Two important new voices joined the call for a BC poverty reduction plan in the last couple days. First, on Tuesday, BC Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall released a special report entitled Investing in Prevention. The report received quite a lot of media attention. However, most of the coverage dealt with the common-space issues of [...]
Entries from September 30th, 2010
New voices in support of a BC poverty reduction plan
September 30th, 2010 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
So what’s a green job, anyway?
September 30th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 9 Comments · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
Today CCPA released a new report by myself and Ken Carlaw, an economist at UBC-Okanagan, called Climate Justice, Green Jobs and Sustainable Production in BC. I doubt you’ll see any headlines about it in the major news dailies, but I think it will have a longer-lasting impact as a key economic framing piece for our [...]
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Poverty Reduction: Even Alberta?
September 27th, 2010 · Seth Klein · Comments Off · Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Currently, six provinces have official poverty reduction strategies either in place or (in the case of Manitoba) in development. BC, despite having the highest poverty rates, remains stubbornly in the minority of provinces without a plan (along with Alberta, Saskatchewan and PEI). But now comes news earlier this month that an all-party committee of the [...]
What will it take to bring smarter family policy to BC?
September 27th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Children & youth, Transparency & accountability, Women
Did you know that the BC government has set a goal to reduce early childhood vulnerability to 15% by fiscal year 2015? You can hardly tell by their actions. BC did introduce full-day kindergarten in some communities this fall, but other than that the family policy front has been rather quiet lately. The latest childhood [...]
Tags: accountability·child poverty·childcare·children·families·family policy·poverty·role of government·Women
Protecting the environment and social justice: you can’t have one without the other
September 26th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 1 Comment · Climate change, Employment & labour, Environment, resources & sustainability
A couple of weeks ago there was a conference in Vancouver on building a green economy. It was a conference with a difference. Organized by the Columbia Institute, the conference focused on jobs and justice as well as the environment. Roughly 15 unions and 10 environmental organizations came together to talk about meeting environmental challenges [...]
A revenue negative carbon tax?
September 22nd, 2010 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
BC’s carbon tax was supposed to be “revenue neutral”, meaning all carbon tax revenue would be “recycled” to British Columbians through personal income tax cuts, corporate income tax cuts and a low-income credit. When the 2008 budget launched the carbon tax, we were provided with a forecast that had revenues precisely match recycling through tax [...]
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Pat Bell’s YouTube Foray – Sowing Seeds of Misinformation
September 21st, 2010 · Ben Parfitt · 20 Comments · Climate change, Economy, Employment & labour, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Unlikely as it is to garner a huge following on YouTube, one suspects a recently uploaded video message by B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell may soon have more than a few forest industry workers, commercial tree nursery owners and members of Bell’s own ministry shaking their heads in disbelief. Under the pretext of kicking off [...]
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Burns Lake looks to wood pellets
September 20th, 2010 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · Climate change, Energy
BC became prosperous on the basis of its resource industries. But today further development of resources is running into wall of climate policy. Good climate policies increasingly in conflict with old industrial policies. In spite of some small moves on the climate front from Victoria, a resource extraction mindset still dominates the corridors of power. [...]
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Save The Earth – Vote!
September 19th, 2010 · Peter Prontzos · Comments Off · Climate change, Economy, Electoral reform, Environment, resources & sustainability
Global warming is “a socialist plot” to steal from the rich – according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. However, it’s not just Harper. The federal government, under both Liberals and Conservatives, has not only resisted environmental action in Canada, they have opposed international efforts to protect the Earth. Indeed, George Monbiot wrote that Canada is [...]
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Ministry of Environment Cuts: Will That be Oil With Your Water?
September 17th, 2010 · Ben Parfitt · 5 Comments · Environment, resources & sustainability, Provincial budget & finance
British Columbians already have scant information on the number of toxic oil and hazardous waste spills in the province. They may soon have a lot loss. This, at a time when provincial environmental personnel are stretched razor thin in responding to the nearly 4,000 such spills that occur each year in the province. This year, [...]
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