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When it comes to long-term care, what matters more than ownership is accountability and responsibility
Tuesday, May 12th, 2020
The profit motive works in our market system. But what works for Walmart — relentless cost-cutting pressure on suppliers and minimal staffing ratios for low wage part-timers — is hardly an optimal model for nursing homes where part-time, underpaid caregivers are responsible for safeguarding people, not products… There is no excuse for not regulating and inspecting comprehensively, annually and aggressively. Surely that is the primary role and responsibility of government
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
COVID-19 has exposed ugly failings of our politics. Here’s how Ottawa can build on the lessons of the pandemic
Saturday, May 9th, 2020
COVID-19. It has proved that the Employment Insurance system is out of step with today’s workforce. It has stirred questions about globalization and whether international supply networks are truly a virtue in times of desperate need. It has spurred plodding bureaucracies, known for their cautious approach to issues, into impossibly speedy policy decisions to rush aid to Canadians. And it’s left Canadians with a deficit hangover… the pandemic has laid bare problems and blown up old ways of doing things.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, Health, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
For-profit nursing homes have four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes, Star analysis finds
Saturday, May 9th, 2020
A resident in a for-profit home has been about 60 per cent more likely to catch COVID-19 and 45 per cent more likely to die than a resident in a non-profit home. A for-profit resident has also been about four times more likely to catch COVID-19 and four times more likely to die than a resident in a municipally run home… Overall, for-profit homes make up less than 60 per cent of long-term-care homes in the province, but they account for 16 of the 20 worst outbreaks.
Tags: Health, housing, jurisdiction, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Pandemic proves value of guaranteed incomes
Saturday, May 9th, 2020
We know that we will emerge from this crisis with higher levels of unemployment than we have seen in two generations. We should be prepared for a winter ahead into which millions of Canadians will be headed broke, unemployed and close to despair… It might lead to the most transformational changes in today’s rich but increasingly divided and unequal economies since Bismarck invented the public pension system, nearly 140 years ago.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Neo-liberalism may be another COVID-19 victim
Friday, May 8th, 2020
Overall, neo-liberalism seemed to be working. The developed world got its foreign-made goods at bargain basement prices. The workers of the developing world were usually exploited. But at least they had jobs… Now we have a pandemic that strikes right at the heart of globalization… Global supply chains may work in neo-liberal theory. But in the real world of disease, fear and sharp practices, these supply chains are strikingly vulnerable.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Gun control is a Canadian value I was proud to adopt
Friday, May 8th, 2020
… the science is clear: jurisdictions that have more stringent restrictions on access to guns — including bans on assault weapons — have less gun injury and death. Canada’s assault weapons ban is backed by 15 medical associations, two national women’s organizations, survivors’ groups, mayors, police chiefs, and the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime… Let us not fall prey to hollow arguments about “gun rights” and “self protection” or opportunistic political posturing.
Tags: crime prevention, Health, rights
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
This is the model for long-term care we need and deserve
Friday, May 8th, 2020
… all organizations need adequately paid and trained staff to accomplish their mission… Another prerequisite is non-profit personal care… we want to minimize the incentives for underservicing… There are two major strategies for LTC reform. The first is a different LTC institution. The second is to move LTC to the community… the Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly… PACE provides all needed health services at home 24/7… let’s save billions of dollars in bricks and mortar with a Canadian version PACE.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, Health, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates, Equality Debates | No Comments »
Don’t grandfather machine guns, eliminate them
Wednesday, May 6th, 2020
Trudeau’s subsequent reference to “grandfathering” rules after a post-ban two-year transition period is alarming… A ban means no guns; it doesn’t mean keep the ones you have. It shouldn’t mean large payouts to gun owners…
Tags: budget, crime prevention, ideology, rights, women, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
It took a deadly pandemic to get Toronto to embrace a faster way to build affordable housing
Wednesday, May 6th, 2020
Toronto council endorsed a plan to build 250 units of housing for people in the shelter system. The units, funded by a combination of municipal and federal cash, will be built using a modular process, constructed off-site then shipped to Toronto where they can be hoisted up by cranes and snapped together like Lego pieces.
Tags: budget, Health, housing, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates, Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Mike Harris expanded the privatization of long-term care. Doug Ford is discovering that wasn’t a magic cure
Tuesday, May 5th, 2020
There is a contradiction in the criticisms of long-term care: We want to have it all for nothing — better beds but more of them; more quantity and more quality; single rooms with private bathrooms but without the wait lists; more for less… Today, in a pandemic cycle, beware the panaceas.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 12 Comments »
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