Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category

A Rising Tide Floats All Boats

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

Shouldn’t the economy be working for all of us by now? After all, we’ve been swallowing the prescription of the world’s financial leaders since the ‘80s, yet our quality of life is going down. We see the harsh results everywhere. People around the world, including the students in Quebec, are courageously defending their beliefs about [...]

Conservative Budget Plan – Gut Canadian Institutions

Friday, March 30th, 2012

March 29, 2012 (Ottawa, ON) Conservative Budget Plan – Gut Canadian Institutions and Prop up Big Business Alex Atamanenko, MP for BC Southern Interior, is not impressed with the direction taken by the Conservative government in the 2012 federal budget introduced today in the House of Commons. Atamanenko says the government’s plan to raise the [...]

Has Canada Lost Its Way?

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Part I I have long appreciated how fortunate I am to live in a country where fairness, tolerance, bridge building between nations and strong domestic social policies have always been championed. However, for some time I have grown increasingly concerned as I’ve watched our nation undergo a consistent and seemingly deliberate transformation away from these [...]

Prevent Job-Killing Foreign Takeovers

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

A private member’s bill tabled by New Democrat Mining Critic Claude Gravelle (Nickel Belt) would amend the Investment Canada Act to prevent job-killing foreign takeovers of Canadian companies. As it presently stands, when a foreign company proposes a takeover of a Canadian firm, the information it provides to Industry Canada is confidential, and cannot be [...]

MP Atamanenko Slams Newspaper Closing

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

Decries media concentration & loss of more rural jobs Castlegar, BC – “The closing of the Nelson Daily News and the loss of 25 jobs in this community is another blow to rural BC,” said BC Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko, today. He was reacting to yesterday’s news that BC media chain Black Press purchased [...]

EI in Dire Straights

Monday, June 28th, 2010

My colleague, Jean Crowder – Nanaimo – Cowichan recently issued the following Op-ed which I would like to share with you. With the clouds of recession still casting a deep shadow over many Canadians, I hoped the federal government would do everything it could to help workers and small business. Instead, they’ve done the opposite. [...]

Federal NDP Steps Up Pressure on Harper Gov’t to Halt HST

Friday, June 11th, 2010

OTTAWA – With less than a month to go before the HST is set to kick in, the federal New Democrats are launching an all-out effort to convince the Harper government to respect the fight-HST petition process and stop the new tax before it starts. “British Columbians are making history with the first ever successful [...]

Atamanenko Slams Budget Bill

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

OTTAWA – B.C. Southern Interior MP, Alex Atamanenko is extremely disappointed that the Conservative budget bill C-9 was adopted in the House of Commons on June 8th. “This bill paves the way for the privatization of Canada Post and authorizes the sale of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. with no debate or public scrutiny. [...]

Background and Debate on Budget Implementation Act

Friday, June 4th, 2010

On June 3, BILL C-9 – The Budget Implementation Act – was debated. Alex Atamanenko and other New Democrats argued for the need to extract non-budget items of business for full debate and scrutiny. Read Alex debating here BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE: There are several issues within the Budget Bill C-9- The Budget Implementation Act [...]

Pension Reform and Retirement Security

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Public vs. Private Plans In March the government released a discussion paper intended as background for its Canada-wide public consultation on pension reform and Canada’s Retirement Income System. If you haven’t heard about it, it’s not surprising. It involved only three town-hall meetings, three by-invitation expert roundtables, and a voluntary on-line component. You could also [...]