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troublePatients Wait as OR Closes for Summer - This is a rather slanted piece, to my mind, that presents things as either/or. That said, I actually was unaware that the delays in surgery in Halifax in the summer were related to hospital staff taking time off. See Also:Mom worried by IWK addictions services closure and Union against hospital's teen centre closures.
Wheelchair taxi owners seek funding help Do not read the comments.
These taxis are incredibly difficult to get. You cannot book them in advance, and you can't call dispatch to get to them - you have to be given their phone numbers directly. The other options are Need-a-Lift, which needs to be booked two days in advance and is rather insistent that they are not a taxi service (I suspect this has to do with regulations of some sort), or Access-a-Bus which must be book exactly seven days in advance, and won't confirm you're accepted until a day or two before your scheduled trip. Trying to get around Halifax with a wheelchair is a fucking pain, and while I'm sympathetic to the "Nova Scotia is going broke" argument, I'm unclear exactly why the federal government has thrown PWD in this province under the bus as well.
Speaking of which:
Bus Routes for Halifax Seniors to be cut. *sigh*
Halifax Airport Bus Planned Stalled - I believe that this service would put the overpriced Airporter out of business, but it's not going anywhere. It would be a huge boon to PWD, though - Access-a-bus is required to take you anywhere the regular buses go.
I should clarify a few things here: An ongoing issue in Canada is what are called "Have" and "Have Not" provinces. Nova Scotia is very much a Have Not province. There is really just not enough money, not enough jobs, not enough... anything, really. I often introduce myself to people saying I left Alberta to come to Nova Scotia just to be all opposite-like. The people I stay in touch with in Alberta often tell me how many of their co-workers are ex-pat Nova Scotians who left because there's just no work here. Because there's no work here, there's no money, and even funding vital social services like the hospital is a huge problem. Health care takes up 49% of our provincial budget, and we're always running short.
This, of course, leaves us all in a conundrum. I (perhaps naively) believe that most people in Nova Scotia would agree that our hospitals need money, that "at-risk" youth need access to teen health clinics, that surgery needs to be performed, that there needs to be more health care options outside of our only city, that buses are an essential service, that road repairs need to be done, etc. However, there's no idea where all the money will come from. It's recently been announced that our primary source of revenue, off-shore drilling for natural gas, is going to stop soon. The sales-tax hike has seen more people buying stuff in New Brunswick, which is our beloved sibling-province to the west.
So, what do we cut? What, or who, do we throw under the bus? How do we make that decision?
This is where the whole controversy over the long-form census stuff comes in. (I assume that all of my gentle readers are up to date on this controversy in Canada, but for the sake of Don, let me explain: Our federal government recently decided to make the long-form part of the census voluntary rather than mandatory because of 'privacy concerns'. Long-form census data isn't just incredibly useful for future historians, but also for things like allocating funding for programs and services. At the link is an economist and a women's center representative talking about how these forms are used for their work, and why they are important.) Part of how Canada deals with this have-not/have divide is through equilization payments [Wiki link]. The data on the long-census form should give guidance to the provinces about where needs are not being met. Making that voluntary, and then spending the money on an advertising campaign to convince people of its necessity is foolish and thoughtless.
Part of the advantages of the long-form census is that people will perhaps stop saying shit like "We don't need to fund the repair/replacement of the two taxis that service all of the people of Halifax that have wheelchairs" because a better idea of the number of wheelchair users in Halifax - and thus potential users of such a service - would demonstrate its necessity. Showing how many families may or will have need for an at-risk youth health centre that focuses on addiction issues would funnel more funding that direction. Some serious effort to sort out population issues across the Halifax Regional Municipality and thus sort out where the bus routes are needed (and thus figure out how to fund them) would be a huge deal here in this city.
And yet, we should stop with the long-form census because... well, I don't even know. Because it's inconvenient, I guess. It does make it easier to ignore the increasing number of people with disabilities in a province where everyone who can leave is looking for their ticket out, I suppose.
Wheelchair taxi owners seek funding help Do not read the comments.
The drivers of Halifax's two wheelchair-accessible taxis say a provincial subsidy to buy new vehicles won't get them far.
The Nova Scotia government has offered the two drivers $22,500 each to replace their aging vehicles.
Mark Weston said he's grateful, but retrofitting a van properly costs anywhere from $45,000 to $65,000.
These taxis are incredibly difficult to get. You cannot book them in advance, and you can't call dispatch to get to them - you have to be given their phone numbers directly. The other options are Need-a-Lift, which needs to be booked two days in advance and is rather insistent that they are not a taxi service (I suspect this has to do with regulations of some sort), or Access-a-Bus which must be book exactly seven days in advance, and won't confirm you're accepted until a day or two before your scheduled trip. Trying to get around Halifax with a wheelchair is a fucking pain, and while I'm sympathetic to the "Nova Scotia is going broke" argument, I'm unclear exactly why the federal government has thrown PWD in this province under the bus as well.
