Month: March 2016

At first glance, BC appears somewhat isolated from the economic challenges the rest of Canada is facing but there are a number of worrying signs. Nearly half of British Columbians see the economic conditions in BC as “poor” or “very poor.” The economy may be growing but prosperity is not broadly shared. Despite decent economic growth, poverty remains… View Article

The Province newspaper recently published an op-ed of mine that looked at one of the unintended consequences of our provincial government’s fixation on building the exceedingly expensive Site C hydroelectric dam. Even though actual construction of the dam has yet to begin, BC Hydro customers are already paying far more for electricity than they were just a… View Article

A few months ago, economist and CCPA research associate Jim Stanford gave a talk in Vancouver based on his newest book, Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism. Of the many important insights that he discussed, perhaps the most significant concerned a problem that has afflicted British Columbia and most other… View Article

Last year, we made freedom of information requests to the BC government about two CCPA-BC studies: A Clear Look at LNG by David Hughes (released May 26) and LNG and Employment in BC by myself (released July 28). Both reports poke holes in extravagant claims being made by the BC government about natural gas supplies, environmental impacts, and economic benefits of… View Article

Almost three months after the Paris Agreement was signed, Canada’s first ministers (the PM and premiers) met to launch a Canadian climate and energy strategy. Sort of. That was what was promised at the time of the December Paris conference, but in the lead-up to this week’s meeting efforts to lower expectations were well underway…. View Article

On February 25 BC joined Ontario and Quebec in offering farmers a tax incentive for donating to food assistance programs, such as food banks or school meal programs. Promised in last month’s budget, the Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit provides individuals or businesses registered as farms a 25% credit on any donated animal or plant product grown, raised or… View Article

The other day, I saw two new examples of breathless praise for BC’s carbon tax, and how it has been wonderful for the province economically and environmentally. Here’s the New York Times: [T]he most important takeaway for American skeptics is that the policy basically worked as advertised. British Columbia’s economy did not collapse. In fact,… View Article

As noted in many recent newspaper articles and editorials, posts on this blog, and social media posts, BC’s 2016 budget reflected the short-sighted and unnecessary priority of the current government to pay down debt and “balance” the budget over meeting the pressing needs of British Columbians, particularly those with developmental, financial and social vulnerabilities. This… View Article