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Policy Statement on Social Development and the Economy
Year Published: 1983Resource Type: Organization Cx Number: CX2768 Abstract: The Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD) is a national, non-partisan, registered charitable organization that researches, formulates, and promotes social policies based on the principle of social justice. Fearing that the recent recession will lead to only modest economic growth as well as continued high unemployment, possibly for most of the decade, CCSD has issued this STATEMENT. It cites 11 per cent unemployment, increased social assistance caseloads, only two-thirds of the 7.2 million people between the ages of 15 and 30 in the labour force, and increases in alcoholism and drug abuse, spouse and child abuse, family breakup and increased risk of disease as symptons of an economic structure that is faltering. CCSD looks to a solution that calls for rapid development of employment especially in voluntary and human services organizations. Specifically, the STATEMENT recommends that: -the government assist the voluntary sector in doubling its work-force in the next two years and tripling it in the next four to five years; -there is a need for long-term integrated job creation and training initiatives in the public sector as well as in local communities. These must provide access to opportunities for disadvantaged members of the labour force, including youth, natives, women and the disabled, to refer people to training or job creation opportunities after four months of unemployment; -given the evidence that massive unemployment will continue throughout much of the decade even with an economic recovery, governments should immediately begin to incorporate both social and economic criteria in policy decisions and in the evaluation of all initiatives. This abstract was published in the Connexions Digest in 1983. Subject Headings |