Everyone stands in line or que for the government services that they have paid for through their taxes. As paid customers they should be treated with effeciency, respect, and courtesy. Most often they are not. They face smug indifference, arrogance, unnecessary delays, by the so called " public civil servants" . Q-jumpers is a blog to get services through any other means , offer competitive alternatives and make government services more accountable and customer user friendly.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Gmail - Daily Dose - Why seniors get weak - siegholle@gmail.com
Sleepless in the senior home
They call it "assisted living," but the only help most seniors get in these awful joints comes once a month, when they need help finding the checkbook.
A new study shows how seniors in these places suffer from widespread sleep disorders -- problems so bad they're leading to a rapid decline in the quality of life and even conditions like severe depression.
Of course, you'd be depressed too if you lived in some of these homes.
Researchers studied 121 seniors at assisted living facilities in the Los Angeles area and found that 65 percent of them were suffering from sleep problems such as waking up in the middle of the night and the inability to fall asleep in the first place.
Over the course of a six-month follow-up period, those who had trouble sleeping were more likely to come apart at the seams. These patients needed more help with their daily living -- which only shows they're not getting out of that assisted living big house anytime soon.
I was already steaming when I read about this in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society... but it gets even worse, because these sleepless seniors were also more likely to suffer from worsening depression.
So much for "assisted" living.
And if you think this problem is confined to these homes on the Left Coast, you're missing out on sleep yourself. Nothing can wreck a human being faster than a lack of sleep. Heck, we get in trouble when we "torture" terrorists with sleep deprivation... yet somehow it's perfectly OK when it happens to older Americans living in care facilities.
Remember -- sleep problems aren't normal at any age, even if they are par for the course in assisted living homes.
Needing no assistance, William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
How to beat the high cost of government retirement options
Here's a Plan
About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western Mediterranean aboard a Princess ship. At dinner we noticed an elderly lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady. I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told she owned the line, but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the last four cruises, back to back.
As we left the dining room one evening I caught her eye and stopped to say hello. We chatted and I said, "I understand you've been on this ship for the last four cruises." She replied, "Yes, that's true." I stated, "I don't understand" and she replied, without a pause, "It's cheaper than a nursing home."
So, there will be no nursing home in my future. When I get old and feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day. I have checked on reservations at Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:
1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.
2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast in bed every day of the week).
3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free washers and dryers, and shows every night.
4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.
5. They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.
6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days.
7. T.V. broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience.
8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don't even have to ask for them.
9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare; if you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.
Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to go? Princess will have a ship ready to go. So don't look for me in a nursing home, just call shore to ship.
P.S. And don't forget, when you die, they just dump you over the side at no charge.
--
Hollecrest & Associates Inc -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .
Back to Eden communities Sunridge -261 Oakhill Drive, Brantford backtoeden.ontario@gmail.com
www.backtoeden.bravehost.com
"Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Fast food fast exit
Fast food logos turn your judgment inside out
If you're jonesing for junk food, you don't have a craving -- you've been conditioned, plain and simple.
Ronald McDonald, world's most careful and calculated clown, has turned you into one of Pavlov's dogs. He's already taught you how to beg... and if you keep eating his junk, you'll be playing dead, too -- and that's no trick.
A new study shows how the very sight of a fast food logo can send you itching and twitching into an irrational frenzy that can only be cured by some reformed chicken chunks and processed meat patties.
And all it takes is a quick, subliminal flash to change your behavior.
Researchers showed a series of images to students for less than a tenth of second
-- between 12 and 80 milliseconds. Some of the students saw logos for death cafes such as McDonald's, KFC, Subway and Taco Hell, err, Bell.
Then, the students were asked to read some text and choose between two skincare products.
The researchers found that the students who were exposed to -- or infected by, in my book -- the fast food logos were more likely to plow through the text as quickly as possible, and then choose the product that saved the most time.
I'm surprised some of these kids didn't just toss the reading assignment and run right out of the room in search of some processed meat patties or reformed chicken chunks.
