Month: April 2013

This is an opinion piece that I co-wrote with David Fairey, CCPA research associate, labour economist and Co-Chair of the BC Employment Standards Coalition. BC has acquired the “distinction” of being home to Canada’s largest income gap, highest poverty rate, and second highest child poverty rate.  It also has greater employment insecurity and lower wages… View Article

One can excuse politicians in the heat of a campaign of simplifying issues and seeking out tags and slags in lieu of substantive debate. But there is no excuse for leading columnists of major newspapers, like Barbara Yaffe in her most recent attack on the BC NDP, to do the same. Yaffe raises the spectre… View Article

On April 23, the Fraser Institute released the annual update of their misleading Consumer Tax Index report. The piece is meant to feed the anti-tax sentiment with numbers sprinkled liberally for their shock value instead of providing any meaningful analysis. Here are some of the main flaws with the report’s methodology. If what follows sounds… View Article

BC’s provincial government has said it is committed to ensuring seniors can remain in their homes and “age in place.” Yet, the lack of adequate and affordable housing in BC means many seniors are forced to choose between paying for accommodation or buying food and prescription drugs, accessing transportation or participating in their communities. The… View Article

By Seth Klein and Iglika Ivanova [Note: this piece has also appeared in the Tyee here.] OK, time for a reality check on BC’s deficits. Simply put, while arguments about deficits and “who is the better fiscal manager” may make for entertaining politics, there is no compelling economic reason why BC cannot run a few… View Article

Canada’s economic development model is on a collision course with the urgent need for global climate action. Worldwide, extreme weather events from drought to floods to powerful storms and record-breaking temperatures are making a powerful statement that climate change can no longer be denied. Hurricane Sandy, which rudely interrupted a US election in which candidates… View Article

The following is based on a talk at the Bring Your Boomers election forum on April 3 at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver, the fourth in a series of intergenerational dialogues from Gen Why Media, and was co-sponsored by the CCPA, Get Your Vote On, LeadNow and Vancity credit union. I was asked to set the stage for a conversation on climate justice between… View Article

With all of the uproar over the British Columbia Auditor General’s report on the Pacific Carbon Trust in late March there was a second report that didn’t get as much attention as it deserves. The AG issued his report on the Evergreen Line being built through Coquitlam and Port Moody on March 28th.  Compared to… View Article

With a provincial election just around the corner and municipal elections to follow shortly thereafter for many BC communities, this is a good time for us as citizens to think about how we can be more engaged in the decisions and policies that affect our communities. When it comes to the democratic process, voting is… View Article

Last week’s report from BC’s Auditor General dealt a huge blow to the credibility of carbon offsets and claims that BC had achieved a state of “carbon neutral government.” Coverage of the AG’s report was coloured by accusations from the Pacific Carbon Trust, the Crown corporation created to buy and sell BC offsets, and “experts”… View Article