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Ontario’s universities face a looming crisis. ‘Efficiencies’ aren’t the answer
Sunday, January 14th, 2024
Neither domestic nor foreign students can afford a tuition increase, yet universities can’t make ends meet without more funding. Ontario student funding is already the lowest in the country… first and foremost, the Ford government needs to increase per-student funding to institutions by at least the 10 per cent its own panel recommended and prepare for more increases down the road.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Health care is the Ontario government’s job one. Shouldn’t they be better at it?
Thursday, December 7th, 2023
… this year’s reports on the health-care system are a reminder that spending less is not the same thing as spending well and that, in some cases at least, you need to spend more public money to fix important policy problems. Ontario may be training a record number of nurses, but if we want them to stay in this province, we’ll likely need to pay them more than we currently do — not least because Ontario currently pays nurses less than does any other province… for all the billions of dollars that the government taxes and spends to keep the system running
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Federal government’s new fiscal guardrails ‘helpful’ for monetary policy: Macklem
Thursday, November 23rd, 2023
The fall economic statement made new commitments on how the federal government will approach its finances, including setting a goal to keep deficits below 1 per cent of the GDP beginning in 2026-27… The governor said Canada has two advantages today compared with the 1970s. The first is that people expect inflation to come back down in the long run; the second, that the Bank of Canada responded forcefully this time with aggressive rate hikes.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario plans to require salary ranges be included in job postings
Tuesday, November 7th, 2023
“Including salary ranges with job postings can help close the gender pay gap, while allowing companies to find qualified candidates faster and improve retention, helping tackle the labour shortage.” … new legislation… also proposes to require employers to inform job seekers when they are using AI to inform hiring decisions… the province is considering banning the use of non-disclosure agreements in cases of workplace sexual harassment, misconduct or violence.
Tags: multiculturalism, participation, rights, women
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario launching infrastructure bank with $3B in public funding
Friday, November 3rd, 2023
Ontario is proposing to launch its own infrastructure bank – with an initial $3 billion in public funding – in order to help foot the bill for long-term care homes and transportation projects, as slowing economic growth has the province sinking deeper into the red… the bank will attract trusted institutional investors to help finance essential infrastructure that would not otherwise get built,”…
Tags: budget, economy
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Ontario plans to expand midwives’ prescribing power
Tuesday, October 31st, 2023
Ontario is planning to expand the list of drugs that midwives can prescribe and administer, including allowing them to prescribe birth control… A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the ministry is reviewing further scope-of-practice changes and is rolling them out based on advice from health-care partners.
Tags: Health, pharmaceutical, women
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Social-assistance rates in Ontario should ‘set off alarm bells’: Report
Thursday, October 5th, 2023
Researchers have found that being on social assistance in Ontario is correlated with a higher likelihood of poor health outcomes, homelessness, and food insecurity, among other things… In fact, the “Welfare in Canada” report finds that both OW and ODSP rates have been below the deep poverty line since 2008… “You show how you value people through how you budget.”
Tags: disabilities, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Social-assistance rates in Ontario should ‘set off alarm bells’: Report
Friday, August 18th, 2023
The province’s income-of-last-resort program pays so little that Ontario Works recipients must survive on just 37 per cent of the funds that would be required for them to have a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs, and enough money to maintain a very basic standard of living. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis of social-assistance rates in Ontario.
Tags: budget, disabilities, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Delivery System | No Comments »
Are the Tories actually underspending? Here’s what the numbers say
Saturday, August 5th, 2023
… the Ontario government is already dealing with criticism on multiple fronts from political constituencies with demands that are hardly unreasonable: things like keeping hospital ERs open or adequately funding forest-fire suppression in the worst fire season in Canada’s recorded history or keeping the province’s largest city from falling into a budgetary black hole. These aren’t extravagances — they’re the normal things people expect from government.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Why Ontario is in court (again) fighting to save Bill 124
Monday, June 26th, 2023
While managing the government’s spending is obviously an important function of government, Koehnen said in his decision that it can’t be used as an excuse to ride roughshod over the guarantees in the Charter: “While it might be appropriate to infringe on a Charter right when faced with a serious fiscal challenge, it is not appropriate to do so as part of the day-to-day management of government affairs.”
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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