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Blueprint for a modern EI system
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Nov 17 2011
It would be impossible to do justice to its 122-page report, Making It Work, in a newspaper column. Here is a brief glimpse of its principal recommendations: • Treat all unemployed workers equally… • Create a temporary benefit for workers who don’t qualify for EI coverage… • Test the feasibility of wage insurance for longtime employees of dying industries… • Take job training out of EI entirely… Regrettably, this analysis is out of sync with the government’s mindset. It sees nothing wrong with the existing program. It is loath to make life comfortable for the unemployed. Austerity is its watchword.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Fixing Ontario’s double democratic deficit
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Nov 14 2011
Whatever your politics, last month’s provincial election results were doubly depressing: Voter-buying, and voter turnout, reached new highs and lows…. if they’re serious about rescuing a democracy that’s dying or, at best, atrophying: Internet voting. Turnouts have been declining steadily, from 68 per cent in 1975 to 49 per cent last month. It’s a warning sign that cries out for action
Tags: participation
Posted in Governance Delivery System | No Comments »
No quick fix for universities
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Nov 14 2011
The amount of per-student funding provided to universities by the government of Ontario has declined by 25 per cent since 1990, adjusted for inflation. Since 2001, enrolment has increased by 60 per cent… Our student-to-faculty ratio is now 27-to-1, the worst in Canada. In 1990, it was 18-to-1. So let’s be clear: the problem is not that faculty are not teaching enough.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Government spies on advocate for native children
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Nov 15 2011
When does a life-long advocate for aboriginal children become an enemy of the state? The answer, it would seem, is when you file a human rights complaint accusing your government of willfully underfunding child welfare services to First Nations children on reserves. Accusing your government, in other words, of racial discrimination.
Tags: Indigenous, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | 4 Comments »
Is our EI system broken?
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Nov 15 2011
… the EI system is complex, opaque and not easily understood by contributors. It says the current program has failed to keep up with societal and economic change and it’s widely recognized that there are deep problems at the core of the system. Too many people, it says, are being left out of the social safety net, too many are carrying an unfair burden and too many are not achieving their potential.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Delivery System | 2 Comments »
Idealism in a ‘deeply cynical age’
Sunday, November 13th, 2011
Nov. 13, 2011
… we have a political system which has fallen into the hands of the corporate lobbies and we have a business elite which violates the law with alarming frequency and a Wall Street financial centre which not only broke the law but helped to create one of the most painful financial disasters in economic history that we’re still living through. That’s why people are upset. They want a restoration of democracy. They want money out of the political system and they want a fairer economy.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
We need growth that creates jobs
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
Nov 11 2011
… let me emphasize another key element of a truly sustainable recovery — the social dimension. We need growth, but we need growth that produces jobs. Without jobs, the great risk is that a generation of young people becomes unmoored from the productive economy and the bonds of society. We need growth, but we need growth that is inclusive. As is borne out by recent IMF research, more equal income distribution is good for macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, youth
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
The health-care sky is not falling !
Saturday, November 12th, 2011
Nov 11 2011
Health care increased its share of the public pie from 1997 to 2008 largely because government cut the size of the pie by axing other programs. The feds eliminated the National Housing Program in 1993 and Ontario social assistance recipients have seen their inflation-adjusted incomes fall by 40 per cent since 1995. These policy debacles have made a lot of people sick and applied pressure to hospitals and other health-care organizations.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Occupy Toronto is not the real threat to civil society
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Nov 10 2011
Certainly this is the hour of our discontent. That discontent is income inequality. The spectacular disparity between the super-affluent and the rest of us is a leading, if not root, cause of widespread ill health, stunted education opportunity, and intolerably high rates of crime and racial discrimination in our communities… Economic injustice is not an act of God, but of man. The now-tattered social safety net we built we can repair. The wealth of nations is jeopardized by allowing the middle-class backbone of our communities to corrode, a process already too far along.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The Liberal revolution
Friday, November 11th, 2011
Nov 10 2011
This kind of searching and fearless self-criticism may be a necessary first step towards political recovery, but it will have effect only if it is followed by serious rethinking and rebuilding… The document spells out key elements of Liberalism that remain as relevant as ever – a belief in freedom, diversity, free and fair markets, equality, and the power of government to do good. It also puts a welcome new emphasis on openness and new forms of political engagement.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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