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Canada’s culture of excellence in education
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Jan 26 2011
the OECD… praises Canada for its positive approach to immigration that is evident in narrow achievement gaps between students from different social backgrounds…. The province is praised for its urgent focus on measurable improvement in literacy and numeracy; its ability to set a clear plan and sign up key stakeholders to commit to it, including teachers; its sophisticated use of achievement data to pinpoint problems
Tags: globalization, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Big spending is not the road to eHealth
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Jan. 25, 2011
Governments are often tempted to be extravagant in capital spending, in the hope that continuing annual expenditures can be reduced… Eventually, eHealth will work well in most hospitals and most countries, but throwing too much money at it invites trouble. Patience is a virtue.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Family support: Help grandma help the kids
Sunday, January 23rd, 2011
Jan 21 2011.
For the second time in less than a year a tribunal has ordered the provincial government to reinstate a $240 monthly benefit that helps grandparents raise their needy grandchildren. But… Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur is content to simply urge others to follow in their tortured footsteps. “The appeal process is in place for people to access when they disagree with an eligibility decision,” says her spokeswoman. Sure, they can get a lawyer and head off to Ontario’s Social Benefits Tribunal, but why should they? This is not how government programs should be applied.
Tags: budget, ideology, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Expanding prisons: Getting it right on crime
Monday, January 17th, 2011
Jan 16 2011
Building more jails is a waste of money. We need a fundamental rethink on how to rehabilitate prisoners — not just punish them. Locking up more and more people doesn’t make the public safer. Typical rhetoric from the liberal “soft on crime” crowd? Think again. Newt Gingrich, one of the foremost paladins of the U.S. conservative movement… he best-known leader of Right on Crime, a new conservative group that is blowing the whistle on the idea that more prisons, more prisoners and more money poured into punishment is the way to keep people safe.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Why the Irish aren’t impressed
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Jan. 12, 2011
This week, the Irish Times newspaper published a large report on Canada’s growing healthcare crisis. In a piece entitled “Another health system coming apart at the seams,” the Times describes the “bursting” waiting room at Montreal’s Royal Victoria Hospital… Apart from North Korea, Canada is the only country that prohibits health-care services covered by its public system to be also provided by the private market.
Tags: Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
No real ‘choice’ on child care
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Choice? What choice is there for parents on waiting lists for a government subsidy so they can afford regulated daycare? The waiting list in Toronto alone is nearly 18,000 children long…. Governments from Ottawa on down have refused to accept responsibility. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government killed a promising national child-care program, replacing it with $100-a-month cheques that don’t produce new daycare spots or enable parents to afford existing ones. He, too, said he was giving parents “choice.”
Tags: child care, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Medical access still the key to stopping suicide
Monday, January 10th, 2011
Jan. 09, 2011
… the most effective, long-term way to lower high suicide rates is to make sure that people at risk have sustained access to medical treatment… Being Métis, Inuit or First Nations is not an inherent risk factor for suicide. But early childhood experiences, including exposure to violence, abuse and neglect, are. People who try to end their own lives are suffering from extreme mental distress, and need help… This month, Nunavut’s government must act on its promise to implement a long-awaited suicide prevention program. Health Canada must support these efforts…
Tags: Health, Indigenous, mental Health, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Subsidizing separatism [subsidies to federal political parties]
Sunday, January 9th, 2011
Jan. 8, 2011
There are many problems with Canada’s system of public, taxpayer-funded subsidies to federal political parties. The three biggest are: (1) The payments subsidize incumbency…; (2) they force taxpayers to subsidize parties and ideologies with which they disagree…; and (3) they make parties lazy by permitting them to rely on easy dollars from the public treasury, rather than having to go out and earn their donations through the creation of attractive platforms.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Mental health: Early intervention is key
Sunday, January 2nd, 2011
Jan 02 2011
Police, judges, emergency room doctors and even elementary school teachers are daily faced with the troubling consequences of Ontarians struggling with untreated mental illnesses… the province’s expert advisory panel has recommended a revamp of Ontario’s mental health and addiction services with a focus on early intervention. That is exactly what countless other reports and heartbreaking coroners’ inquests have already concluded. Ontario’s services are so scarce and hard to navigate that appropriate help often doesn’t come until it is too late
Tags: budget, crime prevention, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Federal transfers: New ideas for an old debate
Tuesday, December 28th, 2010
Dec 28 2010
The current Conservative government has promised not to cut transfers, but it has sent out strong signals that future increases will be tied to the inflation rate. For the provinces, this effectively means a cut in real terms, as the costs of providing universal health care are rising faster than inflation, due to new technologies and drugs and an aging population… some are proposing a different approach, under which Ottawa would transfer not cash but taxing authority to the provinces — specifically, the GST.
Tags: budget, economy, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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