With the depletion of domestic manufacturing our communities are beginning to feel the pinch of lower wages, a drop in charity donations and a rise in demand on social services. According to a recent Statistics Canada study, 16 per cent of the over 3,000 manufacturers who responded to a survey were planning on reducing production over the following three months. Fifteen per cent expected to decrease employment in the second quarter of 2007. The bulk of the decrease was projected to occur in Ontario and Quebec, the traditional homes to Canada’s manufacturing industries. The auto industry is a prime example of where this job loss is happening. The North American automakers continue to lose market share and the public coffers continue to run dry, causing shortfalls in our ability to maintain the basic medical, educational and social services that our communities have come to expect our economy to support. According to St. Catharines, Ontario Mayor Bryan McMullan, “While statistics provide a quantitative indication of job losses in St. Catharines, they only touch on the severity of the issue. The true costs of manufacturing losses are best described through the stories told by members of our community whose quality of life is at risk.”
Archive for July, 2007
Latino Heat
Max De Luca, Monday, July 23rd, 2007, 4 Comments »
“Too often some in the hemisphere are led to believe that their only choices are to return to the syndrome of economic nationalism, political authoritarianism and class warfare to become, quote, just like the United States.”
Created for a purpose…
Janette Watt, Tuesday, July 17th, 2007, 4 Comments »
“We have not come into the world to be numbered; we have been created for a purpose; for great things: to love and be loved.” ~ Mother Teresa
in the rooms where we gather…
Janette Watt, Thursday, July 5th, 2007, 8 Comments »
It was last Tuesday, but it could just as well have been Wednesday.
I sat in a room filled with people, talking.
We had gathered in the name of doing justice.
We had gathered with the purpose of making change.
We had gathered each of us believing
that we had something individually to contribute.
I believe that is why we were all there. I don’t know.
Not everyone talked.
We left, some of us having talked.
There was some nodding, but very little understanding.
And, when we left the room Tuesday
where we were in relation to the world
was where we were on Monday.
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