About the CCPA
“ CCPA promotes solutions that unite, rather than divide, Canadians.”
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is Canada’s leading progressive think tank. We are an independent, non-profit research institute focused on social, economic and environmental justice. We deliver original, peer-reviewed, fact-based research and educational materials. Founded in 1980, the National Office is located in Ottawa.
Since then, we’ve opened five provincial offices: British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia.
The CCPA is a registered non-profit charity. We depend on the support of our more than 12,000 supporters across Canada.
Click here for more information about our funding sources. Charitable registration number: 124146473RR0001.
Balanced debate
CCPA research doesn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust. Every month, we are featured in hundreds of media stories. We work proactively to balance media coverage of issues like affordability, the economy, poverty, the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us, climate change, health care, education, and much more.
Our experts are in high demand as media commentators, promoting solutions that unite, rather than divide, Canadians. Both politicians and policy-makers turn to CCPA research when they need credible non-partisan analysis.
1.8K Television appearances
6.2K Radio spots
9.4K Online + print
“ CCPA’s magazine, The Monitor, is packed with facts and analysis that will help you untangle the spin.”
Myth busting
Evidence-based decision-making is critical to a wellfunctioning democracy. The CCPA debunks myths—like the myth that an aging population threatens public health care or that meeting our climate change obligations is a job killer.
Our quarterly magazine, The Monitor, is packed with facts and analysis that will help you untangle the spin.
Please visit monitormag.ca
JON MILTON Disinformation: New tools, same poison Disinformationdidn’tspringoutofnowhere— it’satoolthepowerfulusetoprotectthemselvesfromaccountability
SOME TIME in 1914, Ivy Lee was contacted by the Rockefellers. Standard Oil, the American fossil fuel giant owned by the Rockefeller family, was in trouble. Following a long strike by coal miners in Colorado, the company hired a militia to clear striking workers’ protest encampment in the town of Ludlow. In clearing the camp, the strikebreaking militia killed 60 people, including children, and burned the workers’ tent city. In the public backlash that followed, Standard Oil hired Lee, one of the fathers of the modern discipline of public relations, to clean up the mess. Lee—the man who invented the press release and press conference—got to work immediately demonizing the strikers. He fabricated a lie that those killed were not actually workers in the coal field, they were hired agitators on the union payroll. He also concocted a bizarre and
unsubstantiated story that 82-yearold union leader Mother Jones was running a nearby brothel.
In the confusion that followed, Lee succeeded in rehabilitating the Rockefellers’ image. No longer were they greedy oligarchs who used violence and terror to put down opponents, but rather patriotic industrialists and philanthropists. Ivy Lee worked with Standard Oil—along with other unsavoury characters in the tobacco industry and Nazi Germany—for the rest of his life. Decades later, when asked about his work covering up the Ludlow Massacre, Lee summarized his view of the work with a question: “What are facts, anyway, but my interpretation of what happened?”
The confusion factory
Committee on Public Information, the propaganda arm of the American government, which aimed to sell the deeply unpopular First World War to the American public. Among other tactics, the CPI pioneered the use of what we would now recognize as “influencers” in a program called the “four-minute men” in which they recruited community leaders to show up to parties, silent film screenings, and community events to give short speeches in favour of the war.
Before it was called public relations, it was called propaganda. Many of the people who built the modern PR industry got their start in the
CPI alumni Edward Bernays—the nephew of psychology pioneer Sigmund Freud, who put his uncle’s insights to use to create propaganda—coined the term “public relations” after the term “propaganda” fell out of fashion due to association with Germany. Bernays was a firm believer that the public were sheep to be led by a ruling elite using the techniques of crowd psychology. In his book Propaganda he wrote that “The conscious and
43K Followers
31.5 Followers
6.6K Followers
Misinformationanddemocracy
“ We don’t just analyze problems, we work on solutions that show that we can afford to build a more just and sustainable Canada.”
