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Perspectives on the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto

As you are no doubt aware, Toronto is playing host to the upcoming G20 summit June 26th and 27th.  It’s a good time, therefore, to take a look at some information sites and other resources related to the group.  Here are just a few – there are many many more out there.

  • The Government of Canada has a website devoted to the G20 and its meeting in Toronto.  On this site you can find government news, videos, Ministers’ statements, and a calendar of events.
  • The University of Toronto, through its Munk School of Global Affairs, has a G20 Information Centre with extensive links to news features; Ministers’ statements and communiques; G20 Official Documents, factsheets and newsdesk publications; and links to both U of T and external research reports.
  • OECD and the G20 is a topic page on the OECD website which provides information and links to relevant OECD reports, video clips, working papers and OECD leaders’ statements.
  • The World Bank has a blog devoted to the G20.  The posts are substantive and include World Bank or other high quality data sources where relevant.  Recent post topics include:  auto sales, poverty, protectionism, and good governance.
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Historical Debates now available online

Great news from the Parliament of Canada today. The staff there have just launched a new website:

“dedicated to the reconstituted debates of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada.
In the early years of the new Dominion, the only account of parliamentary
debates was to be found in newspaper reports. These were saved in
scrapbooks by librarians of Parliament. As a centennial project, the
Parliament of Canada and the Library embarked on a project to reconstitute
these debates from the scrapbook accounts. As well, Senate debates
originally only available in English are being translated and published.

On this website
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Sites/LOP/ReconstitutedDebates/index-e.asp you will
find the Senate Debates 1867-1872 in both English and French and the House
of Commons Debates also 1867-1872 in both languages. Additional years will
be included as work on them is completed.”

The debates have been scanned from the originals so you get to see all the original typeface and formatting.

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Subscription Database

Canadian Statistics: How to find them

Ever needed trustworthy statistics to back up your research?  Not surprisingly, Statistics Canada is your “go-to” source for Canadian stats, but you may not be sure where to find what you need.  The major issue for most people is deciding which of the two main databases that UBC Library subscribes to will have the information that is needed.

First, let’s look at the Census of Canada.   It aims to count the nation’s population and collects  some basic information about the inhabitants of each dwelling, such as their relationships to one another, mother tongue, marital status, gender and age. One in five households get a longer form which covers additional topics including income & earnings; immigration status; ethnic origins; and educational attainment.

Key things to know about Census data:

  • The sample is large – either 100% or 20% – so the accuracy of your data is high.
  • The data in the Census is based solely on the questions asked – if the data you need cannot be sourced from the questions on the Census, then this is not the right place to look.
  • The questions on the Census can change over time or be eliminated.  Consult the Census Dictionary for the relevant Census year to see how long the questions have been asked and whether they have changed over time.
  • Click here to see the questions asked on the 2006 Census.
  • Click here to access topic-based data from the 2006 Census

The other major database from Statistics Canada that we subscribe to is called CANSIM – the Canadian Socioeconomic Information Management Database.  It disseminates the statistics gathered by StatsCan which come from all the other surveys conducted by the agency.  You can find some links to some Census data within Cansim, but as a general rule this is where you want to go for topics not covered on the Census.

Key things to know about Cansim:

  • typically, the sample is smaller than what you’ll get from the Census
  • Cansim is available from two different providers: StatsCan itself, via its user-friendly E-Stat database or through the University of Toronto via CHASS.  E-Stat is updated once a year in July, while CHASS is updated weekly.
  • CANSIM topics include Economic Accounts, Crime & Justice, Labour, Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Agriculture, Finance, Demographics, Health, Transportation, and Education & Training. Selected data on population estimates and vital statistics are also available.
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News

Text of Bill C-32 now available

The text of the bill is now available:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32401372/Copyright-Bill-C32

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News

C-32, new Copyright Bill introduced

A day earlier than expected the new copyright bill, C-32, has been introduced.

The text of the bill  is not yet available online but is coming soon:  http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/crp-prda.nsf/eng/home

For further information take a look at Michael Geist’s blog.

Also CBC  features a news story about the bill:  Copyright bill would ban digital locks

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News Print Resource

Changes to BC Local Elections

BC Municipal election rules  may be about to change – particularly in regards to candidates’ expenses, campaign contributions and election advertising.    The Local Government Elections Task Force has just wrapped up and submitted its report to the BC Government.

