Month: April 2014

Today we released a new report, Path to Prosperity? A Closer Look at British Columbia’s Natural Gas Royalties and Proposed LNG Income Tax, about liquefied natural gas (LNG ) development in BC, and the public revenues that might be expected. So far, LNG has lacked a real public debate. On one side, we have the… View Article

There reports released today show that the costs of supporting a family are rising fast in the three largest urban areas of our province, home to 2/3 of BC’s population. Two parents working full-time must each earn $20.10/hour in Metro Vancouver, $18.93/hour in Greater Victoria and $17.02/hour in the Fraser Valley. The living wage reflects… View Article

Yet another report, this time by SFU Public Policy Professor Dominique M. Gross, finds evidence that Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program is bad for domestic workers. The report looks at BC and Alberta specifically and concludes that the expansion of the TFW program between 2007 and 2010 resulted in an increase in unemployment levels by… View Article

One point that has been highlighted by the recent controversy over Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) is that firms can be profitable with very different approaches to wages and worker turnover. On one side of the spectrum are companies such as Lee Valley Tools, which treats its employees well in terms of wages, benefit, and training,… View Article