We don’t just analyze problems, we work on solutions that are practical and address the key issues of our time. These ideas are anchored by some basic principles: human dignity, inclusion, fairness, equality, environmental sustainability, and the public good. Our solutions show that we can afford to build a more just and sustainable Canada.
Our website is a newsroom for progressive public policies. Please visit policyalternatives.ca
655,797
Website visits to policyalternatives.ca
173,605
Website visits to monitormag.ca
“ Our experts are speaking on TV, radio, newspapers, and social media—sharing myth‑busting facts to inform Canadians.”
—Erika Shaker, Director, CCPA National office
CCPA National
The CCPA’s National Office is consistently offering policy alternatives to show that a better Canada is possible, because a vibrant democracy thrives on public debate, education and solutions for an equal, inclusive and sustainable future.
With the rise of misinformation, disinformation, and authoritarian politics, safeguarding our democracy from further erosion is mission critical. And the CCPA National Office ensures robust, thoughtful, progressive analysis that is available to all Canadians, for free, because we are committed to open access. We know how facts and evidence-based analysis are essential to a well-functioning democracy.
CCPA experts are speaking truth to power on TV, the radio, and newspapers, including community papers. We’re also active on social media channels, sharing myth-busting facts to inform Canadians.
We’re constantly monitoring propaganda and fact-checking political assertions.
We scour government budgets across Canada, holding our political leaders to account for their budget promises— especially when they fail to deliver.
Across our research projects—gender equity, trade, education, child care, climate change and a just transition, and the growing gap between the rich and the rest of us— the CCPA National Office is moving the needle on policy.
The CCPA’s National Office published 18 research reports and hundreds of quick-read blogs and newspaper op-eds in
Budget promises Grocery chain profits Rising interest rates
Wages falling behind inflation
Gender equity Trade
Education
Child care
Climate change Growing wealth gap
“ CCPA’s Alternative Federal Budget is the definitive progressive guide to a well‑being economy.”
2023, with the aim of educating policy-makers, activists, and the general public on the key issues of our time.
With raging inflation, our research exposed the outrageous greed of mega corporations—like the grocery store giants— that have been enjoying excess profits instead of lowering prices for consumers.
With the Bank of Canada’s drive to tackle inflation by raising interest rates, our research exposed that it does more harm than good. In fact, rising interest rates are contributing to Canada’s affordable housing crisis.
As workers went on strike demanding fairer pay in 2023, our research showed that their wages are falling behind inflation—there’s a reason they were acting collectively.
As wildfires coated much of Canada in a thick blanket of smoke, our research proposed ways to address our climate crisis—including a tool kit helping people work toward a sustainable economy in their own communities.
Of course, our annual Alternative Federal Budget provides solutions to these, and other problems. It’s the definitive progressive guide to a well-being economy—one that puts people and the planet before greed and profit.
National Office’s Alternative Federal Budget—
Our solutions report is informed by: unions, women’s groups, child care advocates, health coalitions, climate action groups, experts and civil society organizations from across Canada
“We’re working toward a better future for everyone who calls Canada home.”
We work hard to get the word out and we’re having an impact:
Our experts are in high demand: they appeared in the media 17,400 times in 2023—that’s more than the Fraser Institute or the C.D. Howe Institute. We’re working hard to get our message out to a broad audience.
About 10,000 Canadians get our flagship magazine, the Monitor, delivered to their home four times a year. Donate to receive the Monitor: policyalternatives.ca/donate.
More than 22,000 Canadians have signed up for our reader-friendly newsletter, which delivers our experts’ take on the latest social, economic, and ecological developments. Sign up to receive our newsletter for free: policyalternatives.ca/newsletter_signup.
More than 81,000 people are following the CCPA National Office on social media channels. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @policyalternatives.
And we’ve had more than 829,000 people check out our news and analysis on our website. Check us out at www.policyalternatives.ca.
Each member of our dynamic, dedicated team is working towards a better future for everyone who calls Canada home. That work is backed by donations from individuals and organizations as well as research grants. Together, we can make—together we are making—a difference.
