Posts Tagged ‘budget’

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Children’s early learning belongs in neighbourhood schools

Tuesday, August 29th, 2023

Early learning is early education. It belongs under the purview of Ministries of Education. The federal government invested in children’s early learning and child-care because it finally accepted the wisdom of doing so — for children’s learning and development, for families’ well-being, for the economy and for communities optimal social outcomes. 

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Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »


The answer is clear: we can’t afford privatized health care

Thursday, August 24th, 2023

… lots of other countries have a blended system. In fact, so does Canada. But when we look deeper, we see that we spend less on our public health system — and more out-of-pocket and privately than most of our peers. As a share of all health spending, Canada allocates 75 per cent as public investment. How does that compare? Canada is a standout Scrooge.

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What would you rather have: Too many doctors, or too few?

Friday, August 18th, 2023

There’s more than just supply and demand…  There is no perfect system. There is no getting around the need for incentives and management to discourage abuses and encourage good service…  To save medicare, we must get the incentives right.

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What stands between you and your health information 

Friday, August 18th, 2023

… individual providers are proprietary about their patient data. Confidentiality is crucial. Different providers have different guidelines for accessing records, to both other providers and to patients. Legal ramifications are top of mind and the risk of inappropriate access to patient records is a nightmare that providers do not want to face. Finally, there is the issue of funding…

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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.

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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.

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While Ford pampers spa users, our school kids fend for themselves

Thursday, July 13th, 2023

The government’s miserly approach to funding our children’s education seems curious in such a rich province… The government is actually swimming in money — even as it hollows out key public programs, underfunding schools, shutting down hospital emergency wards and doing nothing for the homeless beyond allowing developers to build ever more condos that are quickly sold to high-income buyers… The notion that we can’t afford a strong public sector has always been a scam.

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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.”

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Where are the Early Childhood Educators?

Monday, June 26th, 2023

Instead of creating more spaces that may end up unfilled, provincial governments need to prioritize funding on ECE attraction and retention. They need to raise wages, encourage career pathways for ECEs, and fast-track foreign credential recognition. They also need to improve working conditions and offer comprehensive work benefits.

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Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »


The Ford government is bad at budgeting — or it isn’t being straight with Ontarians

Thursday, June 15th, 2023

… it misled everyone and projected a deficit and smaller future surpluses so it could starve programs, limit new spending, and divert that future money elsewhere to big tax cuts, corporate giveaways (hello, Stellantis), pre-election voter inducements, or paying down the debt… it boils down to this: the government is either incompetent or dishonest. We don’t have enough information to draw a firm conclusion either way.

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