Archive
Most and least expensive cities for child care: 4 key takeaways for BC
Dec 15, 2016
A new CCPA report reveals staggering disparities in parents’ experiences with child care across the country. Prices are highest in Toronto and lowest in cities in Quebec where child care is heavily subsidized by the provincial government. Cities in Manitoba and PEI, the other two provinces in Canada that set child care fees and fund… View Article
The crumbling case for two-tiered health care
Dec 15, 2016
Brian Day has put Canadian universal health care on trial in BC Supreme Court, seeking to swing the doors open to privatization by challenging foundational laws that underpin our public health system. Yet ironically, at the same time, the public policy case for privatized health care is increasingly in tatters. As I recently discussed, the… View Article
A critical guide to the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change
Dec 14, 2016
After working on climate and energy issues intensively for the past nine years, I would love to scream from the rooftops about how Canada now has a real climate framework, and how as a nation we are proudly, if belatedly, walking the talk. Instead, I feel immensely disappointed by last week’s First Ministers’ Meeting on… View Article
Will the BC government continue to ignore its own budget consultation?
Dec 13, 2016
Every fall, BC conducts a month-long budget consultation process and for at least the last three years, the provincial government hasn’t acted on its own report. You have to wonder if they’re actually listening. This is a shame because the process generates a large number of good ideas and policy recommendations, which if implemented would… View Article
Kinder Morgan’s pipeline sales pitch: Too good to be true?
Dec 8, 2016
After the federal approval of Kinder-Morgan’s controversial Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX), Alberta Premier Rachel Notley came to BC to sell the pipeline’s economic benefits. She claims BC will get a $1 billion per year boost in GDP as a result of the pipeline, as well as thousands of jobs in both construction and operations… View Article
BC’s higher-than-expected surplus is a wasted opportunity
Dec 8, 2016
BC is on track to have a massive budget surplus this year according to the November update on provincial finances. At the end of the second quarter of the fiscal year, we’re looking at a surplus of $2.24 billion. This is $300 million more than what the September budget update projected and a staggering $2… View Article
Recap of our 2016 Rosenbluth Lecture with Pierre Fortin
Dec 8, 2016
This year, CCPA-BC’s annual Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture featured economist Pierre Fortin, who shared lessons from Quebec’s experience with low-fee, publicly funded child care. Professor Fortin spoke about research he conducted with colleagues at the University of Sherbrooke, which found that for every $1 invested in the Quebec child care program, the provincial and federal… View Article
826 reasons Kinder Morgan got a green light for its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion
Nov 30, 2016
Despite sustained opposition to Kinder Morgan’s plan to twin the Trans Mountain pipeline, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Cabinet gave it their blessing yesterday. Reaction from the many people, communities and nations opposed to the pipeline was swift. Twenty one municipalities and over 100 First Nations and Tribes have registered their opposition since the… View Article
BC Tax Commission focuses on business and not the rest of us
Nov 23, 2016
This fall we presented recommendations to the provincial government’s “Commission on Tax Competitiveness”, which released its final report today. But the Commission suffered from a basic flaw: an exclusive focus on business taxes. What about how BC’s overall tax system affects the large majority of British Columbians? The Commission’s terms of reference precluded consideration of… View Article
Low-income seniors also victim to affordable housing crisis
Nov 22, 2016
It may be hard to believe, but Statistics Canada data shows that 52 per cent of senior renters (65+) in Metro Vancouver spend 30 per cent or more of their monthly income on rent, and 21 per cent spend half or more. So how are low-income seniors expected to survive? The ratio of rent to… View Article
The biggest source of waste in Canadian health care? The private, for-profit sector
Nov 21, 2016
Brian Day’s legal battle against universal public health care in Canada is now before the BC Supreme Court. Day—along with other would-be profit-makers—are hawking unprecedented privatization as the solution to challenges in Canada’s health care system. But two crucial facts are often missed in debates about public vs. private health care. First, Canada already leaves… View Article
The US election results: Brief thoughts on the unthinkable
Nov 18, 2016
Having watched the US electoral horror show unfolding over several months, I’m trying to stand back from the emotional impact of the outcome, to think of some of the themes for progressive debate and research in politics and communication. What understandings are relevant to the political action that our collective survival now necessitates? First, we… View Article
Lessons from the Trump election for progressives in Canada
Nov 18, 2016
It’s been a little over a week since we were jolted by the profoundly disturbing reality of a Donald Trump US presidency. We’ve all found ourselves in many discussions about how such an abhorrent and blatantly racist and misogynist candidate could have won the most powerful political office in the world, and about how to… View Article
Four planks for a bold and progressive BC jobs agenda
Nov 17, 2016
BC needs a revitalized jobs plan. The provincial government’s narrow focus on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) hasn’t worked. The government hitched BC’s economic wagon to the elusive investment decisions of foreign transnational corporations, and to the ups and downs of international commodity prices, and the hoped-for investment simply didn’t materialize. And for all the talk… View Article
What BC’s energy industry has to do with violence against Indigenous women
Nov 16, 2016
The following post was adapted from the executive summary of Out of sight, out of mind: Gender, indigenous rights, and energy development in British Columbia, Canada. “It’s not a pity story. We’re not looking for sympathy. But the public has to recognize that this is a disaster in the making.” —Norma Pyle, Blueberry River First Nations… View Article
British Columbians will pay the LNG industry’s power bills
Nov 14, 2016
In his Tyee article BC’s LNG Fraud, Andrew Nikiforuk pointed out that the government’s new eDrive policy—under which BC Hydro will supply electricity to LNG plants at the standard industrial rate, instead of the much higher rate that government had determined was needed for BