Posts Tagged ‘budget’
Debt by design: OSAP and the political economy of student aid in Canada
Tuesday, May 26th, 2026
… students in Ontario are being asked to shoulder a growing share of the cost of post-secondary education. While these changes may appear exceptional, they are not. Instead, they reflect a broader transformation in how post-secondary education is funded across Canada, where the costs have steadily shifted from the public to the individual… restoring OSAP alone will not make post-secondary education truly affordable. That requires a broader commitment to public investment, and in turn, that means raising the province’s revenue.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, tax, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | 84 Comments »
Doug Ford cited abuse of OSAP as one reason for its overhaul. Here’s what new data actually shows
Sunday, May 17th, 2026
“They’re using these allegations as a way to justify gutting the financial assistance”… “What students are seeing is a government using a very limited number of cases to rationalize broader austerity measures in post-secondary education. The impact of these decisions are being felt by ordinary students who are now expected to graduate with deeper debt in a province where employment is not guaranteed.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, jurisdiction
Posted in Education Policy Context | 11 Comments »
Government expects $140M in savings this year with refugee health care co-pay
Friday, May 8th, 2026
Claimants will cover a $4 fee for prescriptions and cover 30 per cent of the cost for services not typically covered by the public health care system… co-pays are expected to cover about $140 million in 2026-27, including $92.9 million in savings from dental care alone… Another $10.6 million is expected to be saved on prescriptions, $6.2 million from vision care, and $16.7 million from counselling… Routine doctor visits, emergency medicine, vaccines, hospital stays and lab work continue to be fully covered by the program.
Tags: budget, Health, immigration, jurisdiction, pharmaceutical
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | 10 Comments »
Ford government’s internal surveys expose failures in disability job training program
Friday, May 8th, 2026
Ford’s plan to get Ontarians off social assistance and into jobs is failing those with complex disabilities, according to the province’s own research… employers “don’t know how to support” workers with disabilities, and performance targets are pressuring agencies to place clients into jobs too quickly — even when those with “complex barriers” need more time to prepare… the Ford government hired third-party operators to oversee the program’s new rules for funding and contract renewals… “The new model is a disaster”
Tags: budget, disabilities, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Delivery System, Inclusion Delivery System | 9 Comments »
Toronto will host the world’s investors this fall. But will any investment end up in health care, education or transit?
Wednesday, May 6th, 2026
What’s most disappointing about the prevailing preoccupation with making Canada an industrial and energy superpower is that this vision of Canada’s future ignores necessary investments in social goods — namely, health care, education, affordable housing and public transit. All of those are essential to Canada’s future prosperity. And all are underfunded… Striving for greater industrial sovereignty is a worthwhile ambition. But it can’t come at the expense of social investments that underpin Canadians’ well-being.
Tags: budget, Education, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 10 Comments »
Mark Carney has forgotten who helped get him elected
Sunday, May 3rd, 2026
Headlines like “A Canada for All” sound nice. As do statements like: “the government is protecting the essential social programs that give Canadians a fair chance to get ahead — child care, dental care, and pharmacare.” But dig into the details and you learn national pharmacare is ending. There is no new money to create more child care spaces. Federal health-care spending is drastically being cut… There is effectively no new money in Carney’s fiscal plan to support what he calls “essential social programs.”
Tags: budget, child care, featured, Health, housing, jurisdiction, poverty
Posted in Governance Debates | 6 Comments »
To improve literacy, Ontario should invest in students and educators
Friday, May 1st, 2026
Even when screening tools are efficient and well-designed, teachers often lack the time, class-size conditions and specialist support needed to respond meaningfully to the results… Ontario stands at a familiar crossroads: keep reaching for solutions that are quick to purchase and easy to measure, or do the harder work of building lasting public capacity… [through] smaller primary classes, restored specialist support, rich early language environments and teacher education grounded in deep literacy expertise.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
If you’re treading water on welfare in Doug Ford’s Ontario, you’re slowly sinking
Monday, April 27th, 2026
By the end of this budget’s 2026-27 fiscal year, the projected inflation rate of two per cent will have further eroded the purchasing power of Ontario Works payments by more than 22 per cent cumulatively, since 2018… it’s worth remembering that the high water mark for welfare was in 1993… If that figure were indexed to inflation today, it would be $1,303 a month, some $570 (78 per cent) more than the current rate of $733 under Ford’s Tories.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Ottawa renews funding for Toronto youth-crime prevention programs
Wednesday, April 1st, 2026
… it will top up funding for Toronto programs intended to prevent gun and gang violence among young people… to address the root causes of youth violence … “we cannot do it by arresting people to submission” … as of last year, Toronto saw a 43 per cent decrease in shootings and firearm-related incidents, and a 35 per cent reduction in youth shootings and firearm-related violence.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, jurisdiction, multiculturalism, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 6 Comments »
The 2026 Ontario budget neglects core provincial responsibilities
Monday, March 30th, 2026
The 2026 budget—much like previous budgets—fails to address the underfunding of health care, K-12 education, post-secondary education, community and social services, and rental and social housing—the core responsibilities of provincial governments. Despite reports showing that Ontario lags behind most provinces in most of these areas, this year’s budget makes no attempt to close those gaps.
Tags: budget, Education, featured, Health, housing, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 4 Comments »
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