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Canada is rolling out its dental care program.
Monday, December 11th, 2023
The program will be phased in, starting with seniors. Eligible Canadians aged 87 and above can start applying this month. Those aged 77 to 86 can start applying in January 2024, followed by those aged 72 to 76 in February. If you’re between the ages of 70 and 71, you can apply in March… Starting in May 2024, applications will move to an online portal, and will open up to seniors aged 65 and up. In June, anyone with a valid Disability Tax Credit certificate, and eligible youth under 18, can also begin applying online. Everyone else meeting the criteria can apply online in 2025.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Hospitals plagued by staff shortages and ER closures under Ford government, auditor general finds
Wednesday, December 6th, 2023
Plagued by shortages of doctors and nurses and persistent emergency room closures, Ontario lacks a province-wide strategy to fix the problems, the watchdog agency said in a wide-ranging audit of government performance… The worsening staff shortages have been fuelled by the Ford government’s Bill 124, which limited nurses and many other public sector workers to maximum annual pay hikes of one per cent, the auditor found.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Learn these three simple numbers to help prevent suicide
Friday, December 1st, 2023
Responders at 9-8-8 are trained in suicide prevention and are based at existing helplines across the country. They will listen with compassion and empathy and give callers and texters space to share without being judged. Responders will work with callers and texters to explore ways to cope and pathways to safety when things are overwhelming… It is important to note that while 9-8-8 will help keep people safe in the moment, it is not a replacement for mental health care provided in primary care, in communities and in hospitals.
Tags: featured, jurisdiction, mental Health, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Time to hit the rich with a wealth tax
Thursday, November 30th, 2023
… in their budget last March, the Liberals proclaimed they were “ensuring the wealthiest Canadians pay their fair share,” as they brought in income tax changes that will raise another $525 million a year from high-income earners. But these changes will have little impact on the wealthiest Canadians, who are largely able to avoid income taxes. To tax the truly wealthy – and only them — a wealth tax is far more effective… A wealth tax would apply exclusively to those with net assets of more than $10 million…
Tags: economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ford government’s bottomless determination to convert our drinking into private profit should concern us all
Wednesday, November 29th, 2023
… making alcohol cheaper and easier to purchase unsurprisingly leads to higher levels of drinking and increases in harm… Our drinking is big business — almost $10 billion a year — and multiple players are fighting to grab a larger slice of that pie. And while the industry winners may be about to waltz off with a record windfall, the likely losers — the Ontario taxpayers — may be left to deal with increasing social and health harms, all on a shrinking budget.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Toronto is getting a fourth emergency service. That’s vital for helping people in crisis
Wednesday, November 29th, 2023
The service, which offers a non-police, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises… will soon cover the entire city… Police are, after all, not trained mental health professionals, and police involvement has all too often ended in tragedy. In contrast, 93 per cent of the crisis calls were successfully completed, and 95 per cent of people served by crisis teams said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service.
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, homelessness, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s colleges and universities are strapped for cash. A panel has wisely proposed a fix
Thursday, November 23rd, 2023
… salary and benefit costs in Ontario’s universities are, per full-time equivalent student, among the lowest of any province. And as the report said, all organizations that made submissions “emphasized the value of post-secondary education in creating and maintaining a highly qualified and relevant talent pipeline in Ontario.” As has become obvious, the government’s lack of vision on this file does not just fail a sector. It fails the future.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s regional universities are in jeopardy — and so are the future of our communities
Tuesday, November 21st, 2023
Increasingly… regional universities are alone in shouldering the costs of educating our future citizens and supporting our communities due to funding freezes from the province… Operating grants from the provincial government have been frozen since 2006 and the province has not funded for net new students since 2016… Then in 2019, the province cut domestic tuition fees by 10 per cent and has frozen them since… These cuts are not sustainable.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
We are walking down the dangerous path of health care privatization
Tuesday, November 21st, 2023
… medicare restrictions on physicians are provincially and territorially imposed, so many virtual clinics skirt the rules by employing physicians licenced in a different jurisdiction than the patient lives. Resolving these loopholes is not impossible — simply fold nurse practitioners into the same medicare legislation physicians work under and bring in nationwide physician licencing. Yet there seems to be no appetite on the part of health ministries to address these issues.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Growing gas plants: a made-in-Ontario public health failure
Friday, November 17th, 2023
Air pollution prematurely kills at least 6,600 Ontarians annually… Breathing toxic polluted air, further worsened by gas expansion, causes disease throughout our bodies… Other jurisdictions worldwide are successfully combining energy conservation, storage, and safe large-scale renewable energy transitions using solar, wind and hydro. Overlooking these low-cost, ready and reliable solutions, the Ontario government deliberately cancelled pre-existing renewable projects, costing taxpayers approximately $231 million.
Tags: economy, Health, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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