Posts Tagged ‘standard of living’

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Budget 2023 overlooks Canada’s “dirty little secret” about federal health funding

Wednesday, May 24th, 2023

It’s a “dirty little secret” that the health care money sent to the provinces and territories under the Canada Health Transfer does not actually have to be spent on health care… Speaking on behalf of the Canadian Health Coalition, I urged MPs to take action to rein in health care privatization by the provinces, and to ensure that the promised Canada Pharmacare Act is a public, universal program that covers everyone.

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Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


Not done yet: $10-a-day child care requires addressing Canada’s child care deserts

Monday, May 22nd, 2023

… child care deserts are a feature of child care provision all across Canada. This reality, which represents the dysfunctional child care market that has developed over time as Canada has, until now, lacked unifying early learning and child care policy and funding… purposeful and rational expansion of public and non-profit licensed child care is a critical next step to ensure that all Canadian families can access the more affordable fees already in play.

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Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »


Preventive health care: Why privately funded programs are reluctant to fund it

Monday, May 8th, 2023

Within a publicly funded care model, there is a vested interest to mandate and fund preventative health measures as government payers are accountable for sustainable health care budgets. Recognizing that early prevention can reduce costs down the road, governments are more willing to pay for screening services for patients at risk… the ability to predict the individual risk of patients using artificial intelligence is incredibly exciting in the health care space.

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Should we be taking money off Canadians’ paycheques for long-term care?

Thursday, May 4th, 2023

A public — not private — long-term-care insurance program could help pay for costly and unexpected expenses due to ill health or fragility that can be financially devastating… many will spend their later years living on a basic retirement income that likely won’t cover the thousands of dollars needed for health-related services, such as home care from private-pay personal support workers or nursing home “accommodation” co-payment fees. 

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Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »


Once a school troublemaker, Charles Pascal died a visionary for transforming education in Ontario

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2023

… the first full-time executive director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation… was key in establishing the Ontario Child Tax benefit, the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and early learning policy… The genesis of full-day kindergarten began with a pilot project led by the foundation… providing a model that has been adopted in other provinces.

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Posted in Education History | No Comments »


Doug Ford has plunged colleges and universities into crisis with historic funding cuts — and no plan for their futures

Wednesday, April 26th, 2023

… Ford’s Tories have been systematically freezing and defunding the higher education sector since taking power in 2018, leading to a cash crunch unlike anything in the past… The crisis in colleges and universities is undermining Ontario’s education reputation… It is perpetuating a hollowing out of higher education for Ontarians, while hosting unlimited enrolment for international students.

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Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »


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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‘Don’t just publish another paper. Let’s do something,’ says scholar-advocate Cindy Blackstock

Wednesday, April 12th, 2023

… [Dr. Blackstock] wants to see more emphasis at Canadian universities on teaching students about advocacy: how to do it and how to continue doing it throughout their careers. “So often we get students in social work and law who say they are doing advocacy, but we don’t train them, and we don’t teach them about the courage it takes to do it,”

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Does Ottawa’s grocery rebate signal a shift to a broader guaranteed basic income?

Monday, April 10th, 2023

Food banks… were first introduced as a temporary measure in the early 1980s in response to economic downturn… though inadequate… they are now relied upon as part of the “social safety net.”… What’s required now is a fundamental philosophical shift in societal and political will to go beyond grocery rebates and support efficient government programming that supports the choice, agency and dignity of all Canadians, regardless of income.

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Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »


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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Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »


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