« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Toronto and Ottawa would benefit from supervised drug injection sites
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Apr 11 2012
giving addicts a safer place to use drugs can help curb the health risks, public nuisance and other problems associated with addiction. That’s the upshot of a comprehensive four-year study into the merits of setting up publicly funded “consumption facilities” — a.k.a. supervised injection sites — for illegal drugs in Toronto and Ottawa. It’s an idea whose time has come.
Tags: crime prevention, Health, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Debates | 2 Comments »
Harper’s cynical assault on democracy
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Apr 11 2012
Fatigued by years of seeing successive governments ignore pleas for more accountability and respect, many citizens will never re-engage in politics. But others still believe the system can be changed, that our democratic process can be improved… In effect, we must become “nags.” Encouragingly, we don’t need to work in isolation. Samara, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting citizen engagement within Canadian democracy, will soon launch Democracy Talks, a national program to help revitalize our democracy.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper throws National Council of Welfare on the scrap heap
Friday, April 13th, 2012
Apr 12 2012
Since 1962, the National Council of Welfare had held up a mirror to the nation, highlighting the pockets of poverty and warning policy-makers of the consequences of neglecting those in need. It gave non-profit groups the facts they needed to speak credibly about hardship in a land of plenty. It tracked the emergence and growth of a crack in society between the comfortably well-off and the struggling. And it brought together social policy thinkers to find solutions to poverty… Now it’s gone.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
A new Canadian survey on the rich/poor gap and taxes should spark debate
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012
Apr 10 2012
“The option of raising taxes to protect the social programs we cherish and to address income inequality has been absent from public debate for too long,” says… Ed Broadbent. “Our research shows Canadians are prepared to do their part and they expect the wealthy, corporate Canada, and their own governments to be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.”… Fully 89 per cent think addressing income inequality should be a government priority and 77 per cent think it’s a serious problem… As Broadbent argues, “gross inequality isn’t inevitable, it’s a political choice.” One that has distorted the public agenda for too long.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
NDP demands tax credits worth hundreds of millions to support Liberal budget
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Apr 10 2012
Horwath unveiled her job creation tax credit plan… The idea is to reimburse employers for 10 per cent of the salary paid to a new hire during the first year of employment, up to a maximum of $5,000. The government is facing a $15.2 billion deficit and needs NDP support in order for the budget to pass. If not, the province could soon plunge into another election. The other two NDP proposals include an extra tax placed on the rich and $418,000 salary caps for public sector executives, such as hospital chiefs… The NDP also want to see natural resources pulled from the ground in northern Ontario processed in the province.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Broadbent poll uncovers public desire to close inequality gap
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
Apr 09 2012
The biggest worry among Canadians is that it will lead to declining living standards, followed by concern about increased crime, and the erosion of public health care and other public services. The majority of Canadians are also worried that income inequality leads to fewer opportunities for young Canadians to do as well or better than their parents… Perhaps most alarming in the long run is that a majority believe that the growing gap can erode the quality of our democracy. No matter where you live or how much you make, our public opinion research shows that the growing gap is viewed as decidedly un-Canadian.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Debates | 1 Comment »
Ontario ombudsman could hold hospitals to account
Monday, April 9th, 2012
Apr 08 2012
Ontario is… the only province whose ombudsman cannot investigate hospitals and long-term care facilities… they would perform better if they were subject to the scrutiny of my office, like virtually every other provincial ministry, agency, board, tribunal and Crown corporation… Every year, we hear from hundreds of patients and their loved ones who say they’ve endured inadequate care, unsafe conditions, even neglect and abuse in hospitals.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Where are our jobs going to come from?
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Apr 05 2012
How are we going to grow the economic pie? Where will the jobs come from?… The Harper budget did provide an answer. We go back to the future, as hewers of wood and drawers of water: Dig out as many resources as we can, extract as much oil as possible from the tarsands and lay down as many pipelines as fast as investment permits. Damn the environment and damn the pesky environmentalists… We must find new ways to grow the economy to create the jobs and the revenues we need to fend off the creeping Me-Me-ism that threatens to destroy the Canadian ethos of sharing and lead ultimately to the tribal politics of the Tea Party.
Tags: economy, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
More than a budget, this a blueprint to make over Canada
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
Mar 29 2012
The Prime Minister intends to use his parliamentary majority to redefine the role of government and rewrite Canada’s social contract. It would have helped to know all this before last year’s election. But Harper never said a word about reducing the government’s commitment to Old Age Security, capping Ottawa’s contribution to medicare or loosening environmental regulations. He never told Canadians a Conservative government would keep paring public services after the budget was balanced…. And the role of government in people’s lives will continue to shrink. They’ll have to lower their expectations, save more, demand less and stop looking to Ottawa to shield them from the rigours of the marketplace.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Doctors say tax us! Ontario is worth it
Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012
Apr 02 2012
Almost all the economic gains of the past three decades have gone to Canada’s top 1 per cent but our taxes haven’t gone up accordingly. Controlled for inflation, during the last 30 years, the highest earning fifth of Canadians increased their pay by 40 per cent while the earnings of the lowest fifth fell by 11 per cent… As physicians, we see the impact of this growing inequality on our patients and communities. Diabetes rates are skyrocketing in poor neighbourhoods. And economic inequality is bad for everyone. For example, less equal societies have much higher rates of violence…. After several years of discussion, five of us launched Doctors for Fair Taxation < http://doctorsforfairtaxation.ca/ >.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 2 Comments »
Recent Comments