Carol Goar « Authors « Social Policy in Ontario

Toronto’s hourglass economy needs a makeover

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Nov 26 2010
Toronto used to have a healthy oval-shaped economy that produced full-time jobs, prosperity and a good standard of living. But over the last 20 years, it has assumed an hourglass shape, top heavy with highly paid knowledge workers and bottom heavy with minimum wage service workers. The jobs in the middle, which once provided a decent living and a chance to get ahead, have melted away… Toronto has to make better use of the assets at its disposal…

Tags: economy, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »

A smart social policy innovation for lean times

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

Nov 24 2010
…the Caledon Institute… urges policy-makers to simplify the current hodgepodge of tax deductions, welfare payments and disability benefits into a single national program that provides Canadians who are too disabled to work with an annual stipend of $12,160; a refundable tax credit of $2,000 a year and the equipment and services they need (wheelchair, dialysis equipment, portable oxygen, personal-care attendant, visiting homemaker)… Their proposal would cost the federal government approximately $5 billion a year and save the provinces about $2.6 billion a year for a net public outlay of $2.4 billion.

Tags: budget, disabilities, pensions, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »

Medicare is a good system with lax management

Friday, November 12th, 2010

Nov 12 2010
… [Robert Evans] the 68-year-old Vancouver health economist has a compelling message. Medicare is not about to implode. It is as sustainable as Canadians want it to be, with smart management and proper oversight. It offers governments all the tools they need to curb the growth of health-care spending… His latest analysis shows a sharp increase in health-care spending over the last 10 years. Two major cost drivers stand out: drugs and doctors (not profligate hospitals, greying patients or irresponsible consumers).

Tags: featured, Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »

Family courts filled with litigants and no one to guide them

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Nov 10 2010
Four years ago, Ontario became the first province in Canada to regulate paralegals. Then-attorney general Michael Bryant promised that the newly proclaimed Access to Justice Act would raise the status of paralegals, protect the public and provide more choice for consumers. Things didn’t quite work out that way. Almost two-thirds of Ontarians who appear in family court are now unrepresented. They can’t afford a lawyer and — thanks to the new law — they can longer use a paralegal for uncontested divorces, child custody arrangements or financial support orders.

Tags: poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »

Health-care system due for a checkup

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Nov 05 2010
…setting aside partisanship, personal disappointment and intergovernmental turf wars, medicare does need a decennial checkup… Romanow’s prescription — a substantial investment of public funds to buy “transformative change” — is no longer feasible… With a weak economy and an unstable Parliament, the timing is not ideal for a medicare review… But pouring cash into the health-care system has never brought lasting reform. It is true that handing medicare to a panel of experts for examination would be expedient for Harper. But it would also be good — at least better than the alternatives…

Tags: budget, featured, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | 1 Comment »

Ignatieff offers overstretched families a break

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Oct 13 2010
Four principal objections have been raised… It’s unaffordable… It’s untimely… It’s unnecessary… It doesn’t solve the fundamental problem… [But] The Liberal plan would not break the bank or jeopardize economic growth. It would give Canadians a choice: A government that spends their money on military hardware and prisons or one that uses their tax dollars to alleviate the strains of an aging society.

Tags: disabilities, Health, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »

The era of quiet, forbearing seniors is over

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Oct 11 2010
… there are 6.9 million of us; 22 per cent of the voting population (probably more because we have a high propensity to vote). Governments are aware of this. In recent years, they have made sporadic efforts to plug the holes in Canada’s elder care system. But most of their initiatives have been badly designed or grossly inadequate… Seniors with dementia and severe disabilities are being warehoused in unregulated private retirement homes. They can’t get into government-supervised nursing homes because there is a backlog of 24,000 applications. Caregivers are burning out. Volunteers are pulling back.

Tags: participation, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »

Gulf between business and labour narrows

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

Oct 06 2010
Although business and labour are temporarily united in opposition to higher EI premiums, they remain at odds on the bigger question of whether coverage should be extended to part-time employees and contract workers. Two forces — a sputtering recovery and a government fixated on cost-cutting — are driving business and labour together right now. But beneath this cyclical convergence, the former combatants are edging toward a shared understanding: Good social policy can be smart economic policy.

Tags: economy, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »

Social Policy in Ontario