Posts Tagged ‘standard of living’

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Nearly half of dementia cases can be prevented or delayed, a major new study suggests. Here’s how

Friday, August 2nd, 2024

We need policymakers to take a “population health approach” to preventing dementia… That includes ensuring equitable access to community services, such as group exercise programs, and medical devices… hearing aids, for example… Livingston’s team outlined 13 population-level recommendations for policymakers, addressing each of dementia’s 14 modifiable risk factors.

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Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »


I’m an emergency physician. I’ve seen what a functioning health care system needs and it’s not more downloading to pharmacies

Friday, August 2nd, 2024

Rather than focus on episodic care in a way that further fragments the health-care system, a “bold and innovative” government would address the major source of health-care rot — the lack of primary-care providers. It would reorder incentives and invest in strategies to ensure that every Ontario resident has a primary care provider to manage their episodic and complex medical needs… not a pharmacist to manage their sore throats and warts.

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Crown must settle with First Nations for breaching Robinson treaties: Supreme Court

Thursday, August 1st, 2024

The Crown made a mockery of its treaty promise to the Anishinaabe in Ontario by freezing annual payments to First Nations for 150 years, and it now must make things right, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled… The decision noted that the Crown has derived “enormous economic benefit” from the land through mining and other activities over the years, while First Nations communities have suffered with inadequate housing and boil-water advisories.  Lawyers for the plaintiffs said people have been living in abject poverty.

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Posted in Governance History | No Comments »


Welfare in Canada (2023)

Thursday, August 1st, 2024

The Welfare in Canada reports look at the total incomes available to those relying on social assistance (often called “welfare”), taking into account tax credits and other benefits along with social assistance itself. The reports look at four different household types for each province and territory… In 2023, welfare incomes remained deeply inadequate. Fifty-five out of 56 (98%) households were in poverty, with 40 of them (71%) living in deep poverty. 

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Posted in Social Security History | No Comments »


Four decades of tax cuts, deregulation and privatization equals a serious distribution of wealth problem

Saturday, July 6th, 2024

After slashing government funding to public services  starving them into crisis just to pay for tax cuts to the wealthy and their corporations, they then present privatization as the solution to a problem they created. The only thing deregulation and privatization does is create more profit-making opportunities…
Small tax cuts to the general population have been used as a cover for massive tax cuts to the wealthy and their corporations. Reversing tax cuts is not raising taxes, it is restoring revenue to rebuild our once civil society.

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International Monetary Fund paints a rosy picture of Canada — maybe the country isn’t broken after all

Monday, June 17th, 2024

The IMF says Ottawa should seek additional revenue sources to reduce its reliance on deficit financing. It suggests raising the federal portion of the GST, as this space earlier advocated in also calling for a higher OAS eligibility age of 67… removing interprovincial trade barriers would boost the Canadian economy by about $80 billion a year… The IMF urges Canada to resume provision of social housing, a field Ottawa abandoned in the 1990s with disastrous consequences.

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The rich say boosting the capital gains tax will hurt productivity, but it’s just not true. Time to do a little myth-busting

Monday, June 17th, 2024

Most academic economists support a higher inclusion rate, partly because it levels the playing field between different types of capital income. But the best motivation is $20 billion in revenue it will raise over five years, to support modest new programs announced in this budget. This will help fund school lunches, affordable housing initiatives, dental care and disability benefits — while still respecting Freeland’s fiscal “guardrails.”

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Pierre Poilievre’s vision for Canada: Heaven for the very rich and squat for everyone else

Friday, June 14th, 2024

… the real redistribution in recent years hasn’t been the small bit directed toward benefits for ordinary Canadians but rather the gush of money toward the wealthiest Canadians. In 2021, the richest .01 per cent saw their incomes grow on average by a stunning 30 per cent to $12.5 million a year, while the incomes of 14 million working Canadians actually declined, according to Statistics Canada.

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Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »


Nigmendra Narain speaks truth about Ontario’s manufactured university crisis

Thursday, May 30th, 2024

ON funding $6000 below national average… this scarcity of university funding… has been completely manufactured by a provincial government bent on ‘saving tax-payer dollars’ by downloading costs onto individuals while encouraging public-private partnerships… Ontario’s ratio is currently 34 students : 1 professor. Contrast that with the rest of Canada averaging 23 students : 1 faculty.

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Here’s how Ontarians on ODSP are trying to make ends meet

Sunday, May 19th, 2024

… the low social-assistance rates in Ontario… are forcing recipients to earn money however they can. Living in what disability activists frequently refer to as “legislated poverty,” these recipients often drain their savings, borrow money from friends and family, or even consider taking their own lives… Programs like the recently unveiled Canada Disability Benefit, or even the Ontario government’s decision to index ODSP to inflation, not only don’t keep pace with the past few years of inflation — they barely address decades of stagnant earnings.

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Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | 1 Comment »


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