Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category
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COVID-19’s impact on women investigated by Canadian government
Sunday, May 24th, 2020
The pandemic has revealed the importance of essential services… that’s what we’re learning — that childcare is an essential service, and so is drugs, dental and vision. It shouldn’t be tied to whoever your employer is… Boosting spending power will be essential to the economic recovery, and one way to do that for women whose marginal service- and retail-sector jobs have disappeared is for government to take over paying for and providing essential services…
Tags: child care, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, women
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Power will flow to a post-pandemic Ottawa
Sunday, May 24th, 2020
… if you are a near-bankrupt borrower, as several Canadian provinces and cities will soon be, you cannot demand money from the printing press owner without it coming with strings attached. For the first time since the Depression and the following war, Ottawa will be propelled into a much more powerful policy decision-making role, as a result of this shift in power dynamics, in ways that will seriously test the old boundaries of Canadian federalism.
Tags: budget, economy, jurisdiction, standard of living
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Liberals should take a cue from Mulroney, not Chrétien
Wednesday, May 20th, 2020
Mulroney could have adopted the approach that Chrétien took, slashing transfer payments to the provinces and eliminating the deficit entirely. But he judged it to be irresponsible and not worthy of a prime minister in our federal system. So he didn’t… The free trade agreement with the United States had been signed, the GST and deregulation put in place and privatization begun.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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There’s no such thing as a non-partisan recovery plan. Deal with it
Saturday, May 16th, 2020
… it’s worth being honest about COVID-19 recovery efforts: Trudeau’s plans are going to be different from Ford’s because they believe very different things… If you were a small-government conservative before the pandemic, Trudeau’s response will upset you; if you were a socialist before Ontario’s first coronavirus case, I regret to inform you that Doug Ford will not be leading the people in glorious revolution… conservative premiers will have enormous power to shape and constrain the federal response.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
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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
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COVID-19 creates opportunities for Canada’s centre-left
Sunday, May 3rd, 2020
The Parliamentary Budget Officer predicts that the federal deficit will hit a staggering $252 billion this year thanks largely to a fall-off in tax revenues. Yet few predict fiscal doom. Indeed, many analysts argue that in an economy where the private sector has shut down, more government is needed not less… By comparison, a universal public pharmacare plan would be a bargain. It would cost Ottawa only $20 billion a year… an amount that would be more than offset by savings to individuals and provinces.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
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We can see the way out of the coronavirus pandemic, but the steps to get there will be slow
Monday, April 20th, 2020
There is no easy option… We can tough it out at home, or we can tough it out at work. We can live a little less free, or a lot. We can lose thousands of lives, or tens of thousands; endure slow growth, or a depression. Those are the real choices before us. Either way, it will take months, at least, before we can declare victory.
Tags: economy, Health, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
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Why Canada’s emergency response benefit rollout might be a mistake
Thursday, April 9th, 2020
As the Trudeau government scrambles to include one forgotten group after another in the wage-support program, the argument for shifting to a universal basic income grows more compelling… But [the Prime Minister sidestepped repeated questions… as to why the government hadn’t opted for a guaranteed basic income instead of a program that is constantly in need of fixes… the debate over a guaranteed basic income could become a major issue in the next election.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation
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Many fear COVID-19 will cause social breakdown. But something quite different is happening
Saturday, April 4th, 2020
We are witnessing an extraordinary surge of solidarity. Suddenly the notion that the economy exists to serve people and not the other way around seems blazingly obvious. Suddenly the notion that we can accomplish more collectively than we could ever accomplish alone is beyond debate… The pandemic is not bringing about a world of crumbled institutions and adversarial individualism; that’s the world we seemed to be heading toward before the virus started its terrible work… Just look how governments and experts and we together are mobilizing.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, participation
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We can’t just pick up the pieces after the pandemic subsides – we need to keep them together
Monday, March 30th, 2020
… All governments are being affected by dramatic losses in revenues, but, as with a virus, the impact is not universally the same. Some economies are more robust than others. These issues cannot be allowed to fester. They will need to be addressed. So too the continuing inequalities affecting Indigenous people and communities as well as the homeless and others deeply marginalized now stare us in the face…
Tags: economy, globalization, Health, homelessness, ideology, Indigenous, participation
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