Canada will reduce international student permits by more than half, budget reveals
Wednesday, November 5th, 2025
The 2026-28 plan will allocate 239,800 permanent residence spots for economic immigration, and 84,000 for family reunification programs, including the sponsorships of spouses and parents/grandparents. The share of skilled immigrants will go up from 59 per cent to 64 per cent, while spaces for protected persons and resettled refugees from abroad will drop from 68,350 this year to 56,200 in 2026 and 54,300 in 2027 and 2028.
Tags: economy, immigration, jurisdiction
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
It’s time to admit our Charter rights are under attack
Tuesday, November 4th, 2025
Too many premiers are testing citizens’ willingness to accept gross power grabs, the targeting of vulnerable groups for political purposes, the weakening of groups they dislike, by invoking the notwithstanding clause… Are they seeking to normalize its use? To normalize breaches of rights? … “What we’re seeing is an erosion of that very, very basic principle of human rights as a way to structure relations in society, and provide a check on government power”
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction, multiculturalism, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Wait for core Ontario autism services tops five years: advocates
Friday, October 31st, 2025
Families starting to receive funding now to pay for core therapies including applied behaviour analysis, speech language pathology and occupational therapy are people who registered for the program five years ago… more than 84,000 children are registered in the Ontario Autism Program to seek autism services and 19,600 of them are receiving funding to access core services… Less than one quarter of children registered for the Ontario Autism Program have been given access to the therapy that they were promised
Tags: disabilities, Education, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
It’s not just penny-pinching premiers that teachers are up against
Friday, October 31st, 2025
When teachers call for reduced class sizes, more support and better teaching conditions — better learning conditions — they’re not being self-serving. They’re thinking about every kid in every classroom. They’re thinking about the collective future we want those kids to create. Too bad the politics of narrow ignorance keeps getting in the way.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Budget to include millions to help foreign-trained workers get credentials recognized, expand skilled-trades training
Tuesday, October 28th, 2025
The federal government recruits skilled immigrants to come to Canada, but then those immigrants see their credentials turned down by individual provinces or regulatory bodies… The increased training money will help mitigate a shortage of people trained in the skilled trades — a gap that is expected to grow over the next decade… The government also announced a temporary federal tax credit of up to $1,100 for personal support workers.
Tags: budget, economy, immigration, jurisdiction
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
If a mine is a nation-building project, why not universal pharmacare? Inside the big push to get Mark Carney behind it
Monday, October 27th, 2025
The type of pharmacare most advocates want to see the policy evolve into is a universal, single-payer model, where governments would foot the majority of prescription drug costs for all Canadians… tens of billions of dollars Canada shells out on prescription medications annually would be better spent within the country’s borders, bolstering domestic production capacity… The gaps exposed by COVID-19 — the procurement chaos, supply chain woes, equipment shortages and expiring oversupply — make some believe pharmacare holds the potential to strengthen Canada’s autonomy and security, too.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
B.C. showed how to fix the family doctor crisis — but Ontario’s not listening
Thursday, October 23rd, 2025
The real issue is that a growing number of family physicians — now 1-in-5 — opt out of comprehensive general practice and pursue focused roles, like ER shifts or walk-in clinics. The number of physicians rejecting cradle-to-grave care has nearly tripled since the 1990s… Ontario’s $1.8‑billion investment in Family Health Teams — partnerships linking family doctors with services like nurses, social workers and mental health providers — addresses these issues and improves care.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Three lessons Canada can learn from Australia’s health-care system
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025
First, expanding access and improving health outcomes can happen without massive increases in public spending… Second, more private-sector involvement in health care is not a cure-all… Third, minimizing administrative burdens will foster a more efficient and effective health-care system… Canada’s federal government should take the lead in co-ordinating and funding comparative analyses of the two countries’ health-care systems…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, participation, privatization
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
The sheer gall of Stellantis’ caving to Trump shows Canada’s industrial economy is on the line. Here’s how we fight back
Sunday, October 19th, 2025
It’s no coincidence these 232 tariffs are aimed at every one of Canada’s high-tech success stories: auto, trucks, steel and other basic metals, soon to be joined by aerospace, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, industrial machinery and more… we must at all costs defend the successful high-tech industries we have — every one of which is now in Trump’s crosshairs.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Mark Carney’s tax plan will lift more Canadians ‘above the poverty line,’ advocates say
Sunday, October 12th, 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Friday that starting in 2027, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) would begin auto-filing tax returns for low-income Canadians, allowing them to simply confirm the information in a pre-filed tax return… The Canada Child Benefit, the GST credit and the Canada Disability Benefit are among several benefits that Canadians can only receive if they file a tax return.
Tags: featured, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Recent Comments