It’s been a chaotic year for public education in Ontario. And for all of us who benefit from a high quality and publicly-accountable system, the stakes are high—particularly for our youngest and most vulnerable. Given what we know about the tremendous societal and economic benefits of investment in public education,…
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Wikimedia Commons photo The future of Ontario Place is up for grabs. Will Toronto’s waterfront park be a reinvigorated public space beside the natural wonder of Lake Ontario? Or a glitzy commercial zone, where enjoying the view means shelling out big bucks? Last month, the Ontario government clearly backed the…
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Not-too-late-to-save-the-world edition View the story Federal election primer: Not-too-late-to-save-the-world edition By Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood The global climate crisis—often framed as an abstract and future problem—is increasingly obvious outside our windows. Summer hasn’t officially started yet, but out-of-control wildfires are already raging across Alberta and British Columbia. Following the record-breaking burns of…
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The urgency of the global climate crisis could not be more obvious than in India right now, where a 50ºC heatwave is causing “heavy casualties” both directly through heat-related deaths and indirectly through water and food shortages. Canadians have been spared that kind of heat so far, but it’s little…
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Yesterday’s announcement from the The Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare, led by Dr. Eric Hoskins, was applauded by organizations and researchers across Canada who have long advocated for the introduction of a universal, single-payer pharmacare system. Journalists at the event, however, seemed to be focused on…
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By 2020 all secondary school students in Ontario will need four e-learning credits to graduate. E-learning can be delivered a number of ways, but the Ministry of Education is mandating supplementary courses that take the place of face-to-face offerings, delivered entirely online. To date, we do not know who…
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Life is better thanks to taxes View the story Say it out loud: Life is better thanks to taxes By Randy Robinson Long-time CCPA economist Hugh Mackenzie once said that right-wing politicians have succeeded at cutting public services by severing the link, in the public mind, between those services and…
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Two reports came out in early May that should have received a lot more attention than they did. The Standing Committee on the Status of Women released its latest study, Surviving Abuse and Building Resilience, on Canada’s systems of shelters and transition houses serving women and children fleeing violence. And…
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Between 2010 and 2015, no less than $20.2 billion in budgetary restrictions were imposed by the provincial government in the hopes of attaining zero deficit. During this period, it increased its revenue by $6.2 billion and cut back its spending by $14 billion. Ironically, we learned in the last CAQ budget that the…
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Regulation. It’s not something many of us have time to think about. Most people are busy working, keeping the household running smoothly and generally living their lives. When we do think about how things are regulated, it’s usually after something terrible has happened: planes drop out of the sky, killing…
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