Posts Tagged ‘economy’

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Education isn’t about job training — no matter what Doug Ford wants you to believe

Thursday, April 20th, 2023

… they’ve decided to reshape the province’s education plan, gearing it toward ideas that are more reminiscent of plans for an early 20th-century Fordist or Taylorist factory than a contemporary society… Ontario has one of the best systems in the world, outperforming all other G7 countries on reading and beating all G7 countries except Japan in math and science… If the government wishes to improve education, it can spend more on teachers and reduce class sizes.

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Stephen Harper wasn’t obsessed with data. Here’s why Justin Trudeau is

Tuesday, April 4th, 2023

This whole fixation on data is, first and foremost, a big product of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the realm of health care. Trudeau has talked often about how the government learned in the early days of the pandemic just how little information it had at its fingertips… The data deficit in the current public service has also been cited as one reason the government has needed to lean so heavily on outside consulting firms

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Doug Ford’s government raising minimum wage to $16.55 in October

Friday, March 31st, 2023

The $1.05 hourly hike means someone earning minimum wage and working full-time would see an annual raise of about $2,200. It also vaults Ontario to the highest minimum wage in Canada… the change should help about 942,400 workers in Ontario — most of whom are women. The 6.8 per cent rise is because minimum wage increases are now tied to the rate of inflation and must be disclosed by the end of the fiscal year.

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… Canada’s 2023 federal budget moves on climate and dental – but avoids almost everything else

Wednesday, March 29th, 2023

… the budget drops the ball on support for underfunded public transit systems, affordable housing, pharmacare and high inflation. [but] “When it comes to health care, the piece of this budget with the most teeth is dental care… It seems like the federal government decided that it had to choose between dental care or pharmacare, but not both—and dental care came out the winner. 

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Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »


The provinces’ poor-us act on health care is wearing thin

Tuesday, March 28th, 2023

The provinces chose to ignore those tax-point grants in the recent funding debate. But a new round of tax-point transfers makes sense: it would put the ability to generate health care dollars – and the responsibility for how well they are spent – in the hands of the provinces that deliver the services.

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Biden breaks taboo on taxing wealthy, showing Trudeau how to do it

Thursday, March 23rd, 2023

… their wealth is largely held in corporate stock and, unless they sell stock and trigger a capital gain, no income tax applies. The wealthy are a formidable interest group who play an enormous — although largely hidden — role in shaping the political agenda. Still, they’d have more trouble keeping a wealth tax off the agenda if our progressive politicians embraced the idea with the same gusto as the broad Canadian public.

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A long-term plan for long-term care

Tuesday, March 14th, 2023

… it’s time for a new plan, one that a number of other countries have already adopted: a Canada Long-Term Care Insurance Plan, to provide a guaranteed quality of life for the elderly who are frail…  long-term care insurance promotes better care, and ultimately saves the government money, by increasing the years people are able to live in their homes in older age and reducing the time spent in nursing homes and hospitals.

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Canada is failing to meet the moment on the cost of medication

Saturday, March 11th, 2023

They have threatened repeatedly that these reforms will halt the entrance of new drugs into the Canadian market and… will hamper “the country’s ability to attract investment to our life-sciences sector.”… threats like this are only rhetoric, not reality. Britain, Sweden and France have all achieved lower drug prices while maintaining higher rates of research and development than Canada.

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Better for Workers, Better for All? Assessing a Portable Health Benefits Plan in Ontario

Friday, March 3rd, 2023

Millions of workers in Ontario have no access to supplemental health and dental benefits that reimburse most costs for prescription drugs, dental, vision and mental health services… One solution is a portable health benefits (PHB) plan that allows a worker to maintain coverage while moving from job to job… This commentary explores the purpose, structure and feasibility of a portable health and dental benefits plan in Ontario.

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Affordability — not inflation — is the biggest crisis Canada’s economy faces today

Wednesday, March 1st, 2023

Five fiscal approaches… could lower costs, tackle long-term affordability and create more economic resilience… Reform Employment Insurance… Build more affordable rental housing… Fund school food programs… Focus on low-income households for energy-efficiency retrofits… [and] Avoid wasting money in health care… All governments need to prevent the galloping profitization of care…

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