Archive for the ‘Inclusion Debates’ Category
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Unseen housing plan
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
April 20, 2010
the Ontario Housing Network, a coalition of housing and anti-poverty groups, went to Queen’s Park on Monday to urge the government to produce a bold plan that includes: sustained funding to maintain the affordable housing we already have; a strategy to increase the supply of housing that is actually affordable for those in need; and transparent accounting of how the money is spent and what it achieves.
Tags: housing, standard of living
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A tale of two reports [on housing]
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
April 13, 2010
According to the analysis, “overall Canadians have a less than 1 in 10 chance of experiencing affordability challenges for long periods,” and that “the good news is that unaffordability is a short-term phenomenon for many Canadians.” The report says that “on one level the solutions to unaffordability are simple: raise incomes or reduce shelter costs.” The point about raising incomes is a good one.
Tags: homelessness, housing
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Disabled leave the shadows and their mark
Friday, April 9th, 2010
March 15, 200
Bit by bit, the message is getting out. “Our issues have gone mainstream,” says Lepofsky. “Queen’s Park politicians have started thinking of voters with disabilities. The fact that disability issues really have to be included in policy strategy proves that.”… “There’s a sea change in acknowledging disabilities,” says Melanie Panitch, director of Ryerson’s school of disability studies. “We’re seeing activism through broad-based groups and coalitions looking at poverty.”… [but] “We’re stalled for lack of federal leadership,” says Marcia Rioux, head of York University’s school of critical disability studies… “During the good times, when the economy was strong, we should have got further. There’s no trickle-down for people with disabilities.”
Tags: disabilities
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Ottawa short-changing Ontario immigrant programs: province
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Apr 07 2010
The federal Conservative government has short-changed Ontario at least $193 million in promised money for immigrant settlement programs, the provincial government says. Ottawa agreed in 2005 to transfer $920 million over five years in new immigration funding to Ontario, ending March 31.
Tags: immigration
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Here’s what you can do with an old school
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
April 6, 2010
As the Toronto District School Board faces dozens of school closures in the coming years from falling enrolment, some have warned of a fire sale of public schools into private hands. But old schools often just switch from one public body to another, notes Shirley Hoy, executive director of the Toronto Lands Corporation… “People think we’re selling schools on the private market, but more often we’re negotiating with public partners for community use”
Tags: standard of living
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Canada at 150: The Social Agenda
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
March 30, 2010
This paper is the text of the speech delivered at the Canada@150 Conference held in Montréal on March 26-28, 2010. The country will face three main social challenges in future: Canada as productive society, Canada as caring society and Canada as aging society. From a social perspective, the productive society focuses on a learning agenda and on measures to reduce poverty and assist the unemployed.
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Tories earn mixed grades at best from disabled
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Mar 24 2010
Harper’s hands-off approach to social issues rules out the kind of federal-provincial programs used by the Liberals to tackle disability issues. The Conservatives rely primarily on the tax system. That’s fine for those who pay taxes and can afford to set aside money. But millions of Canadians with disabilities don’t.
Tags: disabilities
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Milestone reached, but still so far to go
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
Mar 20 2010
After years of hard work by advocates, last week Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (www.un.org/disabilities). That means all communities should be open to everyone no matter how they move, communicate or process information… Theoretically, all these rights already have been mandatory for a long time under both federal and provincial human rights codes. In practice, respecting the rights of people with disabilities is still a hit-and-miss affair.
Tags: disabilities
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Tories cut funding for library Internet access
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
Mar. 15, 2010
Organizations that benefit from Industry Canada’s 16-year-old Community Access Program began receiving letters last week informing them that sites located within 25 kilometres of a public library would no longer be eligible for cash… Organizations that have used the program include employment and youth drop-in centres, English-as-a-second-language programs, libraries, and seniors groups.
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Our home and native – and adopted – land [diversity]
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Mar 14 2010
Race, religion, colour and ethnicity have always defined some parts of our multiple identities (aboriginals, Catholics, Chinese, Germans, etc.). Similarly, there have always been two Canadas – urban and rural. What is different today is that most non-whites live in cities. But why should that be of greater concern than, say, the Ukrainians and Poles tilling the Prairies in earlier generations? The lament about “two Canadas” in the context of colour is misguided. Ditto the worry over “ethnic ghettoes.” Do we have “white ghettoes”?
Tags: immigration, multiculturalism
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