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Leaked data reveals new threat to BC’s old growth forests

Mar 7, 2024
BREAKING: officials in the Ministry of Forests have been working on a map that radically departs from the recommendations of a panel appointed by the provincial government to advise it on how to protect British Columbia’s imperiled old growth forests…. View Article
2024 provincial budget analysis

BC Budget: Big Challenges—Small Steps

Feb 22, 2024
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The provincial budget stands up to austerity pressures but falls short on meeting urgent challenges facing the people of BC…. View Article
affordable housing crisis

Vancouver’s go-slow multiplex policy could blow a hole in provincial housing projections

Feb 21, 2024
Vancouver’s go-slow multiplex policy could blow a hole in provincial housing projections. If the city doesn’t fix the policy, it will reduce the estimated benefits from BC’s housing legislation by 30,000+ homes…. View Article
Let’s not keep BC riders waiting. It’s time to invest in the transit British Columbians deserve.

Connecting BC: A 10-year vision for public transit throughout BC

Feb 16, 2024
Let’s not keep BC riders waiting. It’s time to invest in the transit British Columbians deserve…. View Article
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Getting to Net-Zero in Canada: Summary

Feb 8, 2024
Scale of the problem, government projections and daunting challenges The urgency of mitigating climate change through significant emission reductions is globally recognized—most recently with the call to transition away from fossil fuels at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28). Canada has long accepted this challenge: its latest pledge… View Article

New labour legislation to continue gig worker precarity

Feb 1, 2024
Gig work is widely recognized as having all of the characteristics of precarious employment: typically temporary, part-time or casual, low paid, lacking in predictable work hours and job security without health and welfare benefits and protections.  Research into precarious gig work in BC has revealed that app-based ride-hail and food delivery gig workers are predominantly… View Article

Knives out for Clean BC

Jan 25, 2024
It’s taken sixteen years of incremental policy change in BC but you might have noticed that climate policies are starting to take hold.  Electric vehicles are widespread, new building standards with much higher energy efficiency are being introduced and heat pump sales have surged as people replace home heating equipment.  Nonetheless, the long knives are… View Article
hotel workers on the picket line

A paradox in COVID-19 pandemic recovery: Increased precarity of women hotel workers in British Columbia

Jan 24, 2024
REPORT: While BC’s accommodations and food services sector (AFS) received over a billion dollars in government COVID-19 subsidies, women workers—predominantly racialized and immigrants—either lost their employment or had hours and income significantly reduced…. View Article

Our Hopes and Dreams for Public Education

Jan 11, 2024
We know there are significant pressures facing our valued public education system—overcrowding, chronic underfunding, a growing teacher shortage and inadequate support for students with diverse learning needs to name just a few. These cracks in our school system command our immediate attention and require our concerted advocacy.  When we’re focused on the problems and pressing… View Article
Muslim family praying at the table

Beyond “Happy Holidays!”: it’s time to support Canada’s increasing religious diversity

Dec 22, 2023
Canada’s religious demographics have changed in the last 20 years. This is not being reflected in all facets of the structural fabric of society, particularly in the context of work and holidays…. View Article
Flooded road

Government must do more than shuffle chairs to solve BC’s water woes

Dec 20, 2023
British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests was always a poor choice to manage the province’s water resources—and it showed. So it was fitting in October that the government decided after years of being urged to do so to transfer that power to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. But shunting public servants between ministries… View Article

Time for change: A farewell message from CCPA-BC Director Shannon Daub

Dec 15, 2023
Dear friends, It is with mixed feelings that I share my decision with you to move on from the CCPA. Mixed because I am ready for a change in my career, but that doesn’t spare me the heartache of saying goodbye to an organization I’ve had the honour of helping to build over the past… View Article

Provincial zoning reform essential to reduce housing exclusion and displacement

Dec 14, 2023
Sky-high rents, ultra-low vacancy rates and fierce competition for scarce homes have become the grim but familiar picture of housing in BC, driving unaffordability, exclusion and displacement. The BC government has made major housing policy announcements in recent weeks and a key focus has been tackling chronic municipal roadblocks to new housing. For decades, exclusionary… View Article
uber eats delivery person of colour on their bike looking down on their phone

New protections for BC platform workers entrench racism

Dec 13, 2023
In November 2023, the BC Ministry of Labour announced new employment standards that claim to “bring fairness” to the estimated 40,000 ride-hail and food-delivery workers in BC. The move comes after a year of public engagement with platform workers, platform companies and labour experts, which brought to the fore the precarious working conditions of platform… View Article

Growing toll of COVID-19 on hospitals & population health should concern us

Dec 5, 2023
New data from Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) paint a troubling picture of the growing toll of COVID-19 on population health and provincial health systems. These findings come as public health authorities and governments have rolled back most measures that reduce SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) transmission, even as… View Article
Stack of papers with a magnifying glass resting on them

Time to end information hide-and-seek games: Public deserves more prompt government disclosure of basic data

Nov 16, 2023
No one should be told to file a Freedom of Information request simply to learn who works for them. Government must give members of the public access to up-to-date and useful information on who is there to serve them and quit obfuscating and abusing access to information laws, Ben Parfitt writes…. View Article

Affordability crisis will persist until we get a handle on runaway housing costs

Nov 15, 2023
Although inflation has come down from the historic highs recorded in 2022, the cost of living in Metro Vancouver continues to increase rapidly.  It now takes an hourly wage of $25.68 in Metro Vancouver for two parents each working full-time to support a family of four. This is the 2023 living wage for Metro Vancouver,… View Article
Raising the bar: our recommendations for equitable gig work in BC

Raising the bar: Our recommendations for equitable gig work in BC

Nov 2, 2023
Platform companies like Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes derive profits at the expense of taxpayers’ contributions and workers’ health and safety. The BC government has a unique opportunity to set high standards for sustainable, responsible platform work and we are pleased to support the government’s deliberations on this issue. Read our 12 recommendations. … View Article
Reality check on public spending

Reality check: BC government can afford to make more investments in urgent social and environmental priorities

Oct 31, 2023
Provincial government spending as a share of GDP still hasn’t recovered after decades-old social spending cuts under the previous government despite growing need for public investment…. View Article
Ha-Joon Chang

2023 Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture with Economist Ha-Joon Chang

Oct 24, 2023
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(video) Economist Ha-Joon Chan delivers the 2023 Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture, co-hosted by the CCPA-BC and the UBC Vancouver School of Economics…. View Article