Erika Shaker, Director, CCPA National Office
“
Precarious work in BC is far more
CCPA British Columbia
CCPA-BC had a very successful 2023—releasing numerous research reports, and commentaries, gaining extensive media coverage, hosting public events and receiving increased support from our coalition partners and supporters.
In total, the BC Office released 49 reports and political commentaries in 2023. These reports were authored by our long-time researchers—Marc Lee, Iglika Ivanova, Ben Parfitt and Alex Hemingway. The BC Office was thrilled to secure additional funding for a fifth researcher, Veronique Sioufi, who joined in August 2023 as the researcher on racial inequality. In addition to the prolific work of our research team, Director Shannon Daub and our new Associate Director of Communications, Lisa Akinyi May, along with several research associates, contributed to our blog commentaries and reports.
Iglika Ivanova is co-leading with Dr. Kendra Strauss a multi-year research project funded by SSHRC titled “Understanding Precarity in BC” (UP-BC). This project released its first groundbreaking report, But is it a good job?.
Groundbreaking report “But is is a good job?”
The report demonstrates that precarious work in BC is far more pervasive than many assume. UP-BC is collaborating with numerous academics, organizations and unions and has hosted several virtual training sessions and public forums. Furthermore, CCPA-BC partners with many coalitions and organizations, including Living Wage for Families, the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition, the BC Health Coalition, the Coalition of Childcare Advocates and the BC Federation
“ We received extensive coverage for our reports on living wages, precarious work, affordable housing, public transit and the impacts of the forest and climate crises in BC.”
In 2023, the BC Office generated 3,497 media hits—thanks to our media specialist, Jean Kavanagh. We received extensive coverage for our reports on living wages, precarious work, affordable housing, public transit and the impacts of the forest and climate crises in BC. Thanks to our communications staff—Joel French, Marianela Ramos Capelo and Terra Poirier—we connected with thousands of people across British Columbia through our “Policy Note” blog and various social media channels; our Twitter account, boasting 6,700 followers, Instagram saw a significant increase in followers (28.52 percent) and our Facebook community has grown to 43,000 followers.
CCPA-BC also held numerous virtual and public events throughout 2023. Economist Ha-Joon Chang delivered the 2023 Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture. We also returned to hosting our annual Gala dinner in person and were thrilled to have Rueben George, Sundance Chief and author of It Stops Here, provide the keynote address to over 400 supporters. Additionally, CCPA researchers were invited to speak at many public events with our partners. Notably, Ben Parfitt was invited to speak in Japan about the wood pellet industry and the crisis in BC’s forestry industry, underscoring our far-reaching impact.
All of this success is thanks to the support of our BC Steering Committee and the hard work of a strong, dynamic staff team. In addition to the research and communications teams, Mariwan Jaaf—the associate director of finance and operations—and Rav Kambo, senior fundraising coordinator, worked tirelessly to increase the support from our many individual and organizational supporters. Sylvan Korvus, IT administrator, and Bojan Stanojlovic, UP-BC project manager, were instrumental to the daily operations. Long-time CCPA-BC Director Shannon Daub went on a well-deserved sabbatical and Bill Kilgannon became interim director in June 2023 to lead this dynamic and important office of the CCPA.
Bill Kilgannon
Interim director, CCPA British Columbia Office
“ Our Child and Family Poverty Report Card showed that the child poverty rate in Nova Scotia decreased from 2019 due to temporary COVID ‑19 support.”
CCPA Nova Scotia
With the release of six reports, multiple government submissions, and participation in 30-plus events, 2023 was a busy, productive year for the Nova Scotia Office.
We started the year with NS Director Christine Saulnier presenting as an invited expert witness to the Standing Committee on Communities Services, outlining the impact of the cost of living on vulnerable Nova Scotians.
We released the 2022 Nova Scotia Child and Family Poverty Report Card, showing that Nova Scotia’s child poverty rate decreased by 24.3 per cent in 2020, the most significant single-year reduction, due to temporary COVID-19 support.
