Governance Delivery System « Social Policy in Ontario

Archive for the ‘Governance Delivery System’ Category

Beware Ottawa bearing gifts: Classic federalism is back

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

Jan. 17, 2012
The federal government has involved itself in numerous areas of provincial jurisdiction, including health, education and welfare, by using the so-called spending power… on the assumption that the federal government can spend money… for any purpose at all, even if the purpose is a matter of provincial, not federal jurisdiction… Executive federalism… has contributed mightily to the problem by generating so many shared-cost programs… the revival of classical federalism is an essential part of the revival of classical liberalism, with emphasis on smaller government, lower taxes and balanced budgets.

Tags: economy, ideology, tax
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Tax breaks leave gaping hole in federal budget

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Jan 12 2012
Every year Ottawa gives up billions of taxes in deductions, exemptions, deferrals, credits, rebates and concessions. Because no money actually goes out the door, these tax breaks don’t count as spending. But they cost the federal treasury billions… here is the value of all the tax expenditures in the 2011 report, released this week: $152 billion. To put that in perspective, the government’s total program spending in 2011 amounted to $248 billion.

Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Setting the record straight on equalization

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Jan. 11, 2012
McMillan clarifies some common misconceptions and makes a valuable contribution to informed debate about fiscal federalism. The first misconception is that people in equalization-receiving provinces get more public services than in nonrecipient provinces… Using 2008 data… people in recipient and non-recipient provinces receive approximately the same level of services… At the current annual cost of $14 billion, equalization represents about 5.5 per cent of federal spending. This share has remained roughly constant for 35 years…

Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
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Does it matter if our laws are passed illegally?

Friday, December 30th, 2011

Dec. 30, 2011
… if it is going to depart from a process of law-making that an earlier Parliament committed to, it must do so explicitly and repeal the legislation. Canadians should understand that at stake here is not just a technical point of law, but the integrity of parliamentary government… Legal challenges are reportedly under way – which isn’t surprising when you consider we have an act that has been judicially found to have been illegally introduced in Parliament.

Tags: ideology, rights
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What Open StatsCan Can Do for You

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Dec 14, 2011
This February, Statistics Canada will make some of its vast stores of information, including census data and CANSIM, available to the public — not just free of charge, but largely free to do with as the public sees fit… the move is welcome among local government officials. “They see this as part of a positive trend where StatsCan is increasingly seeing their role as facilitating access and use of data by Canadians and by other governments and agencies to make better planning and policy decisions.

Tags: ideology, participation, rights
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Toronto’s rainy day is now

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Dec 12 2011
Mayor Rob Ford’s administration seems in full retreat from its destructive plan to kill school nutrition programs feeding 14,000 hungry children…. Imagine going from “guaranteeing” there would be no service cuts, as Rob Ford did on the election trail, to suggesting that this municipality — quite literally — take food from the mouths of children. Imagine if that was actually allowed to happen. That the largest city, in one of the richest countries in the world, let kids go hungry out of an unwillingness to spend about $380,000 from a $139-million surplus.

Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax, youth
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Union slams ‘absurd choice’ between balanced budget, public services

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Dec. 2, 2011
“The government is making people choose between the deficit and public services and that’s an absurd choice… It’s kind of like asking, ‘Would you like to pay down your mortgage.’ Everybody’s going to say yes. Well then, ‘What about feeding your kids?’” The public-sector unions are preparing for the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as Treasury Board President Tony Clement presses ahead with a government-wide austerity program to rein in a multi-billion-dollar deficit. “… services in communities all across this country are going to be disrupted.”

Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living
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Under this PM, the state is everywhere

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

Nov. 29, 2011
Conservatism, as defined by Ronald Reagan, was about getting government off the backs of the people. Conservatism, as practised by team Harper, is more akin to an Orwellian opposite. State controls are now at a highpoint in our modern history…. The propaganda machine has become mammoth and unrelenting. The parliamentary newspaper The Hill Times recently found there are now no fewer than 1,500 communications staffers on the governing payroll… State surveillance, the rationale being security, is being taken to new levels.

Tags: ideology, participation
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Fixing Ontario’s double democratic deficit

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Nov 14 2011
Whatever your politics, last month’s provincial election results were doubly depressing: Voter-buying, and voter turnout, reached new highs and lows…. if they’re serious about rescuing a democracy that’s dying or, at best, atrophying: Internet voting. Turnouts have been declining steadily, from 68 per cent in 1975 to 49 per cent last month. It’s a warning sign that cries out for action

Tags: participation
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New seats rebalance the House of Commons

Friday, October 28th, 2011

Oct. 27, 2011
New Seats: 30 new seats over four provinces will be added to the House of Commons making a total of 338 seats, including 3 seats in the territories. [Infographic]