The researchers say their study shows how fast food "can have the unexpected consequence of inducing haste and impatience."
I hate to break the news, but the biggest problem with fast food isn't the fact that it causes haste and impatience. It's the fact that it causes heart disease, diabetes and early death.
As far as I'm concerned, the best fast food logo is a rotting corpse.
Speeding away from fast food,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
--
Monday, May 17, 2010
senior issues -carp position
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CARP actively supported proposals in Ontario to dramatically
reduce the price of generic drugs, expand the patient services
provided by pharmacists and eliminate rebates paid to
pharmacists by generic drug companies. Opponents of the reforms
- aware that other provinces could follow suit - stoked fears
about loss of services to seniors by threatening to close stores
or charge for delivery. CARP members expressed definitive
support for overhauling the drug pricing system. Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C441691%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3987793%2CbgVnjbP
In a poll of CARP ActionOnline readers, 91% of the over 3,200 respondents fully supported the proposed changes and condemned the retaliatory action. CARP members' support for the reforms certainly entered the public discourse in a high profile manner when the Minister of Health & Long-Term care announced the poll results during question period at the
Noteworthy Bill - CARP Urges Consumer Protection
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A new bill working its way through the Ontario Legislature
promises to regulate retirement homes across the province. With
more than 40,000 retirement home spaces in Ontario and a
population of seniors expected to double to nearly 4.1 million
within 25 years, according to the Ontario Seniors Secretariat
the need for regulation is long overdue. Vice President of CARP
Advocacy, Susan Eng acknowledged, "the proposed changes
recognize the growing need for more care services and
accommodation outside institutional settings and ensures that
the safety and quality of services in retirement homes meet the
standards we would want for ourselves and our loved ones." Read
more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C441691%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3987790%2CbgVnjbP
]While CARP commends the Government for its efforts to ensure that Ontario's retirement homes are safe, secure and provide quality care, the haste with which the Bill is moving through the legislature may be jeopardizing its credibility and the strength of its regulatory framework.
--
Hollecrest & Associates Inc -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .
Back to Eden communities
Sunridge -261 Oakhill Drive, Brantford
backtoeden.ontario@gmail.com
www.backtoeden.bravehost.com
"Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care
Friday, May 14, 2010
Are we getting value for our Health Care spending?.Not accorfing to the Health index
In Brief:
- Canada lags while the Netherlands is tops
- Healthcare spending in Canada is comparable to the top-ranked European countries analyzed in this index but Canada still has a weak performance relative to Europe
- In Canada, wait times for diagnostic exams such as an MRI can last for months The typical wait time in top European countries is less than one week
Areas for improvement
Patient rights and access to information is another weak point for Canada. Bureaucratic obstacles and long waits often make it difficult for Canadians to access a second opinion about their own medical status, and patient rights are not codified in an explicit legislative guarantee
Access to the newest medicines is also somewhat delayed in Canada compared to Europe. It takes an average of 314 days for newly approved medicines to be entered in to provincial subsidy systems in Canada, compared to less than 150 days in countries like Ireland and Germany.
"Most importantly, Canadians still face excessively long waiting periods for care. Canada spends as much money as the top performers on healthcare like the Netherlands and Germany, but we haven't been able to match their levels of efficiency. By looking at our own areas of relative weakness and examining European best practices, we can better understand where improvement is most needed and what sorts of reforms are likely to bring about measurable progress."
--
Hollecrest & Associates Inc -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .
Back to Eden communities Sunridge -261 Oakhill Drive, Brantford backtoeden.ontario@gmail.com
www.backtoeden.bravehost.com "Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Please hold the line -Dave -on rising healthcare costs
"This big-money, dirty-tricks campaign is an offensive attempt to manipulate people in my community in an attempt to preserve your profit margins at the inflated expense of those paying for needed medicine," Levac wrote. http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2576307
We need calm thinking with proper and constructive solutions to the pending overinflated health care cost crisis. Venting with the same old "We the priviledged front line rhetoric" is not thinking or giving alternatives or constructive ways of solving the over heated costly( over 48% of the ON budget) health care crisis -a chance. Lets solve it -not yell at each other and besides that why wastefully shoot at or yell at the(your) messenger. His name is not Dalton. The Health Minister is the one who should be listening to your concerns and the constructive suggestions and options you are proposing .
