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The Conservative crime agenda sells, until the bill arrives
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
Feb. 28, 2011
… even if the public would like tougher sentences, there appears to be no wish to pay a tab in the billions each year (in combined federal and provincial costs). The federal corrections budget alone is set to rise by $861-million, or 36 per cent, by 2012-13 over 2009-10. The provincial costs will probably rise by at least that much, because of federal sentencing changes. Ottawa’s position is either that Canadians want a get-tough approach at any cost, or that they aren’t entitled to know what the cost will be.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology, tax
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Redact all you want, we’ve gone overboard on equalization
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
March 3, 2011
… “the [government’s] reluctance to release the study seemingly confirms that equalization is coming from the people least able to afford it, going to regions that have much more accessible services than Ontario.”… Call it the disequilibrium of equalization. Everyone knows about it, of course: the transfer currently of as much as $50-billion a year from provinces of higher productivity… to provinces with lower productivity… With each passing year, the needs-based gap grows wider, and the public sectors of the “have-not” provinces grow bigger.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
One-on-one leaders debates would strengthen democratic discourse
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
March 3, 2011
The 2008 debate was also a chaotic fiasco – not so much the fault of the participants as that of the format… one-on-one debates will be more productive and satisfying from the standpoint of the public, the media and the participants themselves. The best brains among the networks, the communications industry and the parties should be applying themselves to this challenge – the sooner the better if the objective is to raise the quality of democratic discourse in Canada’s next federal election.
Tags: participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
What the Yukon can teach us about fixing health care
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011
Mar. 02, 2011
Ms. Fraser said she set out to answer two fundamental questions with her audit: “What are you trying to achieve? And how do you measure progress?” The answers were less than comforting… * It has no idea whether it’s providing the right programs to improve the health of Yukoners; * It lacks clear plans and priorities; * It routinely goes over budget, in violation of the law; * It fails to adequately collect, compile and analyze even the most basic health data; * It has no health human resources plan. Ms. Fraser found the road to hell paved with good intentions.
Tags: budget, Health, Indigenous, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Doctors urge Health Care Action Plan to thwart ‘looming crisis’
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Mar. 01, 2011
The citizens panel spent five full days learning how the health-care system works and, last year, it listed areas of non-core services that could be divested to other agencies, including the hospital’s diabetes complication prevention strategy clinic. That recommendation, along with another to get rid of outpatient rehabilitation services, were among those followed by the board. This year, the hospital is expected to have a balanced budget.
Tags: budget, Health, participation, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Health care costs our single most pressing budget item
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Mar. 01, 2011
Ottawa and the provinces will ring up combined deficits of roughly $100-billion this year. The provincial share of that is slightly less than $50-billion… Health care accounts for 42 cents of every dollar the provinces spend (even more in Ontario). And those costs are rising at a rate of 6.7 per cent a year, which roughly matches the current escalation in federal transfers… Per capita use of the latest drugs, surgeries and diagnostic tools is increasing more for seniors than for younger people… Aging also has a profound effect on the ability of governments to raise money via the income tax system.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
For sheer abuse of state power nothing touches Caledonia
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011
Feb. 28, 2011
… for sheer abuse of raw state power, nothingtouches Caledonia – and where the G20 lasted but three days, the situation on the former Douglas Creek Estates remains formally unresolved… From start to finish, this story is but a stain on the Canadian landscape, the lesson that anything – criminal conduct, lawlessness, state abuses – is tolerated if it is done in the name of aboriginal self-expression.
Tags: Indigenous, participation, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Canada near top in integrating immigrants, survey says
Monday, February 28th, 2011
Feb. 28, 2011
Canada place third behind Sweden and Portugal on the latest Migrant Integration Policy Index, a benchmark European study that measures a range of indicators, from political engagement and paths to citizenship to public education. Canada’s ranking crept up two places from fifth two years ago, due largely to government efforts to recognize the credentials of foreign-trained professionals and to the addition of education measures that gave high marks to the multicultural model.
Tags: immigration, multiculturalism, participation
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Tax hikes or lower transfers Ottawa’s only deficit solutions
Monday, February 28th, 2011
February 28, 2011
When expressed as a share of GDP – which is the proper measure – the federal governments of Paul Martin and Stephen Harper are smaller than the one presided by John Diefenbaker… the Public Accounts of Canada reveals that the business of the federal government consists largely of sending cheques to individuals (the elderly, the unemployed, etc), to other levels of government (the Canada Health Transfer, equalization payments, etc) and to federal government bondholders (debt service payments)… A realistic deficit-reduction strategy has to involve higher taxes and/or lower transfer payments.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Natives still suffer shameful stereotypes
Sunday, February 27th, 2011
Feb. 25, 2011
Canada’s urban natives, who now comprise half of all Métis, first nations and Inuit, feel they are viewed negatively by the larger society, even as they display a high level of tolerance for other cultures… according to a study by Environics Institute, many non-aboriginals recognize their comic-book characterization of natives, and acknowledge that real discrimination exists. The federal government, the provinces and aboriginals themselves need to broaden this unsophisticated image, which focuses only on the social challenges natives face, while obscuring the many success stories.
Tags: Indigenous, multiculturalism, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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