Long-term care operators call on Ontario government to address severe staffing shortage
Sunday, September 20th, 2020
Doris Grinspun, chief executive officer of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, is so frustrated with the government’s lack of action, she announced on July 31 that she will not reopen the VIANurse program if the province is hit with a second wave of the virus… “Nursing home residents deserve permanent solutions… We are done with Band-Aid solutions.” … The B.C. government unveiled a new program last week that will train up to 7,000 people to work as health care aides in long-term care homes. The government will pay the tuition costs.
Tags: disabilities, Health, housing, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario to fully fund nursing homes despite lower occupancies
Wednesday, June 24th, 2020
Restricting admissions to single- and double-occupancy rooms will exacerbate a chronic shortage of long-term care beds in Ontario… the government’s ban on new admissions to ward rooms will eliminate 4,303 beds, representing 5.5 per cent of the province’s total… those who no longer need acute care but have nowhere else to go, reached a historic high of 5,300 as of Monday.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, housing, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Premiers collaborate to tackle new heath-care assignment
Friday, June 1st, 2012
May. 30, 2012
Canada’s premiers are joining forces to reform the delivery of health-care services, in a bid to rein in ballooning costs and better meet the needs of an aging population. The initiative marks the first time the country’s provincial and territorial leaders are collaborating on a pan-Canadian health-care strategy. It comes in the wake of the federal government’s no-strings funding formula for health care, one that leaves it up to the provinces to shape social policy.
Tags: budget, Health, mental Health, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario hospital-funding changes to favour growing communities
Sunday, April 1st, 2012
Mar. 18, 2012
The Ontario government is doing away with the global hospital budgets that for decades have allocated funding evenly across the board… Health Based Allocation Model, or HBAM for short, will divert more money to hospitals in regions where the population is growing and aging and where health-care costs are often higher. Hospitals will also be in line for additional money, based on how effectively they treat patients… The pay packets of hospital executives are now linked to their progress in meeting quality-of-care targets…
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | 2 Comments »
Pathways to Education expanding with $28.5-million from Ontario
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Jun. 27, 2011
An inner-city education program that is achieving marked success in lowering the dropout rate for disadvantaged high-school students is expanding to new communities with the help of a fresh infusion of government funding. Pathways to Education Canada will receive $28.5-million over three years from the Ontario government to help more students in low-income communities graduate from high school and go on to college, university or a trade.
Tags: participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario must get with the times on transparency, watchdog says
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Jun. 21, 2011
“People want information on what their government is doing, they want it to be easy to find and understand, and they want it now,” he said… Mr. Marin has been urging the McGuinty government for several years to open up the so-called MUSH sector – municipalities, universities, school boards and hospitals – to scrutiny… In his sixth annual report, Mr. Marin is going one step further by asking the government to make information available without the public having to ask for it.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ontario backtracks on offering one-stop daycare, kindergarten
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
Dec. 15, 2010
A cornerstone of the government’s full-day kindergarten program was that schools were to become one-stop centres for child care and education. Boards were to be solely responsible for all aspects of educating the child, including providing before- and after-school care. But under proposed legislation the government plans to introduce next year, boards would have the option to allow daycare operators to provide before- and after-school programs.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Needs of aging Canadians creating ER bottlenecks
Monday, December 6th, 2010
Dec. 06, 2010
Emergency departments are the entry point for most patients, making them the most visible example of the problem all provinces are struggling with – rising health-care costs that already eat up about 40 cents of every dollar spent on social programs. At the root of the problem, according to experts and those familiar with parts of the auditor’s report, is an acute shortage of community-based care for aging Canadians. This bottleneck, which has been building for more than a decade, leaves too many patients occupying beds long after they should be discharged.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Provinces brace for health-care transfer-payment showdown with Ottawa
Monday, November 8th, 2010
Nov. 08, 2010
Provincial officials worry about the signals from Prime Minister Stephen Harper: his government appears in no hurry to confront the competing pressures of rising budgets and an aging population that could further accelerate costs. So far, the only public statement on the prospects for a new health-funding deal is a suggestion from the Finance Minister of applying the brakes to spending increases… “This is not a debate about transfers to the provinces,” Mr. Duncan said in an interview. “This is a debate about the future of universal health care.”
Tags: budget, Health, ideology
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Arbitrator nixes Ontario’s plans for wage freezes
Friday, September 17th, 2010
Sep. 17, 2010
Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has urged Ontario’s one million public sector workers to take a two-year wage freeze to help restore the province’s financial health and protect its vital social services. But an arbitration case has called those restraint measures into question. In a binding ruling released Thursday, arbitrator Norm Jesin awarded 17,000 workers in long-term care homes a 2-per-cent wage increase for this year. Labour leaders say the award could affect the outcome of talks for hundreds of thousands of workers in other sectors, including hospitals, public schools and universities.
Tags: budget, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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