Looking for the cracks in medicare? Try the Ontario-Quebec border
Thursday, November 11th, 2010
Nov. 11, 2010
At only 26 years old, the Canada Health Act is ailing. The act guarantees universal health care, setting out key principles of access and affordability – one of which suffers from a serious case of neglect.
Under the portability requirement, every Canadian is entitled to full medical coverage, no matter where he or she lives, and provincial health insurance plans are supposed to be good anywhere in the country. But that tenet is showing cracks at the Quebec-Ontario boundary. Quebec patients are turned away or pay out-of-pocket for medical services outside their home province, essentially denied portability.
Tags: budget, Health, rights
Posted in Health Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Women at work: still behind on the bottom line
Saturday, September 11th, 2010
Sep. 08, 2010
Canadian women best their male counterparts in high school, college and university, but they fall starkly behind on the bottom line – in their paycheques. And the disparity looks even worse when compared with other developed countries. The findings… are partly the result of women often choosing less lucrative occupations than men – social work, say, as opposed to engineering – as well as entrenched biases in the workplace. Less clear is why… Canada lags in pay equity.
Tags: rights, standard of living, women
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ontario schools crack down on retirees who ‘double-dip’ with supply jobs
Monday, April 26th, 2010
Apr. 26, 2010
A 20-year-old policy meant to deal with teacher shortage that has since evaporated allows retirees to teach as much as half the school year, or 95 days, in the first three post-retirement working years and 20 days in following years… The government and the teachers’ federation have not indicated whether changes are coming to the self-policing system and loopholes that allow teachers to work beyond any allotted days without their pensions being affected.
Tags: budget, pensions
Posted in Education Debates | 6 Comments »
Ontario, teachers vow to clamp down on cash spent rehiring retirees
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Apr. 20, 2010
Through access-to-information requests and appeals to Ontario’s 10 largest school boards, representing half the student population, The Globe and Mail uncovered a system rife with loopholes that enable retired teachers to pad their pensions at a cost to taxpayers of millions of dollars a year. The loopholes were put in place 20 years ago to help the province cope with a teacher shortage.
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Ontario school boards squander $16.7-million by hanging on to retirees
Monday, April 19th, 2010
Apr. 19, 2010
Retired teachers working in 10 school boards, representing half the student population, collected $108.3-million in the 2008-09 school year from taxpayers on top of their government-subsidized pensions, taking advantage of a system rife with loopholes that leaves new teachers scrambling for crumbs. The investigation revealed widespread overspending, with boards favouring retirees over new teachers for supply assignments at a higher pay scale that, in some cases, doubled the cost to the taxpayer.
Tags: budget
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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