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Ontario Human Rights Code amended to protect transgendered people
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
Jun 13 2012
The transgendered Torontonian has had difficulty applying for credit cards, student loans, identification cards, and accessing health care, employment and housing. So Wednesday’s vote by MPPs to enshrine “gender identity” and “gender expression” in the Ontario Human Rights Code is a landmark moment… Ontario has become the first jurisdiction in North America — other than the Northwest Territories — to enact protection against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression
Tags: rights
Posted in Equality Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Rich-poor divide in Toronto’s hospitals
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
June 13, 2012
Those walk-in patients who clog emergency departments with non-urgent ailments? Probably not your middle-class neighbours with their coughing, feverish children. The majority are low-income Torontonians with nowhere else to go… two lessons from Hospital Care for All. The first is that “very low-income people are using the parts of the health-care system that are in greatest crisis.” The second is that to reduce hospital use “people need the ability to pay for healthy foods, buy medicine and live in a healthy place where they can receive home care.”
Tags: Health, poverty
Posted in Health Delivery System, Health Policy Context | No Comments »
More subterfuge hidden inside The Trojan Horse bill
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
Jun 12 2012
information was requested by the independent parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page. He quite logically believed he had an obligation to report to parliamentarians which departments will be affected by the $5.2 billion in budget cuts, and what services could be affected. He was told to go away… Page, appointed by Harper in 2006 as part of the Federal Accountability Act, is now placed in the position of mulling a potential court challenge as a last resort to obtain information to which he is entitled.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Governments can’t ignore income security forever
Monday, June 11th, 2012
Jun 10, 2012.
Except for Newfoundland and Labrador, all provinces pay welfare rates well beneath the poverty line, helping to feed the costly pathologies of poverty that fill our hospitals, our homeless shelters, our prisons and the tragedies of family violence and substance abuse. A frank discussion about income security, poverty and the kind of income floor that could obviate other programs that are unbalanced, expensive to operate, wasteful and disconnected from reality, is long overdue.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Offering a ‘hand up, not a handout’
Monday, June 11th, 2012
Jun 08 2012
The first Habitat affiliate in Ontario was founded in Waterloo Region in 1987 and the Toronto affiliate has been in existence for 24 years, with almost three dozen affiliates in all across the province. Their mandate is to mobilize volunteers and community partners to build affordable housing and promote homeownership as a means to break the cycle of poverty… Habitat will… expand its ReStore program, which provides important funding for the organization by selling used or discontinued items that have been donated to Habitat, such as plumbing fixtures, cabinets, windows, etc.
Tags: housing, philanthropy, poverty
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Family doctors should work where province decides, health conference told
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
Jun 09 2012
Family doctors should no longer able to work as solo practitioners nor should they be allowed to set up shop wherever they want, a conference on health reform has been told… There are up to 1,500 family physicians working as solo practitioners in Ontario, a large portion of them in the Greater Toronto Area. Most are older and have spent decades practising this way… Solo practitioners and their patients are at a disadvantage because they have access to fewer resources… They are isolated from where all the resources are and they often look after really needy patients
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
U.S. has tax-cut its way into debt
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 07 2012
In the wake of a financial crisis caused by excessive debt, tax cuts are highly unlikely to lead to increased economic activity. People use the money to pay down their debts rather than shop for cars, houses and appliances. As for the idea that employers are not creating jobs because their taxes are too high, think about it: Would Mitt Romney invest more of his money in American factories if only he had paid less than the 13.9 per cent rate he paid last year? Please! … Tax cuts have been a central cause of America’s deficit problems.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
No more second chances for offenders in Ontario
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 07 2012
Last year, approximately 75,000 prisoners were released into Ontario’s population. The number will climb when Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s multi-part crime bill, approved in March, is fully implemented. Approximately half of these newly released inmates will come out of jail with mental health or addiction problems. A third will be homeless. Many won’t know how to apply for welfare, cook for themselves, navigate the social service system, replace lost identity documents or manage their anger. Most won’t have the skills they need to get a job… Now the province must pay the price:
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
… Destitution Day
Saturday, June 9th, 2012
Jun 06 2012
The D is for destitution, and it is the date a single person on welfare would run out of money if he or she were living at the poverty line, according to Social Planning Toronto… Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off, after taxes, for a single person living in a large city like Toronto is about $19,800. “We have dubbed June 7 Destitution Day to highlight the severity of poverty in Toronto and the inadequacy of government benefits in light of the upcoming provincial social assistance review”… “What is striking is that even in the most affluent wards of the city there are still substantial numbers of people living in poverty,” he said. “In every ward there is a good-sized small town living in poverty.”
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
How the Liberals buried a $14 billion liability late in the day [WSIB]
Tuesday, June 5th, 2012
Jun 04 2012
The WSIB has only 55 per cent of what it needs to meet its obligations. In other provinces, its counterparts are more or less fully funded. The problem is that Ontario businesses keep complaining they’re tapped out, while payouts and other costs keep rising… Businesses demand that the WSIB operate in a more businesslike way, but then demand a break on premiums. If car or home insurance companies provided insurance at a loss — or without well-paid actuaries — they wouldn’t stay in business… the government promises it will be fixed ASAP. Target date: 2027.
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, pensions, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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