After strong and sustained opposition from housing experts, tenants and four former mayors, Toronto City Council’s Executive Committee hastily pulled the proposal for the sell-off of 740 affordable homes in 675 buildings from its January meeting. The scheme is back on the agenda for the Feb. 13 Exec meeting with virtually no change. The Wellesley Institute’s […]
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Homeless count down in Calgary, community plan delivers results
The Calgary Homeless Foundation is reporting an 11.4 percent drop from 2008 in the number of homeless people in its latest count. This is the first decrease in homelessness in Calgary in two decades. The foundation is a multi-sectoral collaboration linking community, the private sector and government. Calgary was the first Canadian city to adopt a […]
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The Big Action on Health Is Far Beyond Health Care
I blogged earlier on how crucial it is to build equity into the new Action Plan for Health Care released by the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. This is not just to ensure that high-quality patient-centred care is available equitably to all. But reducing pervasive health inequities is crucial to overall system sustainability: these […]
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When do we talk about health? Ontario’s option paper needs to build a stronger vision of a health-enabling social assistance system
Today the Commission for the Review of Social Assistance in Ontario released its much anticipated options paper. The paper sets out some interesting ideas and poses some challenging questions that will help to shape the debate around social assistance in the coming months. In our submission to the Commission, we started by arguing that the […]
As Ontario braces for Drummond report, lessons from Million Dollar Murray need to be considered
As Ontario braces for the report from economist Don Drummond on provincial public service spending, an early leak from his work raises a powerful question. In a Toronto Star column by Martin Regg Cohn, Drummond is reported to be ‘staggered by the statistic that a mere 1 per cent of the population accounts for fully half […]
Colour Coded Health Care: The Impact of Race and Racism on Canadians’ Health
Canada’s universal health care system is often understood as a central pillar of a national commitment to social equity and social justice. Such an understanding makes it difficult to raise the issue of racial inequalities within the context of the Canadian health care system. Indeed, far too little research has been conducted in Canada on […]
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Fixing Social Assistance is all about Collaboration
Over the last couple of months I’ve blogged about reforming Ontario’s social assistance system, setting out the nature of the problem and suggesting some solutions such as creating a vision of a high-performing social assistance system, building a basket of essential supports, supporting people on social assistance into training and employment, and building on health promotion and […]
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Austerity is bad for your health
The Ontario government is expected to release the Drummond Commission report shortly. That report that is expected to substantially shape Ontario’s fiscal plan going forward. Don Drummond was appointed to provide the Ontario government with a plan to reduce the deficit. He has indicated that drastic cuts to budgets will be needed, and that he will recommend privatization of […]
Building Equity Into Ontario’s New Health Care Action Plan
The Minister of Health and Long-Term Care today launched an ambitious plan to transform Ontario’s health care system. It identifies key drivers of change to improve access, quality and value; all underlain by improved system coordination and coherence, and by service and quality innovation. These are positive directions, but the opportunity must not be lost […]
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Emerging Health Professionals and Driving Health Equity From Within
The Wellesley Institute researches and analyzes the policy changes needed to address the social determinants of health that underlie pervasive and damaging health inequities. These changes will need to be driven by broad community-based innovation, social movements and political pressure. But acting to ensure equitable access to high-quality health care for all and improving resources […]
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