In a Vancouver Sun article (Market wages would make a difference to city’s taxes, December 28, 2009) Philip Hochstein argues Vancouver civic workers who make a living wage should be made to suffer the fate of those in the private sector whose employers get away with paying under $15 an hour for labouring, or $10-15 an hour [...]
Entries from December 29th, 2009
Scrooge is alive and well
December 29th, 2009 · Adrienne Montani · Comments Off · Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
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When $300,000 isn’t enough
December 21st, 2009 · Adrienne Montani · 2 Comments · Employment & labour, Health care, Poverty, inequality & welfare
I heard today that the Fraser Health Authority is giving its CEO Nigel Murray a $30,000 bonus on top of his $300,000 annual salary. Put that up against the cuts the Authority is making to services for addicted youth and seniors, among others. Remember that hospital housekeeping workers, who are the first line of defense [...]
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Ho Ho Ho. Help!
December 18th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Recommended reading
Are you worried about a last minute gift for one of your progressive friends? Me too. So I have a proposal that might help both of us. I am going to suggest a new book you might find interesting in the hopes that you will take advantage of the comment section at the end of [...]
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Healthy eating put out of reach for the poor
December 16th, 2009 · Seth Klein · 5 Comments · Children & youth, Health care, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Remember the Premier’s “Great Golden Goal” (G3?) about healthy eating? True, we don’t hear so much about it these days. But it was a laudable goal. Eating a healthy diet is important if we are to improve the overall health of the population, and thereby help to slow rising health care costs. And it’s particularly [...]
HST And Family Budgets
December 15th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 7 Comments · Poverty, inequality & welfare, Taxes
A recent report from the CCPA national office analyzed the impact of tax harmonization on family budgets in Ontario. Not a Tax Grab After All: A Second Look at Ontario’s HST made a splash with its finding that the introduction of HST will be largely a wash for Ontario families, as most households would be [...]
Tags: HST
Copenhagen and carbon budgets
December 14th, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
As Copenhagen heads into week two, most of the talk has shifted to targets and timelines, typically something like X% of emissions by 2020 or 2050, relative to 1990 levels. This dating is a legacy of the German delegation in the lead-up to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, who wanted a base year of 1990 [...]
Tags: Copenhagen·GHG emissions
AG’s office changes policy
December 9th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Privatization, P3s & public services, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability
BC’s Auditor General has made an important change in the way his office does its work that will help guarantee the independence of his office. In the past, part of the money that paid for the operation of the AG’s Office came from providing contracted services to organizations like crown corporations and other agencies outside [...]
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Poverty and BC’s high cost of housing
December 7th, 2009 · Marc Lee · 2 Comments · Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare
BC Stats put out a release on poverty lines as they relate to BC, with an important finding: BC’s dubious position as having the highest poverty rates in Canada may in fact be worse than the statistics show. This finding is buried in the piece and the title, “Low Income Cut-Offs a Poor Measure of [...]
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Every revolution is about power
December 3rd, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
So what does a sustainable economy really look like, and how do we get there? Climate change essentially means a huge mitigation effort on greenhouse gases culminating in something close to zero emissions by mid-century at the latest. This means phasing out fossil fuels entirely; or minimally, if it comes out of the ground emissions [...]
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Vancouver City Budget Woes: Are the Cuts Really Necessary?
December 3rd, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 6 Comments · Economy, Municipalities, Taxes
In this round of municipal budgeting, the city of Vancouver finds itself in exactly the same predicament as the federal and provincial governments faced earlier in the year – projected revenues would not be sufficient to meet their rising expenditures. The big difference is that municipal governments are prohibited by law from running a deficit. [...]
