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Ontario’s colleges were founded to serve local and regional needs — have we forgotten that?
Tuesday, October 7th, 2025
By the late 1980s… per-student funding had already fallen by roughly one-third. The trend accelerated in 1995 when $120 million was cut… Davis’s legacy is being dismantled by chronic underfunding. The future of our colleges depends on renewal. We must reclaim these values and call on our federal and provincial leaders to support a truly public system of higher education that serves the communities it was created to serve.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Education History | No Comments »
Reconciliation includes recognizing Residential Schools are not the only colonial atrocity
Wednesday, October 1st, 2025
… Residential Schools were one part of a much larger colonial strategy to assimilate Indigenous Peoples and erase Indigenous cultures, languages, traditions, practices and governance systems… consider learning even more about the many other tactics. This way, we can acknowledge past harms, work to address current realities and look to foster meaningful engagements with Indigenous communities.
Tags: Education, Health, Indigenous, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality History | No Comments »
To close its productivity gap, Canada needs to rethink its higher education system
Monday, September 15th, 2025
… the future demands a paradigm shift in how Canada develops its human capital… learning pathways are limitless and today, only a fraction of learning occurs in classrooms; the vast majority takes place in workplaces, community organizations, libraries, places of worship, on sports fields and stages, and through podcasts, blogs and books. Accelerating this paradigm shift offers Canada a unique opportunity to improve its productivity by unlocking the value of existing learning assets.
Tags: economy, Education, globalization, ideology
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Why bolstering post-secondary education for former youth in care is a wise investment
Thursday, August 7th, 2025
When youth age out of care… they are expected to navigate adulthood with no family network, limited life skills and inadequate financial supports. The result is a predictable cycle of poverty, homelessness and criminalization. The cost of this approach is staggering… In Ontario, every dollar invested in extended care from ages 21 to 25 could yield $1.36 million in savings or earnings over a lifetime through improved educational attainment, reduced reliance on social benefits, lower rates of criminal justice involvement and increased contributions through taxes.
Tags: crime prevention, Education, participation, poverty, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Should back-to-school require parent fundraising? Ontario schools are woefully underfunded, and families pay the price
Tuesday, August 5th, 2025
Taking over boards can be seen as a distraction tactic as the government is asking them to meet growing needs with fewer resources. Instead of increasing funding, which is necessary and long overdue, the government is likely to cut costs in the short term by privatizing services, a trajectory researchers have documented for some time. These shifts to the private sector are shortsighted attempts to balance a budget that only serve to raise the taxpayer burden over time.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
School lunches, the French way: It’s not just about nutrition, but togetherness and bon appetit
Tuesday, July 15th, 2025
… we need to shift from thinking of school lunches as a safety net for kids living in poverty to thinking about them as benefiting the health and well-being of children and their families… the cultural diversity of Canadian school communities is reflected in the food on offer… centralized kitchens can prepare thousands of servings of a main dish daily… to prepare food for daycares and for seniors who were home-bound — something to consider for Canadian cities…
Tags: Education, ideology, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
What is modern monetary theory? An economist explains how it could help Canada
Tuesday, May 27th, 2025
As a country with currency sovereignty and substantial natural and human resources, Canada has the ability to use targeted public spending to address pressing challenges such as housing affordability, health-care and child-care expansion, and climate change mitigation. MMT encourages us to shift the conversation from artificial fiscal constraints to real-world economic possibilities. Instead of asking, “Can we afford it?” we should be asking, “What do we need, and how can we mobilize our resources to achieve it?”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
How Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten Canadians’ access to prescription drugs
Friday, May 9th, 2025
Thirty-two per cent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients that go into the medicines that North Americans take originate in China. U.S President Donald Trump has now threatened to slap U.S. tariffs on Chinese drugs and drug ingredients that were previously exempt… Canada already imports $8.76 billion annually in prescription drugs from the U.S. To the extent that tariffed drugs go from China to the U.S. to Canada, the cost of both publicly and privately funded drug plans will increase.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Why Canadian-trained doctors should be allowed to practise anywhere in Canada without additional licensing
Monday, March 24th, 2025
Why, then, are doctors with identical training and qualifications confined to practising in just one province or territory? The answer lies not in medical competence, but in bureaucracy. Despite national standards for training and qualification, the power to grant a licence rests with 13 separate provincial and territorial regulatory colleges. This fragmented system creates artificial barriers, limiting the mobility of our highly skilled physicians across Canada.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Pharmacare is now law in Canada, but negotiations with provinces could slow progress
Monday, March 24th, 2025
Pharmacare could have been implemented nationally, like it was for the Canadian Dental Care Plan, offering federal coverage for essential medications like contraceptives and diabetes medications, while insurers and provincial plans cover the rest. This would have been a simple approach that would have allowed for future changes, and could have been implemented by provinces much like vaccines are — paid for using people’s provincial health numbers, sidestepping the difficulty of enrolling people in a new plan.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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