--
Hollecrest & Associates Inc -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .
Monday, May 10, 2010
hidden cost energy
Posted By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD
Posted 5 days ago
Your hydro bill calls it a "provincial benefit." In truth, it's a
sneaky way to hike electricity rates -and pass along to consumers the
high cost of all those costly "green energy initiatives."
Consumers who signed contracts with electricity retailers and thought
they'd locked in their hydro costs are suddenly finding their bills
are skyrocketing -through a line called provincial benefit (PB).
The PB isn't new. It grew out of something called the "global adjustment."
And it's now worth $4.2 billion a year, and growing.
In a nutshell, there was a need to absorb costs for non-utility
generation (basically private power generation) built in the 1980s.
When the market later "opened" it was agreed the old Ontario Hydro
baseload nuclear and some of its hydro assets would also be included
in that adjustment. That morphed into the PB.
When the price of electricity was high, the PB was a negative amount.
Now that prices are low, the PB is soaring to compensate generation
companies -at the expense of people who thought they had guaranteed
electricity contracts.
The reason it's ballooned lately is because of all the massive green
energy contracts -the so-called feed-in tariff programs (FIT) -the
government has been signing on to, said New Democrat critic Howard
Hampton.
They include high-priced solar, biogas and biomass projects.
The suggestion it's a benefit is a "disgusting misuse of the English
language," he said.
The only people who benefit are the people getting lucrative contracts
to generate electricity.
Hampton said the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) should answer to the Legislature.
"The Ontario Power Authority, a body which is completely unaccountable
and can't be called before any legislative committee, has been out
there signing hydro contracts worth billions of dollars. That's not
factored into your hydro rate. But it has to show up somehow, because
we are going to spend billions of dollars for these sweetheart deals,"
Hampton said in an interview.
If you've stayed with your local utility, you don't have that line on
your electricity bill. The utility absorbs it. Only businesses and
consumers who signed up with retailers pay.
As the price of all these green projects increases, so too, will the PB.
"The McGuinty Liberals are going to make Ontario's electricity system
probably the most expensive on the continent with huge repercussions
for businesses and individual consumers," Hampton said.
As costs mount, the PB will become a black hole to hide the soaring
cost of electricity. What is most worrying is the loss of
transparency. When the market opened, your hydro bill was broken down
cost-by-cost: Delivery, generation and retirement of the provincial
debt. Now we have this catch-all PB.
A spokesman for the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO)
said consumers should be wary of signing retail contracts without
knowing just what they are getting.
"We are trying to provide education and awareness that before you do
sign one of the contracts you should try to understand what it is you
are committing to and look at what you are now paying for versus what
that contract offers," said Terry Young. (Check www.ieso.ca
for more information.)
So beware of signing an energy contract with a retailer. Most of them
only include the market price of electricity. You'll have to pay the
PB on top of that.
In November, then-Energy Minister Gerry Phillips said he wanted to see
more transparency in electricity bills. Let's hope Brad Duguid, who
just shuffled into the energy portfolio, actually does something about
it.
Hey, everyone can dream.
--
Fwd: Welcome to the latest issue of CARP Action Online!
