Report from the Partnership Project available for download

Ontario has released a new strategy to strengthen its partnership with the not-for-profit (NFP) sector, such as charity, sport and community organizations that support over one million jobs and contribute close to $50 billion to the province’s economy.

The Partnership Project report provides a concrete plan on ways the government can be more responsive, supportive and accessible to NFP organizations.

The Partnership Project is a discussion about how to strengthen the relationship between the Ontario government and the province’s not-for-profit sector. This initiative will consider how government can be more responsive, supportive and accessible to the not-for-profit (NFP) sector. This includes looking at what works and what doesn’t in terms of legislation, policies, structural issues, considering new funding and financing mechanisms, as well as identifying new and better ways to coordinate policy, research and communication with and for the sector. The Partnership Project is searching for innovative and cost-effective solutions that enhance the work of not-for-profits and make Ontario stronger.

Goar: Need help? Don't Look to Ottawa.

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/954549

March 15: 2011 - Toronto Star columnist Carol Goar paints federal, provincial and municipal politicians with the same brush.

Highlights:

"Politicians at all levels are taking their cue from the public. Canadians either want them — or allow them — to overlook those tossed aside by market forces.

It is easy to condemn Finley. She is brazenly callous and self-righteous about it. But the heart of the problem lies closer to home."

Danny Williams’ Post-Secondary Education Legacy

We KNOW that there is a direct relationship between education and poverty. To put it in terms that the political right might understand:   Poor kids don't get educated, and this keeps them in poverty, so their kids grow up poor, and poor kids don't get educated.  Equality in access to education is precisely where McGuinty should be pointing his Poverty Reduction compass.

UNESCO agrees:

"Two consistent research findings in the social sciences relate to the relationship between economic and education variables, and therefore between education and poverty. Educational research has consistently found home background (socioeconomic status) to be an important determinant of educational outcomes, and economic research has shown that education strongly affects earnings."

"Better educated people have a greater

probability of being employed,

are economically more productive,

and therefore earn higher incomes."

Link to the Danny Williams article

Some highlights:

"Admittedly, by the time Danny Williams was swept into office in 2003, the momentum had shifted. Newfoundland and Labrador had begun to lead the way in terms of post-secondary accessibility, in large part by going against the national trend of annual tuition fee increases.

But Williams, who won almost every seat in the provincial legislature that year, could have easily put things on auto pilot. He didn’t.

In 2007, the Williams government had both continued the tuition fee freeze and implemented an up-front, non-repayable, needs-based grant system for all post-secondary students. The same year, the interest rate on the provincial portion of all outstanding and future student loans was reduced from prime plus 2.5 per cent to prime.

In 2009, the Williams government went even further, eliminating the interest rate charges on the provincial portion of student loans. Also in 2009, the needs-based grant system became even more generous.

Since 2003, the Williams government has increased funding for post-secondary education in Newfoundland and Labrador by about 82 per cent."

....

"As McGuinty tries to differentiate himself from other party leaders, he’d be well advised to look at Danny Williams’ record on post-secondary education. If making a post-secondary education affordable worked on the Rock, it can work in other provinces too."