« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Child care isn’t a frill
Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Jul 13 2011
The “key opportunities” identified in the latest report by KPMG include eliminating 2,000 daycare spaces subsidized for low-income families… Though they identified the option, even KPMG’s accountants see the dangers in cutting access to affordable child care. “Reducing the number of subsidized child care spaces,” they write, “will make work and/or school less accessible to some parents, and may increase Ontario Works and Employment and Social Services case loads (and costs).”
Tags: child care, economy, ideology, participation, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Unloading city-run daycares, seniors’ homes could be a challenge
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
July 13, 2011
City consultants KPMG have suggested the city unload its child-care centres to help bridge a $774 million budget shortfall next year. Of 932 centres in Toronto, only 55 are run by the city. A 2008 report found the city-run centres provide better service than those run by non-profits or businesses. But they are also “considerably more expensive”… Wednesday’s KPMG report also suggested the city should transfer nine of its 10 long-term care homes… A recent study showed for-profit care is “more likely to produce inferior outcomes,” she noted. “In the end, ownership matters.”
Tags: budget, child care, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario takes a backward step on mental health
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
Jul 12 2011
… the Ministry of Health began negotiating the hand-off of Ontario’s Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office, an independent provincial agency, to the Canadian Mental Health Association… It upsets [mental health advocates] that there was no public consultation. And it worries them that the ministry is chipping away at the rights of one of the most vulnerable groups in society under the guise of “integrating” health services. But their biggest concern is that the government is poised to walk away from its role as the guardian of Ontarians with mental disabilities.
Tags: disabilities, mental Health, rights
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Acronyms reduce citizens to baffled bystanders
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
Jul 05 2011
Acronyms prevent people from understanding public issues. They obstruct informed debate. They exclude most of the population from significant conversations. And they drive journalists crazy… There is nothing intrinsically wrong with acronyms. Almost all workplaces have them. Many voluntary organizations… use them… Most people have the courtesy to use them where they belong. Bureaucrats, for some reason, don’t. They assume it is incumbent on everybody else to learn their acronyms and keep track of them all.
Tags: participation
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Imagining a world without pensions
Monday, July 4th, 2011
Jul 03 2011
According to Statistics Canada, six out of 10 Canadians have no formal pension plan. If rates of defined-benefit coverage continue to decline, we’ll have no discernible pension coverage in the next 10 to 20 years, and will be grappling with widespread senior poverty… rather than getting rid of pension plans, we need to strengthen and expand them. A pension plan that provides meaningful replacement income is our best line of defence against widespread senior poverty.
Tags: economy, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
City wants to hide priority neighbourhoods, pretend they don’t exist
Monday, July 4th, 2011
Jun 29 2011
Listen to the slick, contemptible councillors and the slithery rhetoric aimed at channeling the few targeted dollars away from the poorest citizens. Whoever knew that Jane-Finch and Rexdale were “gravy,” a waste of money in Toronto the Good? …There is a reason these areas were deemed priority neighbourhoods. In some, three in four families live below the poverty line. Worse, there was an astonishing lack of resources to serve the residents. In fact, some downtown neighbourhoods were poorer in terms of household incomes, but had the social supports to make life tolerable.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Meech Lake foes won the battle, lost the war
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Jun 29 2011
Over the second half of Jean Chrétien’s tenure, billions of federal surplus revenues were transferred to the provinces and/or spent on tax cuts. With that money went the federal capacity of initiate a top-down expansion of Canada’s social infrastructure. In Chrétien’s wake, Paul Martin negotiated separate child-care funding agreements with each province. In the name of asymmetrical federalism, he offered Quebec different modalities in the 2004 Health Accord… Today, Stephen Harper is poised to rush through the door that Martin pried open in 2004.
Tags: ideology, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Cutting surgical wait times for children
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Jun 28 2011
Considering that there is no advantage to waiting — it saves no money and only delays essential care — the question now for all governments is how we should respond to almost 30 per cent of Canadian children waiting too long for surgery… In just under four years, across 15 academic and nine community hospitals across Canada, the CPSWT Project has measured the wait for surgery for more than 200,000 children. This has allowed us to follow trends, benchmark waits between peer hospitals and learn from each other.
Tags: budget, Health, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Police chiefs urge province to tackle mental health
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
Jun 26 2011
The provincial government should boost mental health services because a growing number of people with those problems are getting into trouble with the law, Ontario’s police chiefs say… “We are spending a lot of time and resources dealing with mental health issues,”… “This goes way back to the Mike Harris (Conservative) government, which started making cuts in social support. And guess who got to take a lot of those responsibilities?”… dealing with mental health… should be about addressing people’s needs at the front end so they don’t get into the justice system.”
Tags: budget, crime prevention, ideology, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Almost 20,000 Toronto tots waiting for child-care subsidies
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
June 28, 2011
A record 19,817 Toronto children are waiting for daycare subsidies while the city scrambles to keep its chronically underfunded system afloat with unused money from all-day kindergarten… The city’s recovering economy, high cost of living and a new generation of young educated women entering the workforce are putting new pressure on the city’s daycare waiting list… “We don’t have a child-care system. We don’t have a plan. We are literally flying by the seat of our pants,”
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Recent Comments