StatsCan, or StatsCan’t?
May 2, 2012
Just two months ago, economists and policy wonks were cheering the news that Statistics Canada, the much lauded government statistics office, had eliminated fees for its online databanks, making millions of figures available for free. Now the quantity of that data is under threat from the biggest budget cuts in recent memory… Nearly half of the agency’s 5,700 staff have received the layoff notices… Three-quarters of the savings would come from cutting programs, meaning fewer surveys, less data and less analysis.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Why the federal government picked a fight with charities
April 3, 2012
Stephen Harper’s majority government has issued a stern warning to charities to quit doing advocacy, and behave more like charities, in the most paternalistic sense of that term. If you represent a charity committed to eradicating poverty, do you need to stop advocating for poor people? Any government with a keen sense of the ephemeral nature of its own political future should pay close attention to what groups have to say, even if they abhor those views. Sadly, this government has demonstrated, time and again, its utter contempt for the views of groups that disagree with them, even groups that can back up their advocacy with evidence.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Austerity isn’t for everyone
Feb. 17, 2012
… the austerity refrain is the same: protect the rich, hit the middle class and leave the poor for later. This is not an argument against frugality, or in defence of sacred cows. The sacred cows are able to defend themselves. But it is an illustration of what can happen when political leaders, and their advisers, live in a sheltered world where seniors golf in Florida all winter… They forget — or don’t care — that most Canadians don’t live there.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Government faces Aboriginal challenge
Feb. 14, 2012
Facts that could prove the federal government is discriminating against aboriginal children by underfunding child-welfare services on reserves need to be heard in court, said lawyers for the Canadian Human Rights Commission… The complaint argued the underfunding of child-welfare services on reserves leads to poverty, poor housing, substance abuse and a vast overrepresentation of aboriginal children in state care. However, the federal government argues that because it sends funds to band managers – who administer the services – the government cannot be held responsible for the services delivered.
Tags: Native, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Harper wins when voters snooze
Jan. 27, 2012
Many [voters] have given up – in cynicism or despair. They turn their back on politics, don’t bother to vote, even imagine it is fashionable to remain aloof. They claim all politicians are the same, but they aren’t. They claim it doesn’t matter which party holds power, but it does… Nothing seems to penetrate public indifference – to Harper’s benefit… waiting four more years for Conservatives to self-destruct – isn’t a strategy. It’s a confession of impotence.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Employment Policy Context | 1 Comment »
$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.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Canadians want federal health-care role
Jan. 16, 2012
The national survey by Ipsos Reid was commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association, which represents the nation’s doctors… – 97 per cent of Canadians think the federal government’s responsibility for the Canada Health Act is important. In return for receiving federal money, provinces must adhere to the principles of medicare as outlined in the Act. Those principles include accessibility to services, universal availability, and portability from province to province…
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Should Ontario keep funding separate Catholic schools? No.
Jan. 3, 2012
Ontario is in the anachronistic position of being the only province that publicly funds one type of religious school (Catholic) to the exclusion of all others. Massive, wasteful duplication and the religious segregation of students are some of the results of this system. Recent events have also shown Catholic doctrine is incompatible with the equality rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms while other religious groups, now seeking access to public schools and public funding, have pointed out the blatant hypocrisy of Ontario’s education policy.
Tags: budget, ideology, multiculturalism, rights, tax
Posted in Education Policy Context | 1 Comment »
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