In the 2019/20 budget health care was budgeted at $59.97 billion. That was subsequently increased by over $450 million to $60.42 billion, mostly through Supplementary Estimates late in the fiscal year. The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) now reports (based on current, but not yet final figures) that health care spending
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Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Edward Xie and Danyaal Raza make the case for a basic services model to ensure people’s needs are met as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic: Meeting universal basic needs for participation, health and independence is not a simple consumer choice. Rather,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On evident waste
There doesn’t seem to be much dispute that the Saskatchewan Party is thumbing its nose at the movement to defund the police by making a point of announcing funding increases without any consideration as to how services could better be delivered through other organizations. But one doesn’t have to be
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Radheyan Simonpillai discusses new polling showing how COVID-19 has caused stress on multiple levels. Al Etmanski writes about the importance of continuing to operate based on a mindset of caring for each other even once the worst of the pandemic is over. And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – David Macdonald notes that the federal government’s investments in the wake of COVID-19 have been necessary to keep intolerable burdens off of people who haven’t been able to bear them. Scotiabank weighs in (PDF) on the reality that the costs of inaction would
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Jason Markusoff writes about the absurdity of Jason Kenney’s continued bluster about attacking the rest of Canada rather than working on improving the lives of Albertans. And Shama Rangwala and Danielle Paradis discuss the warped idea of “freedom” underlying the ideology of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom writes about the Libs’ dangerous efforts to turn the page on COVID-19 as Canada’s primary political concern. – Murray Mandryk highlights how Scott Moe’s budget accomplishes nothing either to address our immediate crisis, or to chart a long-term course for Saskatchewan.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Aaron Wherry discusses the dramatically different effects of the COVID-19 pandemic based on inequalities in income and privilege. And Katherine Scott draws on Canada’s most recent monthly jobs report to highlight the need for a recovery centered on women. – Meanwhile, Heather Scoffield
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Ethan Cox writes that a large majority of Canadians favours massive public investments funded by more fair taxes on the wealthy as our road to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. And Aaron Wherry points out the folly of fixating on deficits and public-sector
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Irfan Dhalla argues that we have a choice between merely containing COVID-19 and outright eradicating it – and that we’ll be far better off pursuing the latter option. And Jim Pankratz writes that we should be entirely willing – and indeed happy –
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Why The Left Is Once Again Wrong
Also happening now, and further showing the continued failure of the left: the left is shouting in defence of payroll taxes – which kill jobs, as they are a tax on hiring and employment, as well as a regressive tax that hurts small and medium business the hardest. The
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On safety concerns
One of the great mysteries of Scott Moe’s tenure in power is how he’s evaded scrutiny for a personal track record which has demonstrated a gross lack of judgment – including getting convicted of impaired driving, causing a separate accident which killed another person, and filing for bankruptcy. In the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Owen Jones writes that the coronavirus is offering a stark lesson in how inequality kills: The coronavirus pandemic is about to collide with this engine of inequality. The super-rich are fleeing on private jets to luxury boltholes in foreign climes, while the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Todd Gordon and Geoffrey McCormack write about Canada’s crisis of capitalism – which is only being laid bare by a coronavirus pandemic exposing the fragility of a system built on precarity and debt. – Kim Kelly discusses how service workers will face the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jeff Spross calls out the absurdity of gutting protections for health and safety in the name of “regulatory certainty” – particularly when that really only means businesses know they can get away with as much damage on the public as they can inflict.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Justin Worland writes that the financial sector is belatedly and slowly waking up to the dangers of the climate crisis – with crucial implications for both the limited future of the fossil fuel sector, and the development of the energy sources which
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Ontario revenue up $1.5 billion since November – but no new health care spending announced
Ontario’s third quarter finances came out yesterday. They confirm that although planned health care funding has increased $404.1 million since the 2019/20 Budget, no further increase has been achieved since November’s Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review. That is another 0.64% funding increase achieved for health care since the Budget. Also notable:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Kate Andrias notes that governments can ensure better jobs for everybody by fostering collective bargaining strength. – John Favini writes that cooperation is deeply embedded in our biology – contrary to the spin that we naturally seek and require competition. – Marc
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kate Aronoff offers a reminder that the right’s constant bleating about limiting government spending never applies to the cost of wars of choice. – Laura Glowacki reports on how Doug Ford’s choice to allow rent increases will only make matters worse for Ontario’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Arwa Mahdawi writes that the outsized influence wielded by billionaires makes them something beyond merely wealthy people. Tom Whyman challenges the worship of the excessively wealthy as a particularly destructive religion. Robert Reich points out that the means of accumulating a billion
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