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How the productivity of Canada’s health care stacks up to the U.S.
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012
Jun 19, 2012
There is simply no easy way to monetize the most common measures of health outcomes, like life expectancy and infant mortality. Still, getting a gauge on the sector’s performance is crucial, given the rising importance of health care to the Canadian economy, a trend that is not set to change given demographic pressures… Canada’s major health outcomes measure at about the OECD average, while our spending tends to be substantially higher than average.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Canada’s bail system is working just fine
Monday, June 18th, 2012
Jun 17, 2012
Reasonable bail is a right guaranteed to all Canadians by our constitution… Only when release is opposed by the Crown is a bail hearing held… Since bail hearings take place shortly after arrest, and often before police investigations are complete, much that is said in a bail hearing later turns out to be false. Justices of the Peace on bail hearings have to work with limited and contradictory information; it is hardly surprising that errors are occasionally made.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Stopping the soda bulge: Why we need to consider restricting sugary beverages
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Jun 12, 2012
In Canada, we need to do more to make it difficult to access unhealthy foods, with taxes or school bans. We also need to make it easier to consume healthy foods — by increasing access to drinking water in public places, for example. Improved nutritional labelling is certain to help. We certainly need to address the link between obesity and poverty by making more affordable healthy foods available in disadvantaged communities.
Tags: disabilities, Health, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | 1 Comment »
If Canada doesn’t tackle income disparity, the economy will suffer
Monday, June 11th, 2012
Jun 11, 2012
Inequality is growing faster in Canada than in the United States… We can reform Canada’s tax and transfer system to reduce the burden on low income Canadians and help boost people over the welfare wall… Looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul. It’s good for business. The long term social costs of inequality and loss of opportunity are far more expensive than the measures to address it. Besides, business should be concerned that the public could lose faith in a market-based economy if they no longer have hope for economic and social success.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Courting disaster? The long, long wait for justice in Ontario
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 9, 2012
Despite efforts by the provincial Ministry of the Attorney-General to speed up the criminal court system, which receives more than half a million charges in dozens of courthouses annually, persistent backlogs continue to fuel frustration among lawyers, judges, accused persons and members of the public. This month marks the deadline for the ministry’s four-year push to slash by 30% the average number of appearances and days required to complete a criminal case, but the latest numbers show the province has achieved barely a fraction of that goal, reducing appearances by about 6% and days by about 1%.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Ontario government faces lawsuits over troubled Family Health Teams
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 8, 2012
The move to FHTs also has seen more than 2.1 million Ontarians who didn’t have a family doctor get one. Rolled out in five waves starting in 2005, Ontario has poured millions into the teams — $244-million in fiscal 2010-11 and $347-million in fiscal 2011-12 alone — and now has 200 FHTs across the province, serving 2.8 million patients… The auditors urged the government to strengthen the conflict-of-interest section of the agreements it signs with FHTs… Almost half the 200 FHTs, for instance, are physician-led… For the doctor-led family health teams, it means that only members of the FHOs (that is, the physicians) are voting members of the FHT board.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates, Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Workfare can do for First Nations what it did for Mike Harris’ Ontario
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 7, 2012
Opponents claim workfare boosted the ranks of the working poor – people left welfare to find employment in low earning and insecure jobs. But even they do not dispute that welfare rolls fell by more than half a million people after 1995. The Harris government was indeed fortunate that the introduction of the policy coincided with the end of the recession. Nevertheless, it achieved its policy goal… The new policy stems from a 2009 evaluation of the government’s native income assistance program, which found a dependency ratio rate of 36% on reserve in 2005/6, compared to a national rate of 5.5%.
Tags: economy, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, rights
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
… the Occupiers’ new slogan: Feed the poor! Tax the veterinarians!
Wednesday, June 6th, 2012
Jun 6, 2012
the study also looked closely into who qualifies for the Canadian 1%. They are overwhelmingly male, generally over the age of 35 and spread across multiple economic sectors. While the average wage of someone in the 1%, as said above, is $450,000, the minimum wage required to enter it is a surprisingly low $230,000 a year. That’s a lot of money, but not huge money. And those making it aren’t the stock brokers and financial executives you’d expect. Indeed, for every banker on the list, you’ll find a dentist or veterinarian.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Workfare for reserves: Tory plan ties benefits for aboriginals to job training
Friday, June 1st, 2012
Jun 1, 2012
The Harper government is planning a workfare program that would oblige young aboriginals on reserves to undertake job training in return for a welfare cheque. Ottawa wants to take young natives off welfare rolls before they become too used to receiving social assistance. The government already spends $400-million on a range of training programs but sources suggest new money will be earmarked to improve delivery of programs for natives on reserves… In the March budget, the Tories said they want to “better align on-reserve Income Assistance programs with provincial systems” in terms of compliance and program requirements.
Tags: Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Juanita Spencer on equalization: Pay people, not provinces
Thursday, May 31st, 2012
May 29, 2012
Such a policy requires no changes to current tax policy, constitutional authority, or even total public spending. And Canada could meet its constitutional obligation to support relatively comparable levels of services at reasonably comparable levels of taxation. Individual Canadians would simply replace provinces as program recipients. We would still cut cheques to each other, and money would still flow from region to region in net terms; but the cash would come to us, instead of going to our provincial capitals.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Delivery System | 2 Comments »
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