Archive for the ‘Governance’ Category

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Is starving Ontario’s hospitals and schools really something to brag about?

Tuesday, March 26th, 2024

In the last five years, the Ministry of Finance has brought in close to 30 measures to reduce its own revenues. All told, those changes drained no less than $7.7 billion from the provincial treasury in 2023-24… The overarching goal is not to use public dollars efficiently, it’s to drive economic activity into the private sector so investors can turn a profit. This is why the current Ontario government has no qualms about privatizing surgeries and diagnostic procedures — even though private procedures can cost more than double what they cost in a public hospital.

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Under Doug Ford, Ontario’s tribunals are under severe attack

Thursday, March 21st, 2024

When Premier Doug Ford announced he wanted to appoint “like-minded” judges, critics were quick to condemn the assault on judicial independence. In contrast, a similar assault on the independence of adjudicative tribunals has flown almost entirely under the radar… In fact, connections to the Ford government or the federal Conservatives seems a much more valuable asset than experience or expertise.

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So, what expenditures should Canada cut to meet its NATO obligations?

Thursday, March 21st, 2024

About a quarter of all spending is transferred directly to Canadians, either through elderly benefits (Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement), Employment Insurance benefits and the Canada Child Benefit… Another 20 per cent of Ottawa’s spending is transferred directly to the provincial governments… Equalization payments account for about $24-billion… Interest payments on the debt account for another $47-billion… while Ottawa’s total spending is $500-billion, only $96-billion in operating spending is discretionary

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Canadians could have a balanced budget and better tax system: C.D. Howe Institute Shadow Budget

Tuesday, February 27th, 2024

Beyond reducing the debt burden to a level that is prudent and more fair to younger Canadians, the authors advocate tax changes to reward work and investment… The Shadow Budget proposes restoring the GST to 7 percent over time, lowering the rate for the middle personal income tax bracket to 15 percent in 2027, and lowering the general corporate income tax rate by one percentage point in 2025 and another in 2026.

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The crisis hitting small-town Ontario

Saturday, February 24th, 2024

Communities across the province are grappling with overdoses and appealing for more resources to deal with the crisis… According to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, the opioid death rate is three times higher in northern than southern Ontario… While we often hear complaints about the lack of sufficient treatment and harm reduction facilities in large cities like Toronto, smaller communities are lucky if they have any at all.

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For Ed Broadbent, socialism meant providing for average people — and fighting for the cause

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

For Ed, democratic socialism meant waging a constant battle against the inequality-producing tendencies of the market. It meant institutions that were democratically accountable shaping markets to serve the needs of people not private interests… The right to affordable housing and dental care, for example… ought to be guaranteed rights of citizenship. Being rights, not privileges, they should be available to everyone

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Bleeding the patient: tracking five years of Ontario revenue reductions

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

Since 2018, the Ministry of Finance has made close to 30 policy changes that have cut taxes, cut fees, and paid out large sums in the form of tax credits. As the table below shows, those changes are draining a minimum of $7.7 billion from the provincial treasury in 2023-24… it looks like it’s coming out of public services… successive governments have deliberately bled themselves dry and then pled poverty afterward.

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Ontario is dead last in program spending—again

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

In 2022, Ontario’s program spending per capita was $3,863 less than the average of the other provinces. This means that for every dollar per person spent on programs in other provinces, Ontario spent 75 cents… there is no evidence—and no one is claiming—that Ontario’s low spending is the result of some magical efficiency in program delivery here. There’s nothing efficient about having too few nurses.

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Surrendering to the provinces doesn’t bring peace to the federation. It only emboldens them

Wednesday, January 10th, 2024

The thesis… that peace with the provinces is the highest aim of federal policy, and that the way to achieve it is to give them everything they want – or at least to never give them any offence – is a recipe for national paralysis. There are issues on which federal leadership is essential… how we got here [is] not because the federal government has been too hard on the provinces, but because it has been altogether too indulgent of them.

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Seeking common ground at the Thanksgiving table

Friday, October 6th, 2023

We need to understand that the anger that folks are feeling… is based on real issues – even if the target of that anger is, to put it charitably, misplaced. That misdirection is often fed by politicians, capitalists, and the well-funded propagandists whose job is to keep the working majority squabbling amongst ourselves… we also have a responsibility to try to move the needle a little bit towards justice.

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