Out of work? You may be out of luck. Why getting EI is harder than it’s ever been
Saturday, August 10th, 2024
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.
Tags: economy, participation, standard of living
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Liberal budget hits a home run on housing, but plays small ball on care economy
Wednesday, April 17th, 2024
Here are three ways federal small ball could deliver big results without big spends in the coming months: Child care Workforce Deals… with a focus on workforce attraction and retention… tracking trends in the investments occurring in our long-term care, child care and health-care sectors… examining ways of putting new guardrails on public funding… Care services such as child care, long-term care, medical or dental community clinics can be a built-in feature of new housing and infrastructure developments.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, housing, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
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Time to put the capita back in GDP per capita
Thursday, March 7th, 2024
The more societies set the stage to maximize their macroeconomic potential, the more they can make the impossible possible…the challenge isn’t about finding a better metric; it’s about putting the focus on the capita in GDP per capita. Because money doesn’t make an economy. People do. They — we! — are the true measure of an advanced economy.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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Why is Ontario embracing private health care? The Scandinavian experience shows it hurts both the quality and choice of care
Tuesday, February 20th, 2024
A new report examines trends in Sweden, Norway, the United States, France and Great Britain, where the pursuit of profit by financial capital is systematically devouring public funding, eroding quality of care and degrading working conditions. Sound familiar? It should: The tapeworm economy has arrived in Ontario, and we need to control it… The escalating profitization of care gobbles up funds that could improve care.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
After 57 years, Canadians finally have a reason to ‘say cheese’
Thursday, December 14th, 2023
Tooth decay is a preventable disease and a low-cost public health intervention. By publicly funding this care, we should be getting vastly improved preventive and primary care, better health outcomes, and new levers to contain costs… Today it’s not just kids and the elderly who need help. It’s the twenty-, thirty-, even forty-somethings whose jobs don’t come with benefits packages, and whose pay hasn’t kept up with soaring rents and groceries.
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s solution to the health care crisis is to hire nurses through agencies — and the cost has now quadrupled
Thursday, July 27th, 2023
What was bad last year is worse this year. That’s because there’s still no plan to tackle the root causes of burnout and turnover. Hospitals are still so short-staffed, nurses are simply thrown at the labour crisis of the day, some not even able to take pre-scheduled vacations, know when or how long they are going to work on any given day, or what kind of work they will be asked to do. Shift the lens to child care, long-term care and other forms of health care, and the same story emerges.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
An Ontario doctor’s wait-list database is saving patient lives. It’s madness a doctor had to do it himself
Saturday, March 25th, 2023
It’s a searchable database of specialists and procedures, by location and wait times. Yet by simply showing the full extent of available specialists in his community, this young family doctor vividly saw how access could be speeded up, reducing patient anguish and hardship… Qamar and his partners hope the province will see the database’s value and step in to fund the minimal costs of updating it.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
How much progress have women made in the workplace? 46 facts to mark 46 years of International Women’s Day
Wednesday, March 8th, 2023
Average annual employment income of Canadian women: $39,900; Average annual employment income of Canadian men: $54,300; … Percentage of women in the House of Commons: 30; … Percentage of women in federal cabinet: 46; … Percentage of women in the Ontario cabinet: 26; … Number of economists Forbes magazine says are redefining everything: Five; Percentage of those economists who are women: 100
Tags: featured, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Affordability — not inflation — is the biggest crisis Canada’s economy faces today
Wednesday, March 1st, 2023
Five fiscal approaches… could lower costs, tackle long-term affordability and create more economic resilience… Reform Employment Insurance… Build more affordable rental housing… Fund school food programs… Focus on low-income households for energy-efficiency retrofits… [and] Avoid wasting money in health care… All governments need to prevent the galloping profitization of care…
Tags: economy, featured, Health, housing, immigration, Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
In health care it is not privatization to fear, it’s profitization
Thursday, February 16th, 2023
Despite the evidence, Ford has permitted more for-profits in long-term care, home care, acute care, primary care, and child care. It is not impossible to reverse the corporatization of profits in health care, but trade rules, contracts and other corporate protections can make it difficult and expensive… We don’t need an action plan for corporate profit and control, using public money. We need to improve the public system.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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