Premier Christy Clark recently re-affirmed her commitment to BC’s greenhouse gas emission targets in an open letter to British Columbians. That’s good (and thanks to our friends at the Sierra Club of BC for drawing this to my attention). To remind folks: BC has committed to reduce it’s GHG emissions by 33% by 2020, and [...]
Entries from May 29th, 2011
Here’s what bold climate targets look like
May 29th, 2011 · Seth Klein · Comments Off · Climate change
Tags: greenhouse gas
About Fracking Time: BC’s Independent MLAs Call on Premier to Investigate Hydraulic Fracturing
May 27th, 2011 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Economy, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability, First Nations & Aboriginal, Provincial budget & finance
As British Columbia Premier Christy Clark makes her debut in the provincial legislature this coming week, the media spotlight will likely be on the predictable verbal sparring between her and Adrian Dix, the NDP’s recently minted leader, over Clark’s alleged “fix” of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Meaning that Independent MLAs Bob Simpson and Vicki Huntington [...]
Tags:
Christy’s HST “fix”: politics trumps good policy
May 26th, 2011 · Seth Klein · 18 Comments · Taxes
This is no way to make tax policy. Wednesday’s proposed reforms to the HST provide yet more evidence that what we really need is a Fair Tax Commission –– a full public engagement exercise in which the entire tax regime is on the table, and people can deliberate on how we want to raise the [...]
British Columbia Auditor finds costly failings in Province’s first hospital P3
May 23rd, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · 3 Comments · Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
A new report by British Columbia’s Auditor General has debunked nearly every benefit claimed so far for public private partnerships (P3s). The Auditor General’s report on a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) project adds to earlier criticisms by his counterparts about failings in P3 hospital projects in Quebec and Ontario. The BC report, released on [...]
Have we completely bought the idea that “There Is No Alternative”?
May 18th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Energy
Once again, over the last few weeks Canadians have had energy costs on our minds. Prices at the pump rocketed up to nearly $1.50, while the price of a barrel of oil was actually going down. What can we possibly do? Industry officials blame unrest in the Middle East and floods on the Mississippi. Former [...]
Tags: Petro-Canada
On the Forest Fire Front Line: One Ecologist’s Take on What it Will Take to Safeguard Communities
May 13th, 2011 · Ben Parfitt · 8 Comments · Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Municipalities, Provincial budget & finance
With one of the colder springs on record, many British Columbians quite naturally yearn for a good stretch of warm, dry weather. But for many people in the province, prolonged periods of hotter and drier weather are often far from welcome. That’s because when things get hot and dry they burn. And in many regions [...]
Tags:
Thousands more millionaires in Canada
May 10th, 2011 · Adrienne Montani · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Poverty, inequality & welfare
In case you were worried, the Financial Post reports that ”new wealth” will continue to be generated in Canada and be one of the developed countries to “have some of the biggest concentrations of millionaire households by 2020.” I’m feeling so relieved, aren’t you? A Deloitte LLP report predicts that 2.4 million households in Canada will [...]
Tags:
Open government a Cabinet secret declares BC Minister
May 7th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Transparency & accountability
I love reading Estimates debates in the legislature. It is a rare opportunity for Opposition critics to grill their assigned Cabinet Ministers at length. Sometimes the oddest things come out. On Wednesday the NDP Critic Doug Routley was questioning the Minister for Citizen Services and Open Government Stephanie Cadieux. It turns out that following up on [...]
Lessons for Ottawa from Victoria, Lessons for Victoria from Ottawa
May 5th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Electoral reform
Many Canadians have expressed fear about what our new national government, a majority elected by a 39% minority, will do now that it has four years of real power. For those concerned Canadians, British Columbia offers a lesson. BC’s government has discovered from an independent study that their HST is not revenue neutral. It will [...]
Tags: elxn41·Federal Election
BQ demise a big loss
May 3rd, 2011 · Marjorie Griffin Cohen · 2 Comments · Women
We have a lost a lot with the demise of the Bloc Quebecoise as a significant presence in Parliament. Social policy in Quebec has been more progressive than elsewhere in Canada for a long time. This is particularly important for policy related to women’s rights, including labour and social policy that allow women’s full participation [...]
Tags: election 20211·NDP
