Justin Trudeau

Thursday April 29, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 29, 2021

Ontario details plan for 3 paid sick days after a year of mounting pressure

April 23, 2021

After months of urgent calls about the need for paid sick leave by medical professionals, labour advocates, political leaders and even top doctors from some of the province’s hardest-hit regions, the Ontario government has announced a plan to provide three paid sick days through a temporary program ending in September.

The proposed Ontario COVID-19 Worker Protection Benefit Program would pay up to $200 per day for workers who are sick, have symptoms, have a mental health issue or need to be vaccinated, and will be retroactive to April 19. The sick days would not need to be taken consecutively and no sick note is required.

If the legislation is passed, the program will be administered through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and employers will be reimbursed in full, the province says.

April 16, 2020

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton also said the province has offered to provide funding to the federal government to double the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit payments, adding an additional $500 per week to eligible individuals, for a total of $1,000 per week.

Ottawa earlier this week rejected an offer by the province to top up the program, saying the federal benefit is designed to support workers who don’t have a regular employer, or as a stop gap until their province mandates paid sick days.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford pledged that Ontario would soon unveil details of a paid sick leave program, claiming it would be “the best program anywhere in North America, bar none.”

But as reported by CBC News, the Ford government initially sought to top up the federal program, rather than create its own. On the same day as Ford’s emotional news conference, Ontario’s finance minister wrote a letter to the federal government proposing to top up Canada’s sick leave benefit. 

October 8, 2020

Critics have long pointed out the federal benefit pays less than a full-time minimum wage job, involves days, if not weeks, of processing time and doesn’t guarantee job security for workers who use it.

The cost of the proposal announced today was not included in the provincial budget, unveiled in March.

Unlike Quebec and Prince Edward Island, where sick days are in place permanently, Ontario’s proposed program ends in just five months. The province has has passed legislation that protects workers’ jobs if they can’t work due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. (CBC)

Letters to the editor –  The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 1, 2021

Blame Trudeau, not Ford

I have to say I was aghast at the editorial cartoon of Doug Ford being whipped. It is no secret that The Spec is no fan of Mr. Ford, however to publish him being whipped and the prime minister watching is way over the line of decency and respect. Has he made mistakes, of course, some big ones, however keep in mind it is the prime minster, who you show sitting eating popcorn, who is ultimately responsible for this mess, due to poor vaccine procurement. There is enough blame to go around these days. I fail to see what this piece of work does to move anything forward.

Robert Hague, Burlington

Outraged at cartoon

I usually enjoy Mr. MacKay’s editorial cartoons, although he can push the envelope at times.

But I must profess my outrage at Thursday’s depiction of the premier of Ontario being publicly flogged. We are constantly preaching about being against violence and hate in our province but here is a depiction of an act of torture aimed at the leader of the province. People may or may not like Doug Ford and have their own opinions but this is going too far!

Rick Allen, Hamilton Mountain

Trudeau didn’t belong there

This cartoon was spot on about Ford. But putting Trudeau in was unfair. Dealing with employers is provincial jurisdiction and it’s Ford’s problem to solve, not Trudeau’s.

Sarah Mueller, Burlington

Saturday April 24, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 24, 2021

Trudeau pressured to adopt tougher emissions target for Biden climate summit

September 28, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure to step up his commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Canada within the next decade as he heads into a United States-hosted climate summit with global leaders.

The virtual two-day event starting Thursday, which is Earth Day, is where the government says Trudeau plans to unveil new reduction targets for 2030.

The Liberal government has promised to release new targets ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference this fall, when Canada plans to discuss progress on the issue.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under pressure to step up his commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Canada within the next decade as he heads into a United States-hosted climate summit with global leaders.

April 22, 2020

The virtual two-day event starting Thursday, which is Earth Day, is where the government says Trudeau plans to unveil new reduction targets for 2030.

The Liberal government has promised to release new targets ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference this fall, when Canada plans to discuss progress on the issue.

Some organizations say to show it’s serious, Canada needs to set a reductions target of at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels, with at least one saying nothing less than 40 per cent.

