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The Chopping Block: 1. Canada Health Infoway
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
Sep 29, 2011
… the objective was to electronically hook something like 400,000 health care professionals, pharmacists and doctors, more than 700 hospitals, thousands of private clinics, and 33 million Canadians into one big national interoperable system… Health Infoway has in the past suggested a total of $10-billion to $12-billion might be needed. But that number is clearly a gross underestimate. The spending is said to be worth it, because the benefits are measured in the billions annually. But such benefits are generally based on fanciful number-crunching by hired consultants who’s brief is to generate a rationale for the spending.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Canadians cover $24-billion a year in poverty costs: Report
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
Sep 28, 2011
The initial investment could be in the billions of dollars, the report suggests, which says it would be worth the expense in the long run. “In an investment model, the more resources devoted to preventing poverty and directly lifting people out of poverty, the greater the payoff would be for all Canadians in reduced health-care and other indirect costs,” says the report, titled The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
The largest expansion of prison building ‘since the 1930s
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Sep 24, 2011
Imprisonment as we know it in Canada dates back to the pre-Confederation construction of the Kingston Penitentiary in 1835. Today, every jurisdiction is expanding its prisons — and has a pressing need to… The government’s latest crime bill, with its mandatory minimums and the end of house arrest for serious crimes, will add thousands more prisoners and cost untold billions… The Safe Streets & Communities Act and the details of the federal government’s procurement spree come at a time when the national crime rate is at its lowest since 1973.
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Mexico opens to door to a ‘market’ solution to drug war
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
Sep 23, 2011
The Harper government’s omnibus crime bill, which was tabled in the House of Commons this week, includes mandatory minimum sentences for growing small amounts of marijuana and doubles the maximum sentence for pot-related crimes. While other countries are starting to look for alternatives to the war on drugs, Canada’s Conservative government is doubling down on an expensive and ineffective strategy.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, economy, ideology, pharmaceutical
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Equal in poverty or prosperity?
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
Sept. 20, 2011
World Bank data show that Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Pakistan are more egalitarian than Canada. Within Canada itself, the poorer provinces are more egalitarian than the richer provinces. It’s just the same old debate with Marxist overtones: Is it better to be all equal in poverty, or unequal but more prosperous? There is no question that civilized people will choose prosperity and freedom over equality and poverty.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
University tuition fees rise again: StatsCan
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Sep 16, 2011
Statistics Canada said the average annual tuition fee for undergraduate students is $5,366 for the new 2011-12 school year, up 4.3% from last year. That follows a 4% in tuition for the 2010-11 school year… Not only did Ontario see the biggest year-to-year rise in tuition fees, it also had the most expensive overall cost at $6,640 for undergraduates. Perhaps not surprisingly, post-secondary tuition has emerged as an issue in the current election campaign in Ontario… Ontario has the most expensive graduate programs with an average tuition of $7,578 and Newfoundland has the lowest at $2,456.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
In Ontario, everyone’s a taxman
Thursday, September 15th, 2011
Sep. 14, 2011
Dalton McGuinty has indeed presided over an era where the provincial own-source revenue to GDP ratio has reached its greatest height, but he has been able to do so by building on the work of his predecessors. Ontario’s politicians have all been part of a provincial political culture that has expanded the role of government and supported it with ever-greater tax revenues. They have all been “taxmen.”
Tags: budget, economy, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Doctors see fewer patients in move to end fees
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
Jul 20, 2011
The latest National Physician Survey of 18,000 Canadian doctors showed the portion who receive just fee-for-service has dropped to 42% from 51% in 2004… doctors on alternative payment plans see up to 30% fewer patients per week than their fee-for-service colleagues… the shift to alternative payment has occurred with virtually no scientific examination of whether one system delivers better service to patients than the other.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Canadian doctors still make dramatically less than U.S. counterparts: study
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
Sep 14, 2011
Despite recent fee hikes, Canadian doctors still lag dramatically far behind their American counterparts in income, according to a new study that also underscores the wide pay gap in both countries between front-line “primary-care” physicians and much-wealthier surgical specialists… The U.K. also pays its surgeons more than Canada, while both it and Germany better compensate primary-care doctors…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology
Posted in Health Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Leave the HST alone
Saturday, September 10th, 2011
Sep 8, 2011
The “tax man” had the guts to reform the sales tax in 2009 by replacing the antiquated, distorting and unfair provincial retail sales tax with the far-better HST. As part of the 2009 tax reform package, he dropped corporate and some personal tax rates and eliminated the distortions arising from differential tax rates on manufacturing, resource and other profits. Other smart tax policies during his tenure include eliminating business capital taxes and harmonizing Ontario’s corporate income tax with the federal system, a major move towards simplification, resulting in low administrative and compliance costs.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
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