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On health care, calling Jean Chrétien [transfer limits]
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
Apr. 08, 2011
Ottawa has given away any leverage it might have had in negotiations, now that Mr. Ignatieff included the 6-per-cent clause in his platform promises, and Mr. Harper put it in his platform budgetary projections. The government will be little more than a bank for the provinces… Without pressure for efficiency, the system will drag down government, and personal, budgets… the role of government leaders is to protect medicare (from itself, if necessary), other services and taxpayers, not give away the store.
Tags: budget, Health, tax
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
One-stop eye care
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
Apr 09 2011
Optometrists can now prescribe medications for their patients… One-stop care, in this case for eye patients, frees up doctors to see other patients. Ultimately it saves taxpayers from footing the bill for unnecessary medical appointments. That’s a win for everyone… In 2009, the province passed legislation to expand powers for other medical practitioners, including allowing pharmacists to renew or alter prescriptions without calling a doctor’s office; physiotherapists to order X-rays; and nurse practitioners to set a fracture. The government should monitor these changes with a view to taking bolder steps.
Tags: Health, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ever-lower rates: Corporate tax cut doubts
Thursday, April 7th, 2011
Apr 07 2011
Statistics Canada data shows that while Canada’s federal corporate tax rate declined steadily over the past decade — from 28 per cent in 2000 to 16.5 per cent now — companies have not put more money into their businesses. Investment in machinery and equipment has actually declined steadily over the same period, as corporations have saved billions in tax. At the same time, Canadian companies have been adding billions to their cash reserves — $83 billion since 2008. Instead of investing in the technology and equipment we need to improve our lagging productivity, they’ve been stockpiling money.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Shortchanged for decades: Ontario must raise its voice
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Apr 06 2011
… they’ve accepted being shortchanged for decades, on everything from equalization payments to employment insurance benefits, and from money to settle new immigrants to the number of House of Commons seats granted the province. (Ontario was to receive an additional 18 federal seats to help provide some balance, but they haven’t arrived.) … despite a sharp decline in Ontario’s manufacturing sector, heavy job losses, soaring energy costs and a nagging provincial deficit. Ontario is in profound need of assistance. Yet it’s rarely offered a helping hand.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Drug costs shouldn’t impoverish Canadians
Monday, April 4th, 2011
Apr. 03, 2011
It is the one area in Canadian medicare where people can lose their homes to pay for health costs… It would be worth having an objective body such as the Health Council of Canada review the plans (or absence of plans) in each province and territory to determine how severe the shortfalls are, where they are, and how much it would cost to make sure Canadians are protected against disaster. Instead of aiming at a perfect plan for all, this country should set a minimum acceptable level, and ensure that all provinces meet it.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Federal Election: The real issues in this campaign
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar 25 2011
What kind of investment in research and higher education do the parties propose to keep the country competitive for the next generation?… Canada is one of only a handful of developed nations without a national child-care plan… It’s high time to top up the Canada Pension Plan for the elderly poor and strengthen the CPP for younger workers coming up behind… Hospitals and extended care facilities operate in silos, with little communication or shared services. The result is inefficiency, duplicated services and frustrated patients. Where’s the federal leadership?
Tags: budget, child care, Health, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Hunger on the rise
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar 24 2011
Monthly visits to food banks have jumped 28 per cent since the economic downturn in 2008, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. It does none of us any good to have more than 400,000 children, adults and seniors relying on the precarious generosity of strangers for such a basic need. The report notes that “recessions tend to expose the weak links in society.” The last few years have certainly exposed, yet again, the inadequacy of our social safety net.
Tags: Health, housing, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Budget fails nation’s needs
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Mar 23 2011
Instead of seriously addressing the increasingly urgent issue of support for family members caring for infirm parents and spouses at great personal cost, Flaherty proposed a tax credit amounting to a paltry $300 a year… The budget contains much more along the same lines – a grab-bag of targeted goodies and half-measures… But there’s no apparent method at work apart from political calculation… the threatened new cuts are nowhere to be found. Instead, he announced yet another “program review” to find $4 billion a year in additional savings… but the details will remain conveniently unknown
Tags: budget, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Poverty: PM’s policy is to do nothing
Saturday, March 12th, 2011
Mar 12 2011
More than 3 million Canadians live in poverty but it’s not a problem that requires urgent federal action or, really, any new action at all… he Conservatives’ response to the Senate report was to sum up what programs the government already has and confidently state that the best solution is “sustained employment.” … what this government refuses to see is that too many Canadians face barriers to getting those jobs and that it is in everyone’s best interests that Ottawa, working with the provinces, helps change that.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, homelessness, ideology, Indigenous, poverty
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
A government in contempt, no doubt
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Mar. 09, 2011
… it is the idea that the government would ask Canadians and their elected representatives to go blindly into the future that is disturbing. As Mr. Milliken said, it “goes to the heart of the House’s undoubted role in holding the government to account.” If the government is so uncomfortable with its law-and-order agenda that it has to hide the costs, it might as well scrap the program. It is unacceptable that the government needs to be lectured by the Speaker on how to live within the rules of Canadian democracy.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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