By Dr. Ryan Meili
Social factors play a significant role in determining whether we will be healthy or ill. Our health care is but one element of what makes the biggest difference in health outcomes. This has been understood for centuries, and empirically validated in recent decades with study after study demonstrating health inequalities between wealthy and disadvantaged populations.
Despite major investments by the Provincial Government in early childhood education since 1999, tens of thousands of families lack affordable child care. Only one in five children under the age of five is in licensed child care in Manitoba. In September, the Province launched a consultation asking citizens how early child care should be improved.
The Manitoba Child Care Association and Child Care Coalition of Manitoba are calling on the Province to make early learning and child care accessible for all families. They have composed an Open Letter to the Province (available here). They are looking for a wide range of groups to sign-on to their call that
Manitoba establish a Commission on Integrated Early Learning and Child Care for Manitoba, with the mandate and resources to develop and propose a multi-year plan for early learning and child care.
Contact Susan.Prentice@umanitoba.ca if you are interested in being a signatory to the letter.
To read more about this issue, please see our Fast Facts: Manitoba Needs a Public Childcare System or Download the PDF
By Molly McCracken
This week, 16,000 high school students will be bused to the MTS centre to attend “We Day” and be encouraged to help others. Organized by social enterpreneurs Mark and Craig Kielburger, their globally branded Free the Children charity by all measures is a smashing success – it raised $15 million in Canada last year. But where does this leave Winnipeg and Manitoba, with our shamefully high child-poverty rates?
The new Canada Jobs Grant (CJG) program proposed in the recent federal Throne Speech represents a fundamental shift in funding for employment training in Canada. Provinces have opposed the changes because they fail to meet local employment training needs. Here in Manitoba, the CJG threatens to unravel successful programs in Winnipeg’s inner city.
The opposition’s unproductive filibuster of the provincial 2013 budget increase in the PST has left many aspects of the budget undebated. One is its failure to provide for improvement in the Employment & Income Assistance Program (EIA – aka “welfare”) in the face of a well-documented pressing need. In contrast, the budget eliminates the Education Property Tax (EPT) for all seniors in 2015 – a measure which has very little basis and two and a half times the price tag.
by Josh Brandon
The ability of municipalities to regulate, permit or prohibit certain types of development activities within their boundaries is one of the most powerful tools of local government. Through proper planning, local governments can help encourage development that fosters healthy diverse and socially sustainable communities. Bill 7, THE PLANNING AMENDMENT AND CITY OF WINNIPEG CHARTER AMENDMENT ACT (AFFORDABLE HOUSING), will provide local governments, and particularly the City of Winnipeg, a further tool to ensure new residential developments meet the need of all citizens through inclusionary zoning.
By Jean-Guy Bourgeois and Keven Rebeck
Download the PDF
In Manitoba, messages about the importance of workplace health and safety are hard to miss. The SAFE Work campaigns run year-round by the Workers Compensation Board are trying to foster a culture of workplace health and safety in which it becomes socially unacceptable to put workers in harm’s way.
After several years of these campaigns, you could be forgiven for expecting that legislation to strengthen workplace health and safety protections would be noncontroversial. With 39 Manitoba workers killed on the job last year, and another 31,018 injured, you would expect broad political pressure for government to take stronger action to protect workers.
By Tyler Craig
Winnipeg is famous for its long and cold winters. It is a reasonable expectation for those who live in rental housing that part of their rent should cover heating expenses and their landlords would provide sufficient heat. In a misguided effort to save on costs, there are some landlords in Winnipeg who refuse to provide adequate heat. Last year, there were 300 heat related complaints to the City of Winnipeg. In January, CBC News reported about a caretaker couple who were terminated because they refused to comply with the landlord’s demand that the boiler in their apartment building be shut off. These are two examples of why the heating bylaw must have tougher enforcement.
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