Should Canada introduce a compulsory year of service?
- Thread starter Machjo
- Start date
What about something like the Peace Corp:
Peace Corps
I'd be thinking along the ines of giving people options. They could serve a year either:
1. With a non-governmental organization, not funded by the government mind you.
2. A Canadian version of the Peace Dorp.
3. A Canadian militia.
They would get to choose which of the three, thus leaving their options wide to fill whatever might serve them best. Something like that might work.
Peace Corps
I'd be thinking along the ines of giving people options. They could serve a year either:
1. With a non-governmental organization, not funded by the government mind you.
2. A Canadian version of the Peace Dorp.
3. A Canadian militia.
They would get to choose which of the three, thus leaving their options wide to fill whatever might serve them best. Something like that might work.
I like it but without the word "compulsory"- I guess if the pay was right getting people to sign up wouldn't be concern. BTW- just what pay scale would you have in mind?
the objective of it is
1 create a trained moble force that can be ready at a moments notice to react to any kind of crysis.
2 Giving the individual tools for self dicipline and the ability to assess a situation like the military would
still formulating Ideas here..........
1 create a trained moble force that can be ready at a moments notice to react to any kind of crysis.
2 Giving the individual tools for self dicipline and the ability to assess a situation like the military would
still formulating Ideas here..........
One possibility could be that it's voluntary and not compulsory, with no limit as to how long you could work there. However, the salary would be slightly lower than for the same job in the private sector, but work would always be guaranteed.
So whenever a person could not find work for whatever reason he could always apply there, a kind of workfare of sorts?
So whenever a person could not find work for whatever reason he could always apply there, a kind of workfare of sorts?
Now I think we are getting somewhere, that would probably work. There is so much stuff that needs doing in this country that is not profit generating and that the average entrepreneur would have any incentive to get involved in, but still for the good of the country should be done. One thing that comes to mind is areas where dikes may be necessary, but with a little imagination could be walkways like a lineal park, that would also attract business like ice cream parlours.
I could see this as a flexible system too. For example, if the person is unemployed not owing to lack of skills but just plain luck as sometimes happens, and he walks in and suggests a job for himself that he can convince them truly is worthwhile, why not? If he has no ideas of his own, then we provide him with some like the examples you gave. Of course this would be separate from welfare but working side by side none the less. For example, if he has a drug, mental, literacy, or other problem, we'd refer him to the appropriate service. Otherwise, if he's competent, qualified, healthy, capable, etc. and has no issue other than having been unlucky, if he needs temporary accommodation, we could offer him a place to stay in a clean dormitory for the first month, or even longer but he pays the rent. This could also give him a chance to develop skills.
The reasong for the slightly lower salary is to discourage dependence and encourage people to go out and find other work. The salary can increase in times of recession and decline in times of job growth precicely for that purpose, though of course a job is always guaranteed worse case scenario. And of course looking down on these poeple who are willing to work for lower salary should be strictly frowned upon, especially when we consider that bad luck might already the why they're there in the first place.
It sounds better all the time- there are a lot of "handicapped" people who are actually good workers, but not necessarily on an 8-5 schedule and I don't necessarily mean handicapped mentally so much as from drug abuse or from having not grown up in a structured environment so have no organizational or planning skills & then just basically fall through the cracks.
Next question: How do we pay for this?
Honestly, as far as non-governmental organizations are concerned, these ideas aren't so strange. This is pretty much what they're doing now but on a smaller budget and on a smaller scale, focussing on essentials such as having the homeless clean their own dorms, cook their own food, and fix things in the building, along with basic education in fixing bicycles etc.
If they had much more money, what we're describing here is likely what they'd evolve into anyway, same principle, just with a larger budget and so more effective.
One possiblity would simply be to make more of our taxes charity deductible so that we can exploit already-existent organizations that have the experience and the structure already. It would likely not become so bureaucratic that way either.
And the government simply fills in the cracks with whatever tax dollars it gets.
I could see getting some money for this from cutting funding to Official Bilingualism too, a money flush anyway.
Would taxes have to go up for this? Maybe, hard to say. But at least we'd be getting a service for it in return.
Honestly, as far as non-governmental organizations are concerned, these ideas aren't so strange. This is pretty much what they're doing now but on a smaller budget and on a smaller scale, focussing on essentials such as having the homeless clean their own dorms, cook their own food, and fix things in the building, along with basic education in fixing bicycles etc.
If they had much more money, what we're describing here is likely what they'd evolve into anyway, same principle, just with a larger budget and so more effective.
One possiblity would simply be to make more of our taxes charity deductible so that we can exploit already-existent organizations that have the experience and the structure already. It would likely not become so bureaucratic that way either.
And the government simply fills in the cracks with whatever tax dollars it gets.
I could see getting some money for this from cutting funding to Official Bilingualism too, a money flush anyway.
Would taxes have to go up for this? Maybe, hard to say. But at least we'd be getting a service for it in return.
CDNBear,
I dont think that the RCMP fiasco had anything to do with discipline or lack of it . It was a criminal negligence .
.
I dont think that the RCMP fiasco had anything to do with discipline or lack of it . It was a criminal negligence .
And if the people involved had a better grasp on self discipline, more self confidence and better training...
Would you be crying over something?