Another factor is pressure from allies, like U.S. President Joe Biden, who has prioritized fighting climate change with billions in new spending.

January 26, 2021

Groups have been pushing Biden to adopt a target of slashing emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 below 2005 levels. More than 300 companies signed an open letter supporting that call, such as giants like Apple, Starbucks and McDonalds.

And some suggest Trudeau will at the very least be expected to match.

“There is no way they can go to Washington with 36 per cent and not get laughed out of the room,” said Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, among environmentalists saying it needs to be higher, like 60 per cent.

Among those who believe the floor needs to be 50 per cent is Mary Robinson, chair of the international human rights group The Elders, and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The former Ireland president believes there’s a perception Canada has accomplished more on fighting climate change than it actually has.

“Canada’s the only G7 country where emissions have increased since the signing of the Paris Agreement.”

A recent report shows in 2019 the country’s annual emissions increased slightly to 730 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and its equivalents, closer to where it was in 2005 than its 2030 promise. (CTV) 

 

Thursday April 22, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 22, 2021

Government Tall on ideas, short on attention span

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s expansive budget mentions a “pipeline for vaccines,” a “talent pipeline,” an “innovation pipeline,” and a “pipeline of personal protective equipment.” But there is not a single mention of a pipeline that delivers oil or gas.

June 13, 2019

Along with a lack of concern for workers in the oil-and-gas industry, the budget undersells defence priorities. And the Liberal pledge to move toward a national pharmacare program is, to put it charitably, unconvincing.

The budget, in other words, tells us what Liberals do care about, but also what they don’t.

The Liberals’ 2019 election manifesto promised “to take the crucial next steps to implement national universal pharmacare,” while last September’s Throne Speech declared “the government remains committed to a national, universal pharmacare program and will accelerate steps to achieve this system.”

March 6, 2018

But the budget, while repeating its commitment to a national pharmacare program, offers no new funding for it. There is simply the previously announced $500-million to assist provinces in support of those forced to pay extremely high prices for drugs needed to combat rare diseases.

The Liberals could respond that their ambitious new child-care program makes it impossible to move on pharmacare right now. And it would be a fair defence. A national $10-a-day child care program would be a major new commitment and a major federal expense, at $8-billion a year.

December 21, 2016

Before committing to it, however, provincial governments might wish to remember previous programs, especially in health care and housing, in which Ottawa seduced the provinces into joining on an equal shared-cost basis, only to later withdraw funding when some shiny new public policy bauble came along, leaving the provinces holding the fiscal bag.

This budget offers billions to accelerate progress toward a strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions and to help green-tech businesses scale up. There are major tax breaks for companies that invest in green technologies.

But while future tax breaks are promised for industries that deploy carbon-capture technology, the commitment is vague and based on future consultations and legislation. The budget appears determined to ignore the reality that natural resources, and in particular the oil and gas sector, are crucial both to this country’s economic future and to fighting climate change.

November 17, 2015

National defence is another area singled out for neglect. When Mr. Biden met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February, both leaders committed to modernizing the North American Aerospace Defence Command. But the budget allocates a paltry $50-million a year or so for five years as Canada’s commitment to a modernizing program, a tiny fraction of the many billions of dollars that defence experts estimate it would cost to install the satellites, radar and other technologies needed to detect hypersonic missiles and other new weapons that the Russians and the Chinese possess or are developing.

Whatever happens on the child care front, the budget’s virtual silence on pharmacare suggests that program, like NORAD and oil and gas, is something this government doesn’t plan on spending real time and money on any time soon. (Globe & Mail) 

 

Tuesday April 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 20, 2021

Liberals promise $30B over 5 years to create national child-care system

December 7, 2005

After decades of broken promises and half measures on child care, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced today the federal government will invest roughly $30 billion over five years to help offset the cost of early learning and child care services.

This federal investment — the single largest line item in the massive 739-page budget document tabled today — is designed to significantly reduce what parents pay for care in the coming years. The government’s stated goal is to make life more affordable and to drive economic growth by drawing more women into the workforce.

The federal government estimates the COVID-19 pandemic has driven at least 16,000 women out of the job market altogether, while the male labour force has grown by 91,000 over the same period.

