Search

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the roles of quality managers at community colleges, their experiences balancing accountability and improvement and their insights into the future of quality assurance. Design/methodology/approach: This phenomenological, qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with eight community college quality managers to investigate their roles, experiences and perspectives. A reflexive thematic approach was used to analyze the interview data. Findings: Four themes were identified from participant responses: quality managers frame and enable program quality, quality managers drive program change, quality managers cultivate a culture of quality and quality managers seek system change. The findings illustrate the roles played by quality managers as they work to improve college education at program, institution and system-wide levels. Research limitations/implications: The decision of participants to accept the recruitment invitation might reflect particular attitudes, perspectives or experiences. Practical implications: Quality assurance has emerged as a key mechanism for ensuring postsecondary programs are current, relevant and meeting the evolving needs of students and employers. This study advances the understanding of how quality assurance processes play out at the operational level and explores the experiences of quality managers as they navigate various quality tensions. Originality/value: Quality managers play key roles in leading, evaluating and influencing quality assurance processes in postsecondary education yet they are underrepresented in the literature. The findings of this study shed new light on the aspirational and influential roles they play in advancing quality assurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly the entire North American and European supply of the bait worm Lumbricus terrestris is hand-picked from southwestern Ontario dairy farms. This "Canadian nightcrawler" industry is largely a cash business that operates 'underground,' with very little information about how the 'worm pickers' engage with dairy farmers and the cash rents they receive. In this paper, I provide a brief background of the industry and how it came to rely on Ontario dairy farms as sites of L. terrestris production. I describe the three prominent arrangements dairy farmers have with pickers that correspond to rental rates that range between $200 and $1500 CND per acre. I then compare these prices with average farmland rental rates in the region and estimated net income from growing field crops typically planted by dairy farmers (corn, soy, alfalfa/hay). By comparing this information, I suggest L. terrestris is the most profitable 'crop' that southwestern Ontario dairy farmers could grow, followed by a discussion of why more farmers decide not to engage with the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper perceptions of inadequate infection control procedures were associated with elevated levels of anxiety symptoms. Educators, school administrators and policy makers should work collaboratively to design school environments that address perceptions of unmet infection control practices, focusing on physical distancing between educators and students and allowing greater compliance with student masking and cohorting. Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the association between the perceived adequacy of infection control practices (ICPs) and symptoms of anxiety among educators in Ontario, Canada. Methods: Data from 4947 educators were collected in December 2020. Modified Poisson models assessed the association between adequacy of ICPs and moderate or severe anxiety symptoms, adjusting for a range of covariates. Results: Approximately 60% of respondents reported moderate or severe anxiety symptoms. Two-thirds (66.5%) of the sample had less than half of their ICP needs met. Respondents with less than half their ICP needs met were more than three times more likely to have moderate or severe anxiety, compared with respondents with their ICP needs met. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of adequate administrative and engineering controls in schools, not only to minimize risk of infection, but also for educator's mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political history of the failed struggle to require companies to justify their plant closing decisions in Canada's industrial heartland of Ontario. Demands for the public review of plant closing decisions began, locally, in the auto town of Windsor in the 1950s and 1960s and reached Toronto with the closure of Dunlop Tire in 1970. Another wave of closures struck in 1980, this time reaching deep into rural and small-town Ontario as well as larger industrial towns and cities, generalizing concern. The resulting Select Committee on Plant Shutdowns and Employee Adjustment, created by the Ontario legislature, took it upon itself to conduct the kind of public review of recent closures that was long demanded. Due to the strength of the political opposition to any interference with management rights, it was essential that proponents could point to precedents in Western Europe. Trade unionists also grounded their argument in favour of government regulation in the moral economy idea that long-service workers accrued a proprietary right to their jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is a growing body of literature on Black people's access to HIV services in Canada, the question of how this access varies across Canada's urban jurisdictions has hitherto never arisen in research and policy. This paper assesses HIV healthcare needs among heterosexual Black men in four Ontario cities of Windsor, London, Toronto and Ottawa. Multivariate results show that heterosexual Black men in Windsor (OR = 3.2; p <.01), London (OR = 2.5; p <.05), and Toronto (OR = 2.2; p <.05) were significantly more likely to experience difficulties getting HIV healthcare compared with those living in the nation's capital—Ottawa. Also, experiences of discrimination (OR = 1.08; p <.001), not having a family doctor (OR = 1.7; p <.01) and difficulty with the English language (OR = 2.4; p <.01) predicted higher odds of difficulty accessing HIV health needs. These findings suggest that contextually sensitive policies within Canadian cities are needed to help marginalized populations meet their healthcare needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The prevalence of substance use disorders among incarcerated individuals in Canada is substantially higher than in the general population. Many incarcerated individuals with opioid use disorder remain untreated due to inadequate access to