To view this newsletter in full-color:
http://www.imakenews.com/carp/index000438679.cfm?x=bgQTBLp,bct7jVmF
CARP
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Saturday, April 24, 2010
April 26th 2010
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. HIGH NOON FOR PENSION REFORM
2. BATTLE LINES HARDEN OVER DRUG REFORM PLAN
3. FINANCE COMMITTEE HEARING ON THE RETIREMENT INCOME SECURITY OF
CANADIANS
4. CARP CALLS FOR RETRACTION OF MISLEADING ADVERTISING BY
PHARMACISTS
5. SUSAN ENG TALKS DRUG REFORM ON THE BUSINESS NEWS NETWORK
6. PENSION REFORM - LESS TALK MORE ACTION
7. NEW HEALTH COUNCIL OF CANADA REPORT ON CHRONIC ILLNESS CARE
8. CHRONIC PELVIC PAIN SYNDROME IN MEN, PART II
9. SUSAN ENG ON THE AGENDA TO DISCUSS GENERIC DRUG PRICE CUTS
10. TWO PART PENSION REFORM VIDEO PRESENTATION BY SUSAN ENG
11. FEDERAL FINANCE MINISTER VISITS WINNIPEG FOR MEETING ON
OVERHAULING PENSION PLAN
12. ALBERTA PENSION REFORM CONSULTATIONS
13. ALBERTA PENSION REFORM CONSULTATION PAPER
14. CARP LETTER TO THE ALBERTA MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ENTERPRISE
15. CARP SUBMISSION TO ALBERTA PENSIONS CONSULTATION
16. CARP PRESENTATION TO THE ONTARIO STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE
AND ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
17. CARP IN MANITOBA
18. CARP IN MANITOBA
19. JIM FLAHERTY 'S POSITION STATEMENT ON PENSION REFORM
20. NOVA SCOTIA FINANCE MINISTER GRAHAM STEELE'S POSITION ON PENSION
REFORM
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High noon for pension reform
by JONATHAN CHEVREAU
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It's "high noon for pension reform" and time to move from
debates to decisions, pension consultant Keith Ambachtsheer says
in a widely circulated new report. The president of KPA Advisory
Services Ltd. is pushing for a supplement to the Canada Pension
Plan that would benefit the 75% of Canadians who don't have
employer pensions. His focus on improving prospects for
middle-income Canadians earning $30,000 to $100,000 makes it one
of the leading contenders for reform. Originally published in
The Financial Post April 17th, 2010. To go to the Financial Post
website, please Read more... [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951137%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Battle lines harden over drug reform plan
by VIK KIRSCH
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Battle lines are being drawn in a growing skirmish between
pharmacists and Queen's Park over the Liberal government's
controversial drug reform plan to cut costs to the public purse.
The Financial Post [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951139%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Finance Committee Hearing on the Retirement Income Security of
Canadians
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In late March CARP was back on Parliament Hill to renew its call
for a Universal Pension Plan that would provide a retirement
savings vehicle for the one in three working Canadians who
retire without any savings. At a Committee hearing convened to
discuss the retirement income security of Canadians, CARP
presented its proposals and most recent poll results. Read more
[
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951152%2CbgQTBLp
]
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CARP calls for Retraction of Misleading advertising by
Pharmacists
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TORONTO, ON: CARP calls for Retraction of Misleading Advertising
by Pharmacists which deliberately misquotes a voluntary
chairperson of a local CARP chapter.Bruce Draper, the Chair of
CARP'S Windsor-Essex chapter is inappropriately and without his
consent or knowledge misquoted in a full page ad run in the
Peterborough Examiner today by the people behind www.stopcuts.ca
as saying "The McGuinty Government's health care cuts will hurt
seniors".Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951138%2CbgQTBLp ]
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Susan Eng Talks Drug Reform on the Business News Network
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Susan Eng participated in a panel discussion of so-called
"Professional Allowances" paid to pharmacists. Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951157%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Pension Reform - Less Talk more Action
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If talk is all we needed, then pension reform is all but
accomplished. You can't turn around without someone holding
forth an opinion on our retirement security or insecurity. And
all this talk has brought the industry players to the table with
their own new and improved offerings to help us out. And that's
the good news! Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951143%2CbgQTBLp
]
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New Health Council of Canada Report on Chronic Illness Care
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On April 28, the Health Council of Canada will release the third
bulletin in the Canadian Health Care Matters series. Beyond the
Basics: The Importance of Patient-Provider Interactions in
Chronic Illness Care, is based on an analysis of data from the
2008 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey of
Sicker Adults. Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951141%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Chronic pelvic pain syndrome in men, PART II
