Posts Tagged ‘budget’

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Doug Ford wants his Mike Harris moment. Teachers won’t give it to him. Taxpayers will pay for it

Wednesday, December 18th, 2019

Under the pretext of an inflated deficit, Ford’s Tories pre-emptively imposed a legislated salary cap of one per cent on the public sector, just in time, coincidentally, for teacher negotiations. They did this knowing that the courts overruled such overreach when a Liberal government abrogated collective bargaining rights in 2012 (during a real fiscal emergency, unlike today’s imaginary crisis)

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It’s all about tax cuts

Wednesday, December 18th, 2019

The government is slamming the brakes on spending, yet the fiscal situation is not quickly improving. That leads us to ask, “Where is the money going?” The answer is tax cuts… Lower tax revenue includes the approved $3.4 to $4.2 billion annually as well as “unannounced tax cuts” still to come… Low- and middle-income families benefit very little, if at all, from these measures. The “more money in your pocket” jingle is simply a rhetorical trick that preys on people’s economic vulnerability. 

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Should government have a say in what drugs are prescribed to patients?

Wednesday, December 18th, 2019

Canada is slow to approve new biosimilars; since 2006, Health Canada has approved only six, compared with 13 approvals by the European Medicines Agency. We also have among the highest prices in the world for both biologics and biosimilars, so more co-ordinated and aggressive price negotiations are required.

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Setting the stage for the 2020 Ontario budget

Wednesday, December 18th, 2019

Ontarians can expect the government’s talking points to feature prominently in the 2020 Ontario budget. Claims of high spending and unsustainable debt and deficit are being used to excuse cuts to public services. But how many of these claims are true? Watch our new video to find out more.

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Ontario’s mental-health crisis, Part 3: Solving the problem will mean more beds — and more political will

Friday, December 13th, 2019

… on any given day, there are approximately 2,300 patients who are awaiting transfer to a more appropriate bed… Of these 2,300 patients, 9 per cent, or approximately 200 people, are awaiting transfer to a more appropriate care setting for a mental-health issue… The provincial government has pledged to do more for mental health and to expand the long-term-care system generally. But that will take years and sustained political will.

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Merge Ontario’s Catholic and public school systems: Poll

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019

A DART & Maru/Blue Voice Canada Poll conducted for the Toronto Sun finds that 71% support the idea of merging the Catholic and public school systems. “A strong majority of Ontario citizens have an appetite to merge both the Ontario public and Catholic school boards to create efficiencies and save money that can be put back into the classroom”… At this point, no party officially endorses the idea.

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Is a national pharmacare program any closer to reality?

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019

it’s delusional to think the Liberals will act anything other than slowly. While the purported savings are compelling, shifting spending from private drug plans to the public treasury is much less so. Not to mention that the provinces are, at best, lukewarm about the idea… The premiers want the escalator to increase to 5.2 per cent before they even consider pharmacare.

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Liberals’ ‘middle class tax cut’ is not a tax cut at all

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019

What we are left with is a $6-billion handout to just about everybody except those who need it most. And all of it is borrowed. With the deficit already in excess of $20-billion and headed higher, the government is proposing to borrow another $6-billion annually, and give much of it to people in the top half of the social register… Unthinkable: Tax cuts for the rich! Maybe. But it sure beats handouts to the rich, doesn’t it?

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Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »


Can we ensure everyone has an affordable life?

Wednesday, December 11th, 2019

Health is the great equalizer. No matter where we’re from, what our values are, what our age or our political beliefs, we all want to have a healthy and long life. And if we agree on that, then we can say affordability is about the amount and type of resources we need to live a healthy and thriving life… Individual income is only one component of a broader social safety net that supports a thriving population; employers, government and community all play pivotal roles too.

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Raising taxes to build Toronto is not just good — it’s necessary

Tuesday, December 10th, 2019

In recent years, our leaders have tried every trick in the book… to avoid collecting the revenues needed to build the country. They’ve sold off profit-making public assets, giving up long-term revenue streams for one-time capital gains. They’ve embraced public-private partnerships (P3s), paying extra to build infrastructure but hiding the cost off the public books. They’ve taken on more debt.

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Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


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