opioid agonist therapy (OAT). A considerable proportion of overdose-related deaths in the province of Ontario are individuals who have recently been released from prison. The purpose of this paper is to highlight that discontinuation of OAT as a disciplinary measure remains an active concern within prisons in Canada and places individuals with opioid use disorder at increased risk of relapse and resultant overdose death.Design/methodology/approach: This case report describes an incarcerated client with opioid use disorder who was initially stable on OAT, but was forcibly tapered off OAT as a disciplinary measure and subsequently relapsed to illicit opioid use while in custody.Findings: This case calls attention to concerns regarding treatment of opioid use disorder during incarceration, as forcible detoxification from OAT as a disciplinary measure is a highly dangerous practice. The authors discuss concerns regarding diversion and ways in which prison-based OAT programs can be improved to increase their safety and acceptability among correctional staff. Ongoing advocacy is required on the part of health-care workers and policymakers to ensure that individuals are able to appropriately access this life-saving therapy while incarcerated.Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first case report to describe forcible tapering of OAT as a disciplinary measure during incarceration. Despite existing evidence emphasizing the significant risk of overdose associated with detoxification from opioids, this case highlights the need for further research into the causes and prevalence of this practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For at least the past 20 years, the Province of Ontario – as well as other advanced economic regions – has experienced a period of transition, with traditional manufacturing declining and advanced manufacturing firms and sectors emerging. Concurrently, there has been a concerted policy effort emphasising the development of industry clusters within the province, though key issues of governance and where and how to invest public funds remain. This paper presents research on the spatial configuration of firms in 26 manufacturing sub‐sectors, using point density analysis of the basis for determining the presence and spatial configuration of firms. This allows for the comparison of patterns observed in traditional, advanced, and evolving sub‐sectors. The findings show that there are patterns of clustering in all sub‐sectors, though different spatial configurations are apparent between traditional, advanced, and evolving sub‐sectors. These differences have implications for both investment and governance. Based on the findings, investment needs to be directed towards areas with locational advantages, while regional perspectives and initiatives on cluster governance are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floating Catchment Area (FCA) methods are a popular tool to investigate accessibility to public facilities, in particular health care services. FCA approaches are attractive because, unlike other accessibility measures, they take into account the potential for congestion of facilities. This is done by 1) considering the population within the catchment area of a facility to calculate a variable that measures level of service, and then 2) aggregating the level of service by population centers subject to catchment area constraints. In this paper we discuss an effect of FCA approaches, an artifact that we term demand and level of service inflation. These artifacts are present in previous implementations of FCA methods. We argue that inflation makes interpretation of estimates of accessibility difficult, which has possible deleterious consequences for decision making. Next, we propose a simple and intuitive approach to proportionally allocate demandand and level of service in FCA calculations. The approach is based on a standardization of the impedance matrix, similar to approaches popular in the spatial statistics and econometrics literature. The result is a more intiuitive measure of accessibility that 1) provides a local version of the provider-to-population ratio; and 2) preserves the level of demand and the level of supply in a system. We illustrate the relevant issues with some examples, and then empirically by means of a case study of accessibility to family physicians in the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area (CMA), in Ontario, Canada. Results indicate that demand and supply inflation/deflation affect the interpretation of accessibility analysis using existing FCA methods, and that the proposed adjustment can lead to more intuitive results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reconciling diverse forest values within policy and decision-making processes is an ongoing challenge in forestry. The use of environmental impact assessment (EIA) provides potential for improving forest management and making it more responsive to diverse interests. This paper examines EIA in Canadian and Finnish forest planning. In Finland there has been a reluctance to see EIA as a tool for forest planning while in Canada some provinces have long applied EIA to forest management. Ontario, Canada, provides one example of applying EIA to forest planning at a range of scales in order to advance integrated planning and help conflict management. The paper provides a brief analysis of the Finnish forest planning system, an illustration of the Ontario EIA forest management experience, and then considers the application of EIA to Finnish forest management. The paper concludes that EIA may be workable for Finnish state forests and would likely enhance planning and management, but given the existing institutional frameworks EIA would be difficult to apply to private forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines the provision of mobility options being one of the important policy areas vital to addressing transportation accessibility of the elderly. A provincial analysis, taking the case of the Province of Ontario in Canada, is warranted given that the country’s highly decentralized system puts provincial policies at the forefront in meeting this challenge. The paper evaluates the important progress made in this policy area and stressed the need to go beyond the traditional policy focus on the less able-bodied elderly and consider the increased heterogeneity of the elderly population with respect to lifestyle, preferences, resources, health and physical abilities. While significant efforts have been made, a more explicit recognition of population aging in Ontario’s transport policy motivation that could strongly influence transport strategies and investments attuned to the mobility concerns in an aging society remains to be seen. The paper summarizes the general concerns in the literature, policy developments, and the challenges in crafting solutions in terms of policy and research for Ontario and other regions with similar institutional setup. