Month: January 2013

In a new report we released this week, Seth Klein and I show there’s a clear need of tax reform in BC, both to raise new revenues and to make our tax system more fair (Vancouver Sun oped here, CTV News story here). As the report’s title suggest, this is all about options. Instead of… View Article

(Co-authored by Kendra Milne and Jess Hadley, staff lawyers at the Community Legal Assistance Society) Earlier this week, we read with interest Kathy Tomlinson’s January 21st CBC Go Public story, “Landlords ‘powerless’ as tenants get free ride”, which investigates one family of tenants who have apparently taken advantage of several successive landlords.  In her article,… View Article

I got way off my usual research agenda this morning for a business panel on CBC radio. The topic was the economics of casinos, the result of the City of Surrey voting down a new casino proposal. I have often disparagingly compared stock markets to casinos, but in fact I knew relatively little about the… View Article

The provincial government, First Nations and environmental organizations alike have all hailed it as an ecological triumph and a shining beacon of a new economic order based on conservation principles. Yet when it comes to talking openly about one of the hallmarks of that emerging economy – a project that cashes in on the carbon-storing… View Article

Testimony to the Joint Review Panel on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project By Marc Lee, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives January 16, 2013 My name is Marc Lee, and I have served as an economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives for more than 14 years. Most recently I have been Senior Economist and… View Article

A guest post follows from Josh Paterson, who is formerly a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, and recently appointed Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association. Josh’s remarks are his own personal opinions. ********** Good evening. I’m happy to be here in unceded Coast Salish territories to address you this evening, to express my unreserved… View Article

While much of the attention this week is on the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline hearings in Vancouver, another fossil fuel export issue has come into play with proposals to greatly expand coal exports from the Port of Metro Vancouver. Our colleagues, David Green (Economics, UBC) and Kevin Washbrook (Voters Taking Action of Climate Change) have… View Article

An oped of mine was published by the Vancouver Sun today: What’s next for BC’s carbon tax? Marc Lee Climate change forced its way onto the political agenda in 2012, as Hurricane Sandy ripped through the northeast United Stages just days before the election. And while action remains frustratingly slow, extreme weather disasters in the… View Article

There is a classic episode of the Simpsons, where Mr Burns cuts the dental plan for the nuclear power plant. With Lisa needing braces, Homer becomes a union organizer and leads a strike against the plant to get back the dental plan. I thought about that episode when had to get a root canal this week. Because… View Article

An error has been found in my 2011 carbon pricing paper. In Table 2 on page 17 the results presented at the time of publication were per capita not, as stated, per household. Runs modeled using Statistics Canada’s Social Policy Simulation Database and Model (SPSD/M) for carbon tax must be done on a household basis…. View Article