Mike Savage on Facebook!

Mike Savage in the News

Statement by Mike Savage, MP on the appointment of the The Right Honourable Joe Clark, PC, as Honourary Director Canada Without Poverty

February 17, 2011

The appointment of The Right Honourable Joe Clark as Honourary Director of Canada Without Poverty is wonderful news and a boost to the cause of eradicating poverty in Canada. Mr. Clark has been a progressive voice for social fairness for decades. As an elder statesman, his considerable standing in Canada will help highlight the struggle against poverty.

I’ve had the opportunity to work Canada Without Poverty, especially Rob Rainer and his dedicated staff. Each day they advocate for those who feel they have no voice and live in poverty. Seniors living in poverty, women and children living in poverty, aboriginal Canadians and persons with disabilities living in poverty, and many others, all lack access to services that most of us take for granted. We owe it them to level the playing field and provide the opportunity for all Canadians to live their lives with dignity.

It is worth noting that the Human Resources Committee of the House of Commons, of which I am a member, recently completed a comprehensive study on poverty in Canada. Among the recommendations made to the Conservative government called for a national strategy to fight poverty, lead by the Federal government in cooperation with the non for profit sector, faith communities as well as provincial and municipal governments.

I believe the addition of Mr. Clark in this fight against poverty is meaningful and substantive and will remind Canadians that fighting poverty is not a partisan political matter, rather a matter of social and economic justice. I congratulate both Mr. Clark and Canada Without Poverty for continuing this important fight.

Harper government leaves students in the cold

Posted on December 13, 2010

OTTAWA – Rather than shifting the $121 million left over from the Millennium Scholarship Foundation to help students struggling with enormous debt and rising tuition costs, the Harper government has hawked the money away while they struggle to pay for their skewed priorities, Liberal MPs said today.

“They are stealing this huge sum of money from students who desperately need it to help pay for their tax cuts for wealthy corporations and their untendered fighter jets,” said Liberal Human Resources Critic Mike Savage.

“Once again, we see a government completely out of touch with the needs of Canadian families, just as they were when they secretly cut Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) pension payments from low-income seniors.”

Reports today claim that the $121 million recovered by the Treasury Board when the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation closed its doors last July has gone unaccounted for in government coffers. Created in 1998, the fund was a 10-year program designed to lower financial and social barriers to post-secondary education and to encourage student achievement.  

“Students are drowning in debt and tuition keeps rising. This money could have been used to help nearly 40,000 more students attend post-secondary education, but instead we have a government who thinks spending billions of dollars on mega-prisons and untendered fighter jets is what Canadians want,” said Mr. Savage.

According to Statistics Canada, average undergraduate tuition this year rose to $5,138 – a nearly $1,000 increase in just the last five years – with graduate tuition rising at a 6% faster pace than undergraduate tuition. As well, one in three student borrowers do not receive enough aid through the student loan system to offset their education costs – and this is happening at the same time as student unemployment is nearly double the general unemployment rate.

“The Conservatives have consistently cut funding to essential learning programs at a time when investing in higher learning is critical,” Liberal Industry, Science and Technology Critic Marc Garneau said. “Stephen Harper’s ideology constantly gets in the way of real progress for the future, where education today is needed if we are to create the jobs of tomorrow.

“Liberals understand that the more educated our population is, the better Canada’s economy will be.”

The Liberal Party’s pan-Canadian learning strategy is a plan to create jobs and a highly skilled workforce by helping more students attend post-secondary school, no matter their financial situation. It also includes investments in early childhood education, improvements in Aboriginal education, workforce literacy, 100% high-speed internet connectivity for distance learning, language training for New Canadians, and access to skills training.

Movement afoot to creat National Work from Home Day

Randi Druzin

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Winnipeg Global

If one Liberal MP has his way, Canadians could report to work in their bathrobes once a year.

Michael Savage is among a growing number of people who believe more Canadians should have the chance to work from home at least once a year.

The Liberal Critic for Human Resources and Skills Development appeared in Parliament Wednesday, and spoke out in support of a National Work From Home Day.

In a statement released earlier, Savage said “the option to work from home should be part of that national discussion” in Canada.

The catalyst for Savage’s initiative was a social media campaign launched by the job resource site, Workopolis.

Content manager Peter Harris put a post on the site’s Facebook page last spring suggesting Canadians be allowed to work from home on their birthdays. “That idea didn’t fly, but people did respond to the concept of working from home,” Harris told globalnews.ca.

Workopolis then put a related poll on its home page. Over ten days, 20,000 people voted in the poll – a 600 per cent increase over the number that usually vote in the site’s polls. About 80 per cent of respondents voiced their support for a work-from-home initiative.

Workopolis created a Facebook page devoted to the effort. About 50,000 “liked” the page and posted enthusiastic messages on it.

