The premiers want more health-care study? Seriously?
Jan. 24, 2012
We don’t need more studies or committees. Every royal commission, provincial inquiry, independent analysis for the past five decades has come to the same basic conclusions about what we need to do reform medicare: * Control spending by limiting medicare coverage to essential treatments that work; * Modernize primary care by moving away from solo physician practices to interdisciplinary teams; * Create some kind of universal prescription drug plan; * Shift money from institutional care to home care … [and] … invest it in palliative care.
Child & Family
Innovative ideas for protecting dementia patients
Jan 23, 2012
… the Halifax Regional Police force… is launching a trial program to affix GPS tracking bracelets — which look similar to digital wrist watches — to dementia patients at risk of wandering off. Such a program, once implemented, will allow the police to rapidly locate, and one hopes rescue, any dementia patient who is able to slip off unattended. The technology has the potential, not only to save resources required by a traditional search operation, but also to save lives.
January 11, 2012
If governments want to put the economy at the top of their agendas, actions that focus on improving children’s’ well-being should be prioritized… The Canadian Pediatric Society said that child care, mental health and poverty are some of the key areas related to kids for which there are clear economic benefits to be had by taking action… Instead… the opposite has happened in recent years as youth issues have been pushed aside by governments in order to deal with the economy and Canada’s aging population.
Education
How Toronto’s boutique academies will work
Jan. 18, 2012
The Toronto District School Board has opened registration for its new boutique academies – including all-boys, all-girls, sports-focused and music-specialized programs – located at nine elementary schools… the TDSB will be tracking the success of these new academies, both internally, and through research partnerships with Ontario universities, such as Toronto, York and Nipissing… “Producing athletes isn’t our goal, but it will probably be a by-product… TDSB officials hope the boys leadership academy… will keep their male students more engaged through hands-on activities and the provision of role models.
Older students not eligible for Ontario tuition rebate
Jan 15 2012
That’s the fine print many failed to notice about Queen’s Park’s $430 million rebate plan that gives $1,600 back to university students and $730 back to community college students whose annual family income is below $160,000: it does not apply to students who have been out of high school for more than four years… mature students are excluded, as are part-time students, graduate students and Ontario students enrolled outside the province… Because people with children and aboriginals both tend to be older when they enter post-secondary education, both groups appear worse off under the rebate plan.
Employment
Policy, not technology is killing Canadian manufacturing
Jan. 24, 2012
… technology can explain some of the job loss, but not most of it. It certainly cannot explain the disproportionate carnage in Canadian manufacturing… The loss of 500,000 manufacturing jobs in Canada over the last decade was far more dramatic than most jurisdictions. Many factors contributed to this miserable record… [but] Caterpillar’s demand to cut Canadian wages in half has nothing to do with technology. It reflects power: a global company’s ability to isolate and threaten workers, one factory at a time. And it reflects policy: an active decision by governments (like Canada’s) to let them do it.
Where Did All the Workers Go? 60 Years of Economic Change in 1 Graph
Jan 26 2012
The big story about American jobs in the post-war period is this: The manufacturing/agriculture economy shrunk from 33% to 12%, and the services economy grew from 24% to 50%… as manufacturing and agriculture got more efficient, they required fewer American workers, while the services industry (which had slower efficiency gains since it has more person-to-person work) required more employees to keep up with the rising demand for consulting, nurses, teachers, computer technicians… Manufacturing jobs have declined as a share of the economy. But manufacturing hasn’t declined as an industry. It’s grown. By a lot.
Equality
Barack Obama is right — wealth inequality is a threat to capitalism
Jan 25, 2012
Income inequality in the United States now stands at its highest rate since the Great Depression… this fact usually is cast as a social justice issue, which is why too many conservatives snidely dismiss it. In fact, free market capitalists are the ones who should be most concerned about inequality. A mass market consumer economy cannot function when earners cluster at the poles: Poor people buy very little, and wealthy people spend only a small fraction of their income on retail goods and services.
Resolve the treaties and complete Confederation
Jan. 23, 2012
The five years leading to Confederation saw the great debates that stirred the ideas for union, and the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences that set the framework for a national accord. The five years leading to 2017 could lay the foundation for the next chapter – the missing chapter: the resolution of the treaties and the beginning of reconciliation and reconstruction with our aboriginal peoples. It’s the civil-rights movement of our generation.
