Posts Tagged ‘economy’
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There’s less than meets the eye in Ontario’s COVID-19 plan
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
Hospitals… are getting $935 million under this plan, which isn’t far off what they said they needed just to maintain the existing level of care before the coronavirus… there’s no plan for direct cash payments to help those who have lost work or been forced to isolate because of COVID-19…. plenty of other provinces are jumping in to enhance the Trudeau government’s stimulus package with their own measures, believing it is a necessary provincial role… The Ford government, by contrast, seems keen to leave the heavy lifting to Ottawa.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario unleashes record spending for COVID-19 pandemic with $17B in emergency measures
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
Finance Minister Rod Phillips on Wednesday injected $3.3 billion more into health plus $3.7 billion for other supports and promised an additional $10 billion in tax deferrals, doubling the deficit to $20.5 billion… “COVID-19 is an extraordinary threat to the health and economy of Ontario…” “We will spend whatever it takes,” Ford told reporters.
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, tax
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
A wartime economy is a very particular thing
Wednesday, March 25th, 2020
When there is only one economic objective, and everyone agrees what it is, central planning works tolerably well… Good policy ideas that are, for one reason or another, politically impractical at most times often become possible in crises, when the risks and rewards of experimentation are seen rather differently. The baby bonus came out of the Second World War. Perhaps some form of basic income will be the legacy of “World War C.”
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
To address the needs of Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis, we need a targeted basic income
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020
A targeted income maintenance approach that is conditional on income — what we refer to as a “targeted basic income” — meets the urgency of the current crisis. And, because seniors and children already have a guaranteed annual income through the Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income Supplement and CCB programs, the major remaining gap in social policy must address the needs of low-income working-age people — particularly those without children.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Stop talking about basic income and do it
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020
Most people want to work, people try very hard to find jobs. That said, it really depends on designing your program properly so you’re not setting up a situation in which it actually costs people to go to work. The onus is on the people who introduce basic income to design it properly. We’re going to see over the next few weeks how badly people want to get back to work
Tags: economy, ideology, participation
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Federal COVID-19 aid needs speed, and space to grow
Tuesday, March 24th, 2020
Many of us know the current system is broken and prioritizes profit over people and their well-being. The pandemic is making those cracks clear. The response to the pandemic has shown that the government has the capacity to act in the public interest on a massive scale – job-protected paid sick leave for all workers was not on any government’s agenda before last week. We will need to carry that urgency to build a better society with us into the recovery to ensure that we do not return to “normal.”
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Beyond the fog of the pandemic, there is a new energy future in sight. Let’s go build it
Monday, March 23rd, 2020
Canada’s energy industry is part of the solution to the global climate crisis. We are developing Canadian technologies and processes that dramatically reduce carbon emissions and provide the world with cleaner sources of energy… The COVID-19 crisis can be the turning point we needed.
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Gig-economy workers already knew what coronavirus is teaching the rest of us now
Saturday, March 21st, 2020
… we already have the antidote to precarity: security — income security. And not just in an emergency. Income security sounds like something abstract or complicated, but nothing could be more tangible and understandable: If you lose income, you make it up with a guaranteed minimum; if you gain or regain income, you give up your supplement (it’s taxed back).
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Some of our most undervalued workers now among our most valuable as pandemic forces rethink of what jobs are critical
Saturday, March 21st, 2020
Millions of so-called “low skill” workers are also indispensable to our well-being, possibly even our survival… They have to keep working: both to earn income (most wouldn’t even qualify for Employment Insurance), and to serve us… Indeed, the precarious insecurity of these supposedly “menial” jobs now poses major risks to the rest of society.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Liberal bolstering of social safety net should be more ambitious
Friday, March 20th, 2020
In effect, the Liberal government is reinventing an unemployment insurance scheme that will actually cover the unemployed. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is pitching this as a temporary measure to deal with a short-term emergency. He should be more ambitious… A real unemployment insurance scheme, one that took into account all the jobless, would be a good first step.
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
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