crisis

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Ontario’s Housing Hurdles Remain Unaddressed

September 22, 2023

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s recent decision to reverse the Greenbelt development scheme can be likened to finally putting a misguided plan through a paper shredder. This long-awaited step signifies the end of a contentious chapter, where valuable time and resources were expended on a proposal that offered nothing in terms of addressing Ontario’s affordable housing crisis.

While proponents of the Greenbelt scheme argued that it would increase housing supply by replacing farmlands with residential properties, it is now clear that this plan was never genuinely about providing affordable housing. Instead, it was akin to a convoluted blueprint with no substance.

The Greenbelt reversal should prompt us to reconsider our approach to housing. Expanding housing on the outskirts of urban regions often results in larger, more expensive houses, contributing to the unaffordability problem. These sprawling developments come with significant additional commuting costs and burdens on infrastructure, which, in turn, are funded by taxpayers.

Numerous sites have already been zoned for new subdivisions, some of which are held by developers, waiting to maximize their profits. There is ample land available without sacrificing precious farmland and natural areas.

August 31, 2023

To address the housing crisis effectively, we need genuinely affordable housing for all income brackets. Unfortunately, this type of housing rarely materializes when rural land is lost to development.

While increasing supply is essential, it’s equally crucial to ensure the affordability of existing housing. Regrettably, recent changes have weakened rent control measures, leaving tenants vulnerable.

The provincial government must take an active role in shaping housing policy. Initiatives to permit multiple units on residential plots are a start, but their effectiveness remains uncertain.

Public land, owned collectively by Ontarians, presents an opportunity to create genuinely affordable housing. Historically, such land was used for this purpose, exemplified by the St. Lawrence neighbourhood in downtown Toronto.

October 22, 2022

However, nowadays, surplus public land is often sold to the highest bidder without requirements for affordable housing. Recommendations to introduce a 20% affordable housing requirement for government land sales have been overlooked.

By reversing the Greenbelt-based housing policy, Premier Ford has made a decisive move towards dismantling a plan that offered no real solutions. It’s now time for the government to develop effective housing policies that genuinely address affordability issues, drawing from existing solutions while leaving behind the flawed Greenbelt scheme in the annals of history. (AI)

 

 

Tuesday August 29, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 29, 2023

Neglecting Affordable Housing: Trudeau Government’s Misplaced Priorities

August 22, 2023

In recent years, the Trudeau government has positioned itself as a champion of progressive values, focusing on laudable issues such as climate crisis, inclusivity, cannabis legalization, indigenous reconciliation, and more. While these topics deserve attention, it’s imperative to acknowledge that the government’s priorities have been severely misplaced. The most glaring omission from their agenda is the affordable housing crisis that is festering across Canada.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s assertion that “housing isn’t a primary federal responsibility” is not only inaccurate, but it also reflects a disregard for the pressing issue at hand. Recent polls indicating that 70 percent of Canadians believe the government is inadequately addressing the housing crisis should serve as a wake-up call. While the term “housing” might not be explicitly mentioned in constitutional documents, the right to “life, liberty, and security of the person” as well as “equal protection” cannot be fulfilled without access to adequate housing.

Opinion: Sean Fraser is the new federal housing minister. He can’t waste any time acting on the affordability crisis  

July 28, 2023

Canada’s commitment to enforce the right to housing, as established in various international covenants, was enshrined in Canadian law in 2019. Despite this commitment, the federal government has chosen to evade its responsibility, engaging in the very behaviors they accuse other levels of government of. This is exemplified by the government’s handling of refugee claimants in Toronto, a situation marked by ambiguity, turf guarding, buck passing, and finger pointing.

The federal government’s historic involvement in housing has been conveniently forgotten. Following World War II, Canada saw the creation of a million low-cost Victory Houses, an achievement made possible through government land, direct grants, and efficient production methods. From the 1960s to the 1980s, a significant portion of new construction comprised non-market housing, supported by federal land, grants, and financing partnerships with provincial and municipal governments.

July 21, 2023

However, the decline of non-market housing began in 1992 when the federal government shifted the responsibility for affordable housing to provinces. Federal spending on affordable housing also decreased significantly after this shift. The subsequent reduction in private rental construction further exacerbated the housing crisis, following a cutback on taxation incentives in 1972.

The consequences of these neglectful actions are evident in the alarming statistic that the average Canadian home now costs 8.8 times the average income. In cities like Toronto and Vancouver, these numbers reach staggering levels of 13.2 and 14.4 times, respectively. As for rental housing, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation estimates a need for nearly six million new homes by 2030, a rate three times higher than current construction levels.

June 9, 2023

While the Trudeau government boasts of its commitment to tackle the housing crisis, its actions reveal a stark contrast. Cabinet meetings have been convened, experts consulted, and rhetoric repeated, yet tangible solutions remain elusive. The government’s lack of response has left Canadians struggling with intense housing challenges, further exacerbating the already palpable cost of living concerns.

The refusal to consider a national summit on housing is a testament to the government’s misplaced priorities. The urgency for national leadership is undeniable, and the federal government is uniquely positioned to provide this leadership. While addressing issues like climate change and inclusivity is important, they should not come at the expense of solving a crisis that directly impacts the basic well-being of Canadians.

