#The Big Idea: Give all Canadian workers paid sick leave

#The Big Idea: Give all Canadian workers paid sick leave

Canadians are working while ill to avoid losing income. Instituting country-wide sick-leave policies is a healthier option. (Photo illustration by Maclean’s, background photo via iStock) For the past 16 years, I’ve worked as a family doctor in community clinics throughout the country—in Yellowknife, La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Toronto, and in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where I’m based…

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#The Big Idea: Give all Canadian workers paid sick leave

#The Big Idea: Give all Canadian workers paid sick leave

Canadians are working while ill to avoid losing income. Instituting country-wide sick-leave policies is a healthier option. (Photo illustration by Maclean’s, background photo via iStock) For the past 16 years, I’ve worked as a family doctor in community clinics throughout the country—in Yellowknife, La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Toronto, and in Sydney, Nova Scotia, where I’m based…

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#What comes next for Canada’s measles surge

#What comes next for Canada’s measles surge

(Photo illustration by Maclean’s, background photo via iStock) If there was an award for most contagious virus, measles would be a frontrunner. It can hang in the air for hours, and one infected person will pass it on to almost everyone around them. One in five people infected require hospitalization, and nearly one in 300…

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#The Big Idea: Pay family doctors differently

#The Big Idea: Pay family doctors differently

B.C. rolled out the Longitudinal Family Physician payment model and gained 700 new family doctors (Photo-illustration by Maclean’s, photo courtesy of Renee Fernandez, background photo via iStock) When I started medical school, I planned to be an obstetrician. But as I completed my training, I realized that what I really enjoyed was family medicine—the opportunity…

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#My retirement project? Building affordable co-housing.

#My retirement project? Building affordable co-housing.

Bureaucratic barriers make housing inconvenient and expensive to build. If you get creative, it doesn’t have to be. Dave Ransier has been developing housing in B.C. for decades. He believes the housing shortage is partly due to the bureaucratic application processes that make development expensive and slow. (Photography by Alana Paterson) I have been developing…

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#Why Alberta isn’t ready for its population boom

#Why Alberta isn’t ready for its population boom

Souleka Mustapha, director of programs and services at Alberta Immigrant Women & Children Centre, says 100 newcomers arrive at her centre every day. (Photography by Amber Bracken) In 1996, when I was four, my family immigrated from Somalia to Montreal. My father was a French teacher, and my mother took care of me and my…

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