Putting economic and social rights at the heart of policy-making
Wednesday, December 4th, 2019
Too many people are currently being left behind as changing social, economic, and political tides wash past them… we must help people and communities weather these changes by strengthening how we think about, and develop, public policy. We can do this by prioritizing the human rights and dignities of all Canadians. Not only civil and political rights, but economic and social rights, too.
Tags: featured, Health, homelessness, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Welfare in Canada update now available
Thursday, November 14th, 2019
In 2018, total welfare incomes did not keep pace with the cost of living in 33 of the 52 scenarios tracked in this report (four household types across the 13 provinces and territories). In these cases, households receiving welfare were worse off in 2018 than they were in 2017… Even where welfare incomes were highest, they fell short of the poverty threshold.
Tags: budget, disabilities, housing, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Putting economic and social rights at the heart of policy-making
Thursday, October 31st, 2019
Too many people are currently being left behind as changing social, economic, and political tides wash past them… To stymie the rise in polarized and populist rhetoric, we must… strengthen… how we think about, and develop, public policy. We can do this by prioritizing the human rights and dignities of all Canadians. Not only civil and political rights, but economic and social rights, too.
Tags: budget, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Lessons from Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot
Thursday, October 17th, 2019
Michael Mendelson looks at Ontario’s experience to offer lessons on how to – and how not to – set up future Basic Income trials. The report focuses in particular on three aspects of the pilot in which the experimental design fell short: lack of a “saturation” site, problems of enrollment, and use of the income tax system to test recipients’ income… The author also suggests a five-step process for governments considering another Basic Income experiment…
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
The tax cuts you might vote for, but might not notice
Tuesday, October 15th, 2019
Would someone earning over $60,000 notice that they got another $420 a year by 2023 through the Conservative Party’s Universal Tax Cut? … if someone handed you $420 in 2023, you’d notice. But that’s not how this tax cut is going to be delivered. It’ll be incremental… Surely there must be a better way to spend over $5.5 billion a year. Couldn’t this money be better spent on healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and/or paying down the deficit?
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, housing, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Why cutting taxes on EI benefits for new parents may not be good policy
Sunday, October 6th, 2019
To the Liberals’ credit, their EI maternity/parental benefit proposal… a 15% boost to the Canada Child Benefit (CCB)… a refundable tax credit… to families with children under one, families across the lower end of the income distribution would benefit regardless of tax liability or EI eligibility.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Cancelling the Transition Child Benefit in Ontario is bad policy
Wednesday, August 28th, 2019
… the TCB has provided support for children who are among the most vulnerable in our society at a time when their families are most in need… it goes to about ten per cent of children receiving social assistance, at less than one per cent of total social assistance program costs… elimination of the TCB will undeniably have downstream impacts not only on social assistance, but on other services, like housing, education, and health care.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
How to make community housing work better for Ontarians
Friday, June 28th, 2019
The proposed regulations to simplify the RGI rent amounts aim to reduce barriers to work and decrease administrative complexity. However, as currently outlined they would create a two-tier system that would make it harder for social assistance recipients to enter employment. To avoid this, our submission on the RGI calculation recommends the government consider disregarding social assistance payments from income for the purposes of calculating RGI rent amounts.
Tags: housing, ideology, participation, poverty
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Prioritizing fundamental human rights can help us find the clarity we need for good public policy
Thursday, June 27th, 2019
Ultimately, good public policy requires balancing social, economic, fiscal and political considerations. We can get clarity on the best path to pursue if we decide that future public policies prioritize and articulate the dignities and rights that we think all Canadians should be afforded by virtue of being a human being, and not because of where we work.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, participation, pharmaceutical, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Maytree’s roundup of the federal government’s 2019 budget
Thursday, March 28th, 2019
The highlights of the budget included support for first-time home buyers, retraining during working-age, retirement security, and funding for a national drugs agency to start initial work on important parts of a (potential) pharmacare program… also a significant investment in Indigenous communities and reconciliation.
Tags: budget, economy, housing, ideology, Indigenous, pharmaceutical, poverty
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
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