Yesterday, Catalyst Paper announced the closure of the Crofton kraft pulp mill, a week after shutting the doors at its 350-employee mill in Campbell River and “restructuring” (laying off 127 workers) at its Powell River facility. That’s 850 job losses in basically one shot. It is not the first shot, either, and it definitely won’t [...]
Geoff Mann’s Blog Posts
Geoff Mann lives in Vancouver, and teaches economic geography and political economy at Simon Fraser University.
"The (not so) slow de-industrialization of the province"
February 26th, 2009 · Geoff Mann · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Employment & labour, Environment, resources & sustainability
Tags: BC Federation of Labour·Campbell River·Catalyst Paper·forestry·unemployment
"B.C. played no role in precipitating this international crisis"? Bunk.
February 11th, 2009 · Geoff Mann · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Provincial budget & finance
A week ago, BC Finance Minister Colin Hansen let the cat out of the bag: the province is going to run a deficit in this year’s budget. And, as promised, two days ago the province repealed the “No More Deficits!” Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act, pushed through the legislature in 2001. Hansen’s alibi for [...]
Climate policy: contradiction #2
February 4th, 2009 · Geoff Mann · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Climate change, Economy, Energy, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
Speaking of BC climate policy contradictions that desperately need to be addressed (like I was doing here), wrap your head around this: our current policy framework is supposed to simultaneously reduce consumers’ dependence on fossil fuels and increase our dependence on fossil fuel production in the province. What? It’s true. It works like this. If [...]
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Climate policy: contradiction #1
February 4th, 2009 · Geoff Mann · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Climate change, Energy, Taxes
I don’t know if BC’s current approach to climate change is ironic, paradoxical, or just plain crazy, but whatever it is, it is desperately in need of revision. As it stands, existing policies virtually negate each other. It is even possible that overall, they make the problem worse. Consider BC’s contentious “carbon tax”. However meager [...]
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