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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2015-03-04, Page 5Youth in the Economy Submitted In the spring of 2014, the Senate Liberals opened our Caucus doors to Canadians. Through their Open Caucus initiative the Senate Liberals aim to leam to discuss issues of national importance with a panel of expert wit- nesses. Though this effort is hosted by the Senate Liberals, the Caucus encourage the par- ticipation ofall members of Par- liament, and strive to include a variety of points of view during these sessions. The public is encouraged to attend as well. On Wednesday February 25th, the Open Caucus sat to learn about the increasing pressures on young individuals in Canada today. Already fac- ing high rates of unemploy- ment, Canadians 45 and under are being pressured by rising home prices and increasing student debt, forcing them to delay milestones such as buy- ing a home or starting a fam- ily. Compounding these issues is a decrease in real wages and secure employment when compared to the experiences of their parents. James Knowles of the Con- ference Board of Canada noted that relative incomes for young Canadians are lowertodaythan theywere for their parents and that, "young Canadians are going to face hard choices about which of life's milestones are more important to them. Is it raising children, or owning a home, or saving for retirement, because with relatively lower incomes they are going to strug- gle to achieve these." Those thoughts were echoed by Paul Kershaw, associate professor at the University of British Colum- bia and founder of the Genera- tion Squeeze campaign. "In 1976 it took the typical 25 year old working full time 5 years to save for a 20% down payment on an average home...today across the country it takes twice as long, 10years" The quality of job prospects is also looking relatively bleak when compared to a genera- tion ago. As Michelle Biss of Canada Without Poverty noted, the types of employment options for young people are often precarious. "There cer- tainly is something to be said about the reality that the types of employment available to young people now...are very different than the realities 20 or 30 years ago," she said, "the employment options... are often precarious work...part time work, and not long term work" Compounding these pres- sures is the almost total focus on programs for Canadians 65 and over. Generation Squeeze recently released a study showing that between $33-40,000 a year is spent per person on individuals 65 and over, on important programs such as medical care and old age security. "By contrast, Mr. Kershaw noted, "we spend a fraction of that, between $10 -11,500 a year per person under 45 on everything...grade school, medical care, post -sec- ondary... everything in the kitchen sink adds up to less than we spend on medical care each year for my grandmother" To address these hurdles, Mr. Knowles suggested that univer- sities and colleges need to bet- ter align their programs with labour market needs. Today's youth are completing post -sec- ondary education only to find that their skill sets do not match those desired by employers. "They are spending a lot of money to get this education that doesn't actually train them to do anything that is useful in the workplace," he said. Julian Deans of Futurepre- neur Canada noted that par- ents and schools need to get out of the mindset that the path they took to obtain long term, stable employment also applies to their children. Entrepreneurial skills, which are becoming increasingly important in today's job mar- ket, are not yet appropriately reflected in our approaches to training young Canadians. Businesses also have a responsibility to train young Canadians. Mr. Kershaw noted that "a generation ago the pri- vate sector viewed a degree as a signal that a person was com- petentwith a range of skills, and then trained them for specific on -the -job -needs:' Young Canadians also need a policy shift by all levels of gov- ernment. Mr. Kershaw sug- gested a 'New Deal' for young Canadian families is needed through "nuanced investment in family policy that would make family time more afford- able.... and by reducing the costs of childcare, which costs more than university tuition" To make this happen, the panel agreed that young peo- ple need to organize and get more engaged in politics at the provincial and federal lev- els to make it politically worthwhile for parties to include programs for young Canadians in their platforms. The Senate Liberal Caucus will be holding its next meeting on March 11th to discuss income inequality, and will discuss youth engagement in politics onApril lst. Wednesday, March 4, 2015 • Lucknow Sentinel 5 letter to the editor Protecting Your Property Rights Dear Editor: Winter weather has not halted construction of wind turbine projects. In ACW Town- ship, K2 Wmd is erecting wind turbines as fast as they can. This means transportation of blades and other components on icy roads and laneways. It also means a potential route for impacts on lands owned by non -participating landowners. K2 Wind is applying sand and who knows what else on the