While most economists accept that there is some trade-off between unemployment and inflation, no one really knows how low unemployment can fall before wages begin to rise at a faster pace.
In 2015, it’s dreadfully evident that our patchwork, marketized child care situation fails just about everyone and that young Canadian families live in one of the few wealthy countries that fails to support them well.
The growing call for universal drug coverage stems from the realization that Canadians should be able to take medications as prescribed, regardless of their financial situation.
In Finland, universal access to childcare was originally introduced to support women’s labor market participation. However, today the benefits seem to be far wider.
It could be national project, much like Medicare, that we can all be proud of contributing to and benefitting from. With the acknowledgement that building a program like that will take sustained dedication and time.
Canada lags way behind most of its peer countries on child care. There is no doubt that in the absence of a modern approach to child care provisions, families across Canada experience hardship and stress.
Policies that make good quality child care more affordable for families can increase women’s employment opportunities and change the way that the market rewards women’s work.
If there is to be robust and coordinated measures to substantially reduce the exclusion and poverty in which so many Canadian with disabilities live, these ideas require wide discussion, and this election campaign is a democratically appropriate and politically hopeful occasion to do so.
While there remains room to increase efficiencies and gain greater value for money, bending the cost curve requires fundamental reforms to the way we manage and deliver health services in Canada.