August 26, 2021

Prime Minister Trudeau’s assertion that Canadians want hope and leadership holds true. However, hope cannot be sustained if pressing concerns such as affordable housing are ignored. As the government grapples with its political standing, it must acknowledge that addressing the housing crisis is not just a political imperative but a moral obligation. Failure to act decisively on this front risks further eroding public trust and will inevitably have lasting consequences for both the government and the Canadian population. (AI) | Editorial cartoon published in the Hamilton Spectator.

 

Tuesday November 1, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday November 1, 2022

U.S. Headlines Expressing Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness Increased Hugely Since 2000

About 42 percent of Americans now actively avoid news coverage, according to the Reuters Institute’s 2022 Digital News Report. That’s up from 38 percent in 2017. Nearly half of Americans who’ve turned away from the news say that they are doing so because it has a negative effect on their mood. As it happens, a new study in the journal PLoS One tracking the headlines in 47 publications popular in the United States reports that they have trended decidedly negative over the past two decades. 

Coincidence?

June 12, 2019

In their study, the team of New Zealand-based media researchers used a language model trained to categorize as positive or negative the sentiments of 23 million headlines between 2000 and 2019. In addition, the model was finetuned to identify Ekman’s six basic emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise), plus neutral, to label the headlines automatically. Using the 2019 Allsides Media Bias Chart, the publications were ideologically categorized as left, right, or center. For example, The New Yorker, the New York Times Opinion, and Mother Jones were identified as left; National Review, Fox News Opinion, and The New York Post as right; and A.P., Reuters, and The Wall Street Journal as center. (Reason was pegged as right-leaning.)

After turning their language model loose on the millions of headlines, the researchers found “an increase of sentiment negativity in headlines across written news media since the year 2000.”

June 5, 2012

Overall, the researchers find that the prevalence of headlines denoting anger since the year 2000 increased by 104 percent. The prevalence of headlines denoting fear rose 150 percent; disgust by 29 percent; and sadness by 54 percent. The joy emotional category had its up and downs, rising until 2010 and falling after that. Headlines denoting neutral emotion declined by 30 percent since the year 2000. Breaking these down by ideology, headlines from right-leaning news media have been, on average, consistently more negative than headlines from left-leaning outlets.

Why are negative headlines becoming more prevalent? “If it bleeds, it leads” is a hoary journalistic aphorism summarizing the well-known fact that dramatic, even gory, stories engage the attention of news consumers. In other words, journalists are supplying news consumers with what they want. Given the global reach of modern news media, there is always some attention-grabbing horror that occurred somewhere that can be highlighted between weather and sports on your local TV news.

November 4, 2020

Journalistic catering to people’s negativity bias ends up misleading a lot of their audiences into thinking that the state of the world is getting worse and worse. However, looking at long term trends, the opposite is the case. Yes, yes, there are wars in Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Yemen and, of course, a global pandemic during the past two years has killed around 6.5 million people so far. “For reasons I have never understood, people like to hear that the world is going to hell, and become huffy and scornful when some idiotic optimist intrudes on their pleasure,” wrote economist Deidre McCloskey. “Yet pessimism has consistently been a poor guide to the modern economic world.” (Continued: Reason) 

 

Saturday August 27, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 27, 2022

Not the new and improved Doug Ford …

August 19, 2022

At minimum, the provincial government has a massive optics and communication problem around its new initiative to try and free up badly needed acute care beds.

By now we all know the health-care crisis is real. And a significant part of the situation is a result of people who need alternate levels of care occupying acute care beds. Give Doug Ford and friends credit for finally trying to do something about it.

But is what they’re doing the right thing?

January 27, 2021

New legislation would allow hospital patients to be transferred to a temporary long-term care home without their consent while they await a bed in their preferred facility. The interim LTC facility would not necessarily be in their community. The law will not physically force patients to move, but it’s not at all clear what will happen if they don’t.

LTC Minister Paul Calandra says people should “absolutely” be charged a fee if they won’t move, but he won’t say how much. It could be $62 per day, or it could be much more. How much more? How far away might people be moved? The government either doesn’t know or isn’t saying, and it is not allowing debate or public input into the new law. This is not the new and consultation-friendly Doug Ford people thought they were voting for. (Hamilton Spectator editorial) 

 

Saturday August 20, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday August 20, 2022

Ambulance use in Ontario has grown far faster than population, study finds

A new study finds ambulance use in Ontario increased significantly in the years leading up to the pandemic, outpacing the growth in both population and hospital emergency room visits by other means. 

September 15, 2021

The study was led by researchers at Hamilton’s McMaster University and it looked at the yearly numbers of patients transported by ambulance paramedics to hospital emergency rooms across Ontario from 2010 to 2019. 

It found a 38.3 per cent increase in the number of ambulance patient transports to ERs over the decade, an increase four times larger than the province’s 9.6 per cent population growth over the same period. 

“What our work points to is that this current model of [emergency department] transports is likely unsustainable for the province,” said Ryan Strum, the lead researcher for the paper and a PhD student at McMaster who also works as a paramedic.