We unveiled the living wage rates for Nova Scotia just in time for Labour Day, with an average increase of 14 per cent across the five regional wages this year. Such unprecedented increases are due to overall increases in costs for shelter and food, with no new government support to offset. This report continues to be listed in the organization’s top 10 most visited web pages across CCPA and is the oft-cited benchmark on wages in our province.
Nova Scotia Alternate Budget leaves no one behind
2023 HIGHLIGHT
With additional funding from the NS Federation of Labour and the NS College of Social Workers, we brought together 28 representatives of community organizations, labour, academics and advocates to produce the Nova Scotia Alternative Budget 2023: Leave No One Behind. This is a workable budget framed to create fundamental systems change for a just and fair province for all.
“ With the release of six reports, multiple government submissions, and participation in 30‑plus events, 2023 was a busy, productive year.”
—Christine
Saulnier, Director, CCPA Nova Scotia Office
When the Nova Scotia government introduced the Interim Residential Rental Increase Cap Act, Housing for All working group members presented before the legislature to advocate for instituting permanent vacancy control.
Integral to our mandate is collaborating to ensure our work reaches as many diverse audiences as possible. This year’s event highlights include collaborating with Campaign 2000 to host community conversations and antipoverty roundtables in Sydney Mines and Halifax. We are also committed to hybrid events, reaching more people across the province. We hosted Nora Loreto in conversation with CBC Mainstreet Nova Scotia host Jeff Douglas for an evening discussion on social movements and how we challenge the status quo. We organized a panel discussion on housing, hosted by the Medical Humanities program at Dalhousie, as part of the launch of Ricardo Tranjan’s book, The Tenant Class. Christine Saulnier also gave the keynote address on how poverty impacts health in Port Hawkesbury at the Eastern Zone Community Health Boards gathering.
We rely on volunteers to support our work, whether on our steering committee, research advisory committee or as research associates. This year, we welcomed four new research associates with backgrounds in child care and early education, refugee and forced migration studies, and migrant worker labour experiences in Atlantic Canada.
We increased our media coverage by 60 per cent, with 825 media mentions for the 2023 year; more people are seeing our work and hearing evidencebased discussion on what it takes to create meaningful change so no one is left behind in Nova Scotia.
We are proud of the work we achieved in 2023—ending the year with a cameo appearance on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
Christine Saulnier Director, CCPA Nova Scotia Office
“ Our research reports are on a wide range of policy issues: public finances, income inequality, health, long ‑ term care and home care, housing, environment and climate change.”
CCPA Manitoba
In 2023, the Manitoba Office published 17 original research reports on a wide range of policy issues: public finances, income inequality, health, long-term care and home care, housing, environment and climate change.
In response to the Manitoba spring 2023-24 budget, we did rapid response research to show that more of the government’s proposed tax rebates go to the richest 10 per cent of Manitobans than to the bottom 50 per cent combined.
We fact-checked claims made by the Manitoba government in the budget to show how damaging these tax changes are to the public purse, at virtually no benefit to low- and middle-income households struggling under the pressure of inflation.
The Manitoba Office continues to closely track the financial situation of the Manitoba government and comments regularly on the need for adequate investment in public services and public sector workers.
We published research highlighting the damage below-inflation government funding is wreaking on our provincial health care system and we proposed revenue options the government could pursue to revitalize our public services.
When the Manitoba government proposed public-private partnerships to build nine schools, we immediately provided evidence of the risks and expenses of such an approach. We are pleased the province revised this decision in favour of the normal public process.
We were proud to support the Austerity in Manitoba research project on the impacts of austerity imposed by the previous provincial government on the Manitoba civil service, and provincial crowns MLLC and Manitoba Hydro. This project produced over 10 two-page op-eds for the Winnipeg Free Press and a forthcoming book.
The book, to be released shortly, will make a very significant contribution to Manitobans’ understanding of the damage caused by the severe austerity of the previous government, and how it can be reversed.
