Month: May 2014

About a year-and-a-half ago, BC teachers and their employers approved a landmark framework agreement for their upcoming round of contract negotiations. In the wake of a difficult and divisive round of bargaining, and after many, many years of frustration and disappointment, the parties agreed to do things differently.  It was the first change to bargaining… View Article

Earlier today, I submitted the following on behalf of the CCPA to Mr Jim Snetsinger, who is leading a consultation on area-based forest tenures on behalf of the BC government (FYI, the deadline for input into this consultation is Friday May 30, and submissions can be made via email to: [email protected]): CCPA Submission to Consultation… View Article

It has a nice political ring to it — “power for jobs”. That is what Glen Clark wanted to do with the Columbia River Treaty power that was returned to the province in the late 1990’s. And that is what Vaughn Palmer argues B.C. should do today with the hydro power we have or could… View Article

A dozen years ago when Gordon Campbell’s newly elected British Columbia government decided it wanted to build its infrastructure with public private partnerships (P3s) it turned to England for advice.  The British model for infrastructure shaped much of what BC did in the ensuing years.  Lately, British Columbia and the UK have been going in different… View Article

Yesterday (May 15), BC’s Auditor General released an important new report on access to welfare disability benefits. The report didn’t get much media attention, but it should have. The report, news release and short video summary can be found here. Among the AG’s findings: The government has limited information on how effectively welfare’s PWD (Person… View Article

A couple days ago, I submitted the following letter to the editor at the Vancouver Sun. Hopefully they will publish it shortly: Mark Von Schellwitz (opinion piece, May 6) is right that a minimum wage and a living wage are not the same thing. But he seems to be confused about the difference. He claims… View Article

Happy to announce that the CCPA-BC has released its third documentary film, a video series entitled The Good Life – The Green Life. This project has been about two years in the making, led by our communications director Shannon Daub. I encourage you to visit the special website created for this project: http://goodlifegreenlife.ca/ As you’ll… View Article

The following news release was issued today by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition: Opposition proposes BC Poverty Reduction and Economic Inclusion Act: Now is the time for bi-partisan collaboration in addressing the root causes of poverty (British Columbia) Today in the BC Legislature, the Official Opposition (MLA Michelle Mungall) introduced a private member’s Bill proposing… View Article