The groundswell of support for the initiative prompted Workopolis to contact Savage. “He was very supportive right from the start,” Workopolis President Gabriel Bouchard told globalnews.ca. “He saw all the benefits of working from home.”

Work-life balance a growing concern

These days, Canadians are more concerned about their work-life balance than ever before, says Bouchard. “It’s an issue for those with young children at home and even for those who have to take care of their parents.”

Those who support the work-from-home initiative say less time spent commuting would allow more time spent with family.

They also say cutting back on commuting would help the environment.

Bouchard says that on a day in which a million Canadians worked from home, Co2 omissions would be reduced by 250 million kilos and 100 million litres of fuel would be saved.

Bouchard also says research indicates employees are more productive when working from home.

Harris often works from home and says it “allows him to get things done without being distracted. I wouldn’t like to work from home every day because I enjoy the creative banter at work and the company of my colleagues,” he adds. “But I like having the freedom and flexibility to work from home. It’s empowering.”

Workopolis is one of many companies that has flexible work options.

TD Bank, for example, allows employees to work from home once a week, start and finish the work day earlier or later, share a job with a colleague or even work part-time.

TD executive Joan Goodman of Toronto works four days a week – three of which she spends at home.

“The main benefits are avoiding the 45-minute commute and being at home at certain times of the day,” she told globalnews.ca. “I’m there to see the kids off to school in the morning, and I’m there when they get home from after-school activities.”

Goodman says she is more productive when she’s working from home. “I use those days to get work done. I don’t use them as opportunities to do anything else. In my home office, there are no people stopping by my desk and no coffee runs. There are fewer distractions.”

Skeptics note that less focused employees aren't productive working at home. But, Bouchard points out, “unproductive people will be unproductive no matter where they are.”

Liberal MP wants you to stay home and work

Jane Taber

Globe and Mail Update

Posted on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 12:08PM EST

From his Parliament Hill office, Mike Savage delivers this message: Do not come to work.

He laughs when the contradiction is pointed out to him. He’s not at his home in Nova Scotia and he’s working. Still, the Liberal human resources critic is trying to create some buzz around a campaign by Workopolis, the online job board, to encourage Canadians to work from home.

He is making a statement Wednesday in the House of Commons calling for a National Work from Home Day.

Working from home, Mr. Savage argues, would enhance the country’s productivity, improve work-life balance and, most significantly, help the environment. People would simply not be in their cars. The long commute would become a thing of the past and that extra time would free up people to work more.

“If one million Canadians were to work at home one day a week Canada would save some 250 million kilograms of CO2 emissions,” he says.

He also believes it would allow disabled Canadians more employment choices – again, increasing productivity.

This is not Liberal policy. Rather, it is something that as the opposition critic Mr. Savage is interested in, especially after seeing more than 50,000 people join a Facebook site advocating a National Work at Home Day.

“I think a lot of people are interested in this. It makes sense on a lot of levels,” the MP says.

And Mr. Savage recognizes that working from home is not for everyone – police officers or firefighters, for example.

But 20 years ago, he argues, Canadians would never have imagined that doctors and nurses could work remotely through technology.

MP touts benefits of working from home

STEVE COLLINS

METRO OTTAWA

November 23, 2010

If yesterday’s icy morning commute had you dreaming of working from home, you’re not alone.

Since Workopolis, a job website, started a Facebook page in support of a National Work from Home Day in June, it’s gained 50,000 supporters.

Now Michael Savage, the Liberal Human Resources critic, is a convert.

“I think this is where we need to be,” Savage told Metro Ottawa yesterday.

“Work has changed over the years. People don’t have to be chained to an office. They can work from outside the office and home is as good a place as any.”

He’ll speak in the House of Commons tomorrow in favour of more people working from home, which he believes would enhance productivity and work-life balance while cutting carbon emissions.

Work from Home Movement Reaches Ottawa

November 23, 2010

Stefania Moretti | Money

Canoe.ca

Parliament will hear arguments in favour of a national Work from Home Day this week.

The movement, which started as a simple blog post by a Workopolis employee, has picked up steam and now has the support of Liberal MP and Critic for Human Resources and Skills Development Michael Savage.

Savage is expected to make a statement in the House of Commons on Wednesday throwing his weight behind the idea of a designated day for Canadians to work from home.

“Working from home is good on a lot of levels as long as it’s good for both the employer and employee,” Savage told QMI Agency.

“Canada is doing reasonable well economically but one thing that we still haven’t managed to excel at is productivity and I think this could help people be more productive with less time spent getting to and from work and more time actually working,” he said.

And that’s on top of benefits to the environment and savings on transportation costs for employees, said Workopolis President Gabriel Bouchard.

The average Canadian spends more than one hour a day, or 12 full days a year, commuting, according to Statistics Canada. An estimated 70% to 80% of them drive on a regular basis.

