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Toronto has the chance to create affordable housing, improving thousands of lives
Wednesday, May 26th, 2021
Toronto’s housing market is in the brutal process of evicting low-income residents from our city. Without bold action from our governments things will continue to get worse… It would only require 5 to 10 per cent of the floor area of new highrise condo buildings and 3 to 5 per cent of new highrise rental buildings to be affordable to lower-income residents… Inclusive Zoning is only one of a number of policies that, if implemented in earnest, could make housing affordable for all Canadians.
Tags: housing, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Child care is an integral part of our post-pandemic recovery. Let’s go big and act now
Monday, May 24th, 2021
Provinces will need to meet two tests of credibility in response to the federal offer. The first is one of commitment… because previous efforts haven’t built an accessible system, new commitments need to be significant… The other test is one of detail, of viability. Does the plan actually build up a high-quality, accessible child-care system in the province, led by well-trained and well-paid workers?
Tags: child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Bill 251 puts everyone in Ontario at risk of being unduly policed. This is not just a privacy and profiling issue for some — it is a human rights issue for all
Saturday, May 22nd, 2021
Bill 251 empowers police to continue their problematic legacy of conflating sex work and human trafficking… Bill 251 would insidiously enshrine a bloated law enforcement model that — true to this Ontario government — deflects attention and resources away from real, sustainable solutions that tackle poverty, precarious immigration status and lack of access to affordable housing, health and social services and labour protections.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, women
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
National child-care system must support child-care workers
Thursday, May 20th, 2021
ECEs are the heart of the child-care system; without them, there is no system. Women’s economic empowerment can only be realized through policy that aligns the interests of working parents with those of child-care workers. The well-being of children, the quality of the care they receive, and the ability of parents to work all depend on the essential child-care workforce.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, ideology, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Government must follow report finding and invest in home care
Tuesday, May 18th, 2021
Without an immediate investment of $600 million, Ontario’s home care system will fail. Queen’s Park seems more focused on institutional care, having announced billions for hospitals in its spring budget. This is missing the mark; seniors want the government to help them age with independence, in their own homes.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, Seniors, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Broadcast Act changes are not about freedom of speech
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021
Free speech is not the same as freedom to broadcast or freedom from accountability. Advocates for an absolutist definition of free speech that includes the freedom to exploit modern technology without consequence ignore the deleterious effects of this world view on broader society… It could be used for the benefit of humanity, but not without some dramatic changes to current terms of acceptable use. Unrestricted access to the most powerful broadcasting platform in history is nobody’s right.
Tags: featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Trudeau government throws travel ban back into Ford’s lap as Ottawa-Ontario pandemic split widens
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021
… if Ford wants to lock down his province at the borders, he has to shoulder his own responsibility for those measures.“… Doug Ford asked me to restrict international students. There’s been about 30,000 international students come into Ontario over the past months because they were approved by the Ontario government,” Trudeau said.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
All in this together? Greedy CEOs and corporations abuse our trust
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021
… many top Canadian CEOs saw their compensation soar in pandemic year 2020… Companies that got CEWS money when they didn’t really need it may well have followed the rules as they were written. But the government shouldn’t simply ignore abuse. It should call out companies, especially big ones, that violated the spirit of the program. It should see if any of those millions that went to companies that didn’t need them can be recovered. And it should tighten the rules for the remainder of the life of the program.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, privatization
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Free speech is not at risk by supporting changes to the Broadcasting Act
Tuesday, May 11th, 2021
… the outcry over Bill C-10 is being sustained by people whose ultimate goal is to kill the entire idea of Canadian cultural policy in the internet age. Yet, these self-styled martyrs for democracy are pushing fringe views that run counter to the values and preferences of the overwhelming majority of Canadians, who support sensible updates to Canada’s main media law… Conservative voters are among the most likely to believe that Facebook weakens Canadian democracy…
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, rights, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Trudeau should join Biden in rejecting suffocating ‘trickle-down’ economics
Thursday, May 6th, 2021
Trudeau has shown some spine against the deficit hawks, but he has been timid about joining Biden’s campaign to tax the wealthy… Too bad. We could sure use the money to pay for needed programs. Besides, when nations co-operate, corporations have a hard time playing us off against each other in pushing for ever-lower taxes… if other countries follow the U.S. in policing their corporations this way “it’s the end of tax havens.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »