Devolution. Debasement. Depraved Indifference. Apply whatever term you like, but the cuts coming furiously from the Ford government in Ontario surely bespeak a state that no ruling body, and by extension, its citizens, should promote or countenance. While I hesitate to speculate on what pathology drives Doug Ford to dismantle
Continue readingTag: budget cuts
Mind Bending Politics: Cuts Are Coming To Social Services in Ontario
Newly Elected Premier Doug Ford said during the election campaign that caregivers and parents with children with disabilities would never have to march on Queen’s Park again if he was elected Premier. A new opt ed written by Stuart Trew from the Canadian Center of Policy Alternatives warns that one
Continue readingMind Bending Politics: Ontario To Axe CCAC In $50 Billion Health Care Overhaul
(Nothing to see here: Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins Announces The Closure of Community Care Access Centres) The horror stories continue for the people of Ontario. Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins announced today that the government will be closing all Community Care Access Centres (CCAC) in favor of cost cutting measures, and moving the home […]
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta Politics: Sharpen Your Pencils, Alberta. Slash-and-burn is back.
Living in the land of the lowest taxation rates in Canada allows many personal benefits but long-term government stability has not been one of them. Relying heavily on natural resource revenues, our political leaders continue to stumble from embarrassment of riches to poverty and never… Continue Reading →
Continue reading350 or bust: Federal Government’s Gutting Of Environmental Protection Affects All Canadians
Here’s a brilliant clip put out by one of Canada’s largest unions, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). In less than two minutes the video manages to depict what the government of Stephen Harper is doing to Canada’ s environment (they’ve even taken the word “environment” out of the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Scary Is “The True Nature of Stephen Harper”, Says PSAC (VIDEO)
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The Harper Conservatives thought they were smart with those back-firing Justin Trudeau attack ads. They didn’t see this one from the Public Service Alliance of Canada coming: The True Nature of Stephen Harper. Watch: PSAC on Harper’s environmental cutbacks: The Harper government’s 2012 budget called for substantial cuts to
Continue readingcalgaryliberal.com: Harper does it again: Undermining Canadian business and industry (this time on beef)
If you want to undermine Canadian beef at home and abroad in one fell swoop you only need to take away the long-standing trust people have held for the safety of our food industries. A fundamental trust that has been rebuilt from BSE in particular. And that undermining has been
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Canada lost 30 400 jobs in July & apologists blame the global economy
This is the kind of news Stephen Harper and the Conservatives would wish you didn’t hear. That’s because it debunks the self-made myth that they’re competent economic managers. They want us to believe that Canada survived the recent global recession better than most countries because of them. And, they’re rapidly
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Activists Target Harper Government At 2012 Int AIDS Conference
Activists angered over funding cuts and regressive government policy protest the Canada exhibit booth To launch off the AIDS 2012 XIX International AIDS Conference Washington D.C., Canadian and international activists demonstrated at the Canadian exhibition booth this afternoon. The Canadian booth is financed by the Public Health Agency of Canada
Continue readingImpolitical: Bad environmental choices, bad economics too
David Suzuki’s column today on the government’s choice to close the Experimental Lakes Area magnifies the tremendous cost to taxpayers: The world-renowned Experimental Lakes Area in Southern Ontario has served as an outdoor laboratory for this purpose since 1968. By manipulating and studying conditions in 58 small lakes and their
Continue readingbastard.logic: Dueling Ledes (Compare & Contrast), Redux
AP video, Feb 15, 2011: A recent [US] government report states the terrorist threat from Canada is greater than from Mexico, and that only 50 kilometres of the border is adequately patrolled. CBC News, today: Major job cuts at the Canada Border Services Agency could undermine national security and public
Continue readingImpolitical: Chart of the week
Click to enlarge. (Source) Elections Canada was largely singled out for budgetary savings, among all the Agents of Parliament in the Harper/Flaherty budget. When it is in the midst of a 200 riding-wide investigation across the country to determine what happened with harassing and misleading phone calls that may have
Continue readingImpolitical: Conservative Senators bring the optics on budget eve
Conservative Senators are complaining today about news that they’ll be losing a cafeteria in one of the buildings in which Senators work, the Victoria Building. Former Conservative party president, Don Plett, unfamiliar with the phrase “entitled to their entitlements” apparently, said this: “What a bad, bad idea. The Victoria cafeteria
Continue readingImpolitical: Putting a price on accountability
From Friday: “MPs question true dollar value of questions asked of government.” As budget cuts loom, and Parliament’s budget itself has been floated as a target, this looks like a set up. Conservative MP Brian Jean asked in December by written question to the government how much it was costing
Continue readingImpolitical: Late night
Who knew a video of an Arctic research station, the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka, Nunavut, could be so oddly compelling. Maybe it’s the music. Maybe it’s the circumstances where a key Canadian scientific research asset in the Arctic is denied the $1.5 million it needs to
Continue readingImpolitical: Flaherty changing his budget tune?
Flaherty seems to have found a new word for his upcoming budget: The federal budget expected in mid-March will focus on “moderate” measures to cut government spending and encourages provinces to do the same, he said. “We are not one of the countries, many of them in Europe, that have
Continue readingImpolitical: Harper eyes the parliamentary budget for cuts
News from CTV last night that Harper is looking for a 10 per cent cut to Parliament’s $585M budget. A few thoughts come to mind. First, is this a distraction from Harper’s humongous internet surveillance bungle? Maybe. After the tremendously bad p.r. they’ve been getting over the last week or
Continue readingImpolitical: More budget homework for Flaherty
This is a story that may have been glossed over in the past few days but is worth noting: “Rating Firms Question Canada's Planned Budget Cuts.” Two of the major ratings agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, are warning the Harper government away from large budget cutting plans: Steven Hess, Moody’s lead
Continue readingImpolitical: Why Flaherty was so upset with the PBO yesterday
Well, there was the main takeaway from Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page’s report release yesterday on the fiscal sustainability of Old Age Security that Flaherty would not have been too pleased with: “OAS sustainable under current rules, says budget watchdog.” That main point runs counter to the government’s messaging. And
Continue readingImpolitical: The coming public service job losses
There’s a new study out by the CCPA on federal public service job cuts. The study suggests between 11,000 to 22,000 jobs could be lost in the Ottawa area and between 60,000 to 70,000 jobs across the country. This would be done in the next few years and up to
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