Posts Tagged ‘budget’

« Older Entries | Newer Entries »

No Strings Attached: Canada’s health care deal lacks key conditions

Friday, February 17th, 2023

… despite provincial ad campaigns that show destitute doctors and nurses begging for federal funding, the question of who is responsible for the crisis in Canadian health care is not so clear cut. Health care is a provincial jurisdiction and the big provinces are flush with cash. It’s not money stopping them from fixing their systems, it’s political will.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


Reducing poverty among minimum wage workers in Ontario: The potential impact of the Canada Working-Age Supplement

Thursday, February 16th, 2023

To reduce the deep poverty unattached working-age single adults experience, Maytree and Community Food Centres of Canada have proposed the development of the Canada Working-Age Supplement (CWAS) by enhancing the existing Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) for unattached single adults… Overall, the CWAS would meaningfully reduce the depth of poverty and improve the quality of life of all unattached single adults earning the minimum wage in Ontario.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »


In health care it is not privatization to fear, it’s profitization

Thursday, February 16th, 2023

Despite the evidence, Ford has permitted more for-profits in long-term care, home care, acute care, primary care, and child care. It is not impossible to reverse the corporatization of profits in health care, but trade rules, contracts and other corporate protections can make it difficult and expensive… We don’t need an action plan for corporate profit and control, using public money. We need to improve the public system.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


Laugh at the farcical scandals of John Tory and Doug Ford but the joke’s on the powerless

Wednesday, February 15th, 2023

… for-profit nursing homes had four times as many COVID-19 deaths as city-run homes… Ontario announced funding for new nursing home beds in 2022…  adding 200 new police won’t decrease wait times for police to respond to calls. It doesn’t support the idea that more police equals less crime, either. But data shows reducing poverty can reduce crime… The proposed 2023 budget cuts $4.3 million from jobs and social services. 

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


Ottawa’s new health funding is tied to better data. What will that really mean?

Monday, February 13th, 2023

… as with all data, the devil is in the details.  What exactly are health outcomes? Are they the same as health indicators? How will they be measured, and how can we ensure they are reported meaningfully and transparently for all Canadians? And most importantly: Will new health data meaningfully improve health care for Canadians?

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


Health care transformation is needed next

Monday, February 13th, 2023

… while [the provinces] have their hands extended to Ottawa. A majority of them are in surplus, or can see a surplus just over the horizon, but the provincial share of health funding has barely kept up with pandemic-era inflation… [Ford’s] Progressive Conservative government will have $12.5 billion in “excess funds” available over the next three years and is shortchanging health care by $5 billion.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »


COVID ‘blank cheque’: Report finds large corporations spent billions on dividends and share buybacks while receiving government wage subsidies

Friday, February 10th, 2023

Canadians For Tax Fairness found 37 corporations that had received the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and spent a total of $81.3 billion on dividends, $41.1 billion on share buybacks and $51.1 billion on taking over other companies… up to $9.9 billion may have gone to companies which weren’t eligible to receive it… some kind of clawback mechanism is needed, either for this time around, or when designing future programs.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Debates | No Comments »


Centralized wait-lists work. So why isn’t Canada using them in health care across the country?

Friday, February 10th, 2023

Of course wait-list management isn’t all we need. At its best, it simply taps the potential of underutilized capacity in hospitals. We also need to stanch the hemorrhage of doctors and nurses out of publicly-funded care, and need a better spectrum of care to get people into and out of hospital more quickly. And we need more focus on keeping people out of hospital in the first place… It means better primary care through more interdisciplinary teams.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »


Private foundations sit on billions of dollars while charities struggle

Thursday, February 9th, 2023

We don’t need more tax breaks for charitable giving — Canada already has among the world’s most generous charitable tax breaks, and we are overflowing with charitable funds. It’s just that we can’t get at them. What’s needed is a major overhaul of Canada’s two-tier charity sector where private foundations controlled by wealthy families sit on mountains of idle cash while thousands of working charities are starved for funds as they struggle to deliver services to Canadians.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »


There’s money for police and the World Cup. So why did council give the cold shoulder to warming centres?

Thursday, February 9th, 2023

The city owns big heated buildings that are empty at night. We could unlock the doors and let them sit inside… Instead, [Council] made yet another request to the provincial and federal governments to chip in dollars to help out… the city’s current shelter system “has the ability to meet the need” without doing so… On the icy Toronto streets, when our city government fails to act, lives are at stake.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


« Older Entries | Newer Entries »