Ontario science table details plan to improve primary care
… family doctors want to work as part of a primary care team, with other healthcare professionals such as nurses, pharmacists and social workers. The brief urges a comprehensive strategy to deal with some of these concerns, suggesting primary care delivery is currently a patchwork. And it urges action to develop primary care teams.
Child & Family
…the federal government… raised worry that some taxpayer money won’t be used for its intended purpose of reducing parent fees and improving child care services… Ontario revised its guidelines in August, removing a provision that would have limited “undue” profits, eliminating some “ineligible expenditures,” and relieving some of the financial reporting requirements.
Canadians deserve high-quality care, but non-profit hiring crisis is standing in the way
Community based non-profits are not given the funds to provide salaries on par with municipalities, schools boards and hospitals… significant wage disparity has meant a mass exodus of non-profit workers. As a result, quality of care for our loved ones is compromised as staff turnover interrupts programs and leaves gaps in staffing, disrupting critical relationships and care systems.
Education
Why doesn’t Canada let schools provide child care?
Canada’s policy-makers could take lessons from other countries who have streamlined early learning and child care within their schools. Instead, they are putting up roadblocks, preventing provinces and territories from using federal child-care dollars to transform schools into one-stop centres for young children… Schools are publicly owned, eliminating the need for costly land and facility acquisition. Operating and oversight mechanisms are already in place.
Non-stop political spin is derailing serious debate over schools
The 2020 reopening plan included “up to $1.3 billion in supports for the education sector.” But mostly it wasn’t new money from the province. It came from school board reserves. It came from the federal government… taking inflation and enrolment into account, school boards received $1.6 billion less for the 2021-22 school year than they did in 2017-18. That’s the equivalent of $800 less per student. The average-size secondary school had to make do with $600,000 less.
Employment
EI Needs A Redesign To Be Recession-Ready
… Gray and Busby… propose implementing uniform or more universal entrance requirements across Canada… variations in the length of benefit entitlement periods would be driven by changes in unemployment rates instead of levels in given regions… [and that] the number of regions be sharply reduced… these changes may require a small increase to EI premiums.
The new villain? Workers fighting for better wages. Don’t fall for it
This is an important chapter in the history of workers’ struggles for decent work, a moment of fighting not only inflation but long-standing systemic inequalities. It has the potential to pit unionized worker against non-unionized worker, and private sector worker against public sector worker. Or it has the potential to pave the path toward decent work, through fairness and equity
Equality
Indigenous people pay taxes: Demythologizing the Indian Act tax exemption
… just eight per cent of Canada’s Indigenous population — who could potentially qualify for the Section 87 exemption. However, this number is likely lower because status Indians only qualify for the exemption if their income is connected to a reserve… Even though nearly all Indigenous people in Canada pay tax on their income, Canadian governments have not spent nearly as much on services for them.
Ford government plans more low wages for women health care workers
Ontario continues to pursue a low-wage strategy for the female health care workforce, a strategy that is quickly demolishing health care in Ontario… Everywhere, women health-care workers are quitting. It is even worse in the home care sector. We have had enough of the violence, the irregular work weeks, the unpaid time between clients, the lack of pensions, and the low wages.
Health
Ontario science table details plan to improve primary care
… family doctors want to work as part of a primary care team, with other healthcare professionals such as nurses, pharmacists and social workers. The brief urges a comprehensive strategy to deal with some of these concerns, suggesting primary care delivery is currently a patchwork. And it urges action to develop primary care teams.
Seeking clarity on Ontario’s autism therapy
According to the government’s own statistics, more than 56,000 kids are now registered with the program, and the vast majority have not received funding for core clinical services… Given the understandable lack of trust families have in the program, it’s important the government seek to repair the relationship by increasing, rather than decreasing, transparency and outreach.
Inclusion
Ontario Ministry of Health reverses course on guardianship requirement for disabled woman
Ontario will stop requiring disabled people who are unable to manage their own finances to have a court-appointed guardian to receive home-care funding as adults. The policy change comes just weeks after the Star reported on the case of Maggie Hickey, a 19-year-old Kingston woman whose parents were told they would lose funding for Maggie’s personal support workers unless they imposed formal guardianship on their daughter.
Supporting dementia patients and caregivers is a moral imperative
On average, caregivers provided 26 care hours a week… The toll this takes on caregivers is profound… 45 per cent of caregivers exhibit symptoms of distress. And 21 per cent say they’re unable to continue their care duties due to stress. And we have only seen the tip of the iceberg… all levels of government must help to make delaying dementia a reality.
Social Security
Better income assistance programs are needed to help people with rising cost of living
If the goal of temporary assistance is to help those in need, it must have broader coverage and better tapering. The only program that qualifies at present is the GST credit, but even these payments are modest and only delivered quarterly… A more generous income assistance program should also have more frequent regular payments… a guaranteed basic income for working-age Canadians, might provide better support for those in need.
The Doug Ford government raised ODSP payments by five per cent this month… and will index them to inflation. There was no increase to Ontario Works payments… It’s painfully clear that the base amounts for both programs are simply inadequate given the sharp rise in housing and food costs over the last year… More financial help is needed.
Governance
Alternative Federal Budget 2023: Rising to the challenge
… The ongoing impact of Covid-19, inflation gnawing at stagnant paycheques, a health care system squeezed to the limit, the climate crisis, and the ongoing need to dismantle colonialism and systemic racism… The AFB advances solutions and places the responsibility for change squarely on the federal government, working with the provinces and territories, to rise to the challenge…
Pierre Poilievre vs. the elites (unless they’re rich)
Decades of regressive tax measures, particularly lower rates of tax on business and capital, have had a significant role to play in wealth inequality. Progressive adjustments to our tax system could help reduce it. Yet it seems no amount of wealth disparity or empirical evidence can sidetrack Poilievre from his mission to make tax a four-letter word.
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