Justin Trudeau offers provinces billions of dollars for housing — but with strings attached
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024
… $5 billion — will be tied to provinces promising to meet certain conditions, among them to allow multiplex townhouses and multi-unit apartments…. “It’s off the table for us,” Ford said last month. “We’re going to build homes, single-dwelling homes, townhomes, that’s what we’re focused on.” … The remaining $1 billion of the $6-billion infusion for housing infrastructure is to be directed to municipalities to address “urgent” infrastructure needs that directly create new housing
Tags: budget, economy, featured, housing, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Trudeau government unveils national pharmacare bill
Thursday, February 29th, 2024
Health Minister Mark Holland has unveiled the Liberal government’s plan to kick-start a national pharmacare program, introducing a bill that spells out a single-payer plan to cover prescription drugs and related medical equipment for diabetes and birth control… Holland introduced a short bill in Parliament Thursday that sets out steps to create the broader plan, all of which will depend on provincial governments’ agreement
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, women
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Budget promises lower deficit, but more spending on housing, defence and social programs
Thursday, April 7th, 2022
To increase revenues, the government will introduce a new tax on financial institutions… [and] serves notice on high-income earners… to decide by next year if a wealth tax… is warranted… In addition to outlays for housing and dental care, the budget pegs new spending on climate action at $12.4 billion and more than $8 billion on national defence… [but] it fails to address the crisis in health care and long-term care with meaningful measures and money…
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
New Brunswick gets a $10-a-day daycare deal, leaving Ontario as the lone holdout
Friday, December 10th, 2021
… licensed child care in Ontario remains “startlingly unaffordable” for many families, despite the existence of parental fee subsidies and a refundable tax credit…. economists… recommend… that special care be taken even after a deal is reached to ensure lower-income families are not at a disadvantage when it comes to getting the benefits of the new program… policymakers will need some kind of sliding scale… [and] dramatic expansion of non-profit child care
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Thousands of Canadians died because COVID-19 delayed surgeries, doctors say
Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
Statistics Canada… estimated 19,501 excess deaths in Canada, or 5.3 per cent more deaths than would be expected if there were no pandemic after accounting for changes in the population, such as aging… The report looked at backlogs for eight procedures: breast cancer surgeries, coronary artery bypass graft, CT scans, MRI scans, colectomies, knee replacements, cataract surgery and hip replacements, and found backlogs due to COVID delays ranged from 46 to 118 days.
Tags: featured, Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Supreme Court’s Rosalie Abella prepares to retire as her legacy of defining equality seems built to last
Sunday, March 7th, 2021
Her life’s work has been about defying indifference — to inequality, to discrimination, and to injustice… Her 17-year tenure at the top court has touched on all areas of law. She is a constitutional law and human rights expert, and a fierce defender of the rights of women, people with disabilities, and religious minorities, a judge who frequently cites international law and comparative law in her rulings.
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, ideology, Indigenous, jurisdiction, rights, women
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Insiders say Justin Trudeau doesn’t want an election. He wants to seize the moment and push through bold change
Saturday, August 8th, 2020
… now is the time, with the cost of long-term borrowing so cheap due to historically low interest rates, to address those inequities for the longer term… Premiers may have been willing to put up with aggressive federal moves in areas of their jurisdiction during the emergency and restart phase of the pandemic, but it’s hard to see that lasting.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Justin Trudeau says he’ll seek 10 days of paid sick leave for all workers
Tuesday, May 26th, 2020
Right now there is a patchwork of sick-leave provisions across the country. All provinces require workers have access to unpaid sick days, but only Quebec and Prince Edward Island require paid sick leave. Ontario stipulates three days of unpaid sick leave, while paid sick leave is a decision between employers and their employees, companies and unions… Ottawa “can’t impose” paid sick leave on provinces or employers, but it “can come to the table with money and that would make a difference.”
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
COVID-19 has exposed ugly failings of our politics. Here’s how Ottawa can build on the lessons of the pandemic
Saturday, May 9th, 2020
COVID-19. It has proved that the Employment Insurance system is out of step with today’s workforce. It has stirred questions about globalization and whether international supply networks are truly a virtue in times of desperate need. It has spurred plodding bureaucracies, known for their cautious approach to issues, into impossibly speedy policy decisions to rush aid to Canadians. And it’s left Canadians with a deficit hangover… the pandemic has laid bare problems and blown up old ways of doing things.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, Health, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Don’t adopt U.S.-style drug laws, groups warn Conservative government
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012
Feb 22 2012
As the Conservatives’ massive crime bill nears its final stages of parliamentary approval, a Canadian group of judges, lawyers, and policy advisers has emerged to urge a “smarter” approach to tackling crime. Calling itself the “Smarter Justice Network,” the group publicly stepped forward on a day that a similar but unrelated American group released an open letter urging the Canadian government to avoid mandatory jail terms for drug crimes that have been a “costly failure” in the United States.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, featured, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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