Archive
BC has every reason to back CPP enhancement
Jun 20, 2016
Christy Clark could be a critical swing vote in shaping the future of the Canada Pension Plan, as federal officials meet with provincial premiers in Vancouver on Monday. If a stable, secure retirement for all Canadians is the aim, our leaders should commit to boldly expanding this bedrock national pension program. Instead, BC’s provincial government… View Article
Toxic landslides into the Peace River continue, add to fears about impacts of Site C and fracking
Jun 8, 2016
Toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, lithium and lead, are flowing unchecked into the Peace River following a series of unusual landslides that may be linked to natural gas industry fracking operations. The landslides began nearly two years ago and show no sign of stopping. So far, they have killed all fish along several… View Article
Access to information in BC is about to improve. Except there’s just this one little catch.
Jun 6, 2016
There was a fair amount of good news about Freedom of Information rules and a little bit of bad news last month. But the bad news was serious and you really have to wonder why the government would bother with it when the rest of the news was good. First for the good news. That… View Article
3 problems with the Fraser Institute’s alarmist report on health care spending
Jun 3, 2016
A new report from the Fraser Institute declares: “Health care spending by British Columbia’s government is unsustainable.” But watchers of Canadian politics know to take that declaration with generous heap of salt, since we hear cries of “out-of-control health care spending” like clockwork from certain quarters (followed by calls for privatized, for-profit care). In fact,… View Article
Why American doctors are calling for Canadian-style medicare
Jun 3, 2016
In a dramatic show of physician support for deep health care reform in the U.S., more than 2,200 physician leaders have signed a “Physician’s Proposal” calling for sweeping change. The proposal, published May 5 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health, calls for the creation of a publicly financed, single-payer, national health program to… View Article
How much does tax avoidance damage the public good? Even more than you think.
May 31, 2016
A string of revelations about tax avoidance have made headlines in recent months, from the Panama Papers, to KPMG Canada’s tax shelter business, to a local incident involving a UBC Board member who resigned after losing a tax avoidance case in BC Supreme Court. These revelations have fuelled a mix of outrage and cynicism about… View Article
Injured workers with chronic pain: the serious human costs of the WorkSafeBC system
May 30, 2016
I have been a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation for over 30 years. A significant portion of my practice involves injured workers who have developed chronic pain and have been denied compensation by WorkSafeBC (WCB). Workers with injuries that heal in weeks or a few months are usually treated well by WCB and get… View Article
BC’s public finances and the art of the possible
May 27, 2016
We sit less than a year away from the next provincial election in BC, and the legislature has now closed its doors for the summer. It’s a good time to reflect on an important, big-picture question: what kind of path are we on in this province when it comes to public policy? While recent economic… View Article
Asbestos-caused disease increasing in Canada, and many victims are women
May 25, 2016
For more than a century, it has been known that asbestos causes disease and death. But the asbestos industry suppressed scientific evidence, created lobby organizations and hi-jacked public policy. Canadians, and people around the world, have paid the price with their lives. The economic costs have also been enormous, with billions of dollars spent on… View Article
BC government: climate leader or climate outlaw?
May 24, 2016
At both the Paris climate negotiations last November and the recent federal-provincial climate meetings, Premier Christy Clark was keen to position British Columbia as a climate leader. There may indeed have been a short window during the 2008-2010 period when BC could legitimately (albeit arguably) make such a claim; when the province introduced the carbon… View Article
Early childhood report a distraction from what really needs to be done
May 20, 2016
The long-awaited report on the consultations by the Provincial Office for the Early Years (POEY) about early childhood planning in BC was released on Wednesday. This review, nearly a year in the making, looked at the meager early years community planning dollars allocated by the Ministry for Children and Family Development through the Children First and Success… View Article
Affordable housing and its discontents
May 19, 2016
The public and media response to my new study on affordable housing exceeded expectations. I anticipated some really strong pushback against my proposals, because they’re pretty radical in today’s context where private sector development is taken for granted, and global capital flows into local real estate go largely unquestioned. By and large, the report was covered… View Article
Food security in BC? Don’t count on it.
May 19, 2016
If California’s farmers ever run out of the water needed to irrigate their crops, we’ll be in for a rude awakening. With 70 per cent of British Columbia’s imported fruits and vegetables coming from the sunny US state, any climatic disaster there would almost certainly result in dramatic run-ups in food prices here. Our elected leaders… View Article
New look, same nerds.
May 19, 2016
Hello readers and followers! As you can see, we have a brand new look thanks to our fine friends at Affinity Bridge. We had two goals with the redesign. First was just to get a bit more in step with the times. Goodbye narrow columns and small font — hello white space, pretty pictures and… View Article
How to make the Metro Vancouver living wage work for single parents
Apr 27, 2016
The living wage is designed to reflect the real costs of raising a family in a particular community. It’s based on a two-parent families with young children because most Canadian children live in two-parent families, but the goal is for the living wage to also meet the needs of different types of families throughout their life cycle, including single-parent families…. View Article
Time to rethink BC’s surgical waitlist strategy
Apr 26, 2016
By Andrew Longhurst, Marcy Cohen and Dr. Margaret McGregor Have you had to wait months for surgical consultation, let alone the surgery itself? If so, you’re not alone. British Columbians are waiting an unacceptable amount of time to receive the care they need. Since 2010, surgical wait times have increased significantly for key procedures, including… View Article
Pipelines vs Paris: Canada’s climate conundrum
Apr 21, 2016
The push for new pipelines to bring Alberta bitumen to “tidewater” is on, even as the ink is barely dry on the Paris Agreement, and its call to action on climate change. Alberta Premier Notley argues that “We’re not making a choice between the environment and the economy. We are building the economy.” For his part, Prime Minister… View Article
In Edinburgh, the public private partnership walls are falling. Seriously. Walls are falling.
Apr 20, 2016
If 17 schools were closed in Vancouver, or Edmonton or Regina, because parts of them were at risk of falling down and injuring children, do you think it might raise some questions about the way the schools were built? That is exactly what is happening in Edinburgh, Scotland. It all began in January 2016 when… View Article
A carbon tax comes to Alberta
Apr 19, 2016
Alberta’s 2016 Budget presents its plan to price carbon, in two parts: a new Carbon Levy applied to transportation and heating fuel, at $20 per tonne of CO2 (4.5 cents per litre at the pump) starting January 2017, rising to $30 (6.7 cents per litre) in 2018; and, changes to the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER) framework… View Article
What the new federal budget means for BC
Mar 23, 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