Public Values

Ontario’s university funding continues to slide

May 162013

Lowest per-student funding in Canada.

from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations

Ontario's 17,000 professors and academic librarians are calling on Premier Wynne to invest in the province's universities. The 2013 budget continues a decline in per-student funding, said Constance Adamson, President of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

About $121 million is being cut from university budgets in 2012-13 and 2013-14, according to OCUFA. If current enrolment trends continue, per-student funding from the government will decline by seven per cent over the next four years.

New rules freezing tuition increases to three per cent will also harm university revenue, states OCUFA. While the organization supports decreasing tuition fees, compensatory government investment is required to maintain high-quality programs.

"Overall, this means that universities in Ontario will be forced to grapple with steadily declining resources, and corresponding threats to educational quality and affordability," states a recent OCUFA report. "With all the social and economic benefits generated by our institutions, the government's current course is harmful to students, to families, and the province."

Source

Trade talks open to business insiders only

May 162013

Public Values

Public scrutiny of TPP topics discouraged.

from The Tyee

Michael Geist of The Tyee notes that any details of the Trans-Pacific-Partnership Agreement are coming out of Europe, where the public is regularly updated on the trade talks. In Canada, however, only business representatives who must sign a confidentiality agreement are granted access to "certain sensitive information of the Department concerning or related to ther TPP negotiations."

Source

Tax cuts a race to the bottom

May 162013

Public Values

An evenhanded approach to the Middle East was a hallmark of Canadan policy since Lester Pearson's day.

Inequality is accelerating.

from National Newswatch

Frances Russell in National Newswatch posits that the cycle of ever-expanding deficits coupled with rising demands for tax cuts and diminishing social programs makes a mockery of the dream of equal opportunity held by most of the world's democracies. In Canada, Lester B. Pearson's nation-building dream of a "single Canadian social and economic citizenship" is fading.

Source

Feds mum on $2.4 billion in consultants’ fees

May 162013

Public Values

What work was done for all that money?

from the Toronto Star

A Star investigation has discovered that 90 percent of $2.4 billion paid out by the federal government in the last decade to consultants comes with no description of work actually performed. When pressed, more than a dozen federal departments refused to provide details.

Source

The great civil service sell-off

May 142013

Public Values

75,000 staff to be transferred to private sector.

from The Independent

Jointly-owned companies comprised of private-sector investors and their employees are set to take over millions of pounds in state-owned services in England, according to Oliver Wright of The Independent, resulting in "the largest privatization programs since the 1980s." Great Britain's public sector unions label the initiative "privatization by stealth."

Source

Where tuition is free

May 092013

Public Values

Germany bucks global trends.

from Inside Higher Ed

"Inside Higher Ed" features an article by Elizabeth Redden on the end of Germany's experiment with tuition fees. Contrary to current trends, the last two states currently charging fees, Bavaria and Lower Saxony, will likely abolish them in the coming months. Public opinion is apparently "dead-set against it."

Source

Expand Medicare, says CUPE

May 092013

Public Values

National continuing care program needed.

from the Canadian Union of Public Employees

Canadians need a national continuing care program, with dedicated transfers tied to Canada Health Act standards, minimum staffing levels, and more public and non-profit delivery, says CUPE.

What price austerity?

May 092013

Public Values

A number is never just a number.

from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Hennessy's Index, by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Trish Hennessy, provides some revealing numbers about Canada and its place in the world.

Source

The one percent’s solution

May 052013

Public Values

Will the facts matter?

from the New York Times

Now that austerity arguments are demonstrably without factual basis, will that matter to the wealthy, wonders the New York Times' Paul Krugman. What people want from an economic policy depends on how much money they have. Average-income earners want to see health and social programs increased. Wealthy people favour spending cuts.

Source

Rise of P3s has people speaking out

May 052013

Public Values

Costs rise, accountability plummets.

from The Uniter

Ethan Cabel of Winnipeg's The Uniter notes that the rise in P3 projects promoted by current mayor Sam Katz has its critics. Mayoral candidate Judy Wasylycia-Leis says public assets are sacrificed to the "unaccountable" private sector, and they are much more costly.

Source

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