Is starving Ontario’s hospitals and schools really something to brag about?
Tuesday, March 26th, 2024
In the last five years, the Ministry of Finance has brought in close to 30 measures to reduce its own revenues. All told, those changes drained no less than $7.7 billion from the provincial treasury in 2023-24… The overarching goal is not to use public dollars efficiently, it’s to drive economic activity into the private sector so investors can turn a profit. This is why the current Ontario government has no qualms about privatizing surgeries and diagnostic procedures — even though private procedures can cost more than double what they cost in a public hospital.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, privatization, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Bleeding the patient: tracking five years of Ontario revenue reductions
Sunday, January 28th, 2024
Since 2018, the Ministry of Finance has made close to 30 policy changes that have cut taxes, cut fees, and paid out large sums in the form of tax credits. As the table below shows, those changes are draining a minimum of $7.7 billion from the provincial treasury in 2023-24… it looks like it’s coming out of public services… successive governments have deliberately bled themselves dry and then pled poverty afterward.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Ontario is dead last in program spending—again
Sunday, January 28th, 2024
In 2022, Ontario’s program spending per capita was $3,863 less than the average of the other provinces. This means that for every dollar per person spent on programs in other provinces, Ontario spent 75 cents… there is no evidence—and no one is claiming—that Ontario’s low spending is the result of some magical efficiency in program delivery here. There’s nothing efficient about having too few nurses.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Poverty in the Midst of COVID-19
Friday, February 17th, 2023
The number of children in poverty in Ontario fell from 498,600 to 377,040 between 2019-2020, largely as a result of temporary federal assistance… Ontario is capable of building an effective social safety net and providing children and their families with the economic security they need. The pandemic has shown that governments can do big things much more quickly than we ever thought—if they decide to.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario budget falls flat on funding for public services
Wednesday, May 4th, 2022
Despite all the spending, public services do not seem to be a priority… Normally, health spending must rise by at least 4.5% a year just to maintain services. The budget’s plan for health care is to cut it… Take [federally funded Early Learning & Child Care] out of the education budget and the net result is that, in a time of high inflation, education is almost certainly seeing a cut in real funding per student…
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Budget outlook: $5 billion in annual tax cuts weaken Ontario’s case for federal dollars
Thursday, January 20th, 2022
“In the months ahead, we can expect Premier Ford to ramp up his calls for more federal funding, especially for health care. He is not strengthening his case by giving away $5 billion each year.” … A better approach would be to chart a course to restore provincial revenues through an ambitious program of progressive taxation
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Unchecked inequality is driving child poverty
Sunday, November 28th, 2021
Ontario was richer than ever. Yet we still had half a million children in poverty… Canada’s Big Six banks… made $46.6 billion in profits in 2019. Their CEOs’ salaries averaged more than $11 million… Wealth and poverty sit side by side in every part of Ontario. There is money here, and it’s more than enough to wipe out child poverty — if we decide to… We need to increase transfers, boost parents’ wages, and make life more affordable… Good policy is not enough, though. What we need is political will.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
How to create a paid sick leave plan for Ontario
Thursday, April 22nd, 2021
The goal of any sick leave program is, above all, to allow people who have COVID-19, have been exposed to it, or think they may have it, to stay home and not spread the disease to their co-workers. Nothing else matters… any program must be just as simple and straightforward as the existing sick leave plans 40% of us enjoy… paid sick leave legislation need not be complicated: it has existed before in Ontario, and very recently
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Doug Ford doesn’t believe in government — and that explains a lot
Thursday, January 14th, 2021
… the premier has been trying to bargain with the COVID-19 virus from day one. Do we really need more staff in long-term care? Do we really need to legislate paid sick days so contagious workers can stay home? Do we really need smaller class sizes so students and educators are safer? The answer to these questions is yes, but Ford hasn’t used the full legislative and financial powers of government to fight the virus. At every turn, he’s held back, seemingly always hoping for a better, cheaper deal… In other areas, the government has acted without hesitation…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Raising taxes to build Toronto is not just good — it’s necessary
Tuesday, December 10th, 2019
In recent years, our leaders have tried every trick in the book… to avoid collecting the revenues needed to build the country. They’ve sold off profit-making public assets, giving up long-term revenue streams for one-time capital gains. They’ve embraced public-private partnerships (P3s), paying extra to build infrastructure but hiding the cost off the public books. They’ve taken on more debt.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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