If there is a new government in BC on May 15th, it will be confronted with issues that make the transition particularly challenging. The financial issues are a given. Debt has gone up. Possibly, given the economic recession we faced, it should have gone up even further. The dramatic rise in long term contractual obligations [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Transparency & accountability'
A new government? It’s not as easy as it looks
February 28th, 2013 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Economy, Privatization, P3s & public services, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability
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Parliamentary reform idea: Get Out of the House
February 15th, 2013 · Seth Klein · 2 Comments · Transparency & accountability
By Seth Klein and Shannon Daub [Note: Samara Canada has been gathering ideas for reforming Parliament. All the ideas they have collected are being posted on their blog, which you can find here. What follows is our contribution.] Here’s the big dilemma: Whatever reforms are made to Parliamentary practice and conduct, the simple truth is [...]
Fairness by design: a framework for tax reform in Canada
February 14th, 2013 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · Taxes, Transparency & accountability
A new CCPA (National) report by Marc Lee and myself argues that Canada’s tax system needs a “fairness” overhaul and presents a framework for progressive tax reform. Those of you who have been following our tax work so far will find this study a great complement to the BC Tax Options Paper. Tax policy is [...]
Tags: carbon tax·income taxes·inequality·tax cuts·tax fairness·tax loopholes·tax reform·Taxes
British Columbians are ready for a thoughtful conversation about taxes, inequality, public services
December 4th, 2012 · Shannon Daub · Comments Off · Provincial budget & finance, Taxes, Transparency & accountability
An oped in today’s Vancouver Sun, outlining key lessons from CCPA opinion research released last week: Beyond the 1%: What British Columbians think about taxes, inequality and public services. British Columbians ready for a thoughtful talk about taxes A growing consensus that extreme inequality is as much an economic problem as it is a moral [...]
Tags: Taxes
How the rules got fiddled to make sure a public private partnership got pushed through
July 12th, 2012 · Keith Reynolds · 3 Comments · Health care, Privatization, P3s & public services, Transparency & accountability, Uncategorized
In 2008 British Columbia’s controversial public private partnership (P3) program was in trouble. With P3s private companies put up financing for public services and infrastructure and in exchange get to manage the projects with guaranteed profits for decades. The cost of private finance was always higher than if government borrowed the money itself, but in [...]
Tags: Fort St. John·P3·Partnerships BC
Why do the citizens of Maine have a voice on free trade deals but Canadians don’t?
June 22nd, 2012 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Transparency & accountability
Canada is now facing east and west as it attempts to negotiate trade deals with both Europe and in the Pacific region. Both of these new deals are being negotiated in secret. There is no room for the public to know what is being traded away or to express an opinion. Does negotiating a trade [...]
TransLink Funding and Governance (Yet Again)
March 8th, 2012 · Marvin Shaffer · 1 Comment · Taxes, Transparency & accountability
I always smile when I think of the provincial negotiator Peter Cameron’s comments when we were wrapping up the final details in the transit funding and governance negotiations leading to the creation of Translink. We all thought we had a good agreement. MetroVancouver would be given broad responsibilities to plan and deliver transit services, develop [...]
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A toxic spill and communications chill
March 6th, 2012 · Ben Parfitt · 2 Comments · Agriculture, Climate change, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability, Transparency & accountability
So here’s the little that we know about a pipeline break that occurred more than half a year ago and that British Columbia’s Oil and Gas Commission feels for whatever reasons the public is best kept in the dark about. The incident occurred on August 19 of last year when a 35-year-old pipeline broke and [...]
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A prescription for health care reform: think integration & collaboration
January 16th, 2012 · Iglika Ivanova · 1 Comment · Health care, Provincial budget & finance, Transparency & accountability
This morning the CCPA released a new report (co-authored by yours truly) that looks at the thorny issue of health care reform in BC and identifies some practical, evidence-based strategies that have been successful in improving quality of care and controlling costs in other jurisdictions. The paper comes out at a time when all Canadian [...]
Tags: BC·health care
BC government claims new power over personal information. Public comment sidelined.
November 9th, 2011 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · Transparency & accountability
The BC government has a lot of personal information about you. Legislation passed last month means the government can do a lot more with it. The legislation passed without the public consultation demanded last year by the Information and Privacy Commissioner. In 2010 a legislative committee undertook a review of Freedom of Information and Protection [...]
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