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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.

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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

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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…

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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.

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Centralized wait-lists work. So why isn’t Canada using them in health care across the country?

Friday, February 10th, 2023

Of course wait-list management isn’t all we need. At its best, it simply taps the potential of underutilized capacity in hospitals. We also need to stanch the hemorrhage of doctors and nurses out of publicly-funded care, and need a better spectrum of care to get people into and out of hospital more quickly. And we need more focus on keeping people out of hospital in the first place… It means better primary care through more interdisciplinary teams.

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Four ways the fall economic statement could help prepare all of us for the coming recession

Thursday, November 3rd, 2022

People are anxious. The world is talking about recession… What can the government do about any of it? Help those struggling to choose between heating or eating, or even between food or shelter, by asking a bit more from those who saw a windfall in corporate profits and shareholder dividends.  Here are four ways to do just that…

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The new villain? Workers fighting for better wages. Don’t fall for it

Wednesday, October 5th, 2022

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

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One in six households in Ontario is now struggling with food insecurity. Here’s why it’s going to get worse

Wednesday, September 21st, 2022

The chattering classes have embraced a new economic theme: government efforts to fight inflation will trigger more inflation. They’re wrong…  Ontario was the only province where more people were food insecure in 2021 than in 2020… Last week the Trudeau government introduced $4.6 billion in federal aid to be spent on inflation relief until the end of 2023, almost every penny for those with low incomes.

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Provinces need to have a plan for health-care funding — or they shouldn’t get the money

Monday, August 15th, 2022

Provinces want $28 billion more from the feds for health care… Yes, health care needs more funding. But negotiations need to focus on producing better results. Our premiers need to do more than just acquire more money — they need to govern our public resources, and show us their plans for using an infusion of federal dollars so we can buy change. No plan? No money. 

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If I were a car, I’d vote Conservative. But I’m not a car

Sunday, May 22nd, 2022

Do we want a car society, or a caring society? … Yes, we need more hospitals and facilities to care for one another, but a bed without nursing staff is just a mattress.  Yes, we need more child-care facilities and smaller class sizes, but more spaces without trained caregivers is just a warehouse. We can deliver a strong recovery, for everyone. 

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