Joseph Quesnel — If the Mohawk community of Kahnawake wanted a way to end up on the six o’clock news, attempts to evict 26 non-Natives from their reserve was the perfect way to do it. As most readers now know, those not meeting the Kahnawake reserve’s community membership code – many are involved in romantic relationships with Mohawks and some are long-time caregivers for resident members – were given 10 days to leave.
As of today, only 12 of the 26 have responded. Now the band council says they will publicly post the names of those who have not left if they fail to meet this deadline. Continue reading Human Rights-Canadian Aboriginal reserves
If this kind of investment (Own The Podium) can work in sports, can it work in other fields, too?
Why can’t Canadians, for example, have a number of world-class universities? Why can’t our health system be top grade as well as universally accessible?
Why can’t we have a cleaner energy industry to help power our economy and create the revenues that both the private and public sectors need to develop and sustain all of the public goods we all desire?
From a CBC News column by Don Newman
Canada’s Mealy Mountains National Park follows others from the provinces of Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba and the federal government in the Northwest Territories to designate more than 23 million acres of new parks and wildlife refuges and to undertake conservation planning to protect another 200 million acres, an area twice the size of California.
The North American boreal forest stretches from Newfoundland and Labrador to Alaska and surpasses the Amazon Rainforest in size and carbon storage. In 2007, 1,500 international scientists recommended that at least half of Canada’s boreal forest be protected.
Source: Pew Applauds Creation of Canada’s Newest National Park
Newborns now live to 81 on average.
People are living longer, longer than ever according to Statistics Canada.
Canadians over 65 in particular can expect to live longer.
From Canada Byte Stats
Stephen Murgatroyd Troy Media/ No one should fund or indeed support homeopathy.
There are many who believe in homeopathy. The fact that there is a belief system and a group of people who are adherents to this belief system does not make homeopathy effective or an appropriate treatment. Indeed, no clinical evidence exists to suggest that homeopathy has any effects whatsoever.Don’t take my word for it. A thorough review of homeopathy has just been completed by the Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons in Britain. Their conclusion: “the evidence base shows that homeopathy is not efficacious (that is, it does not work beyond the placebo effect) and that explanations for why homeopathy would work are scientifically implausible”. Is that clear? It was clear enough when, following a similar review, public funding for homeopathy was withdrawn in both Germany and Switzerland. Yet the British Columbia the Green Party has argued that it should be funded, despite the decision of the BC Government not to do so. Jane Sterk, leader of the Greens, has bought into the idea that if people want it they should be able to get it as part of a provincial health plan, whether or not the treatments work.
We also have a Federal initiative which seems to take homeopathy seriously. The Natural Health Products Research Program (NHPRP) of the Natural Health Products Directorate within Health Canada has been consulting with homeopathic practitioners and developing a research agenda, as if this branch of pseudo-science was to be taken as seriously as, for example, a pharmaceutical product or new medical practice.Homeopathic products, sold over the counter in drug stores, are regulated by this Federal body. In 2008 the federal government proposed Bill C-51, which contained the potential of restricting the availability of certain natural health products – including homeopathic medicines – except by prescription through practitioners who are authorized by their provincial governments. The reality is that many of the “medicines” labeled homeopathic contain no detectable amount of active ingredient, so it is impossible to test whether they contain what their label says. Unlike most potent drugs, they have not been proven effective against disease by double-blind clinical testing. In fact, the vast majority of homeopathic products have never even been tested; proponents simply rely on “provings” to tell them what should work. It’s time for a bill to ban their sale.
In June 2007, Ontario passed the Homeopathy Act, which regulates the practice of this pseudo-medicine. It establishes a College of Homeopaths, regulates entry to the profession and seeks to regulate practice, though not all aspects of the Act are fully in force. The problem here is that this gives credibility to a practice for which there is simply no substantive evidence to support its practice.
It is a sad commentary on our health care system in Canada where evidence and clear thinking give way to populism.
Surprisingly little attention has been paid to how we pay for health care affects how much we spend on health care…..
Noncontributory finance and effective subsidization of public health care spending with federal cost sharing crowded out demand for private insurance as voters opted for high levels of public health spending.
From this perspective, the Romanow Report’s call for increases in federal cash transfers to provinces for health care spending would result in an increase in provincial health spending and a diminution of the demand for private health insurance. It is not clear, however, that federal subsidization of health spending is either sustainable or socially desirable.
Indeed, as Canada’s population ages, the current financing of health care represents enormous unfunded liabilities for the provinces. To sustain current levels and growth rates of health spending without tying current revenues to that objective means asking the next generation of working Canadians to pay far more for their health care than do working Canadians today.
Although the effect of population aging on health care expenditures is projected to be modest, it could trigger a serious political crisis for Canadian medicare as taxes rise.
Source: UNDERSTANDING THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE EVOLUTION AND FUTURE OF SINGLE-PAYER PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE IN CANADA by J.C. Herbert Emery of the University of Calgary. A briefing paper from the school of public policy.
The Government’s current fiscal structure is not sustainable over the long term. That is, under the current fiscal structure, the Government’s debt relative to GDP is projected to increase on a substantial and sustained basis over the long term.
See: Federal
Public debt levels in Greece have long been close to the top of the OECD charts. But markets were still shocked last October when Greece revealed a much larger 2008 budget deficit than previously reported, and a 2009 shortfall estimated at 12.7% of GDP. (From EDC weekly comentary).
SEE Global link
Canada could save $76.4 billion between 2005 and 2020—an average of about $5 billion a year in health savings—if some of the targets set out by the Canadian Heart Health Strategy and Action Plan (CHHS-AP) are met, according to a Conference Board of Canada report released today at a press conference in Ottawa. Continue reading Save $76.4 billion
