Search results for “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • Brandon University left behind in budget 2023

    As the old adage goes, budgets are not only a financial blueprint for a government’s plan but also demonstrate their choices and values. Manitoba’s universities have been under attack by the Manitoba Government. Since the 2017 budget, funding below the rate of inflation has resulted in a substantial revenue shortfall.…

  • An ambition constrained budget

    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…

  • Going… Going… Gone?

    Slowly, stealthily, progressive state is being dismantled Most Canadians, according to one poll at least, did not much like the recent federal budget, but still found it benign. No matter how often the government tells us it is changing the game, we seem reluctant to believe it. But governments rarely…

  • Skyrocketing rent pushes modest apartments out of reach for lower-income Canadians in 97% of neighbourhoods

    New study maps the rental affordability crisis in Canada’s cities CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA—In nearly every neighbourhood, in all parts of Canada, the hourly wage needed to afford an apartment rental is far above minimum wages and rising quickly, according to a new study released today…

  • Public Interest Research Project (BC)
    Seniors Care

    Without Foundation

    How Medicare is Undermined by Gaps and Privatization in Community and Continuing Care The Community and Continuing Care sector is fundamental to B.C.’s entire health care system. The sector’s significance can be traced to the 1991 Seaton Commission, which proposed a “closer to home” theme for health care restructuring. The…

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    Raising the minimum wage is good for public health

    Soon we expect the Fair Wages Commission to advise the BC government on a path towards a $15 minimum wage and a plan for regular increases. This will be very good news for our province. Increasing the minimum wage is an important step in reducing poverty and income inequalities that…

  • New report: Canada isn’t spending what it takes to succeed in the global shift to a clean economy; Budget 2023 must include ambitious climate investment plan

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT Unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe Territories [OTTAWA], 9 February 2023 For Canada to compete in the global clean economy, the federal government must adopt an ambitious investment plan to match the scale of the climate and affordability crises, finds a new report released today by…

  • Time to mobilize like we mean it

    Lessons from the Second World War for the climate emergency Even before the arrival of COVID-19, the history of the Second World War was making a remarkable comeback. Our movie theatres (remember those?), Netflix offerings and bookstore shelves were full of modern reboots of our mid-century wartime experience. Then the…

  • Seniors Care

    Fast Facts: Contracting Out Enhanced Home Care Program

    Among the many recent changes by the Pallister government to health care was a contract with two private companies to operate the Enhanced Home Care Program (EHCP). This will provide community care to patients who can no longer benefit from acute hospital care, at an estimated total cost of $10.5M.…

  • An Open Letter to Margaret Wente

    We need to think more analytically about harm reduction This is an updated form of a letter I sent to Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente in response to her attacks on Vancouver’s harm reduction program. Her first four columns on this topic appeared in the Globe and Mail in…

  • Fast Facts: Building a community of opportunity and hope

    Lord Selkirk Park Recent events in Gilbert Park have cast Winnipeg’s North End public housing complexes in a negative light. An opposition politician has called Gilbert Park a “ghetto” and “crime incubator”. Some poverty ‘experts’, in statements attributed to them by the media, have implied that conditions in public housing…

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    BC Labour Code amendments: A foundation to strengthen worker rights?

    The first comprehensive review of BC’s Labour Code in over a quarter of a century has resulted in changes to the law to strengthen protections and collective bargaining rights for workers. In addition to requiring a review of the Code every five years, the changes will: Strengthen successorship rights for workers…