TORONTO, VANCOUVER—Two veteran seniors care researchers have detailed federally mandated standards to reform long-term care amid a second wave of COVID-19 in a new discussion paper by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Health, health care system, pharmacare
In this issue:
Illustration by Remie Geoffroi
Even before the ravages of a global pandemic, America’s body politic looked dangerously ill. On this sentiment, at least, there is probably still widespread agreement. But, as with any diagnosis, the devil is in the details.
HALIFAX and SAINT JOHN—In order to earn a living wage, a person working a full-time, full-year job must earn $21.80 in Halifax, $19.55 in Antigonish, $17.65 in Cape Breton, $16.80 in Bridgewater and $19.55 in Saint John, according to a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Nova Scotia office and the Saint John Human Development Council.
The living wage was first calculated in Atlantic Canada in 2015 (Halifax). Antigonish was added in 2016 and Saint John, New Brunswick in 2018. Last year, we calculated the living wage rate for St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. This year we have added two more Nova Scotia communities: Bridgewater and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. The calculation of the living wage provides communities with the following information:
Photo by Alma Ayon, Flickr Creative Commons
Illustration by Michael DeForge
It has been six months since we shut down the economy to all but essential activities in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19. Federal and many provincial emergency measures introduced since then, though imperfect and unevenly available across Canada, have stabilized incomes and bought governments time to figure out what comes next.
Mass testing for COVID-19 would allow communities and societies to reduce uncertainty, permitting appropriate, targeted, flexible policy across institutions and circumstances, as opposed to crude population isolation and immobilization policing. Increasing testing would permit confidence in restoring institutions like camps, day cares, and schools that allow women to reengage and balance their productive, paid work, a requirement for most to live in expensive, unequal capitalist countries.
The summer issue of the Monitor features two previously published reports on the crisis in Canada's nursing homes, one from the CCPA's national office, Re-imagining Long-term Residential Care in the COVID-19 Crisis, and one from the CCPA-BC,