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CERB is done, and it’s not coming back. Staring down the barrel of a recession gun, how are we going to fix this?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2022
… why not just bring back CERB when recession hits next time? Because it was too generous to be fiscally sustainable over the long run and not politically sustainable due to sectoral labour shortages. But today’s EI is not fit for purpose either. With less than four in 10 jobless workers able to access it, it’s too stingy. However, there is a lot of consensus on how to fix EI…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Too many dangers in promised privatization of care economy
Tuesday, April 26th, 2022
People with complications are too costly… They’ll end up in an underfunded public not-for-profit system. More access to care through for-profit providers does nothing to address the shortage of health care and eldercare workers and early childhood educators. Cheaper, more equitable, high-quality care that creates good jobs won’t happen by expanding for-profit care. Here are 10 advantages of investing more in public and not-for-profit care.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Inflation is back to 1991 levels, but that doesn’t mean the federal budget should be a ’90s remix
Friday, April 22nd, 2022
The focus on boosting innovation and investment is a waste of time and money. Since the 1990s, evidence shows governments don’t know how to goose productivity or growth. But we know governments maximize potential when they invest in the foundations for everyone (affordable and accessible high-quality health, education, housing and communication, as a bare minimum).
Tags: budget, economy, housing, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Amid spiralling costs for Canadians and atrocities abroad, deficit is not a dirty word
Wednesday, April 6th, 2022
… business pages are full of opinions that say there’s already too much spending, deficits are dangerously high, and so any new spending must focus on supporting — surprise! — business, the self-proclaimed source of wealth creation… It’s very likely we are under-taxing some of the most profitable businesses, so yes, apart from borrowing, there’s a fix for the “how ya gonna pay for it?” crowd… Those urging governments to trim spending look only at the costs of programs, and not the fiscal dividends of acting.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, Health, housing, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Could a $10-a-day deal hurt Ontario’s thousands of child-care businesses?
Wednesday, February 9th, 2022
… nobody is worse off, and more are better off. The new federal funding expands and improves the quality of care, helping licensed businesses stay afloat and focus on the business of care. It creates more better-paid job opportunities… And it reduces uncertainty for parents and providers in tandem, instead of waiting for markets to deliver what they haven’t — quality care where and when it is needed.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, participation, privatization, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Doug Ford is the only premier who has yet to sign Ottawa’s $10-a-day child-care deal. He’s right to push back
Wednesday, January 26th, 2022
Ontario wants the feds to either give it more money, or acknowledge the care it already provides in full-day kindergarten, which costs the province $3.6 billion annually… It makes no sense that Ontario’s success in providing early learning and child care to the vast majority of four-year-olds through full-day kindergarten isn’t included, because excluding it makes meeting federal access targets unachievable.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
What football tells us about the future of workers
Wednesday, December 29th, 2021
The Care Economy is huge and growing. We all rely on it at different points in our lives. There is a labour crisis in this sector, and it is a gendered crisis. And nobody’s talking about it. We’ve been hearing about these shortages, on and off, since the 1990s, and still don’t have a national strategy for human resources in health care.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, immigration, participation, rights, standard of living, women
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The migrant worker floodgates have opened. It’s a decision we might come to regret
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021
… public policy is rowing against market forces and demographic trends, to keep things cheap. The larger the share of migrant workers in a job market, the lower the wage growth. In our endless search for a cheap deal, let’s not pit ourselves as consumers against ourselves as workers… This nation of immigrants, the tenth-largest economy in the world, has two wishes, one of which will be granted: lower prices or better jobs.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s 10-cent hike in the minimum wage is bad for workers, bad for businesses and bad for the economy
Wednesday, October 6th, 2021
Some minimum wage workers work full-time and full year, but most work part-time. At 20 hours a week, a typical minimum wage worker would be earning $29 more a week if the minimum wage was 60 per cent of the average wage. Instead, on Friday, the government of Ontario legislated $2 more a week for them. That’s bad for workers, bad for businesses and bad for the economy… it isn’t business that creates jobs. It’s customers.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
The Care Economy Statement
Tuesday, May 25th, 2021
This statement… is a call to recognize that good care is crucial to our health and well-being as individuals and as a society; it is the critical social infrastructure that delivers overall economic stability and growth; and it is a shared responsibility, not just a personal one. This requires a shift from thinking of care as an expenditure to understanding it as an economic driver through investment in people and good jobs.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
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