Month: November 2010

Today’s Globe and Mail features an article about the farming crisis in Canada. On close inspection the “crisis” is that Canada has not kept up its share of the global marketplace; that is, it is about our failure to increase exports. Low farm incomes are mentioned with nostalgiac dismay but nothing of the large transnational… View Article

A “paradigm shift” was the theme of Dr. Marti Glenn, one of the keynote speakers at the 2010 International Congress of The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology & Health, which took place from November 11-14 at Asilomar, California. Dr. Glenn, who is the Dean of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, began by saying that,… View Article

Last week I was lucky enough to join 250 people in Ottawa for a daylong conference to honour the 30th anniversary of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.  Nine different speakers and two intelligent moderators focused the audience on the democratic and economic challenges we face as a Canadians and some solutions we need to… View Article

A follow up to Blair Redlin’s post on municipal taxation.  It appears that at least one backbench MLA in BC’s Liberal government also thinks businesses are getting a pretty good deal from our local governments. West Vancouver – Capilano MLA Ralph Sultan has an opinion piece on his website in which he says “Vancouver reigns… View Article

CCPA-BC’s new study on legal aid in BC explores the impact of cuts to the system and proposes a new rights-based approach that would cut both economic and social costs. Listen to interviews with the authors on CBC’s Early Edition, Jim Harrison’s show on CHNL in Kamloops and Adam Stirling’s show on CFAX in Victoria…. View Article

The federal government made the right decision in rejecting the Prosperity mine proposal. The project would have had significant adverse environmental effects, and that for some is reason enough to deny approval. But even if one were willing to accept the environmental impacts because of the economic benefits the project would have offered, it is… View Article

Municipal spending and municipal taxes are amongst the lowest in Canada. KPMG says businesses in Vancouver have the lowest business taxes amongst 41 cities they studied. So how come the pressure keeps coming to shift property taxes away from business and on to residential taxpayers?… View Article

Our latest Climate Justice Project report, Every Bite Counts: Climate Justice and BC’s Food System, has been unleashed on the province. I have to admit that this was one of the most challenging research projects I’ve ever been part of – the food system is complicated, and overlaying climate change and social justice issues added… View Article

For two years in a row BC’s Auditor General has placed reservations on his report that looks at the Province’s finances as set out in the Public Accounts.  This means that the AG disagrees with the way the province is keeping its books on three different issues.  He also presents other ideas on what the… View Article