Archive for the ‘Debates’ Category
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The Case for a Mixed Economy
… there’s no reason to think the private sector does these things better than the public. Private insurers don’t obviously provide a service that couldn’t be provided, probably more cheaply, by national health insurance. Private hospitals aren’t obviously either better or more efficient than public. For-profit education is actually a disaster area. So you could imagine an economy in which the bulk of education, health, and social assistance currently in the private sector became public, with most people at least as well off as they are now.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
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WSIB staffers decry chaos caused by ‘broken’ system that’s putting injured workers at risk
Chronic understaffing, long wait times and chaotic case management at Ontario’s workers compensation board are putting vulnerable accident victims at risk, compromising the integrity of the provincial compensation system, and jeopardizing financial accountability, according to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board’s own employees.
Tags: disabilities, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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After GM, we need a plan for the 21st-century workplace
It’s the loss of stable, full-time unionized jobs that is feeding the crisis of inequality… Employment Insurance, for example, is still based on an old model of full-time, permanent jobs… It would mean, in short, designing an entire social eco-system appropriate to an age when life-long, stable employment is a rarity rather than the rule. It would assume that many people, perhaps most, will move among many employers and need both income support and effective training along the way.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
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Ottawa just quietly launched a new kind of capitalism
Buried deep in his speech, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced the Social Finance Fund, a $755-million investment to kickstart Canada’s social-finance market… Social finance fills the wide-open space between business and philanthropy. It challenges the notion that financial profit and social purpose are mutually exclusive by creating new business models and investment vehicles that aim to create a measurable social or environmental benefit while also making a financial return.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
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Bill 47 passes, Ford shows he is NOT for the people
Over 77% of Ontarians — including 64% of Conservative voters — oppose Ford government’s decision to eliminate paid sick days. Over 66% of Ontarians — including 62% of small businesses — support a $15 minimum wage… Over 77% of Ontarians — including 64% of Conservative voters — oppose Ford government’s decision to eliminate paid sick days. Over 66% of Ontarians — including 62% of small businesses — support a $15 minimum wage.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology
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Unpaid caregivers do a lot of heavy lifting – and they deserve more support
Stats Can also reports that 8.1 million Canadians are providing some level of care to a loved one, suggesting that the majority of care, especially of seniors, is being done on an informal basis… A large number of caregivers, 44 per cent, said their loved ones have “aging issues” that require help, but a significant number, 17 per cent, care for someone with dementia, and as many care for someone with a significant physical disability… if caregivers were paid the equivalent of Ontario’s minimum wage ($14 an hour), their economic contributions would range from $26-billion to $72-billion a year.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, Health, mental Health
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Scrapping labour reforms is damaging Ford’s popularity: poll
“Ford needs to do a better job telling workers why getting rid of those measures is a good thing for business and a good thing for workers. He hasn’t done that.” Indeed, 77 per cent of Ontarians oppose the premier’s decision to scrap two paid sick leave days while 17 per cent favoured that and 6 per cent were unsure. About half of those polled — 52 per cent — were opposed to Ford stopping a planned increase of the minimum wage to $15 on Jan. 1.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
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Labour leader says Pay Equity Act should also address income disparity in minorities, disabled
… research shows that visible minorities – the term Statscan uses – earn almost 20 per cent less, on average, than Canadians who are not visible minorities. That gap widens further for women of colour, who earned, on average, 70 per cent of what a man who is not a visible minority earned… research considered factors such as education, experience and hours worked. “After controlling for all characteristics that may drive earning gaps, we still see some gaps that then we can say that’s discrimination”…
Tags: disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, multiculturalism, standard of living, women
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Doug Ford government spins fake news to ditch minimum wage hike
After two years of public consultations, special advisors leading “the largest review of Ontario’s labour laws conducted in decades” concluded in the 400-page Changing Workplaces Review report “that there are too many people in too many workplaces who do not receive their basic rights.” … for business lobbies to now say there has been no input and that Bill 148 is “too much too soon” is disingenuous… In fact, some of the changes… were modified by the business community.”
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
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No sign minimum wage hike was ‘job killer’ Doug Ford says it was
Now that Premier Doug Ford’s government is scrapping nearly every change the Liberals made to the employment laws and freezing the minimum wage until October 2020, it’s time to assess whether the claims that it’s killing jobs and devastating the economy are true. The Ontario Chamber of Commerce predicted (in what it called an independent economic analysis) that the reforms would put 185,000 jobs at risk. The fact is Ontario’s unemployment rate over the past year is as good as it has been this century.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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