Time to end violations of Canada Health Act with illegal fees for service
…Bill 60… expressly enables the transfer of surgeries and diagnostics from public hospitals to for-profit clinics… We categorically do not need private clinics to cut surgical wait times. Virtually every public hospital has operating rooms that are closed evenings, overnight and on weekends. They should be funded and staffed to open to full capacity to clear backlogs.
Child & Family
What we can learn from 20 years of the Youth Criminal Justice Act
The passage of the YCJA has resulted in a 95-per-cent decline in youth custodial sentences, while youth carceral facilities have closed across the country… This incredible transformation happened because the YCJA emphasizes restraint at all levels of the criminal justice system, from police intervention to charging, detaining and sentencing, and by using “extrajudicial measures” to divert young people away from the traditional court system.
Not done yet: $10-a-day child care requires addressing Canada’s child care deserts
… child care deserts are a feature of child care provision all across Canada. This reality, which represents the dysfunctional child care market that has developed over time as Canada has, until now, lacked unifying early learning and child care policy and funding… purposeful and rational expansion of public and non-profit licensed child care is a critical next step to ensure that all Canadian families can access the more affordable fees already in play.
Education
Ford government’s education playbook: manifest a crisis, ignore research, abandon educators
With significant efforts on behalf of the government to manifest a crisis, ignore research, and leave educators to fend for themselves, there seems to be an insidious plan to dismantle publicly funded education… Ontario deserves a government that believes in public education and values its educators, students, families, and communities.
Ontario is first province to make mental health lessons mandatory in Grade 10
Now, the government will be providing consistent, required learning materials on mental health in Grades 7 and 8, including videos and activities about how to handle and recognize stress. In Grade 10, students — as part of the mandatory career studies — will be taught the signs of anxiety and being overwhelmed, and where to go for help.
Employment
Doug Ford’s government raising minimum wage to $16.55 in October
The $1.05 hourly hike means someone earning minimum wage and working full-time would see an annual raise of about $2,200. It also vaults Ontario to the highest minimum wage in Canada… the change should help about 942,400 workers in Ontario — most of whom are women. The 6.8 per cent rise is because minimum wage increases are now tied to the rate of inflation and must be disclosed by the end of the fiscal year.
… Canada’s 2023 federal budget moves on climate and dental – but avoids almost everything else
… the budget drops the ball on support for underfunded public transit systems, affordable housing, pharmacare and high inflation. [but] “When it comes to health care, the piece of this budget with the most teeth is dental care… It seems like the federal government decided that it had to choose between dental care or pharmacare, but not both—and dental care came out the winner.
Equality
Women in politics: To run or not to run?
Research on women in politics has identified multiple obstacles that hinder women’s representation, with three factors emerging as the most prominent explanations… that voters might have gender bias… that women may not be interested to run as candidates… [or that] parties tend to choose men over women… the underrepresentation of women in politics is not due to a shortage of qualified women candidates or voter bias against women candidates.
Canada’s Gender Pandemic Response: Did it Measure Up?
Canada introduced unprecedented relief measures in the early days of the pandemic to offset the huge losses resulting from necessary public health closures. Looking back, how did those measures stack up? Did they address the pandemic’s heavy toll on women and other marginalized communities? … The imperative now is to apply the lessons of COVID-19 in service of a more sustainable, resilient and gender-just future…
Health
Time to end violations of Canada Health Act with illegal fees for service
…Bill 60… expressly enables the transfer of surgeries and diagnostics from public hospitals to for-profit clinics… We categorically do not need private clinics to cut surgical wait times. Virtually every public hospital has operating rooms that are closed evenings, overnight and on weekends. They should be funded and staffed to open to full capacity to clear backlogs.
Better Health Depends on Better Health Data
… governments should adopt the guiding principle that patients’ entire records should be available, not just to health providers, but to the patients themselves. Not only is this consistent with Supreme Court decisions and the principles of good ethics, but there is growing evidence it improves participation and trust in the system.
Inclusion
Ontario has made slow progress to accessibility
… 77 per cent of people with disabilities report having a negative experience in public or at work, while only eight per cent describe their experience as positive. These negative experiences… are the result of a lack of leadership, enforcement, research and accountability, and of flaws in virtually every aspect of the system, including “services, products, technology, buildings, infrastructure, careers, processes and human imagination.”
We have a homelessness emergency in every part of Ontario
… the cause and effect are apparent… Ontario would need to increase its budget by $28 billion a year to spend what other provinces are spending. This extreme underspending will be a disaster for our communities… Ontario municipalities are unique in Canada in that they pay all or part of the costs of a range of health and social services such as public health and social housing.
Social Security
Basic income could help create a more just and sustainable food system
… a basic income guarantee could not only be an important tool for addressing economic access to food, but also in supporting sustainability across the food system… reducing economic uncertainty for the most vulnerable agriculture and fisheries workers… [and] supporting new entrants in agriculture and fisheries. Across Canada, the commercial fishing and farming workforces are aging.
Social Assistance Summaries [Ontario]
For Ontario Works, single parent households had the highest proportion of beneficiaries, on average, with over 48 per cent, followed by unattached singles, with 34 per cent. Unattached singles comprised the majority of ODSP beneficiaries, with more than 58 per cent, followed by single parent households, with over 17 per cent. Females made up the majority of Ontario Works beneficiaries, on average, in 2021-22, with 65 per cent.
Governance
Stephen Harper wasn’t obsessed with data. Here’s why Justin Trudeau is
This whole fixation on data is, first and foremost, a big product of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the realm of health care. Trudeau has talked often about how the government learned in the early days of the pandemic just how little information it had at its fingertips… The data deficit in the current public service has also been cited as one reason the government has needed to lean so heavily on outside consulting firms
Federal budget 2022: Highest-earning Canadians face minimum tax rate increase
Ottawa is raising the alternative minimum tax rate and imposing new limits on many of the exemptions, deductions and credits that apply under the system starting in 2024… it is increasing the alternative minimum rate to 20.5 per cent from 15 per cent starting in 2024… Wealthy Canadians pay the alternative minimum or regular tax, whichever is higher… about 32,000 Canadians will be covered by alternative minimum tax in 2024
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