Archive for the ‘Child & Family’ Category
… How Ontario is failing kids who are ‘too complex’ for care
Thursday, October 3rd, 2024
Last-resort placements are painting a picture of a situation where Ontario’s most vulnerable children are the least likely to get help… The costs of these emergency placements can range upward from $200,000 annually per child… Often, the children are getting no treatment… Increasingly, child welfare leaders say unlicensed spaces are being used as last-resort measures because there are no treatment or residential placement options for these children
Tags: budget, child care, mental Health, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 2 Comments »
Ontario’s closure of youth detention facilities has not resulted in more support for young people
Sunday, September 29th, 2024
The move to shift youth in the justice system away from confinement and towards community is a positive one. However, without investment in community-based service providers to support youth being transitioned out of custodial settings, it is unlikely that youth will thrive. Such failures are likely to increase acute mental health crises and demands on ambulatory care within general medicine and psychiatric hospitals… [and] increase the number of youth who will come into conflict with the criminal legal system as adults.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, jurisdiction, poverty, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario reduces child-care fees, introduces new operator funding formula
Sunday, August 18th, 2024
The new funding structure, which will come into effect January 1, also comes with an announcement that as of the same day the fees parents pay will be further reduced. They have already come down about 50 per cent to an average of $23 a day and next year will fall to an average of $19, and capped at $22. Those will be cut further to an average of $10 a day by March 2026, a date pushed back from an earlier pledge of September 2025.
Tags: budget, child care, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Paramedics treating patients’ palliative needs at home benefits everyone
Monday, August 12th, 2024
… paramedics, with some extra training, can provide patient-centred care in the homes of people living with cancer and other life-limiting conditions. It is intended to make patients as comfortable as possible as they spend their last days at home, which is where most Canadians say they’d prefer to die… evidence clearly shows that enabling paramedics to provide home-based palliative care when appropriate creates a substantial benefit for everyone involved — classic win-win-win for patients, health-care providers and health-care systems.
Tags: disabilities, Health, jurisdiction, Seniors
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Take it from a retired judge, Premier Ford — here’s what you don’t get about our judicial system
Wednesday, August 7th, 2024
Every case needs to be judged on its own facts and circumstances. Every accused person has a right (not a privilege) to be heard. I believe the key truth you are missing, Premier, is the cornerstone of our system — the presumption of innocence… They are innocent until the moment a judge or jury is satisfied that the state has proven their guilt. Would you change that?
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Is the cap on for-profit centres hampering growth of $10-a-day child care in Ontario?
Wednesday, July 10th, 2024
In the deal with the federal government, Ontario committed… to maintaining a ratio in the $10-a-day system of 70 per cent non-profit spaces and 30 per cent for-profit spaces… while there have been about 51,000 new spaces since 2019 for the kids five and under… only 25,500 of those are within the $10-a-day system… Ontario needs to address its own funding formula and workforce issues before seeking to expand for-profit daycares.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario expanding jails by several hundred beds to deal with overflowing institutions
Tuesday, June 11th, 2024
As of September 30, 2023, there was an average of 8,889 people in provincial jails, well over the 7,848-person capacity. Overall, the jails were operating at 113 per cent capacity at that time. Premier Doug Ford pledged in March to build more jails to deal with an influx of inmates, the vast majority of whom are innocent and awaiting trial. Ontario will reopen two intermittent detention centres inside Toronto and London jails that had been closed in order to add up to 430 beds by 2026.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Seniors’ Care Surge will require Smart Policies
Tuesday, April 9th, 2024
Among the key recommendations: (i) provinces should invest in public home and community care while also considering mechanisms to expand the private provision of these services; (ii) Ontario and other provinces should consider providing a refundable tax credit for senior renters to access retirement homes and supportive services and; (iii) current capacity and fiscal constraints mean that expanding both publicly and privately funded options will be necessary.
Tags: budget, disabilities, housing, Seniors, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Justin Trudeau announces national school food program amid rising grocery prices
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024
Canada is the only G7 nation without a national school food program, and ranks 37th out of 41 of the world’s wealthiest countries when it comes to providing healthy food for children… one of the reasons for that was the lack of a national school food program… “We’ll finally be able to level the playing field”… the government plans to work with provinces, territories and Indigenous groups to expand existing programs, some of which are funded by under-resourced organizations.
Tags: child care, Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Pierre Poilievre’s proposed mandatory minimum penalties will not reduce crime
Tuesday, March 5th, 2024
… with MMPs [mandatory minimum penalties], Parliament removes judicial discretion for any sentencing option other than imprisonment and imposes a minimum term of incarceration, regardless of the facts of the case… The evidence shows that MMPs are ineffective at reducing crime, may actually increase recidivism, are highly vulnerable to being struck down by the courts as unconstitutional, can increase delays in an overburdened system, and perpetuate systemic racism.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
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