Month: March 2015

In late January, we at the CCPA came out with a paper about “just transition”—an approach that aims to minimize the impact of environmental policies on workers and communities in affected industries—for resource workers. Drawing on extensive interviews with workers in several resource industries, our report informs a strategy to ensure climate action doesn’t worsen… View Article

When BC Community Minister Coralee Oakes fired the Auditor General for Local Government (AGLG) last week the issue that had been in the news was the performance of her office.  However, AGLG Basia Ruta has now taken the matter to the courts and the issue there is likely to be the independence of her office. … View Article

I got my plebiscite ballot today and of course voted yes. Whatever you think of TransLink management, its governance, the rough and largely undefined edges of the mayor’s plan, and the politically expedient but otherwise not particularly appropriate sales tax source of revenues, the simple fact remains that I and most residents of Greater Vancouver… View Article

By Shannon Daub, Co-Director of the CCPA-BC’s Seniors Project, and Sandra (Sandy) James LEED AP MCIP CCPI, Director, Walk Metro Vancouver Society Between now and May, residents of Metro Vancouver will receive a mail-in ballot asking if they are in favour of a .5 percentage point increase on sales tax to fund transportation improvements in… View Article

After close to three years of no change, the BC minimum wage was overdue for an increase. But the measly raise announced today falls far short of what is necessary. The 20c per hour increase, scheduled to come into effect on Sept 15, 2015,  amounts to a raise of just under 2% over more than 3 years…. View Article

The Georgia Straight published a column yesterday by Charlie Smith claiming that “selfish old people” will vote “no” in the upcoming transit referendum, depriving younger generations of a decent quality of life and an opportunity to act on climate change. We were shocked by the inflammatory tone of the article, and the very inaccurate picture… View Article

The February 18, 2015 edition of the Globe and Mail featured an article by the paper’s B.C. correspondent Gary Mason, which in part drew favourable attention to BC’s debt-to-GDP ratio in comparison with that of Ontario. On face value, B.C.’s reported debt-to-GDP ratio calculated from its most recent audited statements of 18.2% looks pretty good… View Article

By Seth Klein, Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova In the upcoming transit and transportation referendum, we think the benefits of a YES outcome outweigh the negatives for the following reasons: Referenda are a terrible way to make tax policy. But a referendum is nevertheless before Metro Vancouver residents, and we can’t afford to ignore it…. View Article