“The six-member Task Force was co-chaired by Bill Bennett, Minister of Community and Rural Development, and Harry Nyce, president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM). It included two other UBCM executive members (with a third acting as alternate) and two provincial MLAs

The Task Force reviewed specific issues related to local government elections. Topics reviewed were:

  • Campaign finance, including contribution/spending disclosure and limits, and tax credits
  • Enforcement processes and outcomes
  • Role of the chief electoral officer (B.C.) in local government elections
  • Election cycle (term of office)
  • Corporate vote
  • Other agreed upon matters, (e.g. matters raised in UBCM resolutions such as eligibility of local government volunteers to be candidates)”

You can read the report here: http://www.localelectionstaskforce.gov.bc.ca/taskforce_report.html

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News Online Resource (Free) Website

Library Journal’s Notable Government Documents for 2009

Library Journal has published their annual selection on the most pertinent government documents of the past year.

Important issues included:

Digitization – “Google launched a collaborative project to scan every U.S. government document held by the libraries of the Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago. At the project’s end, the full text of an estimated one million to 1.5 million U.S. government publications will be available through Google Book Search and the HathiTrust Digital Library“- Library Journal

Hathi Trust Digital Library is  a digital repository for the nation’s great research libraries, bringing together the diverse collections of partner institutions. It was conceived as a collaboration of the thirteen universities of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation and the University of California system to establish a repository for these universities to archive and share their digitized collections.” – Hathitrust website.

Open government – The Obama administration created an Open Government Directive – “requiring executive agencies to make their activities transparent, to enhance the public’s role in policy making, and to collaborate more extensively with one another, with state and local governments, and with private institutions”

Some of the highlighted documents include:

Investigation of Failure of the SEC To Uncover Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme. public version. by H. David Kotz. U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

Restorative Commons: Creating Health and Well-Being Through Urban Landscapes. ed. by Lindsay Campbell & Anne Wiesen. U.S. Forest Svc., Publications Distribution.

Climate in Peril: A Popular Guide to the Latest IPCC Reports. by Alex Kirby. UN Environment Programme.

Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. UN Human Rights Council

You can view the complete list here.

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News Online Resource (Free) Website

Data.gov celebrates first birthday!

Since it’s launch a year ago,  Data.gov, which has a mandate to globally democratize data,  has  undergone a makeover.  There are new opportunities to interact with the data as well as new feature such as usage statistics and apps featuring  crime statistics by neighborhood to the best towns to find a job to seeing the environmental health of your community.

“Launched in May 2009 with 47 datasets, Data.gov has been continually expanded since the inception of the Open Government Directive (OGD).  Under the OGD, published Dec. 8, 2009, executive branch agencies had 45 days to release at least three “high-value” datasets on their websites and register them with Data.gov. These datasets were to be information “not previously available online or in a downloadable format” and were to be published “online in an open format.”  On the deadline, the website held about 300 datasets in total but now boasts of a library containing more than 270,000 sets.” — OMB Watch

Some of the most viewed datasets include:

  1. Worldwide M1+ Earthquakes, Past 7 Days
  2. U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants (Greenbook)
  3. MyPyramid Food Raw Data
  4. Latest Volumes of Foreign Relations of the US
  5. OSHA Data Initiative – Establishment…

Both OMB Watch and Free Government Information have interesting posts.

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News

Rise and Fall of the GDP

Read the article Rise and Fall of the  GDP in the New York Times Magazine.  The author Jon Gertner  attended a presentation on the Canadian Index of Well-Being presented by Alex Michalos,  a former chancellor at the University of Northern British Columbia.

The presentation on the Canadian Index of Well Being is available here.  Michalos’ interesting approach discusses how the success of a country depends on collaborations with international organizations such as Stats Canada, OECD etc.

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News Website

U.S Government responds to oil spill in Gulf

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources resumed it’s Hearing May 12th, 2010 to review current issues related to offshore oil and gas development – you can view the archived webcast of  the Hearing.

Take a look at the US government response timeline.

Take a look  at the Deepwater Horizon Response site, which gives up to date news and video on how events are progressing.

Read the Globe’s article: Moderator’s skipped question on Gulf oil spill at Harper forum.

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