Access to care: 5 principles for action on primary health-care teams
Friday, January 10th, 2025
… a “health home”…would guarantee every person access to a primary care team close to where they live. The Primary Care Action Team has announced its plans to achieve this goal within five years. A health home is the front door to the health system and includes a team of primary care providers that supports an individual’s health and wellness; co-ordinating care across the system and through every stage of their lives… based on where you live… just as you would have access to your local school.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Canada, the 51st state? Eliminating interprovincial trade barriers could ward off Donald Trump
Thursday, January 9th, 2025
… if interprovincial trade barriers were removed, there would be an improvement in Canadian productivity of between three and seven per cent. In dollar terms, that would add $50-$130 billion dollars to Canada’s economy. The CFIB findings put the figure at $200 billion, or $5,100 per person… Bringing down barriers to trade across Canadian provinces would create conditions that could enable Canadian companies to be more competitive internationally, and beyond the U.S. market in particular.
Tags: economy, globalization, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Canada-wide child care: It’s now less expensive, but finding it is more difficult
Friday, December 27th, 2024
All provinces and territories have met their affordability targets. Parent costs were reduced by 50 per cent by the 2022 deadline… some jurisdictions are not using the federal funding available to them. Governments have added just over $4.5 billion to their child-care spending since 2020, well below the $15 billion available to date through CWELCC. If concerns about funding is pressing provincial and territorial governments could, of course, add their own funding, but few have done so. Relying on federal funds is now the norm.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Canadians are feeling increasingly powerless amid economic struggles and rising inequality
Thursday, December 26th, 2024
The perception of a worsening cost of living, combined with seeing Canada as significantly more unequal, is creating a perfect storm for a deteriorating sense of control in everyday life… This is a worrying trend for our collective psychological well-being. The most powerless people tend to be the most distressed and distrustful of others — two indicators that reflect the daily sense of alarm, hopelessness and suspicion that powerless Canadians may feel when thinking of the economy.
Tags: economy, ideology
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Why can’t we die at home? Expanding home care could reduce the financial and environmental cost of dying in hospital
Wednesday, November 20th, 2024
Primary-care teams can act as informal managers of home care through facilitating the medical, social and comfort components of care. All of this would still add up to far less than the financial and environmental cost of hospitalization. At a time when we’re pressured to cut costs and reduce harm to the environment, and when we know dying patients would rather be at home, why can’t we help?
Tags: budget, Health, Home Care, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
How to quell the sharp rise in youth violence in Canada
Friday, November 8th, 2024
Major risk factors for violence include limited access to economic opportunities, family instability and neighbourhood disadvantage. Without interventions that address these risks, vulnerable youth and adults are more likely to engage in criminal behaviour or reoffend. A key vital component of violence prevention is trauma-informed case management… community-based programs… can more holistically support the needs of youth leading to better choices and coping mechanisms.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, mental Health, multiculturalism, poverty, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
What’s behind Canada’s housing crisis?
Wednesday, November 6th, 2024
Canada had a strong housing welfare system in the 1960s and 1970s, but this changed in 1993 when the federal government stopped funding social housing programs. It shifted toward a commodified system that emphasized individual responsibility… This shift was driven by two neoliberal beliefs. The first is that the private market is the most efficient way to provide housing… The second belief is that homeownership promotes autonomy and reduces reliance on governments by building property assets, although the reality defies this belief.
Tags: economy, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Debates | 5 Comments »
What’s behind Canada’s housing crisis? Experts break down the different factors at play
Friday, October 4th, 2024
The market is most likely to respond to the housing needs of those with strong purchasing power, leaving behind low and moderate income families whose housing needs cannot generate effective market demand. The consequence is growing housing inequality, with many low-income families trapped in precarious living conditions… De-commodifying and de-financializing housing is key. This means expanding community housing, prioritizing community-based solutions and ensuring long-term security for all.
Tags: economy, homelessness, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Only the United States benefits from renegotiating the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal
Monday, September 30th, 2024
Ideologically, the U.S. is no longer the free-trade champion it was… concessions are highly unlikely to convince the U.S. — regardless of which party is in power — to surrender the most potent weapon it has in its arsenal to pressure its neighbours to adopt its preferred policies. Policy reform, simply put, leads to U.S. market access… The 2018 CUSMA didn’t preserve free trade in North America. It signalled its demise and the return of power politics to our most important economic relationship.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s closure of youth detention facilities has not resulted in more support for young people
Sunday, September 29th, 2024
The move to shift youth in the justice system away from confinement and towards community is a positive one. However, without investment in community-based service providers to support youth being transitioned out of custodial settings, it is unlikely that youth will thrive. Such failures are likely to increase acute mental health crises and demands on ambulatory care within general medicine and psychiatric hospitals… [and] increase the number of youth who will come into conflict with the criminal legal system as adults.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, jurisdiction, poverty, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 8 Comments »