Posts Tagged ‘budget’
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018
… something cruel and uncaring has developed in Canadian and especially Ontario politics, a new conservatism that has abandoned the paternalism of the red Tory tradition, and replaced it with harshness, division, and a disregard for those who are most in need of our concern and empathy. Whether it’s using dismissive language about migrants, cutting promised minimum wage and welfare increases, or ending guaranteed income schemes, it stinks of something almost Dickensian.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018
It’s high time Ontario taxpayers had more information about where the $12 billion paid to doctors goes… In Ontario, without comprehensive information, we’re left with general complaints about an underfunded and inefficient health-care system, juxtaposed with the troubling picture brought to light in a health ministry audit four years ago. How can one doctor bill for 100,000 patients in a single year? Why did the province’s dozen top-billing doctors received payments averaging $4 million apiece, with one billing $7 million?
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, rights
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2018
The same week that the basic income project was scuttled, a new report outlined how wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few Canadians, how those fortunes are amassed over generations, and how the country’s tax system helps protect and enlarge those fortunes… “In general, Canada’s tax system is set up to encourage concentration of wealth at the very top,” the report says. That includes a lack of tax on inheritances, low taxes on capital gains and an acceptance of tax-avoiding loopholes. These too are government handouts; we’re just trained not to think of them that way.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Monday, August 6th, 2018
… our hearts collectively sank as Premier Doug Ford’s Conservatives announced devastating changes to Ontario’s social assistance program… As physicians, we know that income is strongly tied to health. People in poverty have shorter life expectancies and are more likely to suffer from mental illness, addiction, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes… Poverty also has major impacts on our health-care system as a whole, costing an estimated $32 billion yearly in Ontario due to increased use of health services, social assistance, justice services, and lost productivity.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Monday, August 6th, 2018
Canadians have been trained to demonize tax in all its forms… Taxation gets things done… Taxes pay for an organized, rules-based pleasant city for nearly three million people. It works. And if it doesn’t work, you have someone to complain to. If you want nicer things, for instance a downtown relief line or greater population density and homes people can afford, taxes will have to rise… Jennifer Keesmaat wants nicer things. I’m not sure if John Tory does. But can they both finally talk about taxes with candour and realism?
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Saturday, August 4th, 2018
It’s a rapid-fire approach to governing that keeps people off balance, largely uninformed and unable to participate in what little public discourse there is. If you explode six political files in rapid succession people are so shell-shocked they can barely remember the first three, let alone what they might have thought about them. And with so much back-to-back turmoil the standard for what constitutes reasonable government behaviour starts to change. One only needs to look at the United States under President Donald Trump to know that.
Tags: budget, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Saturday, August 4th, 2018
MacLeod said she killed the project because it isn’t sufficiently aligned with the Ford government’s focus on moving people on welfare into jobs. However, 70 per cent of participants were already working when they enrolled, but earned too little to pay rent and buy food… One of the research goals was to see what happens when low-wage, precarious workers receive a financial top-up. That’s information any government concerned about vulnerable populations should value, Regehr said. “Poverty, insecurity, precarious employment don’t stop at provincial and territorial borders,” she said. “This matters hugely. This isn’t just about Ontario.”
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »
Friday, August 3rd, 2018
Close to 1,000 Hamiltonians are being left in the lurch after the new Progressive Conservative government announced it is scrapping a basic income pilot program less than one year after it launched… The Hamilton Spectator spoke to six people enrolled in the basic income program, which cost $50 million a year, and heard from several others about what the project meant to them… [and] what’s next?
Tags: budget, economy, Health, homelessness, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
… for this particular brand of Progressive Conservatives, “fairness” or “the people” are terms that exclude the 10 per cent of Ontarians who live below the poverty line… Has Lisa MacLeod defined Ford Nation conservatism as the ultimate in exclusionary “avoid the evidence” public policy? Premier Ford deserves better. And so do Ontarians… The pilot project was testing an approach that treated those below the poverty line with respect, as human beings who can manage their own lives.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Thursday, August 2nd, 2018
Does it make people better off? Does it encourage people to quit jobs? Or does a certain level of income help people sort out training, or health, or other struggles, and work? Does it reduce other public costs, like health care? … The price tag seems huge… skepticism about basic income is practical, but… there are key empirical questions to be answered – not just whether it affects people’s health, or whether they work, but by how much. The information would have been valuable… even if such a program isn’t viable.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
« Older Entries |
Newer Entries »
Recent Comments