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In this article I will continue to address CPPS, a serious and
disabling problem that affects many men, with the second part of
my article. Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951142%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Susan Eng on The Agenda to Discuss Generic Drug Price Cuts
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On Tuesday April 22nd, Susan Eng joined The Agenda's Steve
Paikin for a panel discussion regarding recent drug reforms
targeting allowances paid to pharmacists by drug companies. Read
more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951140%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Two Part Pension Reform Video Presentation by Susan Eng
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Susan Eng, CARP VP of Advocacy spoke at to the Ontario
Federation and Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress at a
pension summit held in April 2010. Read more... [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3926123%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Federal Finance Minister visits Winnipeg for meeting on
overhauling pension plan
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Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty visited Winnipeg Monday
as part of a cross-country trek to get feedback on how to reform
Canada's pension plan. Flaherty said that the talks have
implications for all citizens. click here [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951136%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Alberta pension reform consultations
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The Alberta government launched pension reform consultations and
issued a consultation paper that stressed the need for action to
improve Canada's retirement income system. Surprisingly, Alberta
Finance Minster Ted Morton appeared to resist reforming Canada's
retirement income system by suggesting that pension reform
should span a decade. Read more... [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951154%2CbgQTBLp
]
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Alberta Pension Reform Consultation Paper
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To read a copy of Alberta's Pension Reform Consultation Paper,
please click here [ http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951204%2CbgQTBLp Pension
Consultatio paper march 2010.pdf ].
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CARP Letter to the Alberta Ministry of Finance and Enterprise
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To read a copy of the letter CARP sent to Alberta Ministry of
Finance please click here. [ http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3471134%2CbgQTBLp Ted
Morton March 22, 2010.pdf ],
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CARP Submission to Alberta Pensions Consultation
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To read the Submission CARP has made in response to the
consultation paper, please click here [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951155%2CbgQTBLp 2010.pdf ].
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CARP Presentation to the Ontario Standing Committee on Finance
and Economic Affairs
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On April 1st 2010, CARP was invited to comment on Bill 236, An
Act to Amend the Pension Benefits Act. Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951156%2CbgQTBLp
]
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CARP in Manitoba
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CARP was invited to the federal pension reform roundtable in
Winnipeg where CARP's proposal for a Universal Pension plan was
presented directly to Finance Minister James Flaherty, Seniors
Minister Diane Ablonczy and Parliamentary secretary to the
finance minister, Ted Menzies. Manitoba finance minister Rosann
Wowchuk was also in attendance. Read more [
http://www.imakenews.com/eletra/go.cfm?z=carp%2C438679%2Cbct7jVmF%2C3951153%2CbgQTBLp
]
_________________________________________________________________
Published by CARP (mailto:support@carp.ca)
Copyright (C) 2010 CARP, A New Vision of Aging for Canada. All rights reserved.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Discrimination is bad -anykind establishes a bad precedent
Smokers given the boot... again
One more company is refusing to hire smokers... and somehow, the feds and media are perfectly O.K. with it.
St. Luke's Hospital & Health Network in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, says it won't hire smokers ever again. Candidates for jobs will take nicotine tests... and if they fail, they're out.
Doesn't matter if they only smoke at home, at night, on weekends or once a month at Uncle Al's barbecue -- if they have nicotine in the system, they're not allowed in the St. Luke's system.
The saddest part is that this isn't the first time it's happened... and I'll bet my best cigar that it won't be the last. (Read, "Hospital tells tobacco users: You can't work here.")
Let's think about this for a minute.
Imagine companies that refused to hire blacks, fired all the Asians or told gays to go elsewhere. The media would go to town on them, and the Justice Department would have these people in court faster than you can empty an ashtray.
Not smokers. Smokers have no rights... even when they only smoke in their own homes. Left and right (but mostly left) they're being banned from honest work.
