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Canada bans military-style firearms, but what about handguns?
Sunday, May 3rd, 2020
Trudeau rightly sees that “you don’t need an AR-15 to bring down a deer.” Well, you don’t use a handgun to shoot one either. Nor does a farmer need a handgun to kill pests. But every year handguns are used in hundreds of shooting incidents in communities across the country… Banning a range of military-style firearms is an important first step for Canada. But our biggest gun problem remains handguns and without banning those Trudeau’s Liberals aren’t doing enough to truly limit gun violence and death in this country.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
COVID-19 creates opportunities for Canada’s centre-left
Sunday, May 3rd, 2020
The Parliamentary Budget Officer predicts that the federal deficit will hit a staggering $252 billion this year thanks largely to a fall-off in tax revenues. Yet few predict fiscal doom. Indeed, many analysts argue that in an economy where the private sector has shut down, more government is needed not less… By comparison, a universal public pharmacare plan would be a bargain. It would cost Ottawa only $20 billion a year… an amount that would be more than offset by savings to individuals and provinces.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Ontario expands emergency child care to include families of grocery-store workers, truck drivers
Thursday, April 30th, 2020
“While our front-line workers are looking after us, we need to make sure we’re looking after them and their families,” Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday… The workers now to be covered also include those employed in meat packing and other food supply businesses, members of the armed forces, truck drivers, cooks and cleaning staff in health-care facilities and nursing homes, and on-site staff in Ontario’s courts.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Ottawa boosts aid package to students, pledges incentives to find work
Thursday, April 30th, 2020
Under the program, post-secondary students, recent graduates and those headed to school in the fall are eligible to get monthly payments of $1,250 a month between May and August. It also promises up to $5,000 for students who volunteer… The government agreed to increase the monthly payments to those with dependants and disabilities by $250 to $2,000 a month… The government agreed to implement new financial incentives and measures to “connect Canadians, particularly students and Canadian youth, to the various jobs available.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Delivery System, Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s front-line workers getting pay hike of $4 an hour during pandemic
Sunday, April 26th, 2020
Effective immediately, employees who are providing front-line and support services, including cleaning and meal preparation at health-care facilities, are eligible for a raise of $4 per hour for the next 16 weeks… Staff who work more than 100 hours per month would receive an additional $250 per month for each of the next four months… The money is also intended to help “front-line providers attract and hire extra staff they need to continue taking care of patients and residents,” Ford said.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, women
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
COVID-19 prompted previously unthinkable spending from Ottawa. Here’s how it will reshape our future
Saturday, April 25th, 2020
… just two months ago… COVID-19 management gripped our economy and we collectively decided to put health and well-being above — far above — economic growth and fiscal discipline… but few foresaw a lockdown that is now more than six weeks long, with many more to come. Few could predict that the cost would be so enormous. But the most surprising part? The consensus that it’s all still worth it is holding strong.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, participation
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Break the cycle of neglect and panic in public health
Saturday, April 25th, 2020
As far back as 2006, in the wake of SARS, Ottawa set out a pandemic preparedness plan that should have made this country as ready as any for a threat like COVID-19… Ottawa, it turns out, has been cutting funding for management of its stocks of personal protective equipment like medical masks and gowns, known as the National Emergency Strategic Stockpile… But at a time when pandemics seemed like distant threats, no one cared much about stocks of PPE gathering dust in warehouses.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Close your eyes and imagine what a best-in-class LTC system looks like… then build it
Saturday, April 25th, 2020
It has fewer and larger LTC facilities. We have too many now… a proper ratio of personal support workers (PSWs) to residents, as with regulated daycare centres… Each resident of the new LTC system has his or her own room, with a personal washroom… PSWs are prohibited from working in multiple locations. That widespread practice, rooted in PSWs’ low pay, is believed to have caused much of the COVID-19 spread.
Tags: Health, housing, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Pandemic has exposed the rifts in our social fabric
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
The pandemic will end, but structural inequities – ones that ensure that those who are most well off are the best protected – will not, unless we insist on correcting a long-standing pattern of social wrongs. If anything good is to come out of a pandemic that shook the world, surely it must be our collective will to seize this opportunity and take stock so that we can move towards a more just society.
Tags: economy, Health, housing, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Financial security for the missing middle will be needed post pandemic
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
The shortcomings of EI became starkly clear during the frantic rush to create an emergency benefit to assist the millions of Canadians with no coverage… Canada will survive the crisis. But when we’re on the other side, we will need more than lifeboats to keep the missing middle afloat. We will need to shore up the system of “adult benefits” that had long been sinking and is in need of major repair.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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