Under the “we told you so” category, I am filing the BC public accounts for 2009/10. The province closed the year with a deficit of $1.8 billion. As Will McMartin comments in The Tyee: … B.C.’s public accounts for the fiscal year 2009/2010 conclusively prove that the pre-election fiscal plan foisted on British Columbians by [...]
Entries Tagged as 'BC Election 2009'
BC’s 2009 Super-Fudge-It Budget
July 12th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 4 Comments · BC Election 2009, Provincial budget & finance
Tags: deficit
Coming soon: The Lead-Up blog continues…
June 18th, 2009 · Sarah Leavitt · No Comments · BC Election 2009
Thanks to all the readers who followed our posts during the election. We’ve decided to develop The Lead-Up into an ongoing blog about BC public policy, so that we can continue to provide quick responses to economic, health, environmental and other issues as they arise. Please keep an eye out for our next incarnation!
Tags:
Reading the entrails of BC's election
May 13th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Privatization, P3s & public services, Provincial budget & finance
Three-peat. Hat trick. The media is full of jubilation for the re-election of the Campbell Liberals. But looking at the numbers, it was actually quite close: the BC Liberals got 45.7% of the popular vote, compared to 42.2% for the NDP. This slim margin validates the Angus Reid polling camp, which came closest on estimating [...]
Tags: campaign·carbon tax·election results·Greens·Liberals·NDP·polling
Watch out for that train
May 13th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Provincial budget & finance
Is it too early to start talking about what happens now the election is over? Because that light at the end of the tunnel really is a train. In their February Budget the Liberals said they were going to have a $500 million deficit this year. Nobody believed them then. Marc Lee called the Budget [...]
Tags: budget·deficit·service cuts·tax cuts
Yet another case of our government delaying the release of important data
May 12th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Media, Poverty, inequality & welfare
Less than a week after BC’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) report raised serious questions about secrecy in government (see Keith’s comments here), The Tyee reporter Andrew MacLeod has uncovered another case of important statistics not being released on time. The culprit this time is the Housing and Social Development Ministry, which typically [...]
Bike to Work Week and our transportation culture
May 11th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Climate change, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Pouring rain marked the start of Vancouver’s Bike to Work Week (May 11 – 17) this year, but those who braved the weather conditions are being rewarded with a beautiful sunshine for the ride home. Bike to Work Week is an annual event organized by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, which aims to raise the [...]
Where's Our Danny Boy (2)? Mayor of embattled town weighs in on needed forest reforms
May 11th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Municipalities
Few British Columbia communities have been hit as hard by the forest industry crisis as Mackenzie. Some 1,500 jobs, by mayor Stephanie Killam’s estimate, have been lost in the community as sawmills, planer mills and pulp and paper mills closed. With hundreds of good paying mill jobs gone, jobs in related service industries have disappeared [...]
Tags: Canfor·Danny Williams·Interfor·Mackenzie·Newfoundland·pulp and paper·unemployment·West Fraser
Planet Before Politics
May 11th, 2009 · Marc Lee · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
I signed the following open letter published in the Globe on the weekend. I cannot take any credit for organizing or writing the letter (hat tip to Ian Bruce of the David Suzuki Foundation). On the other hand, I can say that I have co-published with David Suzuki! It’s time to put the planet before [...]
Tags: cap-and-trade·carbon tax·cycling·David Suzuki·global warming·greenhouse gas·passenger rail·public transit·Suzuki Foundation·transportation
Towards an effective and fair carbon reduction strategy
May 8th, 2009 · George Heyman · No Comments · BC Election 2009, Environment, resources & sustainability
This oped by myself and Colin Campbell appeared in the Vancouver Sun’s online edition: Towards an effective and fair carbon reduction strategy By George Heyman and Dr. Colin Campbell, May 7, 2009 The latest science on global warming shows we must rapidly slash carbon emissions, or face catastrophic impacts on our civilization by the end [...]
Tags: cap and dividend·carbon footprint·carbon tax·Colin Campbell·global warming·greenhouse gas·Sierra Club
Report finds government stonewalling on FOI requests
May 8th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · No Comments · BC Election 2009
BC’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) released a report yesterday showing secrecy in government is even a bigger problem that we thought. A February report from BC’s Information and Privacy Commissioner’s described what he called, “an unacceptable pattern of government-wide failure to respond to access requests in as timely a fashion as it [...]
