Deficit? Public spending ain’t the cause. Revenue, however…
With the election over, pressure to cut public programs has become quite intense. In almost all of the corporate owned media someone is barking on about it. Another option —…
Doug Allan
Ontario job creation falls well short of plan
In the Budget, the government projected 100,000 job growth in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017. That’s an annual increase of about 1.4%. But the government is having a problem meeting…
Ontario hospital capacity falls short of other provinces
Ontario has far fewer hospital beds than other provinces. Compared to other countries, we are even further behind. For the club of the 33 richest nations (the Organization of Economic…
Rest of Canada spends 23% more on hospitals than Ontario
Provincial government hospital expenditure per person in Ontario compared to the rest of Canada based on CIHI data. A large gap has grown between what the Ontario provincial government spends…
Fewer staff means 19% more problems for Ontario hospital patients
What might happen if Tim Hudak gets his way and 100,000 public sector jobs are eliminated?Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) data shows that fewer personnel in hospital nursing units…
Why the PCs think Mike Harris is a big-government union-lover
Many used to contrast the hard right policies of the former Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government with the milder PC policies of Bill Davis and the Big Blue Machine. But…
Hospital P3 scandal gets worse, but Ontario Liberals and PCs say bring on more!
The public private partnership (“P3”) hospital scandal in Montreal is getting even worse, if that is possible. As reported earlier, a police corruption investigation showed how SNC-Lavalin officials allegedly arranged…
PCs health care policy: cuts, privatization, mergers, and cuts
The PCs have developed two papers on health care policy, one dated September 2012 and another (which “builds on that foundation”) dated February 2013. Here are some key excerpts, with…
The lowdown on the PC plan for the public sector
Below are excerpts from the Progressive Conservative policy paper, “A New Deal for the Public Sector”. It contains some very radical ideas that go far beyond even what former PC…
Ontario public sector employment shrinks
Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives like to say that there is “a bloated public sector” in Ontario. “We will need to make do with fewer government employees” they proclaim.In fact, we…
How Ontario public sector health care funding lags behind
The Ontario public sector spends less than almost all other provinces on health care. And it’s falling further behind. Over the most recent four years per capita spending increased 9.7%…
Liberals support more private clinics – even as clinics turn on them
The Ontario government has gotten into another donnybrook with private clinics for a second time in less than a year. Over the summer, they got into a messy dispute with…
Ontario Liberals fail to protect health care in trade deal with Europe
While the Harper Conservative government has pushed ahead with its Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, the Ontario Liberal government has failed to protect public health care.…
Patient Transfer Changes Continue — Boon or Bust for EMS?
Another LHIN-based initiative to restructure “non-urgent patient transfers” is underway. Non-urgent transfers are ambulance-like transfers for patients from hospital to hospital, from hospital to long-term care, or from hospital to…
LHINs Fall Short: Privatization and Cuts
Below is the recent submission of OCHU to the Standing Committee on Social Policy of the Ontario Legislature:The Ontario Council of Hospital Workers (OCHU/CUPE) represents 30,000 hospital and long-term care…
US and Canadian public health care costs compared
Despite the lack of universal public insurance, U.S. governments actually spend much moreon health care than Canadian governments. Public sector health expenditure in the U.S.A. accounts for 8.5% of the…
Mandatory flu vaccinations for health care workers
CUPE encourages health care workers to get an influenza vaccination if they can safely do so. But making flu shots mandatory for health care workers is a serious intrusion on…
Ambulance hospital delays improve – but we are still far behind
Ambulances are spending a little less of their time offloading patients according to the Ontario Municipal Benchmark Initiative (OMBI) public report for 2012. That is positive: time spent offloading patients…
Harper health care cuts: $8.2 billion less for Ontario
The Ontario Fall Economic Outlook indicates that 59% of the Ontario health care funding increase this year comes from the annual increase in funding from the federal government via the…