Posts Tagged ‘housing’

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From health care to pharmacare to housing, federal budget fails Canadians

Sunday, April 10th, 2022

In many ways, this failed budget looks like gesture politics, the act of appearing to care but doing little of substance… Canada can afford to do better for its people. The Canadian economy is indeed “booming”… The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) expects GDP to hit $2.8 trillion next year, about 18 higher than Ottawa forecast in December… Using conservative estimates, Ottawa is projecting a sharp drop in the federal deficit…

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Budget 2022: Some progress, but no need for panic at the country club

Friday, April 8th, 2022

Today’s federal commitment to create a national dental care program will help millions of Canadians, but there’s a huge missed opportunity to move forward on pharmacare, long-term care and needed health care spending to deal with the pandemic’s impact… Many Canadians are feeling the weight of living in uncertain times. They need better income security, better access to Employment Insurance if they lose their job, more affordable housing, and the world needs a bolder climate change plan than what’s on the table.

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Budget promises lower deficit, but more spending on housing, defence and social programs

Thursday, April 7th, 2022

To increase revenues, the government will introduce a new tax on financial institutions… [and] serves notice on high-income earners… to decide by next year if a wealth tax… is warranted… In addition to outlays for housing and dental care, the budget pegs new spending on climate action at $12.4 billion and more than $8 billion on national defence… [but] it fails to address the crisis in health care and long-term care with meaningful measures and money…

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Always ahead of her time, Kathleen Wynne has some advice as she prepares to leave Queen’s Park

Wednesday, April 6th, 2022

The pioneering ideas Wynne fought in vain for are back in vogue after the realities of the pandemic: Child care. Check. Pharmacare. Check. Paid sick days. Check. Minimum wage increases. Check. Basic income support. Check. Wynne’s defeat led to the demise of her reforms in all these areas, as Ford’s Tories systematically dismantled what she had built. Within days of taking power, the PCs pulled the plug on her OHIP+ drug program and then went down the list.

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Amid spiralling costs for Canadians and atrocities abroad, deficit is not a dirty word

Wednesday, April 6th, 2022

… business pages are full of opinions that say there’s already too much spending, deficits are dangerously high, and so any new spending must focus on supporting — surprise! — business, the self-proclaimed source of wealth creation… It’s very likely we are under-taxing some of the most profitable businesses, so yes, apart from borrowing, there’s a fix for the “how ya gonna pay for it?” crowd…  Those urging governments to trim spending look only at the costs of programs, and not the fiscal dividends of acting. 

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Run and hide! Lock your doors! The coalition government is coming for your democracy

Friday, March 25th, 2022

The true democratic disorder is when a party receives around 40 per cent of votes but gets 60 per cent of seats in Parliament, and then imposes their will on the country as if they’d received a true mandate. That’s delusional, yet it’s become our political normal. The last time a majority of seats accompanied a majority of votes was in 1984… Coalitions are by their nature improvisational and creative, so they don’t follow rule books. They’re also pretty inevitable now, since elections increasingly return minority governments.

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Some key details in the “confidence and supply” deal between the Liberals, NDP

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022

The NDP will not move a vote of non-confidence, nor vote for a non-confidence motion during the term of the arrangement; Parties agree on the importance of parliamentary scrutiny and the work done by MPs at committees; Meetings of party leaders at least once per quarter, as well as regular meetings of House leaders and whips… to identify priority bills to expedite through the House of Commons… Parties agree to prioritize [the following]…

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Ontario’s ‘affordable housing’ task force report does not address the real problems

Friday, February 11th, 2022

… the report reads like a blueprint for how to build more market-rate housing. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence to indicate that on its own, market-driven upzoning, laneway housing or mixed-use zoning produces the kind of housing that is accessible to households on low and moderate incomes… We talk a lot about housing today… because it has now become a middle-class problem.

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Ontario’s ‘affordable housing’ task force report does not address the real problems

Friday, February 11th, 2022

The tasks force’s recommendations are squarely aimed at this middle-class interpretation of the housing crisis… these measures will do very little for those on low and moderate incomes… Instead, a range of policies are needed to curb speculation, increase the supply of non-market, genuinely affordable housing and ensure tenants have adequate protections through strong rent-control policies.

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As Toronto’s homeless freeze, modular housing for them sits empty in a city parking lot. Blame Doug Ford’s government

Thursday, February 10th, 2022

The city asked for a special minister’s order to fast track modular housing for the homeless in Willowdale. The province has refused… The modular housing units sit empty near Finch Station, a five-minute drive from their intended destination… the… government’s new report on housing affordability recommends limiting exactly that: the seemingly endless community consultations that stall new housing in cities. 

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