Archive for the ‘Governance Debates’ Category

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Alternative Federal Budget 2024 – Building Momentum: A budget for now and the future

Monday, August 28th, 2023

The AFB will tax extreme wealth by introducing a progressive wealth tax… restore the corporate income tax rate… to 20 per cent… [and] implement a windfall profits tax… Canadians really can have nice things – if we make our tax system more progressive and make smart investments in public services, income supports, and social and physical infrastructure.

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COVID-19 response should highlight what went right in Canada

Thursday, August 10th, 2023

TheStar.com – Opinion/ Contributors August 10, 2023.   By Kwame McKenzie, Contributor I am concerned that while we focus on relitigating the past we will allow useful, effective pandemic innovations to wither and die. Over 53,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Canada, with more every day. It has been a traumatic time and we have just […]

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Are the Tories actually underspending? Here’s what the numbers say 

Saturday, August 5th, 2023

… the Ontario government is already dealing with criticism on multiple fronts from political constituencies with demands that are hardly unreasonable: things like keeping hospital ERs open or adequately funding forest-fire suppression in the worst fire season in Canada’s recorded history or keeping the province’s largest city from falling into a budgetary black hole. These aren’t extravagances — they’re the normal things people expect from government.

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Why Ontario is in court (again) fighting to save Bill 124

Monday, June 26th, 2023

While managing the government’s spending is obviously an important function of government, Koehnen said in his decision that it can’t be used as an excuse to ride roughshod over the guarantees in the Charter: “While it might be appropriate to infringe on a Charter right when faced with a serious fiscal challenge, it is not appropriate to do so as part of the day-to-day management of government affairs.”

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The Ford government is bad at budgeting — or it isn’t being straight with Ontarians

Thursday, June 15th, 2023

… it misled everyone and projected a deficit and smaller future surpluses so it could starve programs, limit new spending, and divert that future money elsewhere to big tax cuts, corporate giveaways (hello, Stellantis), pre-election voter inducements, or paying down the debt… it boils down to this: the government is either incompetent or dishonest. We don’t have enough information to draw a firm conclusion either way.

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Biden breaks taboo on taxing wealthy, showing Trudeau how to do it

Thursday, March 23rd, 2023

… their wealth is largely held in corporate stock and, unless they sell stock and trigger a capital gain, no income tax applies. The wealthy are a formidable interest group who play an enormous — although largely hidden — role in shaping the political agenda. Still, they’d have more trouble keeping a wealth tax off the agenda if our progressive politicians embraced the idea with the same gusto as the broad Canadian public.

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We can’t fight authoritarianism without understanding populism’s allure

Monday, March 20th, 2023

… democracy only works when it is safeguarded by a robust system of checks and balances, masses of engaged citizens and an independent judiciary. Every populist who promises to destroy the government to save it is lying for personal gain. It’s as simple as that… the fate of democracy depends on the passion of the people to defend it from its enemies. But today, the people’s passion is in the grips of hard-right populists.

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Ontario: Brutal under-funding punishes health and education

Friday, March 3rd, 2023

What’s happening in health care, education, and other services tells a story of a government that simply refuses to invest in the services Ontarians need… The current crisis in Ontario health care stems not only from the pandemic, but also from bad public policy… coupled with tax cuts that have been implemented, it results in a shrinking public sector and weakened public services. That opens the door to increased private profit-making off of the public services that Ontarians hold dear.

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Laugh at the farcical scandals of John Tory and Doug Ford but the joke’s on the powerless

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

… for-profit nursing homes had four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes… Ontario announced funding for new nursing home beds in 2022…  adding 200 new police won’t decrease wait times for police to respond to calls. It doesn’t support the idea that more police equals less crime, either. But data shows reducing poverty can reduce crime… The proposed 2023 budget cuts $4.3 million from jobs and social services. 

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Ontario needs to invest in the non-profit business model for health and social services

Wednesday, February 8th, 2023

In Canada, we have a long tradition of non-profits working in partnership with governments to build community infrastructure and provide services. But for the past 20 years, for-profit corporations have been taking over these services and the results have been disastrously poor, including short cuts in service provision and understaffing… Accessibility is top-of mind as service provision is based on community needs, regardless of ability to pay or complexity of care.

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