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(October 10, 2008) Statistics Canada says the labour market is still growing but at a slower pace compared to last year.

Following a decline in July and a small gain in August, employers added 107,000 workers in September. It was the largest one-month increase in at least three decades.

“Overall, September’s employment report is good news — and we’ll take it,” says economist Dina Cover with TD Economics. “However, we do caution that Canada won’t sustain this rate of growth going forward.”

Despite the gain, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1%, as the increase in employment was matched by a similar rise in labour force participation.

Over the first nine months of 2008, employment has increased 1.1% (+194,000), a slower pace of growth compared with 1.7% (+275,000) during the same period last year.

The year-over-year growth in average hourly wages for September was 4.6%, well above the most recent increase of 3.5% in the consumer price index. Compared with a year earlier, average hourly wages were higher for all age groups, with growth being strongest for youths and older workers.

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SIO grades political parties on SRI

(October 10, 2008) The Social Investment Organization (SIO) has given top marks to the Green Party, the Bloc Quebecois, and the New Democratic Party on socially responsible investing (SRI) and pension transparency.

The SIO determined the grades after sending questionnaires to the five major parties to obtain their policies on these issues. The Green Party received an A+, the Bloc received a B+, the NDP received a B-, the Liberals received a D and the Conservatives received an F.

According to the organization, the Green Party supports legislation for transparency on social and environmental policies, and mandatory disclosure of proxy voting policies and records. The party also supports changes to federal legislation to introduce pension transparency on social, environmental and ethical considerations, and to disclose proxy voting policy and records.

As SIO noted in 2006, the Bloc shows great understanding of the issue of social and environmental transparency, and reiterated its support for a Bloc-sponsored private members bill in 2001 to require federal pension funds to disclose their social and environmental policies. The government never brought the bill forward for passage. The Bloc also supports disclosure of proxy voting policies and records.

The NDP strongly supports disclosure of proxy voting policies and records, but did not expressly support reforms on environment, social and governance (ESG) disclosure. In its response, the NDP does not call for transparency on social and environmental issues among private and public sector pension funds. Rather than expressly supporting ESG disclosure, the NDP states that it has “consistently called for meaningful ethical screening of pension investments.”

The Liberals failed to expressly address any of the issues posed in SIO’s questionnaire, but sent what appeared to be a standard response to letters on pension issues. After it received this statement, the SIO encouraged the Liberals to send a new one with answers to our questions, but a new response was not sent.

The Conservatives failed to respond to the questionnaire.

(10/06/08)