Companies say smokers cost more because they boost the price of health insurance for everyone. Yet they wouldn't dare fire all the fat people, despite the fact that obesity is a much bigger burden on the health care system.
It's time to either end discrimination -- or just bring it all back. If it's OK to send smokers packing, then it should be fine to refuse to hire blacks, Jews, Hispanics, Irish, the handicapped and heterochromiacs.
One or the other -- take your pick. But you can't have it both ways.
A fighter for the lighter,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
--
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Worrisome facts about over-medication
We're drugging ourselves right into the grave... and bad meds are only part of the problem.
A new report finds a shocking rise in the number of hospitalizations due to prescription drug poisonings, and it's not because people are trying to copy their favorite Hollywood has-been.
It's because too many people are being given these drugs in the first place.
Hospital admissions for poisonings due to opioids, sedatives and tranquilizers rose 65 percent between 1999 and 2006, from 43,000 to 71,000. Don't chalk those up to suicides -- those made up barely a third of the total, while accidental poisonings rose by 37 percent, according to the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Accidental poisoning is now the second-leading cause of unintentional injury and death in 35-to-54 year olds, killing more of them than traffic accidents. Next time you open that pill bottle, imagine you're stepping out into traffic -- yes, it's that bad.
Blame Big Pharma for this -- their push for easy access to dangerous meds has paid off... with doctors who should know better handing out these drugs to people who don't need them.
Back pain? Have a painkiller. Arthritis? Have another painkiller. Stress? Here's some Valium.
Most docs can't be bothered to find the real cause of the pain... and they wouldn't know where to look even if they wanted to. But they do know another prescription will shut the whiners up for 30, 60 or 90 days.
Sound like anyone you know? Sound like you?
Remember, there's no such thing as a safe med -- and if you're playing prescription roulette, it's just a matter of time before you're hit with a side effect, overdose or worse.
If you've got a problem and your doc is just pushing pills at it, find yourself a new doc before you find yourself in the emergency room -- or the morgue.
Popping off on pill-pushers,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
--
Back to Eden communities Sunridge -261 Oakhill Drive, Brantford backtoeden.ontario@gmail.com
www.backtoeden.bravehost.com "Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care
Monday, May 03, 2010
Johns Hopkins Update - cancer
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--
Matching Home Business Consultant
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Skype: sallymwalker54
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Hollecrest & Associates Inc -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .
Back to Eden communities
Sunridge -261 Oakhill Drive, Brantford
backtoeden.ontario@gmail.com
www.backtoeden.bravehost.com
"Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Q-jumpers-The Health Myth Busters: B.C.’s New Twist in Delivering Health Care: FCPP - Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Performance funding - hospitals to get paid for reducing wait lines - no more block funding . --- seems like a solution whose time has come form the Globe and Mail .
B.C.’s New Twist in Delivering Health Care: FCPP - Frontier Centre for Public Policy
A useful read form the globe and mail
So much about health care doesn’t make sense when you think about it. Taxpayers get exercised when it’s revealed a politician has spent $40 on a bottle of champagne at some dinner yet they demand little accountability around the billions of dollars spent each year on health care. Politicians, meantime, are discovering the obdurate realities of providing a service for which demand is virtually unappeasable.
A novel idea -no more hospital block funding - hospital to get paid on performance delivery that reduce wait lines . What will they think of next ....... wow . QJ
Interesting notes on clean
We're so clean we're filthy. In fact, we're washing our way towards
illness and death.
Triclosan, an antibacterial agent found in soaps, detergents and even
clothing, has been sucking the human endocrine system dry. And as it
goes to work on your body, it's also helping to kill off common
bacteria... while allowing powerful new ones to rise.
What's truly amazing... what's really shocking... what should tell you
everything you need to know about this chemical... is that it's
actually a pesticide, not a soap.
You've probably been washing with it for years, then eating with your
"clean" hands.
The feds now say they're concerned about this chemical... but don't
wait for them to save your skin. The FDA has been working on rules for
the use of triclosan for 38 years -- so if they haven't figured it out
by now, you're on your own.
