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Equitable pharmacare deal requires Trudeau to strike deal with wary premiers
Wednesday, December 4th, 2019
Every province operates some form of public drug plan for seniors and the poor. All premiers would be pleased to have Ottawa take on part of that financial burden. But they don’t want to be hosed again, as many feel they were with medicare… That’s why the premiers insist that any national pharmacare scheme must have “adequate and sustained” federal funding.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Canada should enforce its own labour standards
Monday, December 2nd, 2019
Provinces like Ontario let employers avoid labour standards, such as the right to vacation pay, by pretending that their workers are self-employed, independent contractors. Provinces like Ontario have also deliberately not kept their labour laws in sync with the requirements of the new economy – one characterized by franchising, digital employment and part-time work… [They] don’t enforce the labour standards that do exist. Citing budget constraints and an aversion to red tape, they cut back workplace inspections and respond inadequately to real complaints.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
A lack of nutritious food is harming Canadians
Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
One of the fundamental principles of our medicare system is that every Canadian should have access to evidence-based treatments. But we are failing Canadians when it comes to one of the most essential medicines — access to nutritious and healthy food. We can no longer divorce the health of Canadians from nutrition in our health care system. Our health as a nation is depending on it.
Tags: Health, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
The elimination of regional leadership in Ontario’s health system
Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
The health team design principles suggest that regional leadership of the system is not important if local care is better integrated. This may be true but having experience in working with the LHINs to implement change in Ontario, I worry about the loss of a regional leadership structure, which demonstrably improved quality in Ontario health care.
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Here’s why you should like the federal carbon tax
Wednesday, November 27th, 2019
An escalating carbon price, on the other hand, would allow GDP per capita to grow steadily so long as the proceeds of the carbon tax are redistributed to taxpayers, as the current plan foresees… By… 2030 and the emissions reductions are in the bag, Canadians would each be $3,300-a-year richer under carbon pricing than under the large-emitter-only scenario.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
A better way to keep kids safe
Monday, November 25th, 2019
Now a new pilot program run by the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto called “Journey to Zero” will focus on early intervention in an effort to keep children in their own homes and out of care… “We shouldn’t design a system where we are raising children”… The solution? Putting much more emphasis on supporting families in need so they, not children’s aid societies, can do the job themselves.
Tags: child care, featured, ideology, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s healthcare spending lowest in Canada — but going lower
Thursday, November 21st, 2019
These cuts, totalling about $360 million, will affect everything from mental health care to cancer screening, according to Natalie Mehra, head of the Ontario Health Coalition… Their impact will likely be profound, since… Ontario’s health-care spending is only $3,903 per person — the lowest of the ten provinces — and $487 per person lower than the Canadian average…
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, philanthropy, privatization, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario shouldn’t turn back the clock on naming judges
Wednesday, November 20th, 2019
The effect of that would be to give the attorney general more leeway to use his own discretion in naming judges and JPs. It risks turning back the clock and re-politicizing a system that has been virtually free of partisan considerations for some time. It would be, in other words, a step backwards toward the bad old days when political connections mattered as much (or more) than legal excellence.
Tags: ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Trudeau has chance now to be unusually bold
Monday, November 18th, 2019
Trudeau may not be able to get all provinces to agree to, say, a universal pharmacare program. But that doesn’t preclude him from establishing the legislative framework for one… voters didn’t elect Liberals just so they could sit on their hands and apologize for not being from Alberta. They elected them to do something.
Tags: Health, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
End of HIV epidemic is within our grasp
Sunday, November 17th, 2019
… 19 per cent of Canadians diagnosed with HIV are not accessing treatment. Compared to all other G7 countries that have published figures on this measure, Canada ranks last. What sets us apart? For one, we are the only high-income country in the world with a public health-care system that lacks a country-wide pharmacare program… What are we waiting for?
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, pharmaceutical, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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