Back in March, the Ontario Liberals put all of their chips on the table with their election-style provincial budget. They promised free child care, more support for dental care and drugs, and a reinvestment in health care—bankrolling it by deficit spending for the next six years. That left the opposition…
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In its waning days before a June election, with the opposition breathing down its neck, the Ontario government threw down the gauntlet with what is unquestionably a pull out all the stops election budget. The marquee item was announced yesterday after weeks of big announcements: if re-elected, the government would…
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Sixty-two times. That’s how many times the Government of Ontario drew upon the word “care” in a throne speech designed to claim its stake in a pre-election period that has so far seen its share of ups and downs. The Liberals aren’t the only ones focused on improving care. With…
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Am I happy with the 2018 federal budget? Well, many of the items in it can be found in this year’s and past Alternative Federal Budgets (AFB), which of course is a good thing. But in general I’d say this is an ambition constrained budget. The government had the fiscal…
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The government promised us a budget guided by gender analysis this year, and they delivered: on pay equity, on supports for women entrepreneurs and, in the warm fuzzy afterglow of Canada’s successful Olympics showing, a little something for women in sports. Investments in child care, women’s organizations and ending violence…
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More than 80% of men in Quebec take leave after their child is born. On average they take 5 weeks. In the rest of Canada, less than 30% of fathers take leave and on average they take just over 2 weeks. There are two possible explanations for this difference: 1)…
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Apparently, it’s not just prospective homebuyers being priced out of the GTA. How many young families can easily come up with an extra $14,455 a year, on top of other expenses? Why $14,455? That’s the median annual cost of a preschool child care space in Toronto, according to our recent…
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In the 2015 election the Liberal Party platform stood out by promising to run a deficit in order to provide stimulus to a then slow-growing economy. They promised to spend money to implement new policies aimed at, say it with me, the middle class. The decision to commit to deficit…
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It has been years since Statistics Canada has been able to release Census data on income inequality in Canada but the numbers are out at long last. Here are 7 things the Census teaches us about income inequality in Canada between 2005 and 2015. Resource boom masked inequality trends Thanks…
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The Nova Scotia government has announced that it will introduce a new free pre-primary program for children turning four by the end of December 2017. While there are many reasons to be concerned about the implementation of this program, the good news is that the government is investing in the…
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