Posts Tagged ‘youth’
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Gov’t spending should be fair to all age groups
Retirees now report the lowest rates of low-income status of any age group, while more than a quarter of Canadian children start kindergarten vulnerable in ways that make them more likely to fail in school, commit crimes, and fall ill. Canadians in their 40s and younger also inherit larger government and environmental debts than their parents did a generation ago. Such evidence suggests that younger generations need to become a greater priority for policy adaptation by our governments.
Tags: budget, child care, globalization, ideology, pensions, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Canada is 17th in children’s health. We can do much better
Children do better, families do better, and countries do better when nations invest in early childhood programs… in terms of return on investment, early childhood education yielded $8 for every $1 spent in terms of cost savings associated with reduced remedial education, juvenile justice involvement, health and social services use and increased school completion… programs that target not only children but also their mothers and other caregivers appear to have the most profound and persistent effects on children’s health and development.
Tags: child care, crime prevention, featured, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario must heed alarms on aid for kids in crisis
two issues in particular that need immediate attention: The first is that black kids are way overrepresented in the system. Just 8 per cent of Toronto children under 18 are black, but 41 per cent of kids in care are black. The second is that we’re over-medicating kids in the system. The reporters found that 48.6 per cent of those aged 5 to 17 in foster and group homes are taking behaviour-altering medications. The number jumps to 74 per cent for 10- to 15-year-olds in group homes.
Tags: child care, ideology, immigration, multiculturalism, pharmaceutical, poverty, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Secretive and often overzealous care agencies protect children largely at parents’ expense
Child protection agencies have sweeping powers in Canada —powers that, in many aspects, span wider than police. And just as sweeping in many jurisdictions is the privacy under which child protection agencies and government ministries operate. It’s a realm where freedom of information laws do not apply… Ontario has just given investigative powers into such cases to an independent body, but it doesn’t cover parental complaints… a growing number of families and critics say it is really a way for governments to protect themselves.
Tags: child care, disabilities, poverty, rights, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario’s most vulnerable children kept in the shadows
A Star investigation has found Ontario’s most vulnerable children in the care of an unaccountable and non-transparent protection system. It keeps them in the shadows, far beyond what is needed to protect their identities. “When people are invisible, bad things happen,” says Irwin Elman, the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. Child protection through children’s aid societies costs taxpayers almost $1.5 billion a year — a 300-per-cent increase since 1999.
Tags: budget, child care, multiculturalism, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Child welfare system rigged against black families
A discriminatory child welfare framework exists that penalizes African Canadian families living in poverty — suggesting that parents who work multiple part-time jobs are unfit parents… racism has resulted in the disproportionate levels of African Canadian child welfare apprehensions and cross-cultural foster care placements… It is now time to create structures within the existing system to analyze and address repeated problems experienced by African Canadian children in child welfare.
Tags: child care, ideology, multiculturalism, poverty, rights, youth
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Why are so many black children in foster and group homes?
Poverty, inadequate housing, language barriers and poor education aggravate the power imbalance these families experience… A recent report on child poverty in Toronto co-authored by the agency noted that 41 per cent of children of southern and eastern African heritage are growing up poor — more than three times the rate of children with roots in the British Isles. Meantime, 26 per cent of children whose families are from the Caribbean and 25 per cent from North Africa live in poverty.
Tags: child care, ideology, immigration, multiculturalism, poverty, rights, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Liberals reverse on proposal affecting dental care for low-income families
The Liberal government scrambled Monday to reverse a proposal that would have resulted in thousands of children of low-income families being denied preventative dental health services… “Last year we treated over 18,000 kids in the city of Toronto. If the new restricted rules proposed in the amalgamated dental-services program had been in place, 15,000 of those kids would have been denied access to dental-health care”…
Tags: budget, economy, Health, ideology, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ontario promises to increase student aid by rate of inflation
Some 330,000 college and university students across Ontario receive financial aid jointly from Ottawa and Queen’s Park, but the most a typical single student has been eligible to borrow has been capped at $12,240 annually since 2010… Unlike the current rules, which require such a student to repay the entire student debt before getting a fresh loan, the new program will let them earn their way back into good standing by making a show of good faith over six months, by paying back the outstanding interest from missed payments plus a portion of the principle, and then returning to a more gentle repayment plan.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Catholic school boards can’t be wished away just yet
Amalgamation, consolidation or elimination is an idea whose time hasn’t come — yet… Clearly, if one were redesigning an education system from scratch, there’s no question that separate school boards make no sense as public policy. But that’s not the question. Today’s challenge is how to dismantle, delicately, what we have inherited — how to liberate the laity from Catholic constraints, and how to spare the rest of the expense.
Tags: budget, ideology, rights, tax, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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