Posts Tagged ‘economy’
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Federal government announces $9B financial relief package for students
Thursday, April 23rd, 2020
The new program will replace students’ lost summer income at $1,250 a month from May to August. Those who are also providing care for someone, or who have a disability will have access to $1,750 a month. Current students, students beginning their studies in September 2020, and those who graduated after December 2019 are eligible for the program… details on the new programs will come in the following days.
Tags: budget, economy, jurisdiction, participation, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Pandemic has exposed the rifts in our social fabric
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
The pandemic will end, but structural inequities – ones that ensure that those who are most well off are the best protected – will not, unless we insist on correcting a long-standing pattern of social wrongs. If anything good is to come out of a pandemic that shook the world, surely it must be our collective will to seize this opportunity and take stock so that we can move towards a more just society.
Tags: economy, Health, housing, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Financial security for the missing middle will be needed post pandemic
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2020
The shortcomings of EI became starkly clear during the frantic rush to create an emergency benefit to assist the millions of Canadians with no coverage… Canada will survive the crisis. But when we’re on the other side, we will need more than lifeboats to keep the missing middle afloat. We will need to shore up the system of “adult benefits” that had long been sinking and is in need of major repair.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
How to restore Canada’s Employment Insurance program
Tuesday, April 21st, 2020
If we hadn’t already spent most of it, the EI surplus could have been used to pay for the entire cost of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program, currently estimated to cost $24 billion, and much of the $71 billion to support the Federal Wage Subsidy Program. The fact is, a strong, comprehensive and robust EI system that provides for all workers could have avoided the need to develop any overlapping programs.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
We can see the way out of the coronavirus pandemic, but the steps to get there will be slow
Monday, April 20th, 2020
There is no easy option… We can tough it out at home, or we can tough it out at work. We can live a little less free, or a lot. We can lose thousands of lives, or tens of thousands; endure slow growth, or a depression. Those are the real choices before us. Either way, it will take months, at least, before we can declare victory.
Tags: economy, Health, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
CERB is an unintended experiment in basic income
Monday, April 20th, 2020
… we have a historic opportunity for Ottawa, the provinces and territories to reshape cash transfers for Canadians who have low incomes, regardless of the reason why. COVID-19 could create a legacy: an income-support system that is efficient, non-stigmatizing, encourages work and is sufficient to provide better health outcomes and liquidity for people and communities. This would be a streamlined national reform vital to the economics of rebuilding and recovery.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Millions of Canadians are now collecting a state-funded income. But what happens after the pandemic ends?
Saturday, April 18th, 2020
The advent of UBI in its pure form is unlikely. It has its champions today as never before, but UBI is likely to fade as the pandemic does. To start, the federal finance ministry, no fan of UBI, prefers to create targeted rather than universal programs. And never mind the streamlined efficiency of universal programs like Medicare… the issue isn’t affordability. It’s culture. People either embrace or reject paying the freight for ensuring that everyone has a decent, dignified way of life.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Let’s have dignity in life as well as death
Saturday, April 18th, 2020
Working together we can push governments and businesses to build a more inclusive economy that offers full-time jobs with decent wages and benefits. We can repair the frayed social safety net. This crisis has already demonstrated that governments — provincial and federal — can quickly alter policies and programs to better suit the needs of Canadians when they are highly motivated to do so.
Tags: economy, ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Shockproofing Canada: We can make masks and ventilators, but we can’t make drugs needed to treat COVID-19
Friday, April 17th, 2020
“That’s the problem with stockpiles… You end up sitting on millions of dollars in drugs and equipment. Then you have to keep replacing it. And which ones do you stockpile?” The alternative, then, would be to expand production capacities for pharmaceuticals and medical supplies at home, but that’s more complicated than it might seem… Countries such as Canada will have to each find their own balance between self-reliance and international cooperation…
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, pharmaceutical
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s senior-care crisis has been long in the works
Thursday, April 16th, 2020
As a country, we need to rethink how we approach long-term care from top to bottom. And we don’t have a lot of time to do it. A 2017 Conference Board study estimated that, to meet demand, Canada needs to nearly double the number of long-term care beds available to about 450,000 by 2035. We can’t afford to do it on the cheap.
Tags: budget, disabilities, economy, Health, housing, jurisdiction, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
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