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Toronto’s priority neighbourhood programs mustn’t be abandoned
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
July 16, 2012
An $85 million pool of one-time cash is set to evaporate over the coming year and there’s no new sources of money in sight… projects include after-school tutoring, leadership skills development, an urban farm project, and a host of other “youth focused” initiatives… Council did approve one positive change. A website called Wellbeing Toronto will track a wealth of data on each neighbourhood. It will measure indicators on crime, economic progress, education levels, the environment, and health status, among other criteria.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, philanthropy, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Rich-poor gap is making Canadians sick
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
July 15, 2012
The top determinants of health in order are income status, education, social support networks, employment and working conditions, early childhood development, physical environment, personal health practices and coping skills and biological and genetic factors. Access to health care is ninth as a determinant of health… By tackling each of the social determinants of health with intelligent public policy informed by evidence-based best practices, our governments will knock down Canada’s unconscionable poverty rates…
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates, Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s Trillium Benefit: A new way to help the poor
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
July 12, 2012
About 3.5 million low- and moderate-income Ontarians this week are receiving their first Trillium Benefit, a provincial initiative that combines three quarterly tax credits into a new monthly payment… Designed to help households better manage their monthly expenses by providing the money earlier and more frequently than before, the benefit, worth about $2.4 billion annually, is the first outside Quebec to be paid monthly through the tax system to all low- and moderate-income people. Quebec’s monthly “Solidarity Tax Credit” was also introduced this month.
Tags: budget, disabilities, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Copyright law a win for consumer, educators, and telecoms as court reins in multiple fees
Saturday, July 14th, 2012
July 12, 2012
Consumers and educators emerged victorious in several significant Supreme Court of Canada rulings that effectively modernize Canadian copyright law. Thursday, the court released its judgments in five different cases that touched on tariffs set by the Copyright Board governing music downloading, photocopying textbooks, videogames and movie and TV soundtracks… while it’s unfair for a teacher to photocopy an entire textbook to avoid buying it, the average teacher copies fewer than 10 pages per student per year, Andrew says. Countries like the United States, Germany and Japan already have similar guidelines in place
Tags: budget, rights, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Statistics Canada cuts compromise the tools used to understand the state
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
July 10, 2012
… without being able to accurately describe the characteristics and trends of what that “problem” is, society will simply have to make policy in the dark. Evidence-based policy-making requires just that — evidence — standard, reliable metrics whose quantification and legitimacy is widely agreed upon… realizing the kind of savings that Statistics Canada claims to strive for in this budgetary cycle means continuing to invest in the foundational information that has wisely informed our nation for decades.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Tackling the income gap in Canadian cities
Monday, July 9th, 2012
July 08, 2012
Toronto’s middle-class suburbs of the 1970s have turned into “urban deserts” of growing poverty while the city centre has become an enclave for the ultra rich… the middle class is shrinking… This type of large-scale data analysis combined with local, participatory research has never been done on a national scale… The goal is to create “a more inclusive society in which youth have hope for the future, newcomers are welcomed, the elderly have support in their communities…
Tags: economy, housing, multiculturalism, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Canadian prisons must track mentally disordered inmates, advocates say
Monday, July 9th, 2012
July 08, 2012
Canada’s prison bosses don’t know how many federal inmates have been diagnosed with mental health problems. The Correctional Service of Canada has no system-wide tracking of prisoners with mental health issues, despite recent research indicating their numbers have roughly doubled since 1997… Without the baseline information of how many prisoners are diagnosed with specific mental health problems… the government can’t develop effective treatment programs or measure whether they’re successful.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Market model flawed for health care
Sunday, July 8th, 2012
July 05, 2012
A new study conducted by the pharmaceutical company Novartis and McKinsey and Co. shows a stunning difference among countries with regard to health-care efficiency… overwhelmingly, the most effective care for diseases comes from countries with much lower costs… Health care is very complex. Only at a systemic level can you figure out what works best based on the evidence, and what procedures and treatments are not worth the money
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ottawa’s cuts to young offender programs are short-sighted and costly
Sunday, July 8th, 2012
July 06, 2012
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has slashed funding for programs that help keep young offenders out of jail and able to make something of their lives… This $36-million cut was not highlighted in the recent federal budget. It was not discussed with the agencies that provide these important services to troubled youth. Provincial ministers, who are the federal government’s partners in keeping Canada safe, were not consulted. The cut was made public last week in an announcement masquerading as good news.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Repealing the Fair Wages Act goes against evidence and workers’ interests
Wednesday, July 4th, 2012
July 03, 2012
The Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act was repealed by a single line in the 425-page federal omnibus budget bill. The act mandated minimum wages contractors had to pay their workers on federal government construction contracts, calculated based on the prevailing wages in the geographic region. The move was discovered by NDP MP Pat Martin just weeks before the budget passed. Prior to that, the government had made no mention of its decision… the decision to scrap the act was made without any formal review. Instead, it appears to have been based solely on Merit Canada’s lobbying.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
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