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Harper and McGuinty should look to Sir John A. on debt
Saturday, April 14th, 2012
April 12, 2012
… the temptation when public finances are bad is to think small. Let’s cut a little here, trim back our vision there, and eventually things will be okay. But Confederation provides a stirring example of why thinking big is exactly what we need to do in the face of public debt… Now is not the time for a new National Policy, per se. .. But our current financial challenges should be viewed as an opportunity to think that big.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization
Posted in History | No Comments »
Harper’s disregard for aboriginal health
Saturday, April 14th, 2012
Apr. 09, 2012
The abysmal health status of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples is Canada’s greatest shame… There’s a disturbing pattern here. The government has also cut funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. And the First Nations and Inuit Health branch at Health Canada oversees what is without question the worst health system in Canada, making every effort to slough the responsibility off onto the provinces and territories… “The Conservatives want out of the aboriginal business.”
Tags: budget, Health, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Punishing the rich with extra taxes not an answer to inequity
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Apr. 12, 2012
… the day may come when it’s necessary to pay more tax – for everyone, not just $500,000-plus earners, who already pay at the highest marginal rate, making for high individual contributions. An extra two per cent is a form of punishment for success… Public hospital or university boards do need to show restraint and due diligence at the top – the top needs to be a model for the entire organization. The logic of restraint, applied fairly to all, is the most sensible policy, before any talk of raising taxes.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
For those with intellectual disabilities, a decades-long wait for a home and care
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Apr. 10, 2012
… the quest to find a home and services starts early and can last decades – something that becomes more pressing as parents age and their ability to physically and financially support their adult children fades… The housing crisis follows the closure over the years of institutions that cared for them from cradle to grave… That has left parents across the country caring for their aging intellectually disabled children with the daunting realities of trying to cobble together housing and care-giving, not to mention an enormous price tag that is only partly offset by government… 73 per cent of working-age adults with an intellectual disability who live on their own live in poverty.
Tags: disabilities, housing, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Health Canada should not have closed National Aboriginal Health Organization
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Apr. 09, 2012
… NAHO has played a crucial role in advancing research on aboriginal health, collecting and analyzing data, and leading community initiatives, such as programs to help people quit smoking, prevent suicide and avoid teen pregnancy… Aboriginals face unique challenges that seriously impact their health… The closure of NAHO will… leave a gaping hole for those who are most in need.
Tags: budget, Health, Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Canadians open to tax hikes to create more equal society, poll finds
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Apr. 10, 2012
… talk of raising taxes has been considered political suicide for more than a decade. But the survey commissioned by the Broadbent Institute suggests that most Canadians would not be opposed to paying a little more to preserve social programs and prevent the poor from falling even further behind… More than three-quarters of the respondents (77 per cent) said they viewed the gap between the very rich and the rest of Canadians to be a serious problem with long-term negative consequences for society… a clear majority of Conservative voters (59 per cent) also felt that way.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
All’s not lost, Ontario. The future is green, not black
Monday, April 9th, 2012
Apr. 07, 2012
The province has one of the planet’s densest concentrations of institutions of higher education. If effectively employed, it could help Ontario pivot to confront the global economy’s long-term trends. The most important of these trends is a multi-decade shift from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy… The shift to carbon-free energy will be akin to what economists call a “general purpose technology” transition… It will spur the invention and delivery of a torrent of new technologies, goods and services in every sector of the global economy… Ontario can be in the vanguard of one of the biggest technological revolutions humanity will ever experience. The future is green, not black.
Tags: economy, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
The wrong answer to aboriginal overincarceration
Friday, April 6th, 2012
Apr. 05, 2012
Handing young aboriginal men and women a stay-out-of-jail card in cases of serious violence is a mistaken answer to the problem of overincarceration of aboriginal people in Canada. It puts one wrong in place of another… There is no doubt that the overrepresentation of aboriginal people in provincial and federal jails is a calamity for the country, for aboriginals and for the individuals behind bars… In the Louie case, having an aboriginal mother protected him from being held fully accountable for committing a violent crime.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Superior Court stops destruction of Quebec’s long-gun registry data
Friday, April 6th, 2012
Apr. 05, 2012
Superior Court Judge Jean-François de Grandpré sided with the Quebec government and ordered Ottawa to not only temporarily safeguard the data but to allow the province the right to access the information contained in the registry. The ruling also requires that all new non-restricted firearms such as rifles and shotguns continue to be registered in the province. The order issued on Thursday took effect immediately, just hours before the bill abolishing the gun registry was given royal assent. The interim ruling will be enforced for a week, until further motions for an injunction can be argued next week.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, rights, women
Posted in Child & Family Debates | 1 Comment »
When emotion prevails over cold, hard science in public policy
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Dec. 02, 2011
Should we be crafting policy and spending money on the basis of exceptionalism? But how do we begin to answer that question when there’s no public consensus on the exact point where the general good is no longer served by the benefits to a few?… Exceptionalism is at the root of many public-policy issues where emotion, self-interest and personal experience conflict with the more dispassionate, evidence-based approach of science. And with good reason: The individual story changes everything in how we relate to a prickly policy issue
Tags: budget, Health, rights
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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