Here's what you need to know -- what even the feds already admit to:
This stuff is so dangerous it kills fish when it gets into the water.
And it's in the water -- because it's literally everywhere. Triclosan
can be found in everything from clothing to cutting boards. Pretty
much anything with the word "antibacterial" screaming from the label
has triclosan in it.
It's so common it's in the urine of 75 percent of the population.
And yet people keep buying up that antibacterial soap in the mistaken
belief that it must be better. After all, it costs more... so it must
be good, right?
Wrong!
Studies have repeatedly proven that antibacterial soaps are no better
than ordinary soaps.
That shouldn't surprise anyone past a certain age. We grew up without
this stuff, and didn't face anything like the bacterial threat running
rampant today.
So if you're looking to stay clean, just do what we did -- warm water
and plain old soap.
99 and 44/100 percent pure,
William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
New nurses are just for senior patients - Chatham Daily News - Ontario, CA
Seniors represent 25 per cent of all emergency department visits and approximately 50 per cent of all hospitalized seniors are admitted through the emergency department.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Good Hospital News Laughter is good medicine
Humour and smiles work anywhere including progressive hospitals
http://www.hospitalnews.com/modules/magazines/mag.asp?ID=3&IID=138&AID=1699
Over the years, a multitude of physiological and psychological benefits have been attributed to laughter as “the best medicine.” One study frequently cited seems to indicate that cortisol, the stress hormone, was reduced among participants in a humour program. However, its small sample size of young healthy adult subjects makes it difficult to generalize the results, particularly to pediatric and senior populations.
http://www.gestalt.on.ca/ accepting applications for caring humourists
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
ALC's - 19% of Hospital population -a bureaucratic nightmare
In many ways we have a wonderful health system. We have skilled doctors and caring nurses who go the extra mile for patients.
Sadly, to access that care, patients often have to negotiate a bureaucratic nightmare of red tape.
The government has downloaded responsibility for health spending to these faceless LHINs.
At the very time when our parents and grandparents most need their loved ones around them, they are shipped off to an unfamiliar place to die among strangers.
People who have lived and worked all their lives in communities such as these should be allowed the dignity of being cared for close to the family, close to those who love them, in their final days.
This is a heartless bureaucracy gone crazy. You can't ship frail old people out of town just so you can balance the books. christina.blizzard@sunmedia.ca
Friday, March 19, 2010
Emailing: Canada v. Europe on Health Care Europe Wins FCPP - Frontier Centre for Public Policy

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Upcoming EventsThe Sky Is Not Falling – Putting Climate Change on Trial Where Are Aboriginal Affairs in Canada Headed? Democratization of the Capital Markets Upcoming FCPP AppearancesClimate Crisis or Energy Crisis? A climate change forum, chaired by Kath McCabe, with Peter Holle (President, Frontier Center for Public Policy) and Hon Barry Brill (global warming skeptic and former Minister of Energy). Peter will talk about the politics of climate change from a North American perspective, while Barry will discuss whether we should be thinking less about global warming and more about energy security. 6pm, Monday 15 February Mecca Café, cnr Nuffield St and Remuera Rd Free entry, cash bar available. Everyone welcome! Peter will talk about the politics of climate change from a North American perspective, while Barry will discuss whether we should be thinking less about global warming and more about energy security. What New Zealand can learn from Local Government Amalgamation in Canada At various times in Canada there have been moves to consolidate and amalgamate cities in different regions of the country. The reasons given in support of these policies have centred mostly around achieving greater efficiencies from larger economies of scale. But the experience has mostly been negative to mixed. Costs have increased while democratic accountability has decreased. As suggested by the Tiebout Model from the school of public choice economics larger city units have harmed the citizen customer of public services by removing their ability to vote with their feet when choosing the basket of municipal services offered by their local governments. Peter Holle, the founding President of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, a Western Canada based public policy think tank, will review the Canadian