In our high-speed digital world, there is no excuse for regulators failing to post and update information that is readily available to them and of evident public interest. This is especially true when the fate of vitally important, publicly owned assets such as water hangs in the balance. To have faith that water resources are [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Environment, resources & sustainability'
Lack of water data a cause for public concern
August 19th, 2010 · Ben Parfitt · No Comments · Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Tags: accountability·BC Oil and Gas Commission·oil and gas·water
Western Climate Initiative: another baby step
July 29th, 2010 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
It has been a while but this week climate change is back in the news cycle. The front page of today’s Globe reports on the latest climate impacts tally: The report … concluded 2000 to 2009 was the warmest decade ever, and the Earth has been growing warmer for 50 years. Each of the past [...]
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Marc’s Summer Reading
July 22nd, 2010 · Marc Lee · No Comments · Agriculture, Climate change, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Recommended reading
With summer comes a lightening of my work load, so I’ve finally found some time to dive into a few interesting books. These are all related to my ongoing research interests (I do have some fiction sitting around waiting for a real holiday, with Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna at the top of the pile): The [...]
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Off the Highway by Mette Bach: politics and memoir
June 8th, 2010 · Sarah Leavitt · 1 Comment · Environment, resources & sustainability, Municipalities, Recommended reading
Another suggestion for summer reading: brand new from local publisher New Star Books: Off the Highway by Mette Bach, a short (about 80 pages) memoir of her childhood and adolescence in North Delta. Bach weaves together personal recollections, history and social commentary to create a quirky, funny, depressing picture of a little-known Vancouver suburb. Regular [...]
‘Green’ Summer Reading
June 3rd, 2010 · Karen Cooling · 1 Comment · Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Recommended reading
As I was wandering through the airport this spring I succumbed to my one true addiction: books. Yes, I know that a good environmentalist uses the local library, but I’m working on it….. Anyway, as always, I try to pick up something that I’ve read a review on or something that just jumps out at [...]
Tags: Summer Reading
Problems for the South Fraser Perimeter Road P3?
May 12th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 2 Comments · Environment, resources & sustainability, Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
There are some interesting recent developments on the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) public private partnership project. A press release issued Friday afternoon announced the successful bidder in response to a Requests for Proposal. The results may not be what we were led to expect. The SFPR project is part of the Province’s Gateway project [...]
Tags: Gateway·Ministry of Transportation·P3·Partnerships BC·South Fraser Perimeter Road
Reforestation crisis, Ministry of Forests job cuts: op eds by the CCPA and allies
April 28th, 2010 · Ben Parfitt · No Comments · Environment, resources & sustainability
The coalition of environmental groups and unions that published Managing BC’s Forests for a Cooler Planet in January continues to work together. Over the past week, we’ve had op eds published in the Victoria Times Colonist and the Vancouver Sun. George Heyman, executive director of Sierra Club BC, and I co-authored Little left to celebrate [...]
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Victoria’s billion dollar P3 decision
March 16th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · 4 Comments · Environment, resources & sustainability, Municipalities, Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability
On March 24th the Victoria area’s Capital Regional District (CRD) is going to make a billion dollar decision. The province has ordered the CRD to end its controversial practice of pumping raw sewage into the ocean. But it has also ordered the CRD to consider using a public private partnership (P3) for the project. Regardless [...]
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About that Copenhagen award
February 5th, 2010 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Taxes
Back in December, during the Copenhagen negotiations, a group of environmentalists provided BC Premier Gordon Campbell with an award for climate leadership. Based primarily on the creation of a BC carbon tax two years ago, the Premier has gotten a lot of brownie points from the greens – in spite of the fact that there [...]
BC’s Urban Housing (Un)affordability
January 25th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · 4 Comments · Agriculture, Environment, resources & sustainability, Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare
A new study published today by the Frontier Institute for Public Policy finds that Vancouver has the most unaffordable urban housing market not just in Canada, but in all of Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. This conclusion is based on a very simple, yet effective measure of housing affordability: [...]
