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Ford government’s controversial plan for private medical clinics will begin this spring
Sunday, January 21st, 2024
The Ontario government will approve more privately owned clinics to provide diagnostic services like CTs and MRIs and surgeries starting April 1… critics fear will bleed the public health system of doctors, nurses and other resources at a time when patients face record waits in hospital emergency rooms… Ontario currently has more than 900 private clinics in operation, mainly providing X-rays and other diagnostic services, and many of them predate [this] government.
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Could this project help address our housing crisis — and put a roof over refugees’ heads?
Wednesday, January 17th, 2024
Refugee Housing Canada’s home-sharing platform connects refugees in need of a safe and welcoming home with Canadian hosts who want to help and also earn some income… “It’s not unprecedented. After the Second World War, there was a big shortage of housing and people took in boarders. I know the world is a very, very different place today but it’s time to do that again.”
Tags: homelessness, housing, immigration, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
No end to the ER crisis without investments and addressing workers’ concerns
Wednesday, January 17th, 2024
We recently estimated that dealing with those pressures and bringing back the quality of care in our hospitals to an acceptable standard would require a $1.25 billion annual investment after offsetting costs of inflation. But so far, the Ford government is letting the hospitals deteriorate while it sits on $5.4 billion in contingency funding. If this government is serious about addressing the hospital crisis, it must commit to historic investments immediately.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Welfare rates now $200 a month below the Harris cuts of 1995
Saturday, January 6th, 2024
… inflation over two PC tenures since Bill Davis and Frank Miller has risen 35.2 per cent with no increases to Ontario Works and a total of just 12 per cent for ODSP. The last PC Premier to raise OW rates was Bill Davis 39 years ago in 1985… The cumulative effect of multidecade inaction — whether on housing or climate change — is now coming home to roost. Just look at food bank usage.
Tags: budget, featured, housing, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario has an accessibility crisis. It’s time Queen’s Park acted with urgency
Thursday, January 4th, 2024
First, avoid gathering any data that might indicate the scope of the problem, as well as how to solve it. Second, don’t put anyone in charge of remedying the problem. Finally, avoid employing any enforcement mechanism, so no one’s ever held responsible for failing to do anything. That… is precisely what the province has been doing for the past 17 years. The review, which is mandated by the act, found that more than three quarters of the province’s 2.9 million people with disabilities (PWD) reported negative experiences.
Tags: disabilities, featured, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Canadian schools are accepting international students by the thousands — but nearly half aren’t being allowed into the country
Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024
The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association has made a submission to the federal government on the international student program and recommends overseas education agents be regulated by provinces and designated learning institutions be accountable for their agents’ activities and conduct. It urges Canada to mandate the institutions to employ overseas agents directly and release their names, citizenship and location of work.
Tags: economy, immigration, jurisdiction
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Critical nursing shortage puts patients at risk
Saturday, December 30th, 2023
As the health care crisis rages unabated across the country, it is nurses who are holding our health systems together through grit, determination and a shocking amount of overtime… Fixing the nursing shortage is not just about adding more nurses to the system; it’s about addressing the conditions that have created this dire crisis… Relying on excessive overtime or costly private nurse agencies as short-term fixes only exacerbates the systemic challenges facing health care.
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Home care reforms don’t address poor working conditions
Saturday, December 16th, 2023
The almost entirely female – and, in Toronto, mostly racialized – home care personal support workers expect more of the same: low wages, irregular work, few benefits, and almost no pensions. Recent reforms to home care will not resolve chronic problems of poor working conditions, fragmentation of services, and an inefficient delivery model…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, privatization, Seniors, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
What Ontario’s chronic underfunding of education looks like
Saturday, December 16th, 2023
School boards across the province are sounding the alarm over their slashed budgets and serious staffing shortages because boards can no longer afford to pay proper living wages to attract and retain staff. And it looks like increasing violence in the classroom due to inadequate staffing and a lack of qualified, caring adults in the building. But every single one of these issues is preventable.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
After 57 years, Canadians finally have a reason to ‘say cheese’
Thursday, December 14th, 2023
Tooth decay is a preventable disease and a low-cost public health intervention. By publicly funding this care, we should be getting vastly improved preventive and primary care, better health outcomes, and new levers to contain costs… Today it’s not just kids and the elderly who need help. It’s the twenty-, thirty-, even forty-somethings whose jobs don’t come with benefits packages, and whose pay hasn’t kept up with soaring rents and groceries.
Tags: budget, Health, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
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