Posts Tagged ‘budget’

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Ottawa should stop clawbacks of pandemic benefits

Sunday, June 26th, 2022

Groups such as Campaign 2000, which advocates to eliminate child and family poverty, have… pressed the federal government to ensure that benefits and refundable tax credits such as the Canada Child Benefit are not clawed back and that any lost benefits are restored. (Ottawa did act to restore Guaranteed Income Supplement payments that had been reduced or eliminated because of pandemic benefits.)

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Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »


Feds rightly cautious about provincial demands for unconditional health funding

Wednesday, June 1st, 2022

“Trudeau is correct to avoid what may amount to cutting a blank cheque to provinces if he cannot ensure that the money will deliver improvements to existing public health care and expanding public health care to much needed long-term care and universal pharmacare.” … More than eight out of every ten dollars provided in Canada to fight COVID-19 and support Canadians has been provided by the federal government…

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How a Massive Expansion of Public Housing Can Pay for Itself

Tuesday, May 31st, 2022

… public or non-profit housing could be built and run at break-even rents about a third lower than those of private rental housing… the provincial government could invest in creating new rental homes at a scale that would fundamentally transform our broken housing system. But there’s no reason in principle that this type of self-financed public housing couldn’t be built by any willing level of government. The federal government could certainly do it and so could large municipalities

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Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


Workers didn’t cause this inflation. And they shouldn’t have to pay for it

Sunday, May 29th, 2022

So long as the actual causes of inflation are addressed (by fixing supply chains, energy prices, and housing), inflation would then decelerate, even as wages keep up. Contingent wage protections (like cost-of-living adjustments) would also maintain the purchasing value of wages, without prompting higher inflation. To the limited extent that domestic demand pressures are reinforcing higher prices, it is better to use more focused and fair contractionary measures to dampen spending.

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Ontario needs a government that will legislate health, not poverty

Sunday, May 29th, 2022

Low social assistance rates are not just legislated poverty — they are legislated destitution, and legislated poor health. Research has shown poor health is a direct consequence of living in poverty. These policy choices do not save us money — in fact, they provide people like us — legal aid lawyers and doctors — with a steady stream of business, paid for out of other pockets of the public purse. This election, none of the three major parties are offering enough to people living in deep poverty. 

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Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


Ontario election gives voters the chance to choose people over profits in long-term care

Friday, May 27th, 2022

If… government replicates past decisions, more than 65,000 Ontarians a year will live in a for-profit facility — many run by corporations focused on their real estate investments — in the next decade. If we follow a different path, these subsidies could fund operators that are primarily care organizations and where real estate holdings support the care, not the other way around.

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Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


If I were a car, I’d vote Conservative. But I’m not a car

Sunday, May 22nd, 2022

Do we want a car society, or a caring society? … Yes, we need more hospitals and facilities to care for one another, but a bed without nursing staff is just a mattress.  Yes, we need more child-care facilities and smaller class sizes, but more spaces without trained caregivers is just a warehouse. We can deliver a strong recovery, for everyone. 

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Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


Ontario health spending will be too low if the 2022 budget is passed

Friday, May 20th, 2022

For every $1.00 the 2022 budget plans to spend on health care program spending (i.e., care) over the period 2022-23 to 2024-25, the government plans to spend $1.80 on health capital (construction). To truly improve access to care, Ontario needs to rebuild the health care workforce. The first step in that process is repealing Bill 124… limiting compensation increases to 1% is punishing the health care workers that we have depended on for the last two years

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Energy companies profits are through the roof. They should share the wealth

Wednesday, May 18th, 2022

… the government backstopped the financial sector through the pandemic with billions of tax dollars that kept incomes up and the banks’ customers solvent. They benefited from government support, and now it’s time to pay some back… The energy companies are in a similar situation… The government ought to tax away some of the enormous profits pouring into the energy companies and use that money to support those being hit hardest.

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Ontario election: 4 ways Doug Ford has changed the province’s politics

Wednesday, May 18th, 2022

The Ford government’s agenda seems driven by instinct more than ideology… fundamentally reactive, and grounded in relatively short-term perspectives… [Its] most recent legislative moves have sought to further marginalize the roles of local governments in planning matters and to eliminate public consultation requirements as red tape… The overall decision-making model… is based on access, connections and political whim… The focus… on short-term savings for consumers.

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Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


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