The BC government cannot afford $130,000 for the budget of BC School Sports, a volunteer organization which organizes sporting events for students. This is likely to affect 100,000 high school athletes across the province whose meets and competitions will be canceled. “It’s not business as usual right now,” explained Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, quoted in [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Olympics'
On tough times and priorities
September 10th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · 2 Comments · Children & youth, Education, Provincial budget & finance
Tags: budget·children·Education·Olympics·spending cuts·sports
Beggar-thy-neighbour politics in Metro Vancouver
March 13th, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Municipalities, Taxes
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts made the news this week calling for property-tax-free zones in Surrey to attract new business to her city. Of course, in a climate where businesses are not making new investments, this will at best lure businesses from other parts of Metro Vancouver. Economists call these beggar-thy-neighbour policies because you can only [...]
UN raps our housing record
March 11th, 2009 · Seth Klein · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare
In mid February, a report was released that received very little attention, but should have: The report of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing’s Mission to Canada (hat tip to Jean Swanson for drawing the final report to my attention; it can be found here; just scroll down to the “Mission to Canada”.) The [...]
Tags: Aboriginal·Downtown Eastside·homelessness·housing·Olympics·poverty·UN
Partisan claims and the BC economy
February 23rd, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy
BC’s recession and election together mean things are going to get nasty in the political realm. Already we seeing plenty of sneering commentary from our esteemed cabinet ministers. Consider this jibe from Colin Hansen, the Minister of Finance, in his annual address to the brethren of Sigma Chi: “I want you to think about one [...]
Tags: campaign·employment·inequality·Liberals·NDP·Olympics·recession·tax cuts
Accounting games of Olympic proportion
February 20th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Provincial budget & finance
The long awaited 2010 security budget was finally unveiled today. The latest estimate pegs the cost of securing the Olympics at $900 million or just over five times more than the original estimate of $175 million. BC’s portion of the total now sits at $252.5 million or roughly three times more than its original price [...]
End Poverty. It's Not a Game.
February 12th, 2009 · Shannon Daub · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Housing & homelessness, Poverty, inequality & welfare
That’s the catchy slogan for the Poverty Olympics, which took place in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside on Sunday. The event mixed fun and games with a serious message about our province’s failure to adequately tackle poverty and homelessness while we spend spend spend getting ready for the 2010 Olympics (more in this Wall Street Journal article…or [...]
Tags: Downtown Eastside·Olympics·poverty
