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Where are the Early Childhood Educators?

Monday, June 26th, 2023

Instead of creating more spaces that may end up unfilled, provincial governments need to prioritize funding on ECE attraction and retention. They need to raise wages, encourage career pathways for ECEs, and fast-track foreign credential recognition. They also need to improve working conditions and offer comprehensive work benefits.

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Roadmap For Reform Can Save Canadian Healthcare: A General Consensus View

Friday, June 16th, 2023

[The] authors… present a Roadmap that addresses the fundamental questions of why previous attempts at reform have failed, and offers solutions to design a more effective reform process… The Roadmap lays out a comprehensive 13-step plan, covering both the short and long terms that take us to the destination of better health for more Canadians with better access to high-quality healthcare:

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Better Health Depends on Better Health Data

Friday, May 26th, 2023

… governments should adopt the guiding principle that patients’ entire records should be available, not just to health providers, but to the patients themselves. Not only is this consistent with Supreme Court decisions and the principles of good ethics, but there is growing evidence it improves participation and trust in the system.

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Better for Workers, Better for All? Assessing a Portable Health Benefits Plan in Ontario

Friday, March 3rd, 2023

Millions of workers in Ontario have no access to supplemental health and dental benefits that reimburse most costs for prescription drugs, dental, vision and mental health services… One solution is a portable health benefits (PHB) plan that allows a worker to maintain coverage while moving from job to job… This commentary explores the purpose, structure and feasibility of a portable health and dental benefits plan in Ontario.

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Steps to a First Class Canadian Health Information System

Saturday, February 11th, 2023

1st… all parties benefit from better data… 2nd… identify the current data shortcomings… a collaborative task between levels of government… 3rd, the federal government should agree to pay for the incremental costs of the new system… 4th… with StatsCan, CIHI, and others, senior levels of government should establish protocols for the analysis and distribution of the improved health information… [and] 5th, some issues will need Canada-wide policy development

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Covid Vaccine Campaigns Saved $Billions In Damages

Thursday, December 15th, 2022

“Overall, our analysis shows vaccines were highly effective at reducing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths – estimates suggest 21 percent fewer cases, 37 percent fewer hospitalizations and 34,900 fewer deaths (from January 2021 to May 2022),”

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Let’s Fix Bill C-228 Before It’s Too Late

Monday, December 12th, 2022

Bill C-228 will affect that delicate balance by impeding access to capital in a way that will not foster expansion of cost-efficient plans, like defined benefit plans. It won’t fortify pension security or even maintain current levels of future benefit accrual.  This is a terrible bill. It will not strengthen our pension system. It will weaken it.

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 Ottawa Should Soften Bite Of Benefit Clawbacks For Low-Income Families

Wednesday, November 30th, 2022

… the “participation” tax rate (PTR)… is the cumulative effect of all taxes and loss of fiscal benefits on the entire prospective earnings from work. For a stay-at-home parent, it represents the financial penalty paid out of the total income derived from getting a job… The paper recommends the federal government: Implement “benefit shields”… Allow income averaging… [and] Replace the federal childcare expense tax deduction with a refundable credit

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Correcting Course: Employment Insurance Needs a Redesign to Counter Recessions and Achieve Equity

Tuesday, October 11th, 2022

As a primary pillar of Canada’s social safety net, Employment Insurance (EI)… has also gone off track from its original main goal: to provide insurance against unpredictable job losses… The authors make three main policy recommendations: (i) Implement uniform or more universal entrance requirements. (ii) Sharply reduce the number of EI regions. (iii) Improve the responsiveness of the benefit duration formula to labour market downturns and recoveries.

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EI Needs A Redesign To Be Recession-Ready

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

… Gray and Busby… propose implementing uniform or more universal entrance requirements across Canada… variations in the length of benefit entitlement periods would be driven by changes in unemployment rates instead of levels in given regions… [and that] the number of regions be sharply reduced… these changes may require a small increase to EI premiums.

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