experience and discuss the practical realities of amalgamation in Canada in this seminar at the Law & Economics Association of New Zealand (LEANZ). For more details contact: Matt Burgess at matt02@gmail.com Telecommuting: Being There Without Being There Sustainable Saskatchewan Conference Telecommuting is a stealthy alternative to the more conventional transportation solutions which governments often promote. For more details e-mail: alicia.curle@seda.sk.ca High Performing First Nations - Measuring Community Health and Governance AFOA 10th Anniversary National Conference The Frontier Centre for Public Policy released its third annual Aboriginal Governance Index (AGI) in the summer of 2009. The AGI is a result of surveys conducted in 98 First Nations across the Prairies with over 5,100 on reserve residents. The Index found that three measurements are the best indicators of the overall health of a band: 1) A trustworthy election process; 2) Transparent government and institutions and 3) Competent band administration. The O’Chiese First Nation in Alberta took the top spot on the Index. At this session there will be a discussion of the measurement/indicators that resulted, common indicators among the top ten reserves and what set those communities apart and contributed to their high ranking. Contact Micheline Belanger for more info Phone: 819.827.5031, Toll Free: 866.775.1817 or Email: Manitoba Policy Blueprint for the Future Booming Saskatchewan is on the verge of matching Alberta's flat income tax. Beleaguered Ontario is pushing to trim transfer payments. Alberta is under pressure to slash public spending and reform healthcare. Sales tax harmonization is happening in most provinces. How can Manitoba avoid being left in the dust in these turbulent times? Frontier's Peter Holle maps out how western Canada's only "have not" province can pull itself out of the slow lane. For more details contact: Shaila Wise at 786-8854 or swise@winnipegrealtors.ca Transparency and Accountability in the Public Sector - Panel #3 Hosted by the Macdonald-Cartier Society. For more details contact Immanuel Giulea at 514.577.2669 or immanuel@macdonaldcartier.com
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Sunday, March 14, 2010
SmoKe and your loss of individual rights - more underhanded thirdhand hogwash
Newest tobacco fear reeks of lies
Apparently the secondhand-smoke demons aren't scaring enough people... because in their latest desperate move, the Health Nazis have conjured up a new tobacco monster. They're calling it "thirdhand smoke."
That's right, folks. You can't make this stuff up.
A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences claims that smokers create toxic particles that linger long after their cigarette has been snuffed. The researchers are suggesting that smokers carry a little invisible cloud of these particles around with them wherever they go, kind of like that dust cloud that always follows Charlie Brown's friend Pig-Pen.
In other words, smokers are constantly contaminating everyone, everywhere, all the time with their filthy habit -- whether they're actually smoking around anyone or not.
I'm sure you can see where this is going. More rules, more laws, and less personal freedom -- all in the name of health. And sure enough, the researchers claim that the only solution is 100 percent smoke-free places. And to assure a victory, they're pulling out their ace in the hole: the children.
The scientists claim that since these particles linger on floors, walls and furniture, children who crawl around touching everything are in grave danger. Never mind that they can't present a single child -- not one! -- who's ever been harmed by this supposed health risk.
It's pure bunk designed to scare more people away from the healthy use of tobacco.
Don't believe a word of it. The truth is, smoking can save your life -- and I've got all the science to prove it. Click here to find out more. ---- from Douglas Md
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Hollecrest & Associates Inc -"Turnaround Consultants" http://www.ic.gc.ca/ccc/search/cp?l=eng&e=123456239975 .
Back to Eden communities Sunridge -261 Oakhill Drive, Brantford backtoeden.ontario@gmail.com
www.backtoeden.bravehost.com "Building elder peer communities that are cozy,caring and comfortable" -quality 24/7 care




Ben Eisen is a Policy Analyst with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Toronto where he specialized in history and political science. He also holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from the University of Toronto’s School of Public Policy and Governance. Ben completed a public policy internship with the federal government, and he worked as a researcher for the CBC. Ben’s policy columns have been published in the National Post, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Calgary Herald, The Gazette and the Toronto Sun.





