Month: February 2010

Have you heard pundits say that BC’s public sector is too big or “bloated”? It’s an argument frequently used as an excuse to advocate for government spending cuts, but is it true? You may want to take a look at the numbers for yourself. The CCPA just released a short report on the size of… View Article

If you read the papers in this province, you’d think BC had long forgotten about the recession. Every bit of economic good news is trumpeted enthusiastically, from small increases in employment to the latest growth forecast released by private sector economists. Yet economic forecasting is a notoriously difficult business. Just a year ago, we saw… View Article

“We’ve invited the world, they’re coming, and the place is a mess.” That was the tag line the CCPA gave to our BC Solutions Budget back in 2004. At the time, we argued as strongly as we could that if BC was to change the story the world would tell of us this month, we… View Article

If you’re looking for an alternative perspective on the recent Buy American deal, check out Buy American Basics, a new report from the CCPA’s National Office by economist Scott Sinclair. Scott reveals why this can’t really be called a “deal” as far as Canada’s concerned. You might also want to check out CCPA Research Associate… View Article

Today’s Throne speech marks a return to the optimistic tone that is typical of the start of each session of the legislature. Sure, there are the obligatory references to financial discipline and balancing the budget, but they come at the very end of the document and are a far cry from last summer’s bare cupboard… View Article

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… View Article

The pedestrian stretch of Granville Street downtown has been brightened lately by a colourful display of public art projects, complete with benches for pedestrians to sit for a moment and enjoy the view. What a great idea, I thought to myself as I stopped to look at one of the sculptures. I always found Vancouver… View Article