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Crime rates have more to do with social factors than number of police officers
Sunday, April 2nd, 2023
The only way to reduce random crime is to address the root causes of it, usually defined by social indicators: inequality, affordable housing, programs for young children and families. The provincial and federal governments are the only public institutions with the financial capability of addressing these issues, but as we have seen in the recently released budgets of both Queen’s Park and Ottawa, they seem uninterested in doing so.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, housing, ideology, poverty
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Federal budget 2022: Highest-earning Canadians face minimum tax rate increase
Friday, March 31st, 2023
Ottawa is raising the alternative minimum tax rate and imposing new limits on many of the exemptions, deductions and credits that apply under the system starting in 2024… it is increasing the alternative minimum rate to 20.5 per cent from 15 per cent starting in 2024… Wealthy Canadians pay the alternative minimum or regular tax, whichever is higher… about 32,000 Canadians will be covered by alternative minimum tax in 2024
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Doug Ford’s government raising minimum wage to $16.55 in October
Friday, March 31st, 2023
The $1.05 hourly hike means someone earning minimum wage and working full-time would see an annual raise of about $2,200. It also vaults Ontario to the highest minimum wage in Canada… the change should help about 942,400 workers in Ontario — most of whom are women. The 6.8 per cent rise is because minimum wage increases are now tied to the rate of inflation and must be disclosed by the end of the fiscal year.
Tags: economy, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Delivery System | No Comments »
Cruel health care cut targets the most vulnerable
Friday, March 31st, 2023
… The reason someone is uninsured is often tied to their immigration status and can include those on temporary work or study permits and people who are “undocumented” or without authorized immigration status… To have taken the axe to a small program supporting some of the most vulnerable people in Ontario said a lot about the Ford government, none of it good.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ford’s health-care cuts risk lives of society’s most vulnerable
Tuesday, March 28th, 2023
Overnight, the Ford government has turned its back on marginalized people who are uninsured or have lost health cards, and the communities that take care of them… Doctors, nurses and hospitals all agree — the government did the right thing at the start of the pandemic by ensuring no one was denied health care in Ontario. They can do it again by reversing these cruel cuts and making this program permanent.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
An Ontario doctor’s wait-list database is saving patient lives. It’s madness a doctor had to do it himself
Saturday, March 25th, 2023
It’s a searchable database of specialists and procedures, by location and wait times. Yet by simply showing the full extent of available specialists in his community, this young family doctor vividly saw how access could be speeded up, reducing patient anguish and hardship… Qamar and his partners hope the province will see the database’s value and step in to fund the minimal costs of updating it.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Biden breaks taboo on taxing wealthy, showing Trudeau how to do it
Thursday, March 23rd, 2023
… their wealth is largely held in corporate stock and, unless they sell stock and trigger a capital gain, no income tax applies. The wealthy are a formidable interest group who play an enormous — although largely hidden — role in shaping the political agenda. Still, they’d have more trouble keeping a wealth tax off the agenda if our progressive politicians embraced the idea with the same gusto as the broad Canadian public.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ontario has made slow progress to accessibility
Tuesday, March 21st, 2023
… 77 per cent of people with disabilities report having a negative experience in public or at work, while only eight per cent describe their experience as positive. These negative experiences… are the result of a lack of leadership, enforcement, research and accountability, and of flaws in virtually every aspect of the system, including “services, products, technology, buildings, infrastructure, careers, processes and human imagination.”
Tags: disabilities
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
We have a homelessness emergency in every part of Ontario
Tuesday, March 14th, 2023
… the cause and effect are apparent… Ontario would need to increase its budget by $28 billion a year to spend what other provinces are spending. This extreme underspending will be a disaster for our communities… Ontario municipalities are unique in Canada in that they pay all or part of the costs of a range of health and social services such as public health and social housing.
Tags: budget, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Making time for that vital “one more thing” in health care
Saturday, March 11th, 2023
Team-based care is one of four opportunities for innovation and transformation that Canada’s physicians are calling for… Ensuring doctors, nurses, and other health professionals can practise across Canada more easily will help… Next, let’s cut more red tape on data gathering and information sharing… Finally, doing better by health workers means integrated workforce planning on a national scale.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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