laneways leading to turbine sites. However, this material is not always staying just on the laneways. A few weeks ago I discovered a situation where this material spread by K2 Wind had affected my land. The abutting farm to my prop- erty has a turbine laneway that runs right beside my farm. This laneway is only a few feet away from the property boundary. K2 Wind spread sand over this laneway. Subsequent to spreading this sand, the laneway was plowed/blown and this material was shoved/ blown through the fence (dam- aging the fence itself) and deposited onto my land. Blowing or shoving snow onto your land can damage your fences or any crop such as winter wheat, hay. There is also the issue of liability. If large chunks of compacted snow and ice are thrown onto your land and someone hits this when snowmobiling, who is responsible? Since the sand was being spread during extremely cold temperatures (well below freezing), I also asked the question - was anything added to the sand to prevent it from clumping and forming blocks? In their response to me, K2 Wind has claimed that the material they used had no salt in it. At this point I am waiting for the Ministry of the Environ- ment to get back to me with the results of their analysis of the deposited material to verify that claim. But regardless of what was in the material, it still contaminated my land. Wind companies have no rights to blow or plow snow, sand or any other material onto abut- ting land that is not part of the project. Once again, as they did with the use of toxic cement dust during construc- tion of the laneways, K2 Wmd's actions have shown a total dis- respect for the property rights of residents in this township. So, a heads up to landown- ers who have neighbouring farms with turbine laneways close to your land. It is up to you to protect your property rights. Monitor the material that is being spread on these laneways, especially if con- struction activity is taking place, and make sure that this is not being deposited onto your land (wind action could also blow this material onto your land). If you dis- cover this situation and want to protect your property, take samples and contact the MOE enforcement branch (1-800-265-3783 for ACW residents). You could also try calling the K2 Wind "quick response" number (519-441- 1067) though their definition of quick can often mean waiting weeks for a response. Yours truly, George Alton Purple Grove News Purple Grove WI Our sympathy is sent out to the families of Irma Slessor and Vem Norman. Congratulations to William, Alayna and Ethan Houghton of Michigan who were recently honoured to become members of the National Elementary Honour Society. Grandparents Shirley and Doug MacDon- ald were pleased to hear the good news. Betty and Art Helm visited with Deanna and Morley Scott on Sunday. All the folks that attended the Purple Grove Card Party on Fri- day evening were glad to have an opportunity to get out and visit with friends and neighbours. Thanks Marilyn and Don Reid for hosting the event. Largaret McInnes and family were sorry to hear of the passing of her great-nephew Wayne Anderson of the Barrie area. Janice and Stephen Elliott of Blind River visited with June and Earl Elliott of "R" Villa last week and with other relatives in the area. Margaret and Stewart Lane visited with Mary Anne Kukoly and Wilma and Cecil Sutton during the week Jim and Fran Farrell returned home Monday afternoon the 23rd to a Bruce County welcome of - 20 C with snow squalls and roads dosed after touring in Aus- tralia and NewZeland. They had a wonderful time catching up with cousins, Jane and Tom Beer of Docklands, Melbourne; they attended the International Dairy Week at Tatura Park, Victoria where the Illawarra Champion Cow was the Supreme Breed Champion cow. They met with Laurie and Sandra Chittick, BecGellandherparents Ron and Rhonda, from Sheppar- ton and Kyabram and toured organic farms in the area. Back to Melbourne and found friends from the 2002 Great Britain tour - Jim and Christine Ware and Rob and Heather Kimm. Spent four days with them and their families too. Got around Australia and New Zealand great - good thing the tour directors are on the ball and bus drivers know the roads. Everything went very smoothly. Got out to the great Ocean Road to the twelve apos- tles, walked around Ayers Rock, snorkled at the Great Barrier Reef and climbed the Sydney Bridge. Over to New Zealand the tour started at Auckland to Rotoura and then Christchurch - still recovering from 4 major earthquakes 2010-2011. Dave and Joan Black send greetings to folks back home. We took a train through the Southern Alps up into the mountains to the Glaciers , then Arthur's Pass and Greymouth, over to Queenston, a day trip up Melford Sound, did the Skippers Canyon- one road in and narrow! Spectacular moun- tains, deserts, lakes, forests and waterfalls! Lots of wonderful food and great folks to travel with. Its certainly one big wonderful world, but as the saying goes, there's no place like home! Reine and Ron de Gans and Jim and Fran Farrell attended the funeral of their aunt Gerda Dam of Guelph on Sunday. 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