Posts Tagged ‘budget’

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Laurentian University crisis a story of political interference and defunding of education

Friday, April 23rd, 2021

After Romano’s hatchet job, what’s left standing is a business plan barely disguised as an educational mandate…. The grim reality is that Laurentian isn’t an isolated case. When you squeeze public funding from universities, administrators turn to revenue sources that are unstable, and threaten equitable access, academic freedom and quality. Increasingly, universities have had to rely on tuition, the labour of underpaid contract instructors, international students and private donors to replace government funding.

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How to create a paid sick leave plan for Ontario

Thursday, April 22nd, 2021

The goal of any sick leave program is, above all, to allow people who have COVID-19, have been exposed to it, or think they may have it, to stay home and not spread the disease to their co-workers. Nothing else matters… any program must be just as simple and straightforward as the existing sick leave plans 40% of us enjoy… paid sick leave legislation need not be complicated: it has existed before in Ontario, and very recently

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Budget 2021: A few steps forward on tax fairness, but much more needed

Thursday, April 22nd, 2021

… the federal government could raise an additional $70 billion annually, by making our tax system more progressive, closing tax loopholes and tackling international tax dodging… “We’re glad this budget includes plans to close some corporate tax loopholes, including limits on interest deductibility, and increases funding for the CRA to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, but it’s time for the Liberal government to be much more ambitious, and have corporations pay their fair share of taxes”

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Budget 2021 analysis: Does it deliver?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2021

About two-thirds of the spending is short-term, related to COVID-19 and the final third carries over to the third year. The programs that extend to the long-term are child care (for which this budget is transformative), long-term care, some business supports and some environmental measures (around clean fuel and climate adaptation)… a historically large budget, but it’s within Canada’s ability to both deal with the impact of a global pandemic and to plant the seeds for a public-led recovery.

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Under pressure, Ontario government scrambles to launch a provincial sick leave program

Tuesday, April 20th, 2021

Ford scrapped the previous two days of guaranteed paid sick leave that were on the books after his Progressive Conservative toppled former premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals in 2018. Local public health officers, mayors, opposition parties and the government’s science table of advisers have long urged paid sick days for workers whose employers don’t provide them. That has led to many essential workers going to their jobs with COVID-19 symptoms, spreading the virus.

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As med students, we’ve seen how Ontario’s lack of paid sick days has hurt low-income, racialized workers. More than 600 of us demand change

Thursday, April 15th, 2021

Without suitable paid sick leave, essential workers who are symptomatic or have been exposed are faced with an impossible decision: follow public health measures by staying home or go to work to put food on the table and bring the virus into their homes and communities… Ontario needs a robust and comprehensive provincial paid sick leave program that is universal to all workers in Ontario, proactive, and easily accessible.

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Laurentian’s senior leadership and Minister of Colleges and Universities should step down in wake of financial crisis

Wednesday, April 14th, 2021

The devastating cuts at Laurentian are the direct result of negligence on the part of Minister Romano, who was well aware of the financial challenges Laurentian was facing at least six months before they became public. Faculty no longer believe that Romano is listening to their concerns, or those of staff or students. As a result of the Minister’s inaction, Ontario’s university faculty and academic librarians have lost confidence and trust in Romano’s commitment to the university sector.

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The Ford government needs to press pause on plans to permanently expand online education

Wednesday, April 14th, 2021

Ontario has needed remote learning in the pandemic but it’s a long way to go from saying online education is better than no education to deciding that it’s so good it should be permanently expanded. Most especially if doing so risks destabilizing or further underfunding the school-based system that the vast majority of students will continue to need… the province needs to review what worked well with online learning and figure out how to address the shortcomings…

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If you don’t have $20 million, relax. A wealth tax won’t touch you

Tuesday, April 13th, 2021

Canada’s wealthiest 87 families had wealth of $259 billion in 2016; our top 44 billionaires increased their wealth by more than $50 billion during the pandemic… 79 per cent of Canadians favour a wealth tax… In fact, a wealth tax would be the simplest, fairest and most effective way to collect billions of extra dollars of revenue a year, and to limit the power and political influence of the billionaire class… Here are some of the facile arguments being trotted out against a wealth tax.

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OCUFA calls for resignation of Ross Romano amid devastating cuts to jobs and programs at Laurentian University

Tuesday, April 13th, 2021

The financial crisis facing Laurentian was created by the provincial government, which has chronically underfunded Ontario’s universities, cut and froze tuition fees without providing equivalent public funding, and abandoned an important Northern university in its greatest moment of need… Romano has demonstrated the same resistance to consultation, transparency, and accountability as the Laurentian administration.

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