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Canada’s senior-care crisis has been long in the works
Thursday, April 16th, 2020
As a country, we need to rethink how we approach long-term care from top to bottom. And we don’t have a lot of time to do it. A 2017 Conference Board study estimated that, to meet demand, Canada needs to nearly double the number of long-term care beds available to about 450,000 by 2035. We can’t afford to do it on the cheap.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, Health, housing, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
COVID-19 has shown Canada that it’s possible to be more inclusive
Thursday, April 16th, 2020
With remote work, online classes and virtual conferences becoming the new normal, we see employers, educational institutions and communities quickly adapting to accommodate an unexpected situation. The measures we might have once dismissed as too costly or cumbersome to accommodate for a person with a disability, an immune-compromised individual or someone with anxiety are now simply the way we all do business. In this new normal, we see what’s entirely possible, and that this flexibility benefits everyone.
Tags: disabilities, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Seniors’ care shouldn’t be a horror show, even when the pandemic is over
Sunday, April 12th, 2020
Both B.C. and Alberta have banned health care staff from working at multiple institutions, a common practice that allows the coronavirus to spread quickly. This should be a permanent policy, not a temporary one. There is no lack of work in nursing homes and long-term care. In fact, there are dire personnel shortages. But many employers refuse to offer full-time work so they can avoid paying benefits… who wants to put their life on the line for fifteen bucks an hour, no benefits – and no PPE?
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Let’s think big about what a post-pandemic Canada looks like – and let’s do it now
Friday, April 10th, 2020
How do we prepare our health-care system for the next epidemic? How do we make social welfare more comprehensive and compassionate? Do we do this by revisiting the idea of a guaranteed annual income? … Yes, it will cost money. We will incur huge deficits. But as Bob Rae and Mel Cappe wrote, “We are all Keynesians now.” … National commissions are not new to us… who should lead this national commission on recovery? Why, Mark Carney, of course.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Could the CERB program lead Canada toward offering a universal basic income?
Friday, April 10th, 2020
… it will be difficult for the government to phase out policy changes introduced with the CERB: a guaranteed minimum payment for all recipients, the inclusion of gig economy and other contract workers, and no regional variation in qualifying for payments… Right now, it’s clear that the millions of Canadians who have lost work are victims of circumstance and need help… [but] This is a suspension of the usual moral judgment that those not working have brought their fates on themselves… creating a political barrier to a universal basic income.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Women, younger workers bear brunt of one million job losses in March
Thursday, April 9th, 2020
… slightly more than one million people lost their jobs in March, easily the largest one-month decline in data that go back to 1976… Another 2.1-million people worked less than half their usual hours, or were away from work, bringing the total number of affected workers to 3.1 million… Young workers endured a brutal month. The number of employed people aged 15 to 24 dropped by nearly 400,000, or 15.4 per cent, with the decrease almost entirely in part-time work.
Tags: economy, Health, participation, women, youth
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
COVID-19 has exposed wide gaps in Canada’s social-safety net
Thursday, April 9th, 2020
This pandemic has shone an unflattering light on how austerity measures have led to fewer investments in supporting individuals and families – measures that would have helped cushion the blow that many people in Canada are now feeling… While governments across the country have rushed to respond to this crisis by investing in social programs and financial assistance, when we reach the other side of COVID-19 those social programs must stay in place – societal inequities that existed before this crisis won’t disappear on their own.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Why Canada’s emergency response benefit rollout might be a mistake
Thursday, April 9th, 2020
As the Trudeau government scrambles to include one forgotten group after another in the wage-support program, the argument for shifting to a universal basic income grows more compelling… But [the Prime Minister sidestepped repeated questions… as to why the government hadn’t opted for a guaranteed basic income instead of a program that is constantly in need of fixes… the debate over a guaranteed basic income could become a major issue in the next election.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa steps forward as COVID-19 crisis puts provinces in desperate straits
Thursday, April 2nd, 2020
… temporary programs have a way of turning into permanent entitlements. Through the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, which pays suddenly unemployed workers $2,000 a month, “we might have backed ourselves into some sort of universal basic income,” … We may have accidentally federalized welfare… The problem with creating a basic income more or less by accident is that no one knows how to pay for it, or how it would adapt to regional realities.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
They’re World War deficit levels, but not the biggest or the baddest yet
Wednesday, April 1st, 2020
The deficits being projected now look to be roughly 5 to 8 per cent of GDP… The 1984 deficit was 8.1 per cent of GDP, when the economy was recovering from the 1982 recession and interest rates paid on the national debt were high. But in those terms, the deficits are not on the scale of the Second World War, when military production and defence spending pushed the annual deficit to 23 per cent of GDP in 1943. A comparable deficit in 2020 would be nearly $500-billion… Canada has seen worse.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
Posted in History | No Comments »
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