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Ottawa, native leaders commit to sweeping overhaul of reserve life
Thursday, June 9th, 2011
Jun. 09, 2011
Ottawa and first nations leaders, who historically have been antagonists more often than partners, will create panels with three major mandates: to put sound education programs in place in native schools, to eliminate obstacles to creating jobs for on-reserve Indians, and to improve the governance of reserves. They will also continue negotiating land-claim and self-government agreements… The reforms will focus on status Indians living on reserve, as opposed to off-reserve and other aboriginal communities.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Yes, we must pay attention to judges’ values
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Jun. 08, 2011
Merit has often been interpreted to mean that judges should follow the law, not make it. Few today in the Charter age maintain such a stark and unrealistic stance… when we select judges, we should pay attention to their values, not try to ignore them. Pretending to do otherwise is not only a mistake but also a fraud on democracy and the Canadian people. If adjudication is about values and ideals, then we owe it to ourselves to inquire into the values and ideals of those who are or about to be judges.
Tags: ideology, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
The election of our discontent
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Jun. 07, 2011
… the survey found public confidence to be decreasing in governments’ ability to improve economic productivity, reform health care, deal with climate change and handle moral issues… these findings suggest it’s Canadians’ conception of the most appropriate role for government that’s changing – with more citizens now seeing government as an enabler, facilitator and security backstop rather than as a prime mover, “vision” achiever or provider of grand solutions to big problems.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Forget what Tories say, Ottawa has structural deficit
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
June 7, 2011
… the federal government is running a structural deficit that will not go away on its own when the economy fully recovers from the recession… the beginning of the federal government’s slide into deficit in early 2008 coincides with the cut in the GST rate from 6 per cent to 5 per cent… the Conservatives inherited a structural balance of approximately zero when they came to power in 2006: the structural surplus of the Chrétien years had been distributed to the provinces when the Martin government increased the Canada Health Transfer.
Tags: budget, economy, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
For $41-billion, Canadians deserve a straight answer
Monday, June 6th, 2011
Jun. 02, 2011
Ottawa needs to be able to hold the provinces to measurable improvements in key areas – easing emergency-room delays, filling in gaps in catastrophic drug coverage and working together to lower pharmaceutical costs (to name a few). As for the money . . . Jack Kitts, the council’s chair, says… “Most health experts would agree that there’s probably enough money in the system, there’s enough human resources in the system, there’s enough capacity in the system, if we were to change transformatively how we deliver the service to maximize the use of those resources.”
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario shakes up postsecondary funding
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011
Jun. 02, 2011
Ontario is overhauling the way it finances universities and colleges, replacing some per-student funding with performance-based support intended to discourage an attitude of “growth at all costs” that has been acknowledged to have harmed quality. Although still pushing expansion, the province is pressing some schools to focus more on teaching than on aspiring to grow into elite comprehensive institutions.
Tags: budget, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
For resource value, reject the helicopter model
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
May. 30, 2011
Natural resources are increasingly central to Canada’s economic trajectory. Our challenge is to maximize the positive spinoffs from resource developments, while minimizing the economic and environmental costs…. The Roil report is a careful and thoughtful attempt to come to grips with concrete challenges associated with Canada’s growing reliance on globalized resource sectors. It should be studied by policy-makers in all provinces.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Tories set to steer new course on health care funding
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May. 28, 2011
The Canada Health Transfer, which currently provides $27-billion in cash and $13.6-billion in tax points, expires in 2014… bilateral agreements are a real possibility because the Conservatives have said repeatedly that health is strictly a provincial matter… [and] that they are going to revamp the federal-provincial fiscal arrangement… One of the… proposals… suggested that Ottawa do away with the myriad programs it has for transfers and equalization payments and instead turn over the monies collected from the federal GST to the provinces.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Is tobacco control no longer a federal priority?
Monday, May 30th, 2011
May. 25, 2011
In the past decade, the smoking rate has fallen to 18 per cent from 25 per cent. That falls well short of the target of 12 per cent established in the FTCS. And, worse yet, the smoking rate has held steady for several years now, which tells us that new smokers are replacing those who die… Over the past five years, [Health Canada] has routinely underspent its program budget by $9-million to $15-million annually… Smoking rates are highest in aboriginal communities, yet Ottawa inexplicably canceled the first nations and Inuit tobacco control strategy and replaced it with a few small projects…
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Wait times: So much money, such modest progress
Friday, May 27th, 2011
May. 27, 2011
…wait times… have declined somewhat since the federal and provincial governments began throwing money at five procedures… representing about 8 per cent of all surgical procedures pursuant to the 2003-2004 health accord that offered up an additional $41-billion, indexed annually at 6 per cent, some of which was targeted to reduce wait times… During the recent election campaign, the parties hurriedly pledged to extend that 2003-2004 accord – set to expire in 2013-2014 – without giving any thought whatsoever as to why or how the money should be spent.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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