Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category
Dare we broach the subject of higher taxes?
Thursday, July 30th, 2020
Current interest rates are so low that… with long-term bonds, debt-servicing costs will remain manageable for decades to come… When the economy is back on its feet, taxes are something Canadians are going to have to talk about. Canadians can have a future of stronger health care, better education, less poverty, less inequality and more opportunity. These are good things, but they’re not free. They’re going to have to be paid for.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Solidarity after the Pandemic: Basic Income or Basic Services?
Monday, July 27th, 2020
A move towards meaningful universal basic services is no small task. Canadians are ready. Only 12 per cent of us think we will return to our pre-pandemic way of life. As Nik Nanos has put it, the old status quo of consumerism and individualism is dead… Instead of going “back to normal”, leaders can enable greater health and resilience for all by investing in national basic services to strengthen our social infrastructure.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, Health, housing, ideology, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Austerity wasn’t the right path before the pandemic, and it can’t be the road chosen after it
Sunday, July 26th, 2020
The need to shrink government, and by implication social programs, will be pitched as inevitable math and unarguable morality… because Canadians think they have no other options, it will be a missed opportunity, and a great mistake… Canada needs more of some things that only government can do. And it needs these not to end the free market, but to bolster its best qualities by ameliorating its worst.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Alternative Federal Budget Recovery Plan
Thursday, July 23rd, 2020
Among the key issues in the AFB Recovery Plan requiring immediate action: implement universal public child care so people can get back to work, reform employment insurance, strengthen safeguards for public health, decarbonize the economy, and tackle the gender, racial, and income inequality that COVID-19 has further exposed.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, Health, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
A new social contract requires new programs and higher taxation
Tuesday, July 21st, 2020
We devote a relatively low share of GDP to social expenditure: Canada spends 17.3 per cent, whereas the 10-country comparator group spent on average 25.5 per cent… Canada has a low-social-expenditure/low-tax social contract. So, there is lots of room to raise taxes to get better services… Let us ensure that this truth is part of the conversation as we write a new social contract.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Canadians crave a reason to hope
Monday, July 20th, 2020
The problem is no one is really articulating a future-oriented vision these days… Such a vision ought to be bold, ambitious, and inclusive. It should aim to inspire… “for the future to have power over the present, it has to be different than the past.” It’s time for our political leaders to set out a better and different future. Canadians are ready to follow them there.
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Decriminalization of drugs in Canada demands bold leadership — now
Thursday, July 16th, 2020
… the most compelling case for ending the war on drugs, which is really a war on people, who are often the most marginalized and disproportionately Black and Indigenous. Add to this the overwhelming scientific evidence of the many harms arising from the criminalization of simple possession, the long-standing recommendations from many public health and harm reduction experts, the unanimous recommendation of UN agencies, and now the agreement of police chiefs across the country…
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ontario Provides Additional Funding to Support Municipalities and Urban Indigenous Community Partners
Friday, July 3rd, 2020
Municipalities and urban Indigenous community partners will be able to use this funding for long-term, innovative housing solutions resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak. They can renovate shelters or purchase new facilities that will help with physical distancing in the short term and support longer-term, more sustainable solutions to homelessness… to provide vulnerable people with food, shelter and supplies.
Tags: budget, Health, homelessness, housing, Indigenous, poverty
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
It took a disaster for Doug Ford to abandon Mike Harris’s destructive legacy
Saturday, June 27th, 2020
Never mind the rhetoric about cutting red tape, slashing taxes, unplugging photo radar, downsizing government and downloading welfare, its underpinning is simply this: Politics shall henceforth be transactional. Not transformational. Ask not what you can do for your country or province. Ask what your government can do for you to keep more money in your pocket… But it took the COVID-19 crisis to truly unravel that revolution — at least for now.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | 1 Comment »
It’s time for proper police oversight
Monday, June 22nd, 2020
In the area of police budgets and staffing levels, municipalities are supposed to call the shots, but that is not what happens. Defund the police? In Canada, it is more a case of trying to rein in salary increases… There will be no meaningful reform unless politicians and police boards fulfil their oversight responsibilities, including legislative changes at the provincial level.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, featured, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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