Archive for the ‘Inclusion Debates’ Category
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Outsourcing: the new way to balance government budgets in Canada
Feb 21 2012
It is sometimes necessary to bring in private contractors to provide specialized knowledge or technical expertise. But not for budgets. They are the direction-setting documents of government… But today, leaders’ speeches consist mostly of generalities. And spending estimates are rarely examined by Parliament. By default, budgets have become the road map to the future. To ensure that they reflect the choices of the people — not just those of the leader — the budget-making process must be as transparent as possible, especially now as all three levels of government embark on retrenchment campaigns that will require difficult sacrifices. Yet each leader has made — or tried to make — the process more opaque.
Tags: budget, participation, standard of living
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Where are Canada’s new immigrants settling?
Feb 10, 2012
According to the 2011 census, two-thirds of the people added to the Canadian population since 2006 were immigrants. The breakdown of where they came from will come in later releases, but the 2006 census offers a strong indication of the trends. The National Post’s graphics team takes a look:
Tags: immigration, multiculturalism
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Don’t shut disabled kids out of society
Jan. 31, 2012
Dr. Snowdon makes three main recommendations: * Create a single online reference tool that lists all community programs, services and professional care available to people with disabilities. * Invest in programs where disabled kids are integrated, not segregated, so they can feel part of their community. * Find ways to expand the social networks of children and teenagers to break the isolation… being a “virtual” citizen is only a baby step in the right direction, it’s not enough… isolation was far more painful to live with than physical or development disabilities themselves.
Tags: disabilities, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
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Liberals must commit to protect vulnerable
Jan. 30, 2012
Protecting the vulnerable is what liberalism is all about. In today’s terms, it means improving the level of support to those who must rely on social assistance. It means increasing the inventory of affordable housing for low-income tenants. It means assisting those who face a future perplexed by dementia. It means generating meaningful employment opportunities for the unemployed and under-employed. It means helping those criminal offenders who are candidates for rehabilitation to find a productive and law-abiding future. It means a health-care system that provides quality care to all our citizens…
Tags: disabilities, homelessness, ideology, Native, poverty, standard of living, women, youth
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New relationship needed with Crown or risk widespread unrest: chiefs
Jan.11, 2012
Native chiefs say Prime Minister Stephen Harper must come out of this month’s First Nations summit willing to forge a new relationship with aboriginals or risk widespread unrest… Many have concerns about the lack of housing, clean running water and education in their communities, but virtually all say they don’t expect to solve those issues in a day. They want the prime minister to commit to holding at least one first ministers meeting on aboriginal issues and to appoint a commissioner to ensure that treaties signed more than 100 years ago are being followed.
Tags: ideology, Native, rights, standard of living
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Religious-freedom office is a blessing, non-believers
Jan. 09, 2012
… Canada is a secular state, meaning that, as a state, it is of no religion and enforces none. The first point underscores the ongoing need for the promotion of religious freedom. The second confirms the appropriateness of a country such as Canada undertaking it… There’s a lot of careless invocation these days of “separation of church and state.” This isn’t a Canadian doctrine, and is only very dubiously an American one… [but that] doesn’t preclude a public stand on behalf of religious freedom. On the contrary, it implies one.
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, rights
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Top 10 reasons why Office of Religious Freedom is a bad idea
Jan. 7, 2012
“Freedom of religion is one of the first things in the Charter, it’s one of the first things in the Bill of Rights, it’s front and centre in the UN Declaration of Human Rights – it’s an essential human right,” Baird told The Canadian Press… I can’t recall Baird or his government being particularly enthusiastic about the Charter before – his boss, Stephen Harper, once called it “seriously flawed” because it promotes equality… this initiative – which the Opposition has largely been silent about — is a very bad idea. Here’s 10 reasons why:
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, rights
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The high cost of poverty
Jan 02 2012
In 2009, the first year of (Ontario’s poverty reduction) strategy, the minimum wage jumped up and, most importantly, the Ontario Child Benefit was increased by hundreds of dollars helping to raise low-income families out of poverty The government has also started a process to reform social assistance… But (it) is still a long way off its goal to lift 90,000 children out of poverty… it’s troubling that the third progress report on Ontario’s poverty reduction strategy spends most of its 26 pages rehashing earlier successes and is light on new measures.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, youth
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David Pecaut was ‘a popcorn machine of ideas’
Dec 29 2011
…the Pecaut Centre for Social Enterprise… will have three purposes. • Its primary objective will be to develop Toronto’s next generation of social entrepreneurs… • Its second objective will be to act as a knowledge hub for the not-for-profit sector. It will grapple with one of the biggest challenges they face: How to measure the value (or in business terms, the return on investment) of what they do… • Its third objective will be to take promising social enterprises from startups to sustainable ventures… (as) the not-for-profit sector must be part of a strong, creative, compassionate Canada.
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living
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Poverty costs us all
Dec. 16, 2011
“… most people don’t recognize what poverty costs us… Over the last 30 years, even when the economy has been at it best, we still had 10% of the population living in poverty. With the recent recession, the numbers are higher… one in three people living in poverty have jobs and an education… Politicians need to hear from constituents that poverty is an issue and something needs to be done”… Kleinsmith has shared the petition with a number of her contacts and hopes others can do the same. Bridges has a copy of it online — www.bridgeschc.ca — that can be printed.
Tags: budget, Health, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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