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a descriptive case study method to analyze and critically review the emergence of the provincial poverty reduction strategy in Ontario, Canada which was implemented in 2008 and renewed in 2014. The purpose of this study is two-fold: first, it defines the principles of neoliberalism and explores the historical growth of neoliberal thought in Canada, and specifically within Ontario, beginning in the 1980s to the present-day. Drawing on a combination of primary, secondary and grey literature, this paper discusses the ways in which neoliberal ideologies and rhetoric became deeply rooted in political thought and discourse within the province. Employing a critical theory framework, the paper highlights the contrasting ways in which neoliberal values were adopted by the different political parties in power and the detrimental impact this espousal had on individuals living in poverty within Ontario. Second, the paper illustrates the powerful ways in which anti-poverty grassroots movements and social advocacy groups assembled to push for the creation of a provincial poverty reduction strategy. The analysis ends with a critique of the neoliberal influences on the strategy's recommendations and the future outlook of the poverty reduction strategy based on the current political climate within the province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-makers desire an optimal balance of financial incentives to improve productivity and encourage improved quality in primary care, while also avoiding issues of risk-selection inherent to capitation-based payment. In this paper we analyze risk-selection in capitation-based payment by using administrative data for patients ( n = 11,600,911) who were rostered (i.e., signed an enrollment form, or received a majority of care) with a primary care physician ( n = 8621) in Ontario, Canada in 2010/11. We analyze this data using a relative distribution approach and compare distributions of patient costs and morbidity across primary care payment models. Our results suggest a relationship between being in a capitation-based payment scheme and having low cost patients (and presumably healthy patients) compared to fee-for-service physicians. However, we do not have evidence that physicians in capitation-based models are reducing the care they provide to sick and high cost patients. These findings suggest there is a relationship between payment type and risk-selection, particularly for low-cost and healthy patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada’s book trade is fascinating not only because it really consists of two book trades—the Anglophone and the Francophone—but also because it is a site of intense and sustained policy interventions designed to foster greater domestic control. Examining the country’s book policies, Statistics Canada data, trade association membership rosters and trade directories, this paper reveals that Canada’s contemporary book trade is characterized by three features: circa 40 years of government interventions in response to foreign dominance; the central role of foreign firms despite these interventions; and the dominance of Toronto and Montreal as domestic sites of book production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some communities in Ontario procure potable water through water sharing arrangements (WSAs) with other neighbouring communities. This paper explores factors influencing First Nation and municipal participation in WSAs in Ontario. Specifically, we assess whether First Nations communities – many of which suffer persistently poor drinking water conditions – are less likely to be engaged in WSAs than municipalities. We assess this question by applying regression analyses to a unique data set characterizing 419 Ontario communities: 118 First Nations communities and 301 municipalities. Compared to Ontario municipalities, First Nations in Ontario have a lower rate of participation in WSAs. Our regression analyses suggest that community likelihood of WSA participation is strongly associated with factors like geography, regional wealth, and proximity to neighbouring communities with water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Conventional wisdom has it that elections other than national ones are “second-order elections,” driven by political conditions in the “first-order” national arena. It has not yet been shown that a sub- or supra-national election can exhibit qualities similar to those of first-order elections. This paper uses the 2003 Ontario Election Study, from a provincial election in extremely decentralized federation, to demonstrate that a sub-national election can be a first-order election. Aggregate evidence shows voters'' interest and turnout is comparable to national elections. Individual-level evidence shows vote choice is determined by arena-specific factors. And dynamic evidence shows that this sub-national campaign had its own homegrown events that influenced voters, just as campaign events influence national elections. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: This paper describes a study that explores the experiences of internationally educated nurses (IENs) in their efforts to gain entry to practice as Registered Nurses (RNs) in the province of Ontario, Canada. Aim: The aim was to uncover, in part, the issues related to professional nursing credentialling. Methods: This study was guided by a biographical narrative (qualitative) research methodology. A convenience sample of 12 IEN students volunteered for this study representing the Philippines, Mainland China, Korea, Ukraine and India. Findings: The findings were that the IENs progress through a three-phase journey in their quest for licensure in Ontario. These phases include: (1) hope – wanting the Canadian dream of becoming an RN in Ontario; (2) disillusionment – discovering that their home-country nursing qualifications do not meet Ontario RN entry to practice; and (3) navigating disillusionment – living the redefined Canadian dream by returning to nursing school to upgrade their nursing qualifications. Conclusions: Professional regulatory nursing bodies and nursing educators, as well as practising nurses, must be aware of the potentially confusing and unpleasant processes IENs go through as they qualify for the privilege of practising nursing in Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]