Liberal problems come from their turn to the right
As two Liberals on the (presumed) left of the party declare their intention to run for the leadership, it bears recalling that almost all of the major problems the Liberals…
Doug Allan
Public sector health care funding shrinks – again
Private funding of health care is increasing faster than public funding. Now the Canadian Institute for Health Information reports that public funding is expected to fall to 69.7% of total…
P3 hospital debts threaten quality of health care
Patients in Britain could see their health care services cut as a result of botched public private partnership (P3) hospitals. The Public Accounts Committee of the British House of Commons…
Finding appropriate care for ALC patients in hospital
Today, in the Ottawa Citizen, the Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa reports a big decline in the number of “ALC” patients (down from 50 patients a day to 20 or…
Homecare funding finally announced (and it falls short)
The Minister of Health and LTC has finally (7 months into the year) gotten around to making an announcement about the increase to home care funding for this year, at…
Funding crisis forces hospital to cancel surgeries
Quinte Health Care is simply stopping elective surgeries for a week to deal with funding shortfalls from the provincial government. The hospital’s CEO Mary Clare Egberts told The Intelligencer that…
Upcoming collective bargaining may test new Liberal strategy
The Ontario Liberal government’s brand was built on creating social consensus after the harsh discord of the previous Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government. That worked well for the Liberals until…
$9 M hospital settlement for law-suit alleging poor cleaning
Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital has agreed to settle a law-suit by approximately two-hundred victims of a C. difficile outbreak at the hospital for $9,000,000, the Hamilton Spectator reports. That is…
Ambulances spending 21% more time in hospitals
The new Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative public report indicates that ambulances (and by extension paramedics) are spending more and more time in hospitals. For the thirteen (mostly large) Ontario communities…
How much cash do Liberals want to take from workers?
The association representing almost 12,000 professionals and supervisors working for the Ontario government claims its recent tentative agreement with the provincial government calls for a 1.83% permanent reduction in compensation.…
Is the attack on public sector workers justified?
Dwight Duncan has justified the government’s proposal to remove collective bargaining rights in the broader public sector by suggesting that the private sector has had it much worse. Earlier, I…
Bad health care practices follow bed cuts
Since closing 30 beds designed for non-acute patients in March, the number of non-acute patients occupying acute care beds at Health Sciences North in Sudbury has more than doubled. In…
Will PCs give Liberals a blank cheque?
Tim Hudak’s concerns about the proposed Liberal public sector bargaining legislation are numerous. The legislation fails to impose an immediate pay freeze on workers. (“It’s not a wage freeze, it…
Liberals conceal ugly concessions (as other wages rise)
The proposed public sector “compensation restraint” legislation floated on Wednesday by the Liberals is neatly silent on whether the government will impose contract concessions on 500,000 working people. The government…
Hudak keeps open option of alliance with Liberals
Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak has kept his powder dry and has reframed from personally criticizing the Liberals’ proposed public sector labour legislation. Or even commenting on it. Instead, he…
Is Shouldice Hospital sale actually a real estate deal?
The owners of the Shouldice Hosptial may sell the eight hectares of land that the hospital sits upon. Centric, the prospective buyers of Shouldice Hospital, say they will likely move…