute — seeks a part-time Bookkeeper/Administrative Assistant.

Closing date for applications: FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 4:00 pm.
Starting date: Mid-June, 2007
Duration: This is a half-time position for a one year term, with a strong likelihood that the position will become permanent. Salary: Starting salary is $34,902 FTE (the CCPA is a unionized workplace with a five-step grid and a generous benefits package)

POSITION SUMMARY
The position’s principal responsibilities are clerical, including: coding all income, invoices and receipts; preparing monthly financial packages; reviewing and reconciling monthly financial statements; tracking variances with budget; payroll instructions and reconciliation; administration of project budgets; issuing invoices; coding VISA receipts and statements; and administering staff benefits. (Note: the CCPA’s financial statements are prepared by a bookkeeper at our Ottawa office; this posted position will liaise with the national bookkeeper.) Generally, this person will be
responsible for the smooth financial management of the BC office.

|inline

(Vancouver) A major study released today finds that BC’s welfare system is systematically discouraging, delaying and denying assistance to many of the people most in need of help, with harmful consequences for some of the province’s most vulnerable residents.

Denied Assistance: Closing the Front Door on Welfare in BC examines why the number of people receiving welfare has plummeted in the wake of changes to eligibility rules and the application system, and looks at what is happening to people who seek and are denied welfare. It is the first in-depth assessment of the new application system, drawing on data obtained through Freedom of Information requests and extensive interviews with people who have applied for welfare, front-line community advocates and Ministry workers.

“The provincial government says its policies are a success. It claims that more people are leaving welfare for work, and that the new application system is ‘diverting’ people to employment,” says Bruce Wallace, Researcher with the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG), which undertook the study with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). “This is true for some people. But our research found that many others are being ‘diverted’ to homelessness, charities, survival sex and other forms of hardship.”

|inline