Posts Tagged ‘disabilities’

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Good advice on fixing Ontario’s welfare system

Monday, November 4th, 2019

“Low benefit rates leave people in deep poverty, and program rules create barriers to their participating in the labour force and improving their lives,” the report says… In short, a focus on cuts rather than results has not only made the lives of the poor more miserable, but it has worked against efforts to get people back into the labour force.

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Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »


Doug Ford’s attacks on workers continue

Friday, November 1st, 2019

Ford says he’s “for the people,” but his failure to act confirms, yet again, what many in Ontario have come to learn. He works for “his” people: campaign donors and corporations. He could not care less about the health and safety or the lives of workers in Ontario. That is the real crime.

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Forced to the frontlines of mental health: Police have become the new first responders for vulnerable Canadians

Sunday, October 27th, 2019

… a mobile program called HealthIM, which gives police a medical checklist to assess a person’s risk level for self-harm, harm to others and an inability to care for themselves. If they decide to take the person to hospital, the information is sent ahead to a waiting triage nurse, so the medical team knows to expect them and can review the police assessment of the patient. Police can access the program from their cars or via smartphone.

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Who deserves mental health? It should be everyone

Friday, October 18th, 2019

As the Canadian Mental Health Association’s research has shown, more than half of us consider depression and anxiety to be at “epidemic levels” and yet 1.6 million Canadians feel they’re going untreated. The CMHA has called for a federal parity act to bring mental-health spending “into balance” with spending on physical health (right now, only 7.2 per cent of health-care spending goes to mental health).

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Where do the major parties stand on family and child care?

Thursday, October 17th, 2019

Besides the rising cost of housing, child care fees are a major source of financial pain… child care often costs another rent- or mortgage-sized payment… The rates of individuals diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and autism spectrum disorder continue to edge higher… Several of the major parties have pledged to support families caring for individuals with disabilities, but to date, their promises have largely been “piecemeal,” falling far short of the concerted, large-scale efforts that are needed..

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Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »


Lessons from Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot

Thursday, October 17th, 2019

Michael Mendelson looks at Ontario’s experience to offer lessons on how to – and how not to – set up future Basic Income trials. The report focuses in particular on three aspects of the pilot in which the experimental design fell short: lack of a “saturation” site, problems of enrollment, and use of the income tax system to test recipients’ income… The author also suggests a five-step process for governments considering another Basic Income experiment…

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Posted in Social Security Policy Context | No Comments »


First and foremost, the homeless need housing

Monday, October 14th, 2019

Despite some notable success stories, most people don’t magically get better when housing is available… people with severe mental-health issues, substance-use disorders and the other illnesses and social challenges that come along with them need a lot of support… Housing first is a way of saying we haven’t given up on people and on the belief that homelessness can be, if not eliminated, at least managed more effectively and humanely.

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The neutering of Doug Ford

Thursday, October 10th, 2019

Ford has reversed his stand on sex-ed, on a French-language university, on cuts to social services, such as a child benefit that pays for essentials like diapers and food for children in vulnerable families, on cuts to children’s aid societies and more. Ford also caved in during the last-minute contract negotiations with the 55,000 school support staffers, who had threatened to strike this week.

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Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


Where do the parties stand on pharmacare and drug prices?

Monday, October 7th, 2019

“Instead of announcing that the recommendations of the national advisory council would be implemented if the Liberals are re-elected, they’ve instead used softer language,” said Nav Persaud, a family doctor and a University of Toronto professor who holds a Canada Research Chair in health justice. “That raises the concern that they’re not prepared to stand up to the pressure.”

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Reversing cuts is just the start of what the Ford government needs to do

Friday, October 4th, 2019

Ontario’s social assistance system keeps nearly one million people living in abject poverty. It offers far too few pathways out of it. And the government has not reversed some of its other changes that have made decent low-skill jobs even harder to find. Ford kept Ontario’s minimum wage from rising to $15 an hour, as it was scheduled to do, and rolled back labour reforms designed to improve the lot of workers who need the most protection.

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Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »


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