Health
The premiers want more health-care study? Seriously?
Jan. 24, 2012
We don’t need more studies or committees. Every royal commission, provincial inquiry, independent analysis for the past five decades has come to the same basic conclusions about what we need to do reform medicare: * Control spending by limiting medicare coverage to essential treatments that work; * Modernize primary care by moving away from solo physician practices to interdisciplinary teams; * Create some kind of universal prescription drug plan; * Shift money from institutional care to home care … [and] … invest it in palliative care.
Jan 19 2012
It’s time to take a scalpel to all those useless programs involving education, health care, government services, social programs and the environment. And while we’re at it, let’s get rid of that useless freedom of information nonsense. I sure by now we all know we can trust our government to put our taxes into the things that matter and serve those who matter. / Canadians named health care as their number one federal election issue, yet, the Conservatives have chosen to cut Health Care Transfers and abandon their health care responsibilities.
Inclusion
Disabled children get left out
Jan 24 2012
… preschool children are generally well-served by community agencies and elementary schools do their best to include children with disabilities in classroom activities. But around Grade 5 or 6, these kids fall by wayside… Those who manage to finish high school have enormous difficulty getting the training they need to qualify for a job… smaller communities don’t have resources for these children with disabilities. But even in major cities parents don’t know what services exist… There are solutions to these problems, but they require money and leadership.
Canadian bilingualism a blessing not a curse
Jan. 23, 2012
Canada, an officially bilingual country, is a leader in the promotion of second-language knowledge. Ottawa and the provinces together spend more than $2-billion a year offering government services in both French and English… learning a second language should be viewed as a gift society which confers significant global advantages, and bridges cultural divides… The ability to speak French, English – as well as Spanish or Mandarin – should be seen as a source of pride and as an investment in the future that will yield dividends over a person’s lifetime.
Social Security
Does Harper really need to raise the retirement age?
Jan. 27, 2012
the Canada Pension Plan is not in financial difficulty. Instead, the target of reform appears to be Old Age Security… Canadians are living longer… 5 years longer than was the case in 1967… The wellbeing of Canadian seniors has improved tremendously over the last 40 years — higher incomes, better consumption, and healthier lives. However, in the years approaching retirement ages, an increasing number of Canadians are unable to work due to disability, declining job skills, or other reasons… these Canadians may suffer as they wait for their public pension cheques to begin flowing.
Prime Minister Harper unveils grand plan to reshape Canada
Jan. 27, 2012
Mr. Harper portrayed his agenda as a fix for a generation – a fix he claimed is necessary to confront the challenges of an aging population. Canada’s demographics, he warned, pose “a threat to the social programs and services that Canadians cherish.” Preserving those social programs will likely mean cuts elsewhere… he plans to make Canada’s old-age security program sustainable. What that means is unclear. He did not spell out whether seniors will have to wait longer to receive the benefit or whether clawbacks would be increased for higher income earners.
Governance
$100-billion in expenditures that no one notices
Jan. 23, 2012
Tax expenditures serve a public policy purpose without the need of an army of bureaucrats in administration. They can be implemented virtually overnight, and can be easily tweaked. [but]… they are very difficult to take away. Canada is a leader in the use of tax expenditures in the sense that our uptake is more than 50 per cent above the OECD average… In the past five years the value of tax expenditures has risen 2.3 per cent, far less than the increase in the size of government… [however] Tax expenditures represent a major claim on the federal treasury and their economic and social benefits need to be put to the test.
Beware Ottawa bearing gifts: Classic federalism is back
Jan. 17, 2012
The federal government has involved itself in numerous areas of provincial jurisdiction, including health, education and welfare, by using the so-called spending power… on the assumption that the federal government can spend money… for any purpose at all, even if the purpose is a matter of provincial, not federal jurisdiction… Executive federalism… has contributed mightily to the problem by generating so many shared-cost programs… the revival of classical federalism is an essential part of the revival of classical liberalism, with emphasis on smaller government, lower taxes and balanced budgets.
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