Another recent analysis by RBC found that almost half a million Canadian women who lost their jobs during the pandemic still hadn’t returned to work as of January. Employment among women in Canada who earned less than $800 a week has fallen almost 30 per cent, the bank reported.

May 4, 2019

Freeland said this child care investment will help counter some of the gender disparities fuelled by the pandemic crisis.

Freeland said that, as result of the new spending, the next 18 months could see a reduction of up to 50 per cent in the average child care fees paid by parents. With child care expenses running nearly as high as rent or mortgage payments in some cities, the household savings could be significant.

But to get average fees down to that lower level, the provinces and territories would have to kick in more funding as well. The promise of additional federal money could be used as a bargaining chip to convince provinces and territories to boost their own spending in this area.

Freeland said such an affordable child care system could increase the overall size of the economy — as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) — by some 1.2 per cent.

“It’s expensive, but it’s an investment worth making,” she said.

July 9, 2020

Of the $30 billion promised today, $27.2 billion will be used to “bring the federal government to a 50/50 share of child care costs with provincial and territorial governments,” says the budget document. 

The government’s stated goal is to drive down child-minding costs within five years to just $10 a day per child, nationwide — significantly less than what most working parents pay now in all jurisdictions outside Quebec.

The budget earmarks another $2.5 billion for the Indigenous early learning and child care system — to create new spaces, to build or renovate existing centres and to support after-school care programs on-reserve.

The budget also sets aside money to make over 400 existing child care centres nationwide more accessible for children with disabilities.(CBC) 

 

Friday April 9, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday April 9, 2021

Canada’s public health data meltdown

For weeks, Canadians have been casting their envious eyes to Israel, where more than half the country has been inoculated against COVID-19. Israel, less than a quarter the size of Canada, has administered nearly twice as many doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

December 11, 2020

The Middle Eastern country has some innate advantages: It is small and centralized, and offered top dollar to ensure vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna would come fast, and in large volumes. But geography and money aren’t the reason why Israel is outpacing Canada by 10-to-one.

Israel has the vaccines because it has the data.

In its shrewd deal with Pfizer, Israel offered to turn the country into one giant clinical trial: Providing the vaccine manufacturer unprecedented large-scale visibility as to the vaccine’s efficacy. It’s all made possible because of the country’s state-of-the-art information technology and robust national vaccination database.

The rest of the world is currently benefiting from that incredibly granular information.

December 21, 2016

Canada could never have struck such a deal. Its health technology is, charitably, a decade out of date. It lacks the ability to adequately track infectious disease outbreaks, efficiently manage vaccine supply chains and storage, quickly administer doses, and monitor immunity and adverse reactions on a national basis.

Even though all the shipments of vaccines arriving in Canada come with scannable barcodes, to make tracking and logistics easier—with some manufacturers even barcoding the vials themselves—no Canadian province can scan them. In many provinces, pharmacies can’t access the provincial vaccine registry. Provinces do not automatically submit reports on COVID-19 cases or vaccines into the federal system, and must submit reports manually. Many crucial reports are still submitted by fax: Where fax has recently been phased out, they have been replaced by emailed PDFs.

March 31, 2021

Ours is a dumb system of pen-and-paper and Excel spreadsheets, in a world quickly heading towards smart systems of big data analytics, machine learning and blockchain. It’s unclear how Ottawa will be able to issue vaccine passports, even if it wants to.

At the core of the omnishambles is a simple fact that Canada has no national public health information system, but 13 different regional ones. Many of those regional systems have smaller, disconnected, systems within: Like a Russian nesting doll of antiquated technology.

But there’s good news: It doesn’t have to be this way. In some parts of the country, real progress is being made. Small technology start-ups are figuring out cheap, scalable and innovative solutions. In some provinces, progress can be as simple as updating operating systems.

If we are ever going to build efficient, cost-effective, and effective health infrastructure, Ottawa needs to take the lead. We need to abandon the idea that federalism requires us to have each sub-national government run entirely independent, walled-off, health databases.

We need data sharing. We need shared infrastructure. We need a national public health system. (Continued: MacLean’s)