CCPA Manitoba’s Errol Black Chair in Labour Issues, held by Niall Harney, is doing research on progressive public policies to reduce rising income inequality by improving unionization and the conditions for working Manitobans.
The first in this series, Balancing Act: Card check, Anti-Scab and the Case for Rebalancing Manitoba’s Labour Relations was published in January 2024. More evidence-based labour policy papers focused on Manitoba will subsequently be published.
We are grateful for our collaboration with the Manitoba Research Alliance, a community-academic partnership now on its third of a seven-year partnership grant with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council titled “Community-Driven Solutions to Poverty: Challenges and Possibilities.” CCPA is the knowledge-mobilization arm of this project. For example, CCPA Manitoba published the Right to Housing Manitoba’s Social Housing Action Plan, which is being used to inform public education on the need for rent-geared-to-income housing to address homelessness and core housing needs.
RevitalizingtheConditionsofCareinManitoba
2023 HIGHLIGHT
Through a survey of 1,027 unionized workers in Manitoba’s continuing care system (long-term care and home care) we investigated the conditions of work in the sector. We found that the outsized burden placed on continuing care workers by the pandemic has not been lifted and, in many ways, has gotten heavier.
CCPA Manitoba continues to work with local and national child care experts to push for quality, affordable, public child care. We were part of a press conference decrying the convoluted roll-out of federal child care funding, the lack of available licensed spaces in Canada, and low wages for child care workers.
CCPA Manitoba is proud to be working with four leading environmental groups on an exciting project outlining how Manitoba can transition off of fossil fuels and help save everyday people money at the same time. Road to Resilience: Policy Solutions outlines steps the Manitoba government should take to put climate action at the centre of government policy.
Molly McCracken Director, CCPA Manitoba Office
“ CCPA Ontario staff are sought‑after interview subjects for journalists on a wide range of issues.”
CCPA Ontario
Set up in 2012 as a project of the CCPA National Office, CCPA Ontario soon established its own identity with a research focus in three main areas: labour market issues (labour market outcomes, racial and gender discrimination, employment standards, labour rights); social policy (poverty reduction, income supports, housing); and provincial government fiscal policy (spending, taxation, and the financing of public programs).
In early 2023, as the provincial pre-budget period began, much of CCPA Ontario’s commentary focused on budget issues. Blog posts like “Budget 2023: What if Ontario aimed to be average?” and op-eds like “Queen’s Park must pull its weight on health care spending” continued our ongoing critique of provincial revenue collection and program spending (Ontario provincial revenues as a share of GDP invariably rank near the bottom of all provinces; per-capita program spending typically ranks last, and dramatically so.)
CCPA Ontario staff continue to be sought-after interview subjects for journalists working on a wide range of issues, from labour markets to inflation to school funding. In total, CCPA Ontario researchers were quoted in more than 1,600 news stories in 2023. Also, many news stories reported on our work without referencing individual authors. For example, the Can’t Afford the Rent report, listed below, was the subject of 3,300 stories across Canada.
The office published five reports in 2023:
• Poverty in the Midst of COVID-19: A report card on child and family poverty in Ontario in 2020, by Ricardo Tranjan and Randy Robinson.
“TheTenantClass ,
by Ricardo Tranjan of CCPA Ontario, had an outsized impact on the public debate around housing in Ontario and across Canada.”
• A Rising Tide Does Not Lift All Boats, by Sheila Block and Grace-Edward Galabuzi, on labour market outcomes for racialized workers during and after the pandemic.
• Can’t Afford the Rent, a report by Ricardo Tranjan and David Macdonald (senior economist in the National Office) that updated David’s 2019 report on the “rental wage” in Canada.
• At What Cost? Ontario hospital privatization and the threat to public health care, a report by health policy analyst Andrew Longhurst on the expansion of for-profit surgeries and diagnostic procedures in Ontario.
• Back from the Brink: Restoring public funding to Ontario’s universities, a report by Ryan Romard and Randy Robinson.
