« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
What kind of health system does Ontario want?
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Jul. 07, 2011
Do we want the system in which administrative power is centralized in the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care in Toronto? Or do we want a highly decentralized system in which regional authorities have real power? …Planning and management should not be dirty words. And those who want to lead the government should articulate their vision of how that system should be run. “Scrap LHINs” is not a vision; it’s a cop-out.
Tags: budget, Health, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Passage on an urban graveyard train
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011
Aug. 02, 2011
Paradoxically, those who believe that market forces should be the sole determinants of public policy, or those whose priorities are business and the economy, are among those who blunt our economic advantage… (when) service cuts – which diminish our quality of life – become the target. And there goes our competitive economic advantage… Most residents are not opposed to taxes in order to preserve the services citizens need and expect in a civil society. These also happen to be the services that attract investment, provide physical and social connectivity, and ensure environmental sustainability.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Norway shows we must expose dangerous fictions
Monday, August 1st, 2011
Jul. 30, 2011
There’s nothing wrong with criticizing immigration, even urging that it be stopped completely. Or with condemning “multiculturalism,” however it’s defined, or with arguing that religion, even specific religions, is bad for society. Those are important topics in a democratic society… But these writers have created a larger fiction, one with dangerous implications… they conclude with a millenarian message of impending societal takeover, in which the demographic and cultural fictions are combined into an urgent warning that, unless an unspecified something is done, we’ll all be under “their” command.
Tags: ideology, immigration, multiculturalism, participation
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
A broken vow, and wasteful excess, on business subsidies
Monday, August 1st, 2011
Aug. 01, 2011
…the Conservatives cut the corporate tax rate from 22.5 per cent to 16.5 per cent, with a further reduction to 15 per cent slated for next year. Business subsidies weren’t cut. Instead, they soared… the regional development agencies… will hand out more than $1-billion this year, with a chunk of that money going to businesses that could, and probably should, be getting the money from their local banker… If Canada had a budget surplus and there weren’t other more crying needs, maybe the spending wouldn’t seem so glaringly wasteful.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Hospitals, judges at odds over how to handle mentally ill
Saturday, July 30th, 2011
Jul. 29, 2011
…lawyers for the mentally ill argue that CAMH frequently does not come through on its promises, meaning that judicial orders are thwarted… “You could solve the bed shortage for people with mental disorders caught up in the justice system for less than it costs to pave a small stretch of unused highway,” said lawyer Frank Addario. “But the government has no interest. The mentally disordered are like untouchables.”
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, mental Health, rights
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
America’s fiscal mess offers long-term opportunities for Canada
Friday, July 29th, 2011
Jul. 29, 2011
In the longer term, the U.S. fiscal mess offers Canada opportunities to improve its comparative position – but only if Canada invests in the minds of its people and its competitive infrastructure… an extra dollar spent on education and research will be a dollar well spent, in comparative and competitive terms, provided the teachers and professors don’t grab most of the new spending. An extra dollar spent, say, on even more health care will do nothing for Canada comparatively or competitively.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
‘Do you have running water? I don’t and I live in Canada’
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Jul. 28, 2011
For the past decade, Ottawa has consistently opposed recognizing the right to water and sanitation. The Harper government voted to abstain when the General Assembly vote took place, and then argued (incorrectly) that the resolution is not binding… with an enforceable obligation, the government would likely face extensive liability with respect to the terrible drinking water and sanitation conditions in so many first nations communities. There are at least 49 “high risk” aboriginal communities in Canada with little access to clean water and more than 100 facing “boil water” advisories
Tags: Health, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Food bank fight
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Jul. 27, 2011
We’re actually fighting the same fight, looking for solutions to the same problems and educating people about the complex issues around poverty in Canada. Yet the idea that a non-profit by its very existence must be covering up the problem that it seeks to solve is ridiculous. In any event, it is hardly a battle one would want to have on the backs of those who are going hungry. Even close to three years after the recession, we still have over a million visits to food banks across the GTA. They cannot be fed by ideology and hyperbole.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
With government spending, virtue hath its own rewards
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Jul. 25, 2011
…the Lausanne-based IMD Business School’s World Competitiveness Report… puts average government spending in the world’s 58 most developed countries at 47 per cent of GDP and says the 23 biggest state spenders are all European countries. From this perspective, the very concept of limited government – from which many of our blessings flow – looks quaintly anachronistic… Canadian governments spend less than 40 per cent of GDP. By WCR assessment, Canada is the seventh most competitive nation on Earth.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
My doctor threatened to fire me for going to a walk-in clinic. Why?
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Jul. 24, 2011
The reason has nothing to do with concerns over the quality of medical care your son received at the walk-in clinic. It simply comes down to money. When you go to a walk-in clinic, instead of a hospital emergency department, your doctor gets financially dinged for it. If that clinic billed Ontario for an intermediate assessment done on your son, for example, your doctor would lose $33.10 from his so-called access bonus because he’s in a family health network; or in a family health organization or on a blended salary model.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Recent Comments