Workopolis’ Facebook petition for a national Work from Home Day hit 50,000 fans this past weekend. But a recent Harris/Decima poll suggests the movement could still face considerable resistance.

The poll for Workopolis found only 51% of Canadians are in favour of the idea.

Still, Bouchard and Savage point the success the U.K.’s annual Work Wise Week when an estimated 5.8 million Brits work from home on their designated day.

Canada should take advantage of new technology that makes communicating easier, Savage said.

And the country’s looming labour shortage is making it increasingly important for employers to attract and retain top talent. Work-life balance is now top of mind for skilled workers, Bouchard said.

The old model where all the employees have to sit in one office with supervisors making sure they are doing the work has gone out the window, he said.

“With the labour market that is changing, for many positions the candidates are in the drivers seat,” he said.

“So employers will have to adapt.”

Minister Finley's office remains inaccessible

November 1, 2010

Press Release from Mike Savage

Member of Parliament

Dartmouth-Cole Harbour

OTTAWA - A full seven months after Liberals challenged Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Diane Finley to make her constituency office accessible to the disabled – and a full six years after she was first elected – Minister Finley is still ignoring the needs of the disabled in her community by refusing to build a wheelchair ramp.

Read full press release

The Liberal Family Care Plan

October 2010

Canadian families want the option of caring for a loved one who has fallen ill – whether it’s an aging parent or grandparent, a young child, or a spouse – at home.

Today, 2.7 million Canadians provide care for seniors, and by 2017, Canada’s 150^th birthday, it is estimated that the number of seniors with chronic conditions requiring home care services will increase by one-third.   Family caregivers are responsible for 80% of Canada’s homecare services, providing over $9 billion in unpaid care each year.

Read full story

Radio Interview with MP Mike Savage, CHQR-R (Calgary), The Rutherford Show

DAVE RUTHERFORD (CHQR-R) (Host): First of all, you have heard that the federal government will not jack up EI rates to the maximum allowable. It listened to small business and will only increase EI rates some 5 per cent. The Federation of Independent Business suggested a full 15-per-cent jump in EI this year and ongoing would cost 170,000 jobs in this country. The federal government listened and will not jack up the rates as much but they will go up.

EI and the unemployed have been a very hot political potato in Ottawa.  Remember, Michael Ignatieff? Remember Michael Ignatieff back in the day when he said Mr. Harper, your time is up, right? Remember that? Remember all that bravado? You’re doing down! We’ll take you down whenever we want, right? He was being very ooohhh, super leader on EI. 

Forty-five day workweek, or 45 days to qualify for a year EI. No, that’s what we wanted. We’re sticking to it.  Well, not so much. You see, politics is like that.  The leader of the opposition, the leader Michael Ignatieff repeatedly said that the 45-day work year is his top priority. We’ll go to the people over it.  Well, that was then, you know! But now, not so much. He’s backing away from that. He doesn’t support it anymore. He’s also backing away from this very, very contentious bill.  And I’m glad he is, but nonetheless, he’s backing away, Bill 308, which is going to allow immigrants access to all kinds of social programs in Canada with very, very little time served in Canada. Anyway, a lot of the stuff he’s flipped on.

But on the EI, on the EI deal, he is not getting full support from his caucus.

With me, MIKE SAVAGE, Liberal MP, Dartmouth-Coal Harbour, Human Resources and Skills Development critic.

read the entire interview here

Conservative government must extend EI pilot projects

September 24, 2010

OTTAWA – The Liberal Party today is calling on the Conservative government to provide support for Canadians in areas of high unemployment by extending the life of the Employment Insurance (EI) pilot projects that have already expired, and ones that are set to expire this fall.

Read full story

National "Save Lives. Save the Gun Registry" Tour Press Conference

September 13, 2010

Halifax, Nova Scotia

to read more about the tour go to

Education is key to closing the skills gap

August 17, 2010

Prince George Citizen

Bruce Whitestone, in his column "Education for Business" - Aug. 10, correctly highlights the education and skills shortage facing Canada.

Education is key to closing the skills gap and meeting that challenge requires a pan Canadian partnership, involving provinces, colleges and universities and the private sector. Failure to act threatens our economic security and prosperity.

If Canada is serious about closing the skills gap, then we need more resources for workplace training and do a better job of tapping into an under-used resource - those Canadians living in poverty.

Read full story

Action Against Poverty

August 3, 2010

Halifax Chronicle Herald

A recent report by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) tells us that poverty is again on the rise in Canada.  While this may not seem surprising in light of our recent economic difficulties, the report indicates that the recession is disproportionately hurting those Canadians who are already poor, or fighting to avoid poverty.  The CPJ indicates that poverty and child poverty rates have each gone up 2.5% in the last 2 years.  This means that there are at least 900,000 more Canadians living in poverty than there were in 2006.

Read full story

Read Responses