2023 HIGHLIGHT
The Tenant Class becomes a national bestseller
In May, Ricardo Tranjan published The Tenant Class, a new book that immediately had an outsized impact on the public debate around housing in Ontario and across Canada. The book’s analysis underscores that the private rental market is driven by the quest for profit, and that without strong regulation and a central role for non-market housing in public policy, the market can only make renting a home an expensive and increasingly miserable option for tenants.
The Tenant Class was written in close collaboration with tenant unions across Canada. A November event with the York South-Weston Tenant Union was CCPA Ontario’s first-ever joint fundraiser.
In addition to major reports, the office published nine blog posts as well as 20 op-eds and other articles in various outlets. CCPA Ontario staff also made more than 40 in-person or online presentations in 2023. Face-toface meetings remain an important part of the office’s public and donor engagement work.
Randy Robinson Director,
Ontario Office
“ In addition
to publishing three major reports, our Office was front and centre
in many of the public debates and controversies that hit our province in 2023.”
CCPA Saskatchewan
The Saskatchewan Office published three major reports over the course of 2023.
Making a Living in an Age of Inflation calculates the living wage rates for Regina and Saskatoon.
Fund the Future: The State of Saskatchewan’s Post-Secondary Sector compares Saskatchewan’s post-secondary sector to the rest of the country in funding, tuition and fees, student financial assistance and university spending on academic and non-academic salaries.
2023 HIGHLIGHT
SellingSaskatchewan update
Selling Saskatchewan marks our third update of the history of privatization, contracting out of public services and public-private-partnerships under the Saskatchewan Party government between 2007 to 2023.
“ Our opinion pieces and commentaries addressed...the government’s attack on trans and non‑binary youth.”
In addition to these reports, our Office was front and centre in many of the public debates and controversies that hit our province in 2023.
CCPA SK Office opinion pieces and commentaries addressed the provincial budget, child care deserts, the influence of the Saskatchewan United party on the province’s politics, the government’s attack on trans and non-binary youth, and the teachers’ strike.
Indeed, media coverage of CCPA SK’s reports and commentaries reached an aggregate audience of over 1.1 million viewers in 2023!
As always, we strive to impact the course of public policy in everything we do.
In 2023, our research on inadequate child care spaces in the province reached the floor of the Saskatchewan legislature, with the official opposition regularly citing our work.
Similarly, our research on the living wage was used to challenge the government’s incremental increase to the minimum wage in October, with labour leaders citing our data on the impact of inflation on working families.
Of course, we could not have had such a successful 2023 without the ongoing support of our organizational members and individual supporters. We will continue to earn your support in the new year with a new research direction aimed towards the issues and policies that will determine the upcoming 2024 provincial election.
Simon Enoch, Director, CCPA Saskatchewan Office
Media coverage of CCPA SK’s reports and commentaries reached over a million viewers in 2023.
2023 Financials
FINANCIAL POSITION
2023 2022
AS AT DECEMBER 31, 2023 (audited) (audited)
2023 SOURCES OF FUNDING BY TYPE
Thousands of individual funders support the work of the CCPA. We also receive donations and grants from organizations, foundations, and other research grantees.
REVENUES
AND EXPENDITURES
YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2023 (audited) (audited) REVENUES
EXPENDITURES
Project income and grants, restricted
Project income and grants, unrestricted Fundraising events Interest Other $2,502,896 $1,231,870 $1,473,952
$ (492,355) Individual giving Individual bequests Organizations and grants
Excess (deficiency) of revenues over expenditure $
Annual Report 2023 Research that seeds change
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA)
National Office:
1000-141 Laurier Ave. W. Ottawa ON K1P 5J3
Toll free: 1-844-563-1341 policyalternatives.ca
Follow us:
Charitable registration number: 124146473RR0001
“Thank you for all you do on our behalf. Can’t imagine the state of this country without the CCPA holding our governments accountable and offering real alternatives.”
—Tina Hopkins, CCPA donor
