Archive for the ‘Child & Family’ Category

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Ontario expands emergency child care to include families of grocery-store workers, truck drivers

Thursday, April 30th, 2020

“While our front-line workers are looking after us, we need to make sure we’re looking after them and their families,” Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday… The workers now to be covered also include those employed in meat packing and other food supply businesses, members of the armed forces, truck drivers, cooks and cleaning staff in health-care facilities and nursing homes, and on-site staff in Ontario’s courts.

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Canada set to ban assault-style weapons, including AR-15 and the gun used in Polytechnique massacre

Thursday, April 30th, 2020

Ottawa is set to ban a number of assault-style firearms and weapons involved in mass shootings in Canada and abroad, including the Ruger Mini-14 that was used during the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre, federal officials say… The banning of firearms can be done by a decision of cabinet called an order-in-council and does not require the adoption of new legislation. There is no exact definition of a military-style firearm, which means the government’s decision is based on science as well as political choices.

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Close your eyes and imagine what a best-in-class LTC system looks like… then build it

Saturday, April 25th, 2020

It has fewer and larger LTC facilities. We have too many now… a proper ratio of personal support workers (PSWs) to residents, as with regulated daycare centres… Each resident of the new LTC system has his or her own room, with a personal washroom… PSWs are prohibited from working in multiple locations. That widespread practice, rooted in PSWs’ low pay, is believed to have caused much of the COVID-19 spread.

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Canada’s senior-care crisis has been long in the works

Thursday, April 16th, 2020

As a country, we need to rethink how we approach long-term care from top to bottom. And we don’t have a lot of time to do it. A 2017 Conference Board study estimated that, to meet demand, Canada needs to nearly double the number of long-term care beds available to about 450,000 by 2035. We can’t afford to do it on the cheap.

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Doug Ford didn’t protect long-term-care facilities from COVID-19. Neither did the rest of us

Thursday, April 16th, 2020

We could and should hold the current government to account — for falling behind the rest of Canada on testing, for lagging on nursing-home care, for fobbing off responsibility on to public health officials. But there is enough blame to go around — for politicians past and present, public servants and the public… Our premier has put his best face forward in recent weeks, but he still has much to answer for.

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COVID-19 has exposed decades of elder neglect. Here’s how we can start to fix it

Thursday, April 16th, 2020

it is painfully obvious that we, as citizens, failed to speak up for Canada’s seniors at budget time, election -time, indeed most of the time. But in midcrisis, the imperative is to fix what we can and to vow not to let the long-term sector fall off the radar screen again, when this pandemic has passed.

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Ontario must stop the spread of COVID-19 in long-term-care homes

Tuesday, April 14th, 2020

Personal support workers, who provide the bulk of the daily care in long-term-care homes, are badly underpaid and overworked on normal days, let alone in the midst of a pandemic. And the way the system has been allowed to operate means these workers are often held to part-time hours, forcing them to cobble together jobs at multiple homes just to make a living. Ontario cannot afford to let this go on any longer.

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Seniors’ care shouldn’t be a horror show, even when the pandemic is over

Sunday, April 12th, 2020

Both B.C. and Alberta have banned health care staff from working at multiple institutions, a common practice that allows the coronavirus to spread quickly. This should be a permanent policy, not a temporary one. There is no lack of work in nursing homes and long-term care. In fact, there are dire personnel shortages. But many employers refuse to offer full-time work so they can avoid paying benefits… who wants to put their life on the line for fifteen bucks an hour, no benefits – and no PPE?

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Ontario bans fees for daycares closed during COVID-19 shutdown

Saturday, April 11th, 2020

The province is now “temporarily preventing child-care centres from collecting payments from parents, while also ensuring that their child-care spaces are protected… We need to support our parents who may be facing reduced income or layoffs during the COVID-19 outbreak.” The province said the order “immediately prevents any child-care operator from charging parent fees where care is not being provided,” exempting those that recently opened to provide care for the kids of front-line workers.

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Province opening 50,000 free, 24-hour, child care spaces for essential workers

Monday, March 23rd, 2020

Ontario is partnering with municipalities and First Nations to open as many as 50,000 child care spaces for essential workers across the province in centres that will be free and available 24-7… All licensed child care centres in the province were ordered closed last Tuesday to help slow the spread of COVID-19… Free, 24-7 child care for children up to age 12 is unprecedented

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