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Ontario court rules encampments can stay if there’s a shortage of shelter beds

Monday, January 30th, 2023

In a precedent-setting decision that will have implications across the province, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has denied a municipality’s request to remove a homeless encampment on the basis that doing so – when there is no adequate indoor space – would violate the residents’ Charter rights.

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Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »


Quebec basic income program begins, but advocates say many low-income people excluded

Sunday, January 29th, 2023

The program, aimed at 84,000 Quebecers with a “severely limited capacity for employment” such as a chronic illness or mental health condition, will provide an increase of more than 28 per cent for a single person, the government says… they will also have the ability to earn about $14,500 a year in wages – up from $200 a month – and have up to $20,000 in savings, all without losing benefits.

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Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »


How Ottawa can help fix health care: first, send less money

Friday, January 27th, 2023

When one level of government is raising the money, while another spends it, it makes it hard for the public to know who to hold to account for any of the system’s ills. That, too, dulls any lingering incentive for reform…  without Ottawa to share the blame for underperformance, provincial governments would have a stronger incentive to organize the delivery of health care so as to achieve greater quality and public satisfaction per dollar spent.”

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I was a victim of random violence on the TTC. Throwing money at the problem won’t make us safer

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

My story is just one of many that reveals the systemic failure of our social infrastructure, and the ways in which we need to redirect our energies, efforts and money toward social programming and mental-health supports… to confront issues and traumas deeply rooted in our failure to meet the needs of marginalized people, and a system where a lack of support allows insecurity and mental illness to grow.

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Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »


Ontario does not need more for-profit surgery

Wednesday, January 18th, 2023

Repealing Bill 124, for example, would be a first step in attracting nurses back to hospital ORs, and moving surgeries to dedicated community facilities could increase volumes by 30 per cent for roughly the same cost. But investing more broadly in for-profit surgery providers – which has enormous risks for hospital staffing, and will increase the costs passed on to patients and taxpayers – should not be on the table.

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We can’t view health as an exclusively personal matter – it’s a collective endeavour

Monday, January 9th, 2023

… health care, including hospital capacity, testing and biomedical treatments, or individual behaviours… are critically important. But what gets overlooked… is… the political economy of health… In a wealthy country, everyone should have the material and social foundations needed to have a good life and participate with dignity in society… “We have more than enough money and capacity to make that happen, but we haven’t.”

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Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


To avoid future ‘freedom convoy’ protests, we need an economy built on hope

Sunday, January 8th, 2023

… the rise of authoritarian (or what we call ordered) populism; the collapse of institutional trust; and the burgeoning role of disinformation transmitted largely, but by no means exclusively, by social media. All of these forces are fanning the flames of discontent in ways we could not have imagined a decade ago… The roots of these new forces are complex but ultimately initiated by the collapse of shared prosperity and inclusive economics.

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Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »


In vilifying safe supply, Pierre Poilievre has picked the wrong target

Wednesday, January 4th, 2023

Pierre Poilievre… states that the opioid crisis is the result of “a deliberate policy by woke Liberal and NDP governments to provide taxpayer-funded drugs – to flood our streets with easy access to these poisons.”… the Canadian Police Association and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police have both supported the use of replacement drugs. Using a safe supply to save lives is key to what we should all be doing – taking care of some of our most vulnerable citizens. 

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Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


What the rest of the country can learn from Ontario’s family doctor payment model

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023

The Canadian Medical Association has named “expanding team-based care” as one of its top recommendations for solving the country’s health care crisis…  The most important lesson of Ontario’s primary-care reforms… is this: if a government is going to change the way it pays family doctors, and pay them more in the process, it needs to put clear and enforceable rules in its physician services agreement.

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Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »


10 ways to fix Canada’s health care system right now

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023

Canada’s health care system requires major reform and possibly radical solutions. Here are 10 solutions to these problems that might be achieved without having to resort to increased privatization… In this 10-part series, we will present 10 major problems that commonly arise within the Canadian medicare system.

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