Archive
Vacancy control: taking the next step on housing affordability
Feb 11, 2021
Recently, two Ontario-based Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) purchased 15 Vancouver apartment buildings for $292 million from Hollyburn Properties. Tenants in those buildings, totaling 614 units, now face a massively elevated risk of being evicted by absentee landlords so that higher rents can be charged to new tenants. Tenants should be concerned because of a… View Article
Thirsting for information: reforms to industrial water use badly needed
Feb 3, 2021
As British Columbians are discovering everywhere, one of the greatest and most pressing challenges posed by climate change is drought. Consider just three examples. On Vancouver Island, pulp and paper producer Catalyst Paper pumped massive amounts of water from Cowichan Lake into the Cowichan River in 2019 to boost the river’s water levels. It was… View Article
BC’s COVID-19 emergency spending leads all provinces, but we’re not out of the woods yet
Jan 26, 2021
BC has invested far more in its COVID-19 emergency response than any other province in the country. The province also provided the highest per capita level of support to individuals at an average of $800 per person. These are among the findings in a new report from CCPA’s national office, which examines the scale of… View Article
Time for zero carbon housing and buildings in BC
Jan 21, 2021
BC needs a lot of new affordable housing and any build out should ensure that it meets the highest standards for energy efficiency, including zero-carbon operations. Residential, commercial and institutional buildings produce 11% of BC’s GHG emissions, mainly from burning natural gas for heating and hot water. Updated building codes are needed to make the… View Article
It’s 2021: Time to get serious about BC’s carbon emissions
Jan 7, 2021
In December 2020, the BC government released its first Climate Change Accountability Report, the result of 2019 legislation aimed at improving the reporting and oversight of climate action in BC. The report lacks accountability in one important respect: it is not an independent assessment and reads like previous BC government reports on climate action that… View Article
Production forecasts, pipelines and net-zero promises: Canada’s recipe for climate failure
Dec 16, 2020
Canada launched Bill C-12 last month, a transparency and accountability act designed to achieve “net-zero” emissions by 2050. The government has also pledged to increase the planned 30 per cent emissions reductions by 2030 it committed to under the 2015 Paris Agreement even though as of 2018, the latest year for which data are available,… View Article
Just transition planning for a managed wind-down of fossil fuels in BC
Dec 16, 2020
Resource development has long been central to BC’s economy. But commodity prices swing, industries consolidate and patterns of demand change over time. When they do, resource industry workers are often left holding the bag. The price is often much more than just involuntary unemployment for laid-off workers, but also includes mental illness, increases in domestic… View Article
New federal climate plan hindered by commitment to fossil fuel production
Dec 15, 2020
Five years after the negotiation of the Paris agreement, the federal government is finally starting to walk the talk on climate change. Canada’s updated climate action plan, released December 11, is the most serious piece of climate policy we’ve yet seen from this government. It comes alongside new measures announced by 70 other governments as… View Article
Healthy forests for a cooler future
Dec 14, 2020
There was every reason to believe in the early spring of this year that the most ambitious tree-planting program in British Columbia’s history would be scuttled by COVID-19. A record 310 million seedlings were slated to be planted. But with the unfolding pandemic, all bets were off. Only after tree-planting companies, First Nations, provincial health… View Article
Why now is the time to reform BC’s oil and gas royalties
Dec 8, 2020
The oil and gas royalty regime in British Columbia needs a major overhaul. The re-elected NDP promised during the election campaign to review oil and gas royalties and credits. In the context of a climate emergency the need for a managed wind-down is urgent. Despite “natural” gas being a finite greenhouse-gas-generating fossil fuel, the royalty… View Article
BC should lead the country in adopting a COVID Zero strategy
Dec 7, 2020
The second COVID-19 wave is once again putting a spotlight on the challenges containing this deadly virus. In the last week, BC set records for new cases and hospitalizations. Positivity rates are dangerously high, especially in the Fraser Health region. The number of deaths has been climbing and there are now over 50 long-term care… View Article
Who benefits from caribou decline?
Dec 4, 2020
Scientists predict caribou herds located in northeastern BC will go extinct within our lifetimes. How could this be? We were led to believe that environmental oversight introduced decades ago would protect this iconic Canadian species despite the large-scale industrial development that threatens them. We were promised a win-win: thriving caribou and a thriving economy. Fast… View Article
Who’s minding the shop at Site C?
Dec 1, 2020
Appointment of engineer with long-term ties to BC Hydro to be government’s “independent” advisor on dam’s construction raises vexing questions In 2011, his last year as a salaried employee at BC Hydro, Tim Little earned just under $210,000 as the Crown corporation’s chief engineer. The next year, after decades of service for the publicly owned… View Article
Towards a managed wind-down: the conversation we need to have
Nov 26, 2020
An enduring lesson from COVID-19 is that where there’s a will there’s a way. Faced with a pandemic, governments have risen to the challenge and made profound changes that would have seemed impossible mere months before. We now need to shift this out-of-the-box thinking to the existential threat posed by climate change. The need to… View Article
What federal leadership on long-term care standards should look like
Nov 24, 2020
As the COVID-19 pandemic second wave once again ravages long-term care homes in Canada, we must reckon with the obvious: it is time to set a higher standard for this care. The federal government promised as much in its throne speech, and we have taken this as an invitation to propose standards informed by the… View Article
Time to mobilize like we mean it
Nov 17, 2020
Lessons from the Second World War for the climate emergency Even before the arrival of COVID-19, the history of the Second World War was making a remarkable comeback. Our movie theatres (remember those?), Netflix offerings and bookstore shelves were full of modern reboots of our mid-century wartime experience. Then the global pandemic struck, and suddenly,… View Article
Alberta’s energy war room reveals its true colours as a propaganda mill
Nov 6, 2020
Last week my report “Reassessment of Need for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project” was published by the Parkland Institute and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The Canadian Energy Centre (aka Premier Jason Kenney’s “War Room”) took exception to my report and wrote a hit piece designed to discredit it,“A Matter of Fact: CCPA report… View Article
TMX: What’s at stake?
Oct 29, 2020
New research from veteran earth scientist David Hughes concludes that the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project (TMX) makes no financial sense. In fact, Alberta heavy oil producers can expect to lose money on every barrel of oil they produce and move through TMX. Contrary to claims that bringing heavy oil to tidewater for export to… View Article
Reality Check: Progress on child care in BC, 2012-2020
Oct 9, 2020
In the early days of the current BC election campaign child care took centre stage when NDP leader John Horgan recommitted his party to fully implement the $10aDay Plan1 if elected on October 24. Public discussion and commentary followed in the media and from other parties. Questions were raised about the progress achieved on child care… View Article
Creeping privatization is not the fix to auto insurance in BC
Oct 8, 2020
As part of BC’s election campaign, the BC Liberal party pledged this week to move away from universal public auto insurance by opening up basic coverage to private insurance corporations. The claim made by party leader Andrew Wilkinson is that cheaper rates will follow from having private corporations sell insurance plans (using the old litigation-driven,… View Article