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More Ontario JK students will get eye exams, free glasses
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
June 20, 2011
In partnership with optometrists and makers of eyeglasses, a program that waives about $300 in fees to get glasses on junior kindergarten pupils needing them will expand… the program that started in 2009 [is expected to be] rolled out province-wide by 2015. The problem is that although eye exams by optometrists are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for children 19 and under, about 80 per cent of kids starting school have never had their eyes tested — and statistics suggest up to one-quarter of them will have vision problems that can be corrected
Tags: Health, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Who oversees children’s aid societies?
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Jun 20 2011
Every year, my office is forced to turn away hundreds of people complaining about children’s aid societies. We are powerless to investigate these cases, but we keep a record of them and refer people elsewhere for help if we can. Since I first raised the issue in the spring of 2006, and counting the cases I’ll be reporting on today, we have received a total of 2,587 complaints about children’s aid societies. That’s more than 2,500 people we have been unable to help.
Tags: child care, ideology, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Recession stalls progress on poverty; almost one in 10 Canadians poor: StatsCan
Monday, June 20th, 2011
Jun 15 2011
… the poverty rate edged up in 2009 to 9.6 per cent — the second straight year that poverty has grown after more than a decade of steady declines… In the past, recessions have deepened poverty in Canada for years, and exacerbated the gap between rich and poor… So far, that doesn’t seem to be the case. While the national poverty picture isn’t pretty, the number of people in the top, middle and bottom echelons of income in Canada remained fairly steady as the recession took hold.
Tags: economy, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Ontario poverty rate up since last election
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
Jun 17 2011
Almost 300,000 more Ontarians sunk into poverty since the McGuinty government was elected in 2007 on a pledge to fight the problem, according to the latest Statistics Canada income data from 2009 released this week… Despite the 2008 recession that battered Ontario industries, the province’s 13.1 per cent poverty rate was still slightly below the national average of 13.3 per cent, says Ontario’s Social Planning Network. But Ontario’s 17 per cent growth in poverty since 2007 was the highest in the country…
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Governments are failing families on child care
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
Jun 18 2011
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has shown nothing but disdain for regulated child care and the transformative effect it can have on families and the economy. In 2006, Conservatives killed a promising national child-care program and replaced it with $100-a-month cheques for parents with children under 6. Since then, Harper has happily handed out $2.6 billion a year of taxpayers’ money through this program without producing any new daycare spaces or enabling parents to afford existing ones.
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Good jobs aren’t in the plan
Sunday, June 19th, 2011
Jun 18 2011
The CEOs have decided. The value of young people is lower than the value of people from my generation. You don’t deserve the same salary, even if you are better educated. You don’t deserve the same vacation time or health benefits. And you certainly don’t deserve to have the same kind of secure retirement. It’s just not in the business plan.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Low-income, young racking up debt at record pace
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Jun 14 2011
Low-income and young Canadians are racking up debt more quickly than seniors and those with higher incomes, according to… the annual study by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada… Nearly half of lower income respondents, those with incomes under $35,000, reported their debt increasing, compared to one-third of higher income respondents, the study found… About one-third of seniors are retiring with an average debt of $60,000.
Tags: poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Native grads would soar if learning gap closed, activist says
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
June 13, 2011
Canada could be producing 4,200 more home-grown university grads a year and reap an estimated $401 billion more in economic productivity over 25 years if it wiped out the “tragic” learning gap between natives and the rest of Canada, says a First Nations lawyer and activist… Most reserves have waiting lists of students hoping for federal funding for tuition, which has been capped at 2 per cent each year for more than a decade, while the population — and demand for higher learning — has grown.
Tags: Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
User fees are badges of dishonesty
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Jun 14 2011
Of course we howl about taxes spelled out for us on credit card receipts and tax forms. User fees are stealthy in that no one’s interested when you complain about them… But raising user fees and cutting taxes add up to the same thing… Canadians are unable to see the big picture… Witness spending cuts for the National Research Council, Environment Canada and Human Resources and Skills Development but higher spending on jails, immigration oversight, refugee appeals and courts.
Tags: ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
The best kept secret in health care
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Jun 14 2011
Community health centres are the closest thing Canada has to Tommy Douglas’s dream: a health-care system that treats people, not symptoms. They deal with the underlying causes of illness: poverty, isolation, poor diet, mental disorders. They thrive in places where people don’t speak English, don’t have access to a family doctor and don’t know how to navigate Canada’s complex, rigidly compartmentalized medical system. They welcome anyone who walks in the door regardless of race, background, socio-economic status or sexual orientation.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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