How is Ottawa going to pay off its COVID-19 debt? With any luck, it won’t have to
Tuesday, April 28th, 2020
… the country’s long-term fiscal game plan is likely to look like the one that financed the Second World War… In the 30 years after the war, Canada did not pay off the national debt. It even added to it… The reason was economic growth. The debt was large and growing, but the economy grew slightly faster. That’s how Canada got rid of its war debt without literally paying it off… borrowing costs, low then, are at record lows now.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction
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To fight crime, Canada has to fight poverty, inequality and despair
Tuesday, February 11th, 2020
Liberal politicians want to talk about locking up guns and Conservatives want to talk about locking up people… both approaches are reasonable. But they are narrow in focus. They’re designed to appeal to each party’s base, and as such do not come close to addressing the complex issues behind gun and gang violence… How hard is it for politicians to understand that the most effective policies for reducing youth violence are ones that cut poverty
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
On gangs and guns, politicians are missing the point
Sunday, February 9th, 2020
History has taught us that this is not just a policing issue, or just a gun issue, or just a crime issue. It’s all of these, and a lot more. It’s not something that can be fixed by spending more money on a narrow set of priorities, or by talking tough at a news conference… They need long-term, considered help, not grandiose political posturing
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
The (Conservative) platform that dare not speak its name
Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
Scaling back infrastructure spending could have consequences, but they won’t be immediate, and they may be hard for voters to spot… the Conservatives are raising taxes. Yes, really. They’re promising a 3-per-cent tax on foreign social-media platforms, search engines and online marketplaces, inspired by similar levies in Europe… The Conservatives would also give the Canada Revenue Agency $750-million a year to figure out who isn’t paying as much tax as they should.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The debt, the deficit – and other things this election isn’t about
Thursday, September 19th, 2019
Canada has the lowest debt burden in the Group of Seven. The weight of federal debt is not heavy and increasing; it’s light and shrinking…. Relative to a $2.3-trillion economy, deficits of roughly $20-billion or less are small enough that the federal debt-to-GDP ratio will continue to steadily fall… Ottawa’s tax take today is smaller than at any other time in recent history…
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Money has never been cheaper. Should Ottawa be borrowing more?
Wednesday, July 31st, 2019
Ultralow interest rates are a problem, but also an opportunity. Borrowing has never been cheaper. If the federal government were to increase borrowing, only for a short period and only to fund one-off items such as new education facilities or transit infrastructure, it could finance that at very low costs, locked in for decades.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
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Does our system for dealing with mentally ill offenders need a rethink?
Monday, July 29th, 2019
it is wrong to characterize a mentally ill person who has committed a violent crime as permanently dangerous. According to a study from 2015, among people who committed a major violent crime and were found NCR, fewer than 1 in 100 went on to reoffend. Treatment often works… something went very wrong in this case… But there is no reason to scrap a system that, in dealing with mentally ill people who have committed crimes, is reducing threats and serving the public interest.
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario can’t ignore the dangers of making booze more available
Friday, July 26th, 2019
Before the recent changes, Ontario had the most restricted alcohol sales of all the provinces – and, not coincidentally, the third-lowest per-capita consumption. The highest consumption tends to occur in provinces where alcohol is most readily available for sale… the costs are significant. Direct health-care costs pinned on alcohol use in 2014 were tallied at $11.1-billion.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Doug Ford surprises – by not gutting police oversight
Thursday, February 21st, 2019
confidence in the police, according to the Ford government, was undermined by a stillborn law that never got to impose steep fines on officers who refused to co-operate with the SIU, and never made it slightly easier to fire them for misconduct or incompetence. And so, the Ford government has now tabled the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act – yes, the COPS Act. The government is pitching it as a radical overhaul of Liberal police oversight, to make it more fair to police. Spoiler alert: It’s mostly not.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Let’s make 2019 the year Canada finally gets pharmacare
Wednesday, January 9th, 2019
If you’re hospitalized and you’re given prescription meds, it’s free. But once you walk out of the hospital with a prescription to fill, you may be on your own. Coverage is a mix of private insurance and out-of-pocket spending, with the provinces and territories filling some of the gaps with a grab bag of local programs, each unique to its jurisdiction, for groups such as seniors and the poor… Government programs are limited and selective, creating a safety net that’s filled with holes.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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