Retirement Security for Everyone Campaign
Sep 2nd, 2010
The Canadian Labour Congress (“the umbrella organization for dozens of affiliated Canadian and international unions, as well as provincial federations of labour and regional labour councils”) has excellent, accessible information in support of labour’s Retirement Security for Everyone campaign… Under international human rights law to which Canada is signatory, everyone has the right to “social security” and an “adequate standard of living.
Child & Family
Home-care service initiatives invaluable, clients tell gathering
Sept 1, 2010
The celebration in Brockville focused on three aging-at-home services, including the Home at Last and Home First programs for patients who would otherwise be waiting in hospital beds for nursing home spaces to become available… however, their praise was for the SMILE program (Seniors Managing Independent Living Easily) delivered by CPHC, Bayshore Home Health and the Red Cross… Last spring’s closure of 15 beds at Brockville General Hospital was a result of the policy, said Thompson, noting the beds were no longer needed after alternate care patients began receiving health care at home.
Aug 31 2010
is the province doing enough to address the problem of autism as the reported incidence grows exponentially and parents become more and more desperate? Under the Liberal government at Queen’s Park, annual funding for basic therapy for autism has increased fourfold, from $44 million to $165 million. And funding for “complex special needs” cases, like Fentie-Pearce’s son, has increased from $29 million to $74 million. But it is clearly not enough, as parents are becoming increasingly frustrated over long waiting lists for therapy or for placement in group homes.
Education
Accept it: Poverty hurts learning
September 2nd 2010
There is abundant evidence that in schools in the poorest communities, achievement is considerably lower than in schools with more socioeconomic diversity… Under both Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, the federal Education Department has largely avoided addressing the socioeconomic challenges that impact schools. Instead, they’ve championed reforms like performance pay for teachers, raising academic standards and creating charter schools… schools alone – not even the very best schools – cannot erase the effects of poverty.
All-day kindergarten ‘extraordinary’ and ‘ground-breaking’ says minister
Sept. 1, 2010
All-day kindergarten, the first program of its kind in North America, will be launched at several county schools on Sept. 7… “Investing” in four-and five-year-olds is the key to their success as they progress through elementary and secondary school, Dombrowsky said… The minister says the McGuinty government wants to phase in the program so that the areas where the need is greatest–such as a higher incidence of low-income families — are addressed first. Where there is demand, extended day programs will also be offered, she said.
Employment
Sep 03 2010
When John Maynard Keynes talked of persistent underemployment, he did not mean that, following a big shock, economies stay frozen at one unchanging level of depressed activity. But he did think that, without external stimulus, recovery from the lowest point would be slow, uncertain, weak and liable to relapse… described as a “quasi-recession,” a better term than “double-dip recession.” It denotes an anemic recovery, with bursts of excitement punctuated by collapses. It is the situation we confront today.
We need business to speed up our sluggish recovery
Sep. 01, 2010
Business should be leading economic recovery, borrowing money (from households and banks) to fund new investments and jobs. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work. In today’s lean-and-mean world, however, business is free-riding on the spending efforts of others. Despite tax cuts and other business-friendly policies, the private sector isn’t taking on the risks, and taking on the debt, necessary to fuel broader recovery.
Equality
Say no to tinkering [First Nations]
Sept. 3, 2010
The Harvard Project identifies the factors critical to economic success, and it’s not location or private property. It’s real decision-making authority supported by capable governing institutions that are culturally appropriate. In this way, first nations have the ability to make decisions, take responsibility for those decisions, and set a strategic direction. This is not possible under the Indian Act, which forces first nations to implement federal policies and decisions that often have no relevance to their circumstances.
More equal societies prove superior
August 24, 2010
Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett is a great book. The gist of it is that more equal societies — those where the difference in average incomes is less — are better in almost every way. The authors look at almost every social measure, from mental and physical health to violence and educational attainment, from social relations and teen pregnancy to imprisonment and longevity. In all cases, where there is a smaller gap between the average incomes of poorer and richer strata of society, people are generally healthier, happier, better adjusted, better educated and more socially cohesive.
Health
Next step is funding for mental health
Aug 29 2010
While Ontario’s Liberal government increased health funding by $14.5 billion since coming to office, it only added $220 million to mental health spending during the same period even though mental health and addictions problems affect 20 per cent of the population… Today in Toronto there are 2,000 people on the wait list for supportive housing. Without creating additional service capacity for supportive housing, this will not change. Other jurisdictions have had to increase the mental health share of health spending to get change and improve services.
Aug 30 2010
Ontario rightly abandoned the routine practice of institutionalizing those with a mental illness and forcing invasive treatments on them decades ago. Now, we watch people deteriorate and harm themselves without being legally able to intervene at all. Ontario must broaden its criteria for when people can be involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric facility and limit the right of patients to refuse treatment once they are there, the report states. “The right to autonomy must be balanced with the right to be well.”
Inclusion
Ontario politician believed society had an obligation to help those in need
September 2, 2010
(John) Yaremko brought his own experience of poverty to the policy table. He advocated for provincial scholarships, health care and a measure of independent living for the disabled through pensions and subsidized housing… As Social Services Minister… He fought for federal funding and got it in 1967 through the Canada Assistance Plan, which brought dollars and national standards to provincial welfare programs… One of Yaremko’s proudest accomplishments was helping to establish ethnocentric nursing homes across the province so that seniors could enjoy living with their own traditions and foods.
City’s diversity should be more than a slogan
Sep 01 2010
Branding Toronto as diverse — in a number of different ways — can only be the city’s strength if it can be articulated, protected, enhanced and promoted. The diversity and strength of Toronto is not just in its people. It is also resident in its businesses and neighbourhoods… “Diversity our Strength” is not just a motto — it is a statement of fact. We jeopardize the future prosperity of this city when we forget that fact and treat it only as the background buzz of any conversation.
Social Security
Retirement Security for Everyone Campaign
Sep 2nd, 2010
The Canadian Labour Congress (“the umbrella organization for dozens of affiliated Canadian and international unions, as well as provincial federations of labour and regional labour councils”) has excellent, accessible information in support of labour’s Retirement Security for Everyone campaign… Under international human rights law to which Canada is signatory, everyone has the right to “social security” and an “adequate standard of living.
Disability benefits need insurance backup
Aug 30 2010
About 400 disabled employees of Nortel Networks Corp. are scheduled to have their income replacement and medical benefits cut off by year’s end. Nortel is being broken up under creditor protection. Their only hope of getting further money ahead of other creditors is a bill proposed by Liberal Senator Art Eggleton, a former Toronto mayor. But time is running short. It’s a disgrace that federal and provincial governments have yet to do anything to prevent this sort of situation.
Governance
Aug 29 2010
The blunders, overreaches and angry partisanship that characterize the Harper government in the minds of progressives, certainly limit their electoral growth potential, but seem to have no effect in eroding that solid third of Canadians who are motivated by the fear narrative… The antidote — the only way to undercut the fear narrative and erode its appeal — is through the politics of hope. In contrast to the fear narrative — which is about securing and protecting what we already have today — the hope narrative is about making us better than we are today.
Is there an old-style Tory in the House?
Aug. 26, 2010
… the party’s hard right now appears, with a few policy exceptions, to have assumed control of the agenda. And that agenda is about keeping out boat people, letting in Fox News, building new jails, reviewing affirmative action, killing the gun registry, playing down climate change, revamping the census and giving more voice to social conservatives… The garrison party, as it’s sometimes called, no longer has policy debates wherein dissenters have a chance to air their views. The role of the party’s rank and file is not to develop policy but to raise funds and tear down opponents.
Recent Posts