The Dutch and Danes have much to teach Canada about better health care
Friday, February 7th, 2025
Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands all spend roughly the same per capita on health care… But both Denmark and the Netherlands have many more physicians per capita than Canada – about 60 per cent more… One of the best lessons Canada can take from European and Nordic countries with great primary care is the importance of teamwork. Nurses and practice assistants… do a lot of triage and care, and physicians focus on more serious issues.
Tags: budget, Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
We must confront the reality that Canada has a four-tier health care system
Tuesday, January 28th, 2025
The key question is whether… market-driven alternatives for personal health care can be thoughtfully integrated with the public system, augmenting services while assuring no one is left without access to all aspects of care, including acute, chronic, and preventive. At present, we’re not looking at solutions that reconcile both perspectives.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Does the Canada Health Act require reinterpretation, or a more fundamental rethink?
Thursday, January 16th, 2025
The Canada Health Act clearly states that “physician services” and “hospital services” are covered by medicare. There is nothing about “physician-equivalent services.” … But, if some of the work of NPs, pharmacists and midwives is to be considered essential, what about psychologists, physiotherapists and other allied health professionals? And while we’re at it: Should everything doctors do be considered medically necessary and covered by medicare?
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Years of corporate handouts achieved nothing. It’s time for something different
Thursday, June 13th, 2024
… corporate subsidies – either through tax incentives or direct funding and loans – now equal about $50-billion per year. That is slightly over one-half of the total amount of corporate taxes collected by the federal government and almost as much as they spend on health care. only 20 per cent of these business subsidies aimed at increasing productivity actually boost real income for Canadians. The other 80 per cent are not only ineffective but have to be paid for by either more taxes or by decreasing spending on other priorities.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario pays $320K in legal fight over its cancellation of basic income program
Monday, April 22nd, 2024
After battling five years against a class-action certification process, the Ontario government has paid $320,000 to the law firm spearheading a lawsuit against the Ford government over its decision to cancel a guaranteed basic income pilot project… One-third of respondents reported that the pilot gave them enough money to go to school. One in five said it funded their transportation to work. Almost three-quarters said they started eating better and nearly three in five said they managed to improve their housing. A large majority felt less stress, anxiety and depression.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, participation, poverty
Posted in Social Security History | No Comments »
So, what expenditures should Canada cut to meet its NATO obligations?
Thursday, March 21st, 2024
About a quarter of all spending is transferred directly to Canadians, either through elderly benefits (Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement), Employment Insurance benefits and the Canada Child Benefit… Another 20 per cent of Ottawa’s spending is transferred directly to the provincial governments… Equalization payments account for about $24-billion… Interest payments on the debt account for another $47-billion… while Ottawa’s total spending is $500-billion, only $96-billion in operating spending is discretionary
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canadians want their governments to tackle poverty, but nobody can agree on what to do
Wednesday, January 10th, 2024
Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, lone-parent households, recent immigrants and single adults aged 45 to 64 have a poverty rate that is double or triple that of the rest of the population. More than two-thirds of working-age individuals living in poverty belong to at least one of these groups… Better universal access to affordable quality physical and mental-health care, early childhood care, and social housing are some of the win-win policy actions that encourage both growth and poverty reduction.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Surrendering to the provinces doesn’t bring peace to the federation. It only emboldens them
Wednesday, January 10th, 2024
The thesis… that peace with the provinces is the highest aim of federal policy, and that the way to achieve it is to give them everything they want – or at least to never give them any offence – is a recipe for national paralysis. There are issues on which federal leadership is essential… how we got here [is] not because the federal government has been too hard on the provinces, but because it has been altogether too indulgent of them.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canada needs doctors – so why is the country forcing Canadian physicians into exile?
Friday, November 17th, 2023
Both the licensing exams and residency matching are areas that if modified can establish a more streamlined, simple and fair repatriation process. Provincial governments can also work with medical schools to cover salaries for residency slots and the related program expansion costs for medical disciplines in shortest supply.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
From ‘tough on crime’ to a new transformative vision for Canada’s justice system
Friday, September 29th, 2023
… compassionate, evidence-based policies… make us safer at a fraction of the cost of ineffective “tough on crime” approaches. We don’t have to let fear win. We don’t have to tolerate an ineffective status quo. There’s a better way and it involves a new transformative justice vision: to transform the trauma in our society, rather than continue to transmit it.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
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