The Ford government gets it wrong on drugs
Wednesday, September 4th, 2024
… on what basis has the government concluded that these sites are doing more to aggravate than to mitigate the drug crisis? On what basis has it concluded that public use is more likely to fall and public safety to rise as these sites close? What, other than the political mood or the premier’s oft-stated personal distaste, led it to this decision? The answers to these questions are not apparent either in the government’s announcement or in the available evidence.
Tags: crime prevention, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Cutting ER wait times? There’s an app for that
Saturday, March 30th, 2024
One prescription for improving the health of the urgent care sector: AI and virtual emergency departments are cutting wait times in the real ones… Researchers programmed AI into an app to determine which patients are most urgently in need of care… [plus] online emergency department bookings… with a list of criteria to determine if their condition allows for a short wait before receiving care… [and the use of] data points to boost staff at more demanding times.
Tags: mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Under Doug Ford, Ontario’s tribunals are under severe attack
Thursday, March 21st, 2024
When Premier Doug Ford announced he wanted to appoint “like-minded” judges, critics were quick to condemn the assault on judicial independence. In contrast, a similar assault on the independence of adjudicative tribunals has flown almost entirely under the radar… In fact, connections to the Ford government or the federal Conservatives seems a much more valuable asset than experience or expertise.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
The crisis hitting small-town Ontario
Saturday, February 24th, 2024
Communities across the province are grappling with overdoses and appealing for more resources to deal with the crisis… According to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, the opioid death rate is three times higher in northern than southern Ontario… While we often hear complaints about the lack of sufficient treatment and harm reduction facilities in large cities like Toronto, smaller communities are lucky if they have any at all.
Tags: crime prevention, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Why the surge in medically assisted deaths?
Tuesday, February 6th, 2024
… assisted deaths in Canada grew by an average of 31.1 per cent each year between 2019 and 2022… of those who received MAID in 2022, 17 per cent cited loneliness or isolation as one cause of their suffering… Since people with mental illness are at high risk of homelessness, this could exacerbate the difficulty they have in accessing critical health services, including those of a palliative nature.
Tags: Health, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
The risks of ending safer supply drugs programs
Sunday, January 28th, 2024
21 of 24 federally funded safer supply programs are in jeopardy, as their contracts will expire in March. And with just two months until then, the feds have given no indication that they’ll renew their commitment to any of them. Ottawa’s silence on the matter is all the more disturbing given the recent, dramatic increase in overdose deaths — and the mounting evidence in support of safer supply.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Swelling CEO salaries highlight income inequality
Monday, January 22nd, 2024
The average worker received an average wage increase of three per cent in 2022 while prices rose by more than twice that amount… The financial disconnect between CEOs and the employees who work for them underscores broader issues of income inequality and affordability. We need quality research and robust debate on how to address income inequality and stagnating wages for those not privileged to work in the c-suites.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ontario has an accessibility crisis. It’s time Queen’s Park acted with urgency
Thursday, January 4th, 2024
First, avoid gathering any data that might indicate the scope of the problem, as well as how to solve it. Second, don’t put anyone in charge of remedying the problem. Finally, avoid employing any enforcement mechanism, so no one’s ever held responsible for failing to do anything. That… is precisely what the province has been doing for the past 17 years. The review, which is mandated by the act, found that more than three quarters of the province’s 2.9 million people with disabilities (PWD) reported negative experiences.
Tags: disabilities, featured, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Toronto is getting a fourth emergency service. That’s vital for helping people in crisis
Wednesday, November 29th, 2023
The service, which offers a non-police, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises… will soon cover the entire city… Police are, after all, not trained mental health professionals, and police involvement has all too often ended in tragedy. In contrast, 93 per cent of the crisis calls were successfully completed, and 95 per cent of people served by crisis teams said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service.
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, homelessness, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s colleges and universities are strapped for cash. A panel has wisely proposed a fix
Thursday, November 23rd, 2023
… salary and benefit costs in Ontario’s universities are, per full-time equivalent student, among the lowest of any province. And as the report said, all organizations that made submissions “emphasized the value of post-secondary education in creating and maintaining a highly qualified and relevant talent pipeline in Ontario.” As has become obvious, the government’s lack of vision on this file does not just fail a sector. It fails the future.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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