funding

Tuesday February 7, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday February 7, 2023

Justin Trudeau’s Liberals are stuck in the mud and hoping a health care deal helps pull them out

December 21, 2016

Justin Trudeau told us he was roaring into 2023 to “meet the moment” but lately his Liberals have been regrouping, retreating and running around in circles.

In a speech to his caucus prior to the resumption of Parliament, he said the Liberals would put forward a “positive vision for the future,” including good jobs, safe communities with clean air, and “an economy that works for everyone.”

At the top of the list was a fix for health care, which he promised would mean not only more federal money but better health care outcomes. Mr. Trudeau had just announced that he was convening a meeting with premiers for Feb. 7, a sign that a federal-provincial deal on health care is close. That was supposed to be the first big item on the Liberal agenda in 2023.

So this week Mr. Trudeau has an opportunity to take back the initiative.

A prime minister’s meeting with premiers never goes by without disagreement, but it is a place where the PM’s voice carries the loudest. And if the meetings do end with a level of federal-provincial agreement, sealed by a major, multiyear injection of federal cash, then Mr. Trudeau will tout progress on an issue at the top of Canadians’ concerns.

November 24, 2015

At this point, the Liberals are getting a little desperate for that kind of agenda-setting. Anything where the news is something the Liberals are doing, rather than something they are undoing, or something they wish they could do over. So this is a big week for Mr. Trudeau.

His Liberals would like to carry a health care deal into a spring of initiatives and a budget that is expected to centre on clean-tech incentives and industrial strategy.

But that’s just a hope right now. Mr. Trudeau’s government has had setbacks and scandals and made blunders before, but the Liberals have eventually regained the ability to set the political agenda with a flurry of activity. That is one of the home-field advantages of being in power: Government actions have consequences, so their agenda is consequential. Yet lately, Mr. Trudeau’s team seems less able to control it.

Mr. Trudeau’s government is encountering problems of a third-term government that has been through a lot.

One is that things come undone or are shown to have been done badly. (Continued: Globe & Mail) 

 

Wednesday January 18, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday January 18, 2023

‘Always an upsell’: health critic Gélinas pans Ford’s OHIP plan

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas says northerners won’t benefit from Premier Doug Ford’s plan to expand the range of medical procedures performed in privately-run clinics.

May 9, 2012

On Thursday, Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones announced the three-phase plan, beginning with surgical and diagnostic clinics in Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor performing an additional 14,000 cataract operations each year, which represents about 25 per cent of the province’s current wait list for the procedure.

Next, more private clinics will be able to offer MRI and CT imaging, as well as colonoscopies and endoscopies.

The government intends that by 2024, the third phase will see hip and knee replacements performed at for-profit clinics.

“These procedures will be non-urgent, low-risk and minimally invasive and, in addition to shortening wait times, will allow hospitals to focus their efforts and resources on more complex and high-risk surgeries,” the province said in a news release.

But Gélinas said the plan is a long way from the original vision of Tommy Douglas, where case care is based on needs, not your ability to pay.

“It’s already happening,” Gélinas said. “If you look at the cataract surgery, you have your cataract surgery done in the hospital. Nobody pays anything. But you have the same ophthalmologist, same surgeon doing the same procedures in their private clinic, and there is almost always an upsell.”

November 19, 2020

“Another $150.00 to remeasure the eye, $400.00 to use a lens that they prefer, $1000 for this and that and the other thing,” Gélinas said. 

Gélinas estimates that most private facilities are located in southern Ontario, while only a handful have set up shop in the north.

Once the province gives cities in the north the green light to open more private clinics, patients who choose to use their services can expect to be pushed to spend more money, Gélinas said.

“They find ways to make you pay and it’s a barrier to care,” Gélinas said. The province’s motivation in permitting the clinics, Gélinas said, is for a handful of providers to make money.

“There is a lot of money in healthcare,” Gélinas said. “If you look at the budget, $76 billion in Ontario from taxpayers’ money goes toward healthcare.”

April 1, 2021

“A lot of people are interested in health care not because they want to help people, because they want to make money,” she said. “There is a lot of money to be made off the back of sick people and it attracts a lot of investors.”

But Dr. Stephen Cooper, District 9 chair of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), said doctors have been expecting this move from the province for awhile, and for the most part, are welcoming the plan.

“Sudbury and the entire northeast are struggling with managing wait lists, particularly in some of the surgical procedures,” Cooper said. “So when it comes our way, I think it’ll be of great benefit.”

Cooper said the system, at its best, would allow private clinics to specialize, and help ease some of the congestion in hospitals. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday January 17, 2023

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 17, 2023

Ontario expanding number and range of surgeries offered at for-profit clinics

Ontario is significantly expanding the number and range of medical procedures performed in privately run clinics as the province deals with a surgical backlog made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.

