Ontario signed a 1-year renewal contract with Ottawa earlier this week, keeping childcare between $19-$22/day.

Instead of a 5-year renewal, Provincial Education Minister Paul Calandra wants the federal government to address Ontario's $2 billion shortfall, or else daily fees for families will increase.

Meantime, Ontario's Auditor General said Ontario wasn't meeting it's ECE staffing targets, nor was it building enough spaces to satisfy the 5.9 : 10 ratio requirement set out by Ottawa.

Host Maria Kestane speaks to David Macdonald, Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to discuss their recent report on childcare deserts across the country, and how close Ontario is to lowering the average childcare price to $10/day.

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Would you want to know if the food you were eating came from a cloned animal?

New Health Canada regulations set to kick in next year don't require beef and pork manufacturers to label whether or not their products were from cloned animals. After consultations with the general public and stakeholders, Health Canada decided to remove cloned meat from their 'novel foods' category.

Cloned animals are made through assisted reproductive processes such as artificial insemination. Sometimes, the cloned animals' offspring is what makes it to the meat counter.

However, questions have been raised regarding the lack of transparency around the regulation change, and whether or not consumers deserve to know where and how the meat they buy is made.

Host Maria Kestane speaks to Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agr-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University to discuss how important accurate food labels are to Canadian consumers, and whether or not cloned meat is safe for you.

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Quebec doctors and healthcare providers are weighing their options when it comes to the future of their practice.

The province adopted Bill 2 last month, legislation that sets performance targets for healthcare providers with a financial penalty if not met.

The bill is in effort to address long wait times for surgery, emergency rooms, specialist consultations, and for the system overall to provide better care to all residents.

However, the bill's slash to salaries while simultaneously omitting failures from the Province's responsibility, has doctors and healthcare professionals rethinking their future in medicine in the province. Dozens have already resigned, with several applying to Ontario hospitals instead.

Host Maria Kestane speaks to Dr. Trevor Hennessey, Chief of the department of anesthesiology for the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de l’Outaouais to break down what Bill 2 really means for the future of healthcare in Quebec, and how it's more about an infringement on Charter rights than a new payment model for doctors.

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