Getting big money out of BC politics: 5 ways to do this right

May 23, 2017
With the provincial election behind us, there’s at least one thing that the overwhelming majority of British Columbians seem to clearly agree on: we need big money out of our politics. The corrupting influence of vast sums of cash from (primarily) corporations and the wealthy in BC’s political system has received a great deal of… View Article

Election nail biter: what’s next for BC politics?

May 17, 2017
A week after British Columbians went to the polls, we’re still waiting to learn the final seat count. And when we do (hopefully next week), it’s unlikely we’ll know precisely what our new government will look like. Whatever the outcome, we know things are going to be different. And one thing seems clear: there is… View Article

A Dam Big Problem: Regulatory breakdown as fracking companies in BC’s northeast build dozens of unauthorized dams

May 3, 2017
A subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned petro giant courted by the BC government, has built at least 16 unauthorized dams in northern BC to trap hundreds of millions of gallons of water used in its controversial fracking operations. The 16 dams are among “dozens” that have been built by Petronas and other companies without… View Article

Book review – Just cool it! The climate crisis and what we can do

May 2, 2017
The following is a review of Just cool it! The climate crisis and what we can do by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, published by Greystone Books/David Suzuki Institute. Two passages in the introduction to this book encapsulate the situation that confronts us as the effects of global warming become more serious every day. The first describes a… View Article

BC’s child poverty rate: Don’t cherry-pick the numbers

Apr 28, 2017
It’s always welcome to see poverty identified as an important issue in our elections as it was in last Wednesday’s BC Leaders’ Debate. We want to see our political leaders challenging each other to do better on this file. However, in the debate—as well as in numerous media interviews—Premier Clark has repeated the claim that… View Article

Sharing our realities: Life on disability assistance in BC

Apr 27, 2017
Both people with disabilities and those who work within the income assistance system say the effects of provincial government policy in British Columbia are demoralizing. Looking beyond the numbers to focus on real-life stories, the report Sharing Our Realities: Life on Disability Assistance finds a remarkable consensus between people with disabilities, income assistance workers, and… View Article

The incredible shrinking role of government in BC

Apr 25, 2017
As BC’s political parties lay out their election platforms, media pundits tend to focus on the flurry of spending promises. But all this attention on spending makes it easy to forget that we’ve actually witnessed an incredible shrinking of government’s role in BC over the past 15 years. Unlike the strange mist that shrinks Scott… View Article

Searching for affordable housing in the 2017 BC election platforms

Apr 24, 2017
Housing affordability is one of the top issues for voters in the 2017 election campaign, particularly for those in pricey Metro Vancouver. While most of the media attention has been on the jaw-dropping prices of residential real estate, a tight rental market has fuelled rising rents and renovictions, and the most recent count uncovered a… View Article

Climate change and energy issues in the 2017 BC election platforms

Apr 18, 2017
From the fracking fields and Site C dam in BC’s northeast to an LNG terminal and Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tanker expansion in the southwest, energy issues should figure prominently in BC’s 2017 election campaign. Climate change, the result of all that pollution from dirty energy development here and elsewhere, is an overarching challenge. In… View Article

Distinguishing consent from veto in an era of reconciliation

Apr 10, 2017
An unfortunate legacy of the Harper era in Canada is that public officials and the media often conflate the right to consent for projects or policies that could affect Indigenous peoples with veto power. That error is not supported by Canadian or international law, and is at odds with the goal of reconciliation between Aboriginal… View Article

Economic insecurity touches seniors’ lives in profound ways

Apr 6, 2017
In the spring of 2016, the CCPA’s Terra Poirier and photographer Caelie Frampton met with three local seniors to document their lived experience of poverty and inequality. The images and stories of these women paint a sobering picture of what life is like when the hardships of living with a low income are combined with… View Article

As the BC election starts, where’s our collective head at?

Apr 4, 2017
Much of BC’s pre-election debate has coalesced around the free-for-all in corporate political donations—and understandably so, given the scale of the problem that’s been revealed by various investigations. But worrying as the potential corruption of our democratic system may be, it’s not the only concern weighing on British Columbians’ minds as we draw closer to… View Article

Faking climate action: BC’s misleading forest gambit

Apr 3, 2017
In its August 2016 climate plan update—and subsequent advertising campaign—the BC government put forests front and centre. While this may sound positive, it is really a sleight of hand by a province seeking to shirk its responsibility to reduce fossil fuel emissions. The BC government claims (without providing any evidence) that its vaguely defined forest… View Article

Time to raise welfare rates: Debunking the BC government’s sorry excuses for inaction

Mar 30, 2017
April 1st marks the 10th anniversary since basic welfare benefit rates (also known as social assistance rates) were last increased in British Columbia. For a single person on basic assistance the benefit rate remains $610 per month, and for a single parent with one child it is $946 a month. That means for 10 years running,… View Article

It’s time to give high tech workers equal basic rights

Mar 28, 2017
The BC government recently announced an update to its BC Jobs Plan that focused on measures to encourage increased employment in nine key sectors of the economy. One of those sectors is technology and innovation. To facilitate employment growth in this area the Premier announced that an “Innovation Network” would be created, headed by UBC… View Article

Manitoba opens door to public sector secrecy as Ottawa calls for increase in P3 projects

Mar 22, 2017
Wednesday’s federal Budget reaffirms the Canadian Government’s commitment to its promised “Canada Infrastructure Bank.” This opens the door to having corporations deliver public infrastructure through public private partnerships which is a controversial move. In the words of one writer: In other words, public-private partnerships are sort of like credit cards: You get the shiny thing… View Article

BC Budget 2017: $600 million in tax breaks for business

Mar 17, 2017
Does the BC business sector need a tax cut? Not so much. But Budget 2017 promises to give business over $600 million in additional annual tax breaks nonetheless. That’s more than half a billion dollars annually that won’t be invested in creating affordable high-quality child care spaces, building affordable housing (as opposed to a one-off… View Article

Affordable housing and jobs: Now is the time to build

Mar 16, 2017
The BC government is spending millions on advertising to promote its actions on affordable housing. In Metro Vancouver, however, where the crisis is most acute, there is no sign that housing is going to be within reach of ordinary middle-class households any time soon. .@MarcLeeCCPA takes a look at how BC can build the affordable… View Article

Fixing the carbon tax: A closer look at the BC NDP’s climate plan

Mar 14, 2017
The BC NDP unveiled its climate plan in early February, and its key plank is to increase the BC carbon tax from its current $30 per tonne to $50 per tonne by 2022, in line with the new federal floor price on carbon. The carbon tax increase under the BC NDP plan would be phased… View Article

From disenfranchised to revitalized: Ten proposals to set our forests and BC’s rural communities on a new course

Mar 13, 2017
Fort Nelson and Merritt lie at two geographical extremes, the former perched in the northeast corner near some of British Columbia’s biggest natural gas plays, the latter located deep in the province’s southwest, near rolling dry hills that are home to BC’s biggest ranches. It takes nearly 15 hours by car to cover the distance… View Article