Ontario should ditch any plans to further privatize health care. It just doesn’t work — and usually makes matters worse
Friday, August 12th, 2022
First, the government should ditch any plans to further privatize the system… That’s because it benefits not those who need health care, but those who can pay the handsome user fees required by what in effect is two-tier health care. Second, the government would be wise to view this crisis as an opportunity — a chance to rationalize and expand a public system that by and large does work.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Compulsory licensing would allow Ottawa to authorize generic copies of the COVID-19 vaccines
Friday, February 5th, 2021
compulsory licensing would eliminate the need for constant negotiation. The government would make its decision and that would be that. The drug giants would be furious. Pfizer and Moderna might refuse to honour their pledges. They might cut back promised shipments of the vaccine.
But they are doing that anyway. And the government has been unable to use the usual methods of contract compliance to stop them. Compulsory licensing provides government with a workable alternative…
Tags: budget, globalization, Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Why Canada exploits temporary foreign workers
Saturday, June 20th, 2020
As long as free trade rules, farmers will be under pressure to pay their workers less than Canadians are willing to accept. That in turn will lead to more temporary foreign workers… the government is being urged to provide such workers with a path to citizenship that would give them the same rights (and presumably the same wages) as other Canadians… But who then will pick the asparagus?
Tags: economy, globalization, immigration, participation, rights, standard of living
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Neo-liberalism may be another COVID-19 victim
Friday, May 8th, 2020
Overall, neo-liberalism seemed to be working. The developed world got its foreign-made goods at bargain basement prices. The workers of the developing world were usually exploited. But at least they had jobs… Now we have a pandemic that strikes right at the heart of globalization… Global supply chains may work in neo-liberal theory. But in the real world of disease, fear and sharp practices, these supply chains are strikingly vulnerable.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
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COVID-19 creates opportunities for Canada’s centre-left
Sunday, May 3rd, 2020
The Parliamentary Budget Officer predicts that the federal deficit will hit a staggering $252 billion this year thanks largely to a fall-off in tax revenues. Yet few predict fiscal doom. Indeed, many analysts argue that in an economy where the private sector has shut down, more government is needed not less… By comparison, a universal public pharmacare plan would be a bargain. It would cost Ottawa only $20 billion a year… an amount that would be more than offset by savings to individuals and provinces.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Liberal bolstering of social safety net should be more ambitious
Friday, March 20th, 2020
In effect, the Liberal government is reinventing an unemployment insurance scheme that will actually cover the unemployed. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is pitching this as a temporary measure to deal with a short-term emergency. He should be more ambitious… A real unemployment insurance scheme, one that took into account all the jobless, would be a good first step.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Equitable pharmacare deal requires Trudeau to strike deal with wary premiers
Wednesday, December 4th, 2019
Every province operates some form of public drug plan for seniors and the poor. All premiers would be pleased to have Ottawa take on part of that financial burden. But they don’t want to be hosed again, as many feel they were with medicare… That’s why the premiers insist that any national pharmacare scheme must have “adequate and sustained” federal funding.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Canada should enforce its own labour standards
Monday, December 2nd, 2019
Provinces like Ontario let employers avoid labour standards, such as the right to vacation pay, by pretending that their workers are self-employed, independent contractors. Provinces like Ontario have also deliberately not kept their labour laws in sync with the requirements of the new economy – one characterized by franchising, digital employment and part-time work… [They] don’t enforce the labour standards that do exist. Citing budget constraints and an aversion to red tape, they cut back workplace inspections and respond inadequately to real complaints.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
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Trudeau has chance now to be unusually bold
Monday, November 18th, 2019
Trudeau may not be able to get all provinces to agree to, say, a universal pharmacare program. But that doesn’t preclude him from establishing the legislative framework for one… voters didn’t elect Liberals just so they could sit on their hands and apologize for not being from Alberta. They elected them to do something.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
This is the Liberals’ pharmacare plan?
Wednesday, September 25th, 2019
They say they would be “guided by” the recommendations of the Hoskins panel. But they don’t explicitly endorse them. That panel called on Ottawa to move ahead with legislation to create a national, universal pharmacare plan even if not all provinces were onside… Monday’s announcement by Trudeau makes no mention of timelines. Second, the Liberal announcement provides only the scantiest estimates of costs.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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