November 9, 2022

The change will be introduced over three phases. The first will see surgical and diagnostic clinics in Ottawa, Kitchener-Waterloo and Windsor perform an additional 14,000 cataract operations each year, representing about 25 per cent of the province’s current wait list for the procedure.

Next, more private clinics will be able to offer MRI and CT imaging, as well as colonoscopies and endoscopies.

“These procedures will be non-urgent, low-risk and minimally invasive and, in addition to shortening wait times, will allow hospitals to focus their efforts and resources on more complex and high-risk surgeries,” the province said in a news release.

The government intends that by 2024, the third phase will see hip and knee replacements performed at for-profit clinics.

The impending changes were outlined by Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones at a news conference Monday.

December 1, 2021

Ford and Jones said several times the care will be covered by OHIP, and Ford stressed patients will “never use their credit cards” at the clinics. He didn’t directly answer a reporter’s question about whether or not clinics would be allowed to upsell patients on associated elements of care.

While the changes are needed because of the province’s long surgery wait lists, Ford said, they will be kept in place permanently even after the backlog is cleared.

There are currently about 900 privately operated surgical and diagnostic clinics open in Ontario, Jones added. The province plans to approve licences for additional clinics in the future, she said.

Legislation set to be introduced in February would “strengthen oversight” of private health facilities, the news release said, and the province will continue to update its standards for how they deliver care.

Various health-care professionals told CBC Toronto last week they are concerned that the plan would drain resources from publicly funded hospitals and benefit the owners of private-sector clinics without improving patient care.

May 13, 2021

Jones said the changes will not affect staffing levels at hospitals in the province, while Ford lamented “endless debates” about who should deliver health care.

“The way I can describe it, you have a dam, you have a log jam, are you going to just keep pouring the water up against the logs?” Ford said.

“Or are you going to reroute some of the water and take the pressure off the dam? You see what happens when the dam has too much water, it breaks.”

Speaking to reporters, presumptive NDP Leader Marit Stiles said MPPs should be called back to the legislature immediately so the details of the plan can be debated. Stiles accused Ford of manufacturing a staffing crisis in hospitals via his government’s wage restraint law and “following the privatization playbook to a tee.”

“Make no mistake, Doug Ford is misleading you when he says that funding surgeries in private, for-profit clinics won’t have an impact on Ontarians,” Stiles said at Queen’s Park, adding believes the changes mark early steps toward a two-tiered health-care system in the province. (CBC) 

 

Saturday December 3, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 3, 2022

How Canada can build on World Cup run ahead of 2026 cycle

June 6, 2015

There were still plenty of valuable lessons for Canada despite the losses, though, and Les Rouges can apply those “learnings” – as coach John Herdman refers to them – when the country co-hosts the 2026 World Cup.

The Canadian men’s national team made history, just not enough of it.

As breathtaking as the team’s performances were in various stages, Canada still suffered defeat in all three games. It’s difficult to draw sweeping conclusions based on small sample sizes in tournament settings, let alone in a nation’s first men’s World Cup in 36 years.

Saturday April 9, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 9, 2022

What Toronto wanted in the federal budget for housing — and what it got

April 7, 2017

One of the central pieces of the federal budget unveiled Thursday was affordable housing — $10 billion earmarked to tackle the crisis country-wide.

It’s a mix of funding for projects and policy changes aimed at making housing more affordable.

So what was Toronto looking for and what did it get?  And what will the budget mean for one of the least affordable cities in the country?

Much of the $10-billion investment focuses on boosting the supply of homes, something that is key for Toronto. 

February 1, 2017

The city was eyeing an extension of funding for a project it’s partnered on with the federal government: the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI).

That wish was granted. The budget proposes to extend the program, which creates new affordable rental housing for marginalized people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, at a cost of $1.5 billion over two years.

May 7, 2014

The largest portion of the $10-billion budget pledge is $4 billion dedicated to what the government is calling a “Housing Accelerator Fund.” The money will be for municipalities like Toronto to speed up housing development by slashing red tape, and the federal government estimates it can create 100,000 new units over five years.

When it comes to speeding up development, Bailão says the city has projects on the go for which they’d like to partner financially with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) — mainly its Housing Now initiative, which activates city-owned sites for the development of affordable housing within mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented communities.

November 20, 2019

“I think all orders of government need to work together because if they really want to build 100,000 units … we have 15,000 here in the pipeline that need their financing and we need to make sure that financing is there,” said Bailão.

The question among many advocates is how quickly some of these measures can be implemented in big cities like Toronto, and how much coordination there can be between different levels of government.

“For this city, what’s needed is significant amounts of money and funding that can be spent quickly,” said Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute and a professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto.

“We’re in this crisis. We need all hands on deck, and we need that real coordination and we need a sense of urgency to back it up.” (CBC)