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Ontario pressing ahead on affordable housing
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Aug 30 2011
Queen’s Park is pushing ahead with plans to spend $481 million in federal-provincial funds on affordable housing initiatives despite the lack of a joint announcement of the deal… Ottawa and Queen’s Park inked a 50-50 cost-sharing agreement on July 12 to spend the money on new construction, renovation, rent supplements and affordable home ownership programs over the next three years.
Tags: budget, housing
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Politics holding up $481M for affordable housing
Saturday, August 27th, 2011
August 26, 2011
… the agreement between Ottawa and Queen’s Park is formally announced, none of the money earmarked for Ontario can be spent. It means all new construction, rent supplements, renovations and affordable home ownership programs in the province are on hold. Sources say Ottawa is reluctant to sign off on an announcement so close to the provincial election for fear of giving Dalton McGuinty’s governing Liberals a boost… More than 152,000 Ontario households are on affordable housing waiting lists and an estimated 20 per cent of tenants are paying more than 50 per cent of their income on housing, advocates say.
Tags: budget, homelessness, housing
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Unloading city-run daycares, seniors’ homes could be a challenge
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
July 13, 2011
City consultants KPMG have suggested the city unload its child-care centres to help bridge a $774 million budget shortfall next year. Of 932 centres in Toronto, only 55 are run by the city. A 2008 report found the city-run centres provide better service than those run by non-profits or businesses. But they are also “considerably more expensive”… Wednesday’s KPMG report also suggested the city should transfer nine of its 10 long-term care homes… A recent study showed for-profit care is “more likely to produce inferior outcomes,” she noted. “In the end, ownership matters.”
Tags: budget, child care, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Almost 20,000 Toronto tots waiting for child-care subsidies
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
June 28, 2011
A record 19,817 Toronto children are waiting for daycare subsidies while the city scrambles to keep its chronically underfunded system afloat with unused money from all-day kindergarten… The city’s recovering economy, high cost of living and a new generation of young educated women entering the workforce are putting new pressure on the city’s daycare waiting list… “We don’t have a child-care system. We don’t have a plan. We are literally flying by the seat of our pants,”
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Quebec’s child-care scheme pays for itself, economist
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
June 22, 2011
By 2008, about 70,000 more women with young children had entered the workforce who would not otherwise have been working… The increased economic activity, which includes mothers’ income and consumption taxes, more than covered the province’s $1.6 billion annual child-care costs that year… And it poured more than $700 million in additional revenue into federal coffers… If a similar program existed in Ontario, it would send another $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion to Ottawa… “This is why we say the federal government should make a contribution to Ontario and other provinces.”
Tags: budget, child care, economy, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario poverty rate up since last election
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
Jun 17 2011
Almost 300,000 more Ontarians sunk into poverty since the McGuinty government was elected in 2007 on a pledge to fight the problem, according to the latest Statistics Canada income data from 2009 released this week… Despite the 2008 recession that battered Ontario industries, the province’s 13.1 per cent poverty rate was still slightly below the national average of 13.3 per cent, says Ontario’s Social Planning Network. But Ontario’s 17 per cent growth in poverty since 2007 was the highest in the country…
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Outlook is bleak for foster kids ‘aging out’ of the system
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Jun 11 2011
Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario are not funded to provide foster care beyond age 18… Most of Ontario’s 9,000 Crown wards are never adopted. In 2009-10, just 993 were placed in permanent homes. The rest, like Krivickas, enter young adulthood without a “forever” family to provide stability, guidance and support. While roughly half of their peers between the ages of 18 and 24 are still living with their parents, youth “aging out” of foster care don’t have that option.
Tags: rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Liberals pass law to ease adoption of Crown wards
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
Jun 01 2011
Queen’s Park has removed legal barriers that trap most of the province’s 9,000 Crown wards in foster care with no hope of adoption. The legislative change, passed by MPPs unanimously Wednesday, will make more kids in the care of Children’s Aid Societies eligible for adoption, said Children and Youth Minister Laurel Broten… The legal change was among the recommendations of the province’s 2009 Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption, which called on the province to double the number of adoptions of Crown wards within five years.
Tags: featured, ideology, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Penalized for working? Disabled lose 50 cents on every dollar earned
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
May 23 2011
Earning rules and administrative practices are one of the reasons why those who rely on Ontario’s welfare system for the disabled are 11 times more likely to be unemployed than the average Ontarian, says a new report by advocates for the mentally ill… just 11 per cent on the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) are working… The report, “What Stops Us From Working?” calls on Queen’s Park to allow those receiving ODSP to earn up to $300 a month with no clawbacks for one year and to be able to reconcile earnings annually rather than monthly.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, participation, pensions, poverty
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Adoptive parents say province is in dire need of subsidy program
Saturday, May 14th, 2011
May 13, 2011
Currently, adoption subsidies are the responsibility of the province’s 53 children’s aid societies. Since there is no provincial funding earmarked for subsidies, the money comes from general revenues on a case-by-case basis. It means some families in some parts of the province get generous help, while others get nothing… While foster families receive about $18,000 annually per child, the average annual subsidy to adoptive parents last year was just $4,350. Adoption subsidies were one of the key recommendations of the province’s 2009 Expert Panel on Fertility and Adoption.
Tags: budget, child care, disabilities, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
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