Speaking of which:
Bus Routes for Halifax Seniors to be cut. *sigh*
Halifax Airport Bus Planned Stalled - I believe that this service would put the overpriced Airporter out of business, but it's not going anywhere. It would be a huge boon to PWD, though - Access-a-bus is required to take you anywhere the regular buses go.
I should clarify a few things here: An ongoing issue in Canada is what are called "Have" and "Have Not" provinces. Nova Scotia is very much a Have Not province. There is really just not enough money, not enough jobs, not enough... anything, really. I often introduce myself to people saying I left Alberta to come to Nova Scotia just to be all opposite-like. The people I stay in touch with in Alberta often tell me how many of their co-workers are ex-pat Nova Scotians who left because there's just no work here. Because there's no work here, there's no money, and even funding vital social services like the hospital is a huge problem. Health care takes up 49% of our provincial budget, and we're always running short.
This, of course, leaves us all in a conundrum. I (perhaps naively) believe that most people in Nova Scotia would agree that our hospitals need money, that "at-risk" youth need access to teen health clinics, that surgery needs to be performed, that there needs to be more health care options outside of our only city, that buses are an essential service, that road repairs need to be done, etc. However, there's no idea where all the money will come from. It's recently been announced that our primary source of revenue, off-shore drilling for natural gas, is going to stop soon. The sales-tax hike has seen more people buying stuff in New Brunswick, which is our beloved sibling-province to the west.
So, what do we cut? What, or who, do we throw under the bus? How do we make that decision?
This is where the whole controversy over the long-form census stuff comes in. (I assume that all of my gentle readers are up to date on this controversy in Canada, but for the sake of Don, let me explain: Our federal government recently decided to make the long-form part of the census voluntary rather than mandatory because of 'privacy concerns'. Long-form census data isn't just incredibly useful for future historians, but also for things like allocating funding for programs and services. At the link is an economist and a women's center representative talking about how these forms are used for their work, and why they are important.) Part of how Canada deals with this have-not/have divide is through equilization payments [Wiki link]. The data on the long-census form should give guidance to the provinces about where needs are not being met. Making that voluntary, and then spending the money on an advertising campaign to convince people of its necessity is foolish and thoughtless.
Part of the advantages of the long-form census is that people will perhaps stop saying shit like "We don't need to fund the repair/replacement of the two taxis that service all of the people of Halifax that have wheelchairs" because a better idea of the number of wheelchair users in Halifax - and thus potential users of such a service - would demonstrate its necessity. Showing how many families may or will have need for an at-risk youth health centre that focuses on addiction issues would funnel more funding that direction. Some serious effort to sort out population issues across the Halifax Regional Municipality and thus sort out where the bus routes are needed (and thus figure out how to fund them) would be a huge deal here in this city.
And yet, we should stop with the long-form census because... well, I don't even know. Because it's inconvenient, I guess. It does make it easier to ignore the increasing number of people with disabilities in a province where everyone who can leave is looking for their ticket out, I suppose.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 10:26 am (UTC)Because, as we all know, Harper likes to do whatever the Americans are doing. And this year, the Americans had their census, and it was trendy to hate on the census and call it an invasion of privacy, and it was part of Obama's hidden agenda to create a socialist state, and further right-wing paranoia.
The Harper government is claiming they've been flooded with similar complaints, and they're just following the will of the people.
The only other option I can think of is this: they're making it voluntary, and then launching a $30 million ad campaign to encourage people to do it. Maybe this is what a Conservative Sponsorship scandal looks like.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 01:06 pm (UTC)My latest fury is the industry council(?)'s compromised census idea. On the surface, it seems like exactly the same as the current census - same format, same 20%, same mandatory nature sans threat of jail time (though nobody has ever gone to jail for refusing to fill out the census), and almost the same quesitons. Except the one that's apparently had the most complaints.
Which isn't about religion, or race, or sexuality, or whatever - it's about unpaid work. What unpaid work do you do in your home. How much. So, the same census, except the question that probably accounts for 30%+ (random number is random!) of women's time. Great.
Gah. Sorry, you probably read that, I'm just so furious. And I live in a "have" city in a (well, not with the current manufacturing slump, but defininitely relative to NS) "have" province with generally majority needs, but the sheer nonsense in turning the census into garbage data while it costing more money is shockingly bad logic. It's just such a blatant move to erase any opposition facts so Harper can govern on "instinct" and "obvious" desires of Canadians that I'm shocked they thought it wouldn't be a big issue.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-28 02:48 pm (UTC)