Why teachers like me are dreading the return to school
… 30 per cent of Ontario teachers leave the vocation in the first five years as educators. Ontario educators are leaving teaching behind as severe provincial spending cuts, the strain of COVID and a drastic rise in student violence have created an education crisis in Ontario… The provincial government began slashing funding to education in 2019. This resulted in multibillion dollar budget shortfalls for Ontario boards… A 2023-2024 survey reported a 24 per cent shortage of teaching staff in elementary schools, and a 35 per cent teaching shortage in secondary schools.
Child & Family
Ontario reduces child-care fees, introduces new operator funding formula
The new funding structure, which will come into effect January 1, also comes with an announcement that as of the same day the fees parents pay will be further reduced. They have already come down about 50 per cent to an average of $23 a day and next year will fall to an average of $19, and capped at $22. Those will be cut further to an average of $10 a day by March 2026, a date pushed back from an earlier pledge of September 2025.
Paramedics treating patients’ palliative needs at home benefits everyone
… paramedics, with some extra training, can provide patient-centred care in the homes of people living with cancer and other life-limiting conditions. It is intended to make patients as comfortable as possible as they spend their last days at home, which is where most Canadians say they’d prefer to die… evidence clearly shows that enabling paramedics to provide home-based palliative care when appropriate creates a substantial benefit for everyone involved — classic win-win-win for patients, health-care providers and health-care systems.
Education
Why teachers like me are dreading the return to school
… 30 per cent of Ontario teachers leave the vocation in the first five years as educators. Ontario educators are leaving teaching behind as severe provincial spending cuts, the strain of COVID and a drastic rise in student violence have created an education crisis in Ontario… The provincial government began slashing funding to education in 2019. This resulted in multibillion dollar budget shortfalls for Ontario boards… A 2023-2024 survey reported a 24 per cent shortage of teaching staff in elementary schools, and a 35 per cent teaching shortage in secondary schools.
Nigmendra Narain speaks truth about Ontario’s manufactured university crisis
ON funding $6000 below national average… this scarcity of university funding… has been completely manufactured by a provincial government bent on ‘saving tax-payer dollars’ by downloading costs onto individuals while encouraging public-private partnerships… Ontario’s ratio is currently 34 students : 1 professor. Contrast that with the rest of Canada averaging 23 students : 1 faculty.
Employment
… at least 111 Indigenous communities have obtained or announced equity stakes in Canadian businesses in the past two years alone… Wind power, oil and gas, solar generation and electricity transmission account for about three-quarters of the First Nations, Métis and Inuit investments… Indigenous ownership in projects mitigates land-claims conflict, reduces regulatory risks for all investors, and creates other spinoff benefits.
Out of work? You may be out of luck. Why getting EI is harder than it’s ever been
The program is running a honking great cumulative deficit because of the pandemic and improving access would mean hiking premiums or adding federal funding. Both options are no-fly zones for politicians these days… They have doubled EI sickness benefits, from 15 to 26 weeks; introduced extensions in EI caregiving and parental benefits; and added EI funding for training. But changes to regular jobless benefits have been temporary and targeted, despite repeated promises for deeper reforms. They’ve neither addressed workers’ needs in the 21st century, nor EI’s core purpose.
Equality
Most academic economists support a higher inclusion rate, partly because it levels the playing field between different types of capital income. But the best motivation is $20 billion in revenue it will raise over five years, to support modest new programs announced in this budget. This will help fund school lunches, affordable housing initiatives, dental care and disability benefits — while still respecting Freeland’s fiscal “guardrails.”
Pierre Poilievre’s vision for Canada: Heaven for the very rich and squat for everyone else
… the real redistribution in recent years hasn’t been the small bit directed toward benefits for ordinary Canadians but rather the gush of money toward the wealthiest Canadians. In 2021, the richest .01 per cent saw their incomes grow on average by a stunning 30 per cent to $12.5 million a year, while the incomes of 14 million working Canadians actually declined, according to Statistics Canada.
Health
The Queen West site provided me with more than a place to safely use drugs. The staff provided medical attention when I needed it, food and snacks when I was hungry, water and juice when I was thirsty, a sympathetic ear and a hug when I despaired. Through them, I was connected with a phenomenal support worker from Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre… They have been my advocate and biggest supporter. With their help, obstacles that seemed insurmountable have vanished.
The Ford government gets it wrong on drugs
… on what basis has the government concluded that these sites are doing more to aggravate than to mitigate the drug crisis? On what basis has it concluded that public use is more likely to fall and public safety to rise as these sites close? What, other than the political mood or the premier’s oft-stated personal distaste, led it to this decision? The answers to these questions are not apparent either in the government’s announcement or in the available evidence.
Inclusion
Advocacy toolkit: Preventing Canada Disability Benefit clawbacks
This toolkit contains documents meant to help organizations advocate and engage with government decision-makers to prevent clawbacks related to the new Canada Disability Benefit in their province or territory… To ensure that people with disabilities will receive the full value of the CDB, we need to request meetings with and advocate to provincial/territorial ministers, influential politicians, and senior civil servants.
With disability benefits, governments cannot get lost in complexity
The purpose of the CDB is to protect people with disabilities from poverty. The application process should strive to make it easy to identify the people who need this protection… Developing this new benefit will no doubt raise difficult questions about definitions of disability, jurisdiction, and how different programs interact with each other… But they are not impossible. They are not an excuse for doing nothing.
Social Security
The Welfare in Canada reports look at the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance (often called “welfare”), taking into account tax credits and other benefits along with social assistance itself. The reports look at four different household types for each province and territory… In 2023, welfare incomes remained deeply inadequate. Fifty-five out of 56 (98%) households were in poverty, with 40 of them (71%) living in deep poverty.
Basic Income for a New Model of Canadian Social Democracy
Basic income is a paradigm-shifting idea on how to ensure economic security for everyone… Now is the time for the democratic left in Canada to develop a workable and comprehensive version of basic income as a key policy instrument, and not a sideline consideration. Canadian social democrats should incorporate the principle of guaranteed, unconditional and universal economic security as a fundamental program for its vision a better society.
Governance
Why you should care about Ontario’s riding boundaries
… electoral-riding maps are essential to how our democracy operates, to deciding who is represented by whom and at what ratio of elected representatives to population, to quite literally mapping out who gets heard and by whom and how. The Ford government should at least launch a review of the electoral map and commit to ensuring that every resident has fair, adequate, and near-equal representation. And if it’s not willing to take that on, it should take the federal boundaries and adopt them.
For decades the Fraser Institute has been using its ample resources to disconnect taxes in the public’s mind from all the benefits, services, programs and infrastructure that taxes provide… the effective tax rate Canadians pay has increased by 28 per cent since 1961… But… government today provides a lot more benefits than it did in 1961 — most notably, universal health coverage and old age pensions — major programs that have become essential to the well-being and financial security of Canadians.
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