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When it comes to election promises on housing, it’s the details that matter
Monday, August 30th, 2021
The pledges with a far greater chance of creating positive change are the ones that push municipalities to make better and faster planning decisions to increase housing supply, and target federal funding to create housing that’s affordable for lower earners — a niche the market will never fill… Ottawa usually works through the provinces, but it’s welcome to see federal leaders contemplating a more direct relationship with cities.
Tags: budget, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Liberals and NDP both have solid plans for child care. The Conservatives do not
Saturday, August 21st, 2021
O’Toole says his plan provides “flexibility” so parents can choose whatever child care they want and offers “extra support to those who need it most.” … A tax credit helps with affordability, certainly — if a family can find a child-care space in their area and if they can afford to pay the rest of the cost. It will not help create the hundreds of thousands of new spaces that are needed across the country to expand access to everyone who wants it. It will not bring down the high costs. And it will not boost wages for child-care workers, key to attracting the workforce to expand and stabilize the system.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario should sign on to Ottawa’s $10-a-day child care plan
Thursday, August 12th, 2021
When Ford’s PC government came to power in 2018 it killed the Wynne Liberals’ plan to provide free licensed care for preschool children in Ontario. When Stephen Harper’s Conservatives came to power in 2006 they killed a national child-care program proposed by Paul Martin’s Liberal government — even though all provinces had signed on. So it’s very concerning to hear O’Toole talk about wanting to kill the Trudeau program and replace it with more “flexible” options. In other words, not an actual child-care system at all.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario is ducking the biggest thing that would keep students safe this fall: mandatory vaccination
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials Aug. 4, 2021. By Star Editorial Board It’s safe to say that no education minister in the history of Ontario has ever learned more about school ventilation systems than Stephen Lecce. On Wednesday the minister spoke in great detail about all the money that’s being spent to ensure the highest quality filters are […]
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights, youth
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
If employers can’t find workers, they should stop complaining and start offering better jobs
Sunday, August 1st, 2021
The pandemic provided some unexpected benefits.
It freed workers from soul-crushing commutes. People found more time to prepare healthy meals, to get more exercise. They spent less on clothing and styling and worked harder to explore and support local businesses… Perhaps that is what the workforce is doing, imagining a better way to live. Rather than casting insults and wishing for the old normal, perhaps business should do some reimagining, too, about improving an economic model that left most people too stressed to live well and struggling to make ends meet.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Those who care about math education for all should focus on results, not rhetoric about colonialism
Tuesday, July 20th, 2021
To the government’s credit, it took a big step in that direction vowing to end streaming in Grade 9 — making young teenagers choose between “academic” and “applied” tracks in high school. There are stacks of evidence that this has had a disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous and poor students, limiting their opportunities for the future… The real test will be if the government follows through and makes sure the intent in that paragraph is translated into action and results.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
A global minimum corporate tax is an important step toward fairness
Monday, June 7th, 2021
The whole idea of a minimum global tax is to prevent multinationals from tax-shopping, so it will be effective only to the extent that many countries agree to it. The next step is to get the bigger G20 group on board, and then there’s the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation… the biggest companies that have flourished during the pandemic, should pay their share.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
With big bonuses, Air Canada gives us all a $10-million slap in the face
Friday, June 4th, 2021
The airline disclosed… that it gave the bonuses last December to executives and managers “for exceptional performance” over the past year as air travel plunged during the pandemic… What surely leaves Canadians flabbergasted and furious is that this is not one firm making one bad decision… Freeland should… find a way to withhold public funding for Air Canada until the airline rescinds bonuses that stand as a $10-million insult to the country.
Tags: budget, ideology, privatization
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
All in this together? Greedy CEOs and corporations abuse our trust
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021
… many top Canadian CEOs saw their compensation soar in pandemic year 2020… Companies that got CEWS money when they didn’t really need it may well have followed the rules as they were written. But the government shouldn’t simply ignore abuse. It should call out companies, especially big ones, that violated the spirit of the program. It should see if any of those millions that went to companies that didn’t need them can be recovered. And it should tighten the rules for the remainder of the life of the program.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The Ford government has landed on the wrong fix for long-term care — again
Wednesday, April 28th, 2021
There are compelling reasons — beyond just reducing the dangers of spreading COVID — to limit the practice of long-term-care homes relying on a revolving-door workforce of part-time staff with few benefits and temporary agency workers with too little training… it will always be hard to attract workers, and harder still to keep them, until the government truly takes steps to improve working conditions.
Tags: Health, housing, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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