Posts Tagged ‘ideology’

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The risks of ending safer supply drugs programs

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

21 of 24 federally funded safer supply programs are in jeopardy, as their contracts will expire in March. And with just two months until then, the feds have given no indication that they’ll renew their commitment to any of them. Ottawa’s silence on the matter is all the more disturbing given the recent, dramatic increase in overdose deaths — and the mounting evidence in support of safer supply.

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Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »


Bleeding the patient: tracking five years of Ontario revenue reductions

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

Since 2018, the Ministry of Finance has made close to 30 policy changes that have cut taxes, cut fees, and paid out large sums in the form of tax credits. As the table below shows, those changes are draining a minimum of $7.7 billion from the provincial treasury in 2023-24… it looks like it’s coming out of public services… successive governments have deliberately bled themselves dry and then pled poverty afterward.

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Posted in Governance History | No Comments »


Ontario is dead last in program spending—again

Sunday, January 28th, 2024

In 2022, Ontario’s program spending per capita was $3,863 less than the average of the other provinces. This means that for every dollar per person spent on programs in other provinces, Ontario spent 75 cents… there is no evidence—and no one is claiming—that Ontario’s low spending is the result of some magical efficiency in program delivery here. There’s nothing efficient about having too few nurses.

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Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »


What the cap on international students means for Doug Ford’s government 

Friday, January 26th, 2024

Ontario’s post-secondary sector has become increasingly reliant on the high tuition fees paid by foreign students and has recruited them in staggering numbers… Those numbers are to be cut in half, the federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Marc Miller said this week. Deciding how to divvy up that far slimmer allocation of international students among Ontario’s universities and colleges will be up to the provincial government. 

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Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »


After the apologies: Churches give time and money to redress residential-school wrongs

Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024

Although public apologies occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn’t until 2006 that a class-action lawsuit – the largest in Canadian history – brought about the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, which recognized the damage done to Indigenous children placed in these schools… In addition to their responsibility to fulfil the 2006 agreement, churches have made efforts to fundraise for programs that don’t fall within the agreement’s mandates.

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Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »


Swelling CEO salaries highlight income inequality

Monday, January 22nd, 2024

The average worker received an average wage increase of three per cent in 2022 while prices rose by more than twice that amount… The financial disconnect between CEOs and the employees who work for them underscores broader issues of income inequality and affordability. We need quality research and robust debate on how to address income inequality and stagnating wages for those not privileged to work in the c-suites.

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Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »


Ford government’s controversial plan for private medical clinics will begin this spring

Sunday, January 21st, 2024

The Ontario government will approve more privately owned clinics to provide diagnostic services like CTs and MRIs and surgeries starting April 1… critics fear will bleed the public health system of doctors, nurses and other resources at a time when patients face record waits in hospital emergency rooms… Ontario currently has more than 900 private clinics in operation, mainly providing X-rays and other diagnostic services, and many of them predate [this] government.

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Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


No end to the ER crisis without investments and addressing workers’ concerns

Wednesday, January 17th, 2024

We recently estimated that dealing with those pressures and bringing back the quality of care in our hospitals to an acceptable standard would require a $1.25 billion annual investment after offsetting costs of inflation. But so far, the Ford government is letting the hospitals deteriorate while it sits on $5.4 billion in contingency funding. If this government is serious about addressing the hospital crisis, it must commit to historic investments immediately.

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Ontario’s universities face a looming crisis. ‘Efficiencies’ aren’t the answer

Sunday, January 14th, 2024

Neither domestic nor foreign students can afford a tuition increase, yet universities can’t make ends meet without more funding. Ontario student funding is already the lowest in the country… first and foremost, the Ford government needs to increase per-student funding to institutions by at least the 10 per cent its own panel recommended and prepare for more increases down the road.

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Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »


Canadians want their governments to tackle poverty, but nobody can agree on what to do

Wednesday, January 10th, 2024

Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, lone-parent households, recent immigrants and single adults aged 45 to 64 have a poverty rate that is double or triple that of the rest of the population. More than two-thirds of working-age individuals living in poverty belong to at least one of these groups… Better universal access to affordable quality physical and mental-health care, early childhood care, and social housing are some of the win-win policy actions that encourage both growth and poverty reduction.

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Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »


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