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Some of our most undervalued workers now among our most valuable as pandemic forces rethink of what jobs are critical
Saturday, March 21st, 2020
Millions of so-called “low skill” workers are also indispensable to our well-being, possibly even our survival… They have to keep working: both to earn income (most wouldn’t even qualify for Employment Insurance), and to serve us… Indeed, the precarious insecurity of these supposedly “menial” jobs now poses major risks to the rest of society.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Liberal bolstering of social safety net should be more ambitious
Friday, March 20th, 2020
In effect, the Liberal government is reinventing an unemployment insurance scheme that will actually cover the unemployed. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is pitching this as a temporary measure to deal with a short-term emergency. He should be more ambitious… A real unemployment insurance scheme, one that took into account all the jobless, would be a good first step.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Coronavirus shows it’s time to mend the safety net
Friday, March 20th, 2020
Having now accepted that better job protections and income supports are necessary in this crisis, how can we go back to pretending they’re not needed all the time? … This should be a learning experience that guides better policies for the long-term — not simply one-offs that will disappear when the crisis passes.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ottawa commits billions to help people hit by the economic fallout of COVID-19
Saturday, March 14th, 2020
The federal government will open the spending taps to throw an economic lifeline to Canadians and businesses as the spread of COVID-19 exacts a growing financial toll, from empty restaurants and theatres to a gutted travel sector… Friday’s rate cut and the government’s promise of aggressive stimulus spending underscores how quickly the crisis is moving and how seriously federal officials view the threat to the economy.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, Health, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ontario sets up locations for COVID-19 assessment centres and postpones public health cuts
Thursday, March 12th, 2020
This move “recognizes the considerable time and resources necessary for public health units to effectively respond to COVID-19”… Parts of Ontariot serviced by the assessment centres will be served by hospital emergency wards. The province is also boosting resources for Telehealth Ontario, which has seen high call volumes and long waits as people call in with questions about the new coronavirus.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
The public lab that could have helped fight COVID-19 pandemic
Thursday, March 12th, 2020
… our willingness to go along with the privatization cult in recent decades has left us weaker and less protected than we could be. Not only do we no longer have Connaught Labs, but Canada spends $1 billion a year funding basic medical research at Canadian universities, yet relies on the private marketplace to produce, control — and profit from — the resulting medical innovations… With a surge in future global pandemics expected, it might well be time to rethink Canada’s foolhardy attachment to the notion “the private sector always does things better.”
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health History | No Comments »
On mental health, words come easily. Action less so
Sunday, March 8th, 2020
It’s been almost exactly 10 years… since a select committee report on mental health titled “Navigating the Journey to Wellness: The Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Plan for Ontarians” was issued… Chief among the committee’s eventual recommendations… was creation of Mental Health and Addictions Ontario, an umbrella organization to ensure that a single body was responsible for designing, managing and co-ordinating the system, as well as a “core basket of services in all regions” and “access to a system of navigators.”
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Cabinet approves $240M Mohawk settlement for 132-year-old land claim
Friday, March 6th, 2020
In 2015, the federal government offered a global settlement of just under $240 million in compensation and offered to give the community the right to have up to 18,282 acres of land added to the Akwesasne reserve, if the First Nation buys parcels on the open market. A referendum was held in December 2018… and 80 per cent of those who participated voted in favour… once they receive the money, the Mohawks of Akwesasne effectively renounce their claim to disputed land and confirm that the 1888 surrender was valid.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, jurisdiction, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Tories to inject $2 million in new funding for rape crisis centres — one day after signalling $1 million had been cut
Friday, March 6th, 2020
In an apparent communications snafu from Ford’s Tories, the centres are in fact getting a cash infusion from Queen’s Park… The confusion apparently stems from the fact that the government is planning a new strategy to curb human trafficking expected to be announced Friday… Still, last year’s one-time $1-million funding announcement by the Tories was far less than the $14 million over three years the centres had been promised by the previous Liberal government.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, Health, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Did free cash drive people to quit work? Not according to a new study of Ontario’s basic income experiment
Thursday, March 5th, 2020
Three-quarters of people who were employed before joining Ontario’s ill-fated basic income pilot project continued to work while receiving the no-strings-attached monthly stipend, according to a new study. And more than one-third of those low-wage workers were able to move to higher paying and more secure jobs… The findings shatter the belief among skeptics that basic income discourages people from working.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
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