Posts Tagged ‘standard of living’
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Canada’s quiet economic driver: Universities and colleges
Friday, May 1st, 2026
Universities and colleges lead the way on driving economic growth: Universities and colleges’ economic output was worth $61 billion in 2025, which was 2.1 per cent of Canada’s total GDP—just $5 billion behind residential building construction, much more than all oil sands extraction ($49 billion), and almost twice as much as mining or transportation manufacturing (at $33 billion each)… Despite only making up about two per cent of Canada’s economy, the post-secondary education sector represents over 34 per cent of all research and development, which was much higher than Canada’s peer countries.
Tags: economy, Education, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 8 Comments »
To improve literacy, Ontario should invest in students and educators
Friday, May 1st, 2026
Even when screening tools are efficient and well-designed, teachers often lack the time, class-size conditions and specialist support needed to respond meaningfully to the results… Ontario stands at a familiar crossroads: keep reaching for solutions that are quick to purchase and easy to measure, or do the harder work of building lasting public capacity… [through] smaller primary classes, restored specialist support, rich early language environments and teacher education grounded in deep literacy expertise.
Tags: budget, Education, ideology, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | 1 Comment »
I’m giving the CRA an extra $1 million this year. Here’s why
Thursday, April 30th, 2026
Patriotic Millionaires recently commissioned new polling that found among Canadians with more than $1 million in assets (not including their homes), 71 per cent believe extreme wealth concentration is a threat to democracy, 62 per cent believe government leaders should do more to address it, and 65 per cent believe that governments should raise taxes on the very wealthy. .. Extreme wealth inequality is not inevitable. It’s the result of policy choices, and we can choose differently.
Tags: economy, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
How Ottawa’s ‘cruel’ process keeps the majority of Canadians with disability from getting the Disability Tax Credit
Monday, April 27th, 2026
To qualify, a person with disabilities has to be certified through the DTC system… The eligibility criteria are narrow and exclude episodic disabilities and mental health. The certification process is costly and cumbersome, requiring the stamp of approval of a medical practitioner. Women, people with mental-health and episodic disabilities, and those with low income are routinely squeezed out.
Tags: disabilities, participation, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | 6 Comments »
If you’re treading water on welfare in Doug Ford’s Ontario, you’re slowly sinking
Monday, April 27th, 2026
By the end of this budget’s 2026-27 fiscal year, the projected inflation rate of two per cent will have further eroded the purchasing power of Ontario Works payments by more than 22 per cent cumulatively, since 2018… it’s worth remembering that the high water mark for welfare was in 1993… If that figure were indexed to inflation today, it would be $1,303 a month, some $570 (78 per cent) more than the current rate of $733 under Ford’s Tories.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 4 Comments »
What Pierre Poilievre Doesn’t Get About His Economic Hero
Monday, April 27th, 2026
Poilievre presents justice — fairness, poverty reduction, the well-being of those left behind — as something that markets produce incidentally when they are left alone. The claim is that free markets lifted billions out of poverty; therefore the path forward is more free markets, fewer regulations, lower taxes, more oil and gas. But this framing depends on a separation of efficiency and justice that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, rights, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Reclaiming the public square in a time of rupture
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026
… neoliberal economic policies and market changes have created a persistent and growing divide between Canada’s wealthiest and poorest households… [and] a considerable shrinking of the public space through successive laws enacted since 9/11… The scope of our advocacy must expand. It should focus on the rebuilding of resilient communities and the public good and challenge neoliberal modalities about the economy and its excessive income inequality.
Tags: featured, participation, philanthropy, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
As Canada’s K-shaped economic gap widens, democracy is key to fixing that. Here’s why
Friday, April 17th, 2026
A democracy can survive disagreement. It has a harder time surviving when a growing number of people feel they don’t belong in the same society at all… When an economy gives most power and stability to only a few people, it doesn’t just create inequality, it also weakens how people relate to each other in a democracy. Over time, that makes the country harder to govern, slower to adjust to change and more difficult to keep united.
Tags: economy, participation, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | 5 Comments »
Young Canadians are increasingly miserable. Government priorities show why
Saturday, April 4th, 2026
Governments have not matched the rise in spending on boomers with new revenue from that generation, which leaves too little to invest in affordable housing, education, training and family supports for their offspring… It’s about restoring fiscal balance so every generation can thrive.
Tags: economy, Seniors, standard of living, tax, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | 23 Comments »
Every President Tries It. It Never Works.
Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
Efforts to revive manufacturing are rooted in nostalgia. Once upon a time, manufacturing jobs provided a reliable pathway to the middle class… Not anymore… A smarter economic strategy would stop measuring success by the number of assembly lines reopened and start focusing on what actually raises living standards: productivity, affordability and the growth of the whole economy.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Debates | 1 Comment »
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