« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Ontario’s 3 simple questions
Sunday, March 27th, 2011
Mar 27 2011
Ontario voters should ask all parties… three very simple questions: • Will you ensure that Ontario gets the same deal as Quebec or B.C. or Nova Scotia? • Will you commit to treating Canadians in all provinces equally? • Are you committed to investing in Ontario’s economic transformation — just as surely as you are committed to investing in Atlantic or Western Canada? Principled, equal treatment of Canadians and provinces would return our federal-provincial financial arrangements to a principled footing. They would make Canada stronger. They would reduce divisiveness.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Yes, contempt of Parliament does matter
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar 25 2011
When voters elected a minority government in 2008, they were signalling that they didn’t trust Stephen Harper’s Conservatives (or indeed any other party) to run the nation’s business single-handed… Harper’s partisanship is over the top. He not only disagrees with Canadians who are liberals and left-leaners. He seems to despise them… The contempt motion… demonstrates the Conservatives’ profound disdain toward the only democratic national institution we have.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Federal Election: The real issues in this campaign
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Mar 25 2011
What kind of investment in research and higher education do the parties propose to keep the country competitive for the next generation?… Canada is one of only a handful of developed nations without a national child-care plan… It’s high time to top up the Canada Pension Plan for the elderly poor and strengthen the CPP for younger workers coming up behind… Hospitals and extended care facilities operate in silos, with little communication or shared services. The result is inefficiency, duplicated services and frustrated patients. Where’s the federal leadership?
Tags: budget, child care, Health, pensions, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
400,000 rely on food banks each month in Ontario
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar 22 2011
Food bank use has grown by an unprecedented 28 per cent since the recession in 2008, making Ontario the third highest user of food bank services in Canada behind Newfoundland and Manitoba… Single adults on welfare… now make up the largest group of food bank users, according to the report, entitled “Running on Empty: A Decade of Hunger in Ontario.” Single adults account for 38 per cent of users, up from just 26 per cent in 2002, says the report which is based on statistics collected in March last year.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s budget should target poverty
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar 23 2011
many people are stuck in the same boat, enduring hunger in this affluent society, simply because they don’t have enough money to buy food… Community and faith groups are doing a tremendous job in alleviating the problem through their food bank and meal programs. However, they cannot meet the enormous need, and moreover, we need to work toward a society where people can meet their own food needs, with dignity… one measure that would make an immediate difference would be the introduction of a $100 per month healthy food supplement for social assistance recipients in the upcoming 2011 provincial budget.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Hunger on the rise
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Mar 24 2011
Monthly visits to food banks have jumped 28 per cent since the economic downturn in 2008, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks. It does none of us any good to have more than 400,000 children, adults and seniors relying on the precarious generosity of strangers for such a basic need. The report notes that “recessions tend to expose the weak links in society.” The last few years have certainly exposed, yet again, the inadequacy of our social safety net.
Tags: Health, housing, ideology, mental Health, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Madmen politics
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
March 24, 2011
I’m wondering if this whole business of negative ads, in between elections, could be a sleeper issue for a political party… Apparently the TV networks used to have a rule against running political ads between elections — a rule that’s obviously been abandoned… Any outright ban on negative ads would probably collide with Charter rights over freedom of expression. Senator Dawson’s bill doesn’t propose a ban — he just wants those outside-campaign ads to be included in the legislated limits on advertising during election campaigns.
Tags: participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Fiscal favours are eroding our tax system
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Mar 23 2011
… every one of the Conservative budgets since 2006 has announced an array of new subsidies to be delivered through the tax system. Though their individual price tags may seem modest, they add up to a major drain on revenues. This budget alone would reduce federal revenues by almost $300 million per year once the new personal tax credits are fully phased in. It is not easy to justify giving fiscal favours to some groups over others. Doing so erodes one of the most fundamental principles of our tax system: that people in similar circumstances should bear similar tax burdens.
Tags: budget, ideology, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Budget fails nation’s needs
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Mar 23 2011
Instead of seriously addressing the increasingly urgent issue of support for family members caring for infirm parents and spouses at great personal cost, Flaherty proposed a tax credit amounting to a paltry $300 a year… The budget contains much more along the same lines – a grab-bag of targeted goodies and half-measures… But there’s no apparent method at work apart from political calculation… the threatened new cuts are nowhere to be found. Instead, he announced yet another “program review” to find $4 billion a year in additional savings… but the details will remain conveniently unknown
Tags: budget, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Last chance for McGuinty on health
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Mar 23 2011
Last month, the Mississauga Halton Community Care Access Centre, which is responsible for at-home and community health-care support, ordered an immediate halt to almost all new rehab therapy in the region until the new fiscal year, which starts April 1. Officials said the reason for the move was that the CCAC’s budget was shot because of “unprecedented demand” for services from “higher need” clients… Physiotherapists and occupational therapists were told to place clients on wait lists and tell them to look in the Yellow Pages for private rehab services or seek help from local charities.
Tags: budget, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Recent Comments