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Ontario retaining right to veto sale of public housing
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Apr 20 2011
The Liberal government’s new housing legislation requires all municipalities to have affordable housing plans with goals and timetables. And it gives municipalities more flexibility to meet those goals. But advocates said the law, introduced last December as part of the McGuinty government’s long-awaited affordable housing strategy, when too far when it eliminated the requirement of provincial consent for selling housing… The province’s decision to retain ministerial consent may thwart Ootes’ decision earlier this month to sell 22 single-family homes owned by the housing company.
Tags: homelessness, housing, ideology, poverty, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | 1 Comment »
After-school programs should be non-profit, critics say
Monday, April 11th, 2011
April 8, 2011
“Our government remains committed to ensuring parents have access to affordable, high-quality and on-site before- and after-school care for their children”… Queen’s Park had originally mandated school boards to provide the service by 2012 in schools where at least 15 families request it. But the government backed down last December after a massive lobbying effort from daycares, which feared losing business, and from school boards, which didn’t want the complications of implementing and operating the programs.
Tags: child care, ideology, participation, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
400,000 rely on food banks each month in Ontario
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar 22 2011
Food bank use has grown by an unprecedented 28 per cent since the recession in 2008, making Ontario the third highest user of food bank services in Canada behind Newfoundland and Manitoba… Single adults on welfare… now make up the largest group of food bank users, according to the report, entitled “Running on Empty: A Decade of Hunger in Ontario.” Single adults account for 38 per cent of users, up from just 26 per cent in 2002, says the report which is based on statistics collected in March last year.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Liberals urged to ‘put food in the budget’
Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Mar 10 2011
Back in 1995, the opposition Liberals scorned the Mike Harris government’s so-called “welfare diet,” which purported to show that a single person on social assistance could eat for $90 a month. Today that meagre Tory shopping list — which included pasta but no sauce and bread but no butter — costs $48 more. And yet since the Liberals took office in 2003, a single able-bodied person on welfare gets just $29 more in their monthly cheque for food. “It’s no wonder food bank use in Ontario is soaring,”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Lack of child care costing Canada: report
Monday, March 7th, 2011
March 6, 2011
The YWCA’s report — called Educated, Employed and Equal: The economic prosperity case for national child care — notes the number of women employed in Canada more than doubled between 1976 and 2009, to more than 7.7 million… Volumes of research show that quality child care helps children become lifelong learners, supports the social needs of families and is a powerful tool in reducing child poverty, the report says. It can also help drive the economy. A recent Canadian study on the cost-benefit of public investment in quality child care shows a return of $2.54 for every dollar invested.
Tags: child care, ideology, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Ontario child care facing uncertain future
Sunday, February 13th, 2011
February 11, 2011
Parents, educators and children’s advocates praise Premier Dalton McGuinty’s plan to phase in all-day kindergarten and after-school programs by 2015. And they welcome the premier’s promise to reinvest the daycare money from 4-and 5-year-olds into care for younger children. But they say the reinvestment isn’t happening fast enough. “Child-care programs across the province are in crisis… Premier McGuinty said he would free up spaces in child care and actually make it more affordable… But subsidy waiting lists are growing and centres say they are losing spaces and may be forced to close.”
Tags: budget, child care, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Welfare rules forcing people into destitution, report finds
Monday, December 13th, 2010
Dec. 13, 2010
It is tougher to get welfare in Canada today than during the economic downturn of the early 1990s, the National Council of Welfare says in its latest report. That’s because Ontario and most other provinces force people to drain their bank accounts and spend all of their savings before they qualify for help, says the report, released in Ottawa Monday. As a result, it is almost impossible for those living on welfare to get back on their feet, says the council, created by Ottawa in 1969 to advise the minister of human resources on poverty in Canada.
Tags: featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | 3 Comments »
Rich countries let poorest children fall behind
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Dec 02 2010
The report, entitled, “The Children Left Behind,” looked at inequality in child well-being by measuring the gap between the average child and the most disadvantaged children in three aspects of their lives — material well-being, educational achievement and physical health. Canada ranks average overall, but scores a dismal 17th place in the area of children’s material well-being, which includes family income and housing, the report found. Since all data were collected before the 2008 recession, child inequality has likely grown across the OECD, it warns.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Rich countries let poorest children fall behind
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Dec 02 2010
The report, entitled, “The Children Left Behind,” looked at inequality in child well-being by measuring the gap between the average child and the most disadvantaged children in three aspects of their lives — material well-being, educational achievement and physical health. Canada ranks average overall, but scores a dismal 17th place in the area of children’s material well-being, which includes family income and housing, the report found. Since all data were collected before the 2008 recession, child inequality has likely grown across the OECD, it warns.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Governor General urges Ontario to act on adoption and infertility
Friday, December 3rd, 2010
Dec 02 2010
In 2008, the McGuinty Liberals asked Johnston to head the Expert Panel on Infertility and Adoption, as part of an election promise. The panel’s August 2009 report “Raising Expectations” recommended Ontario become the best jurisdiction in the world in which to have a family, the Governor General said. To do that, the report called for an overhaul of the province’s adoption bureaucracy, which currently allows thousands of Crown wards to languish in foster care while several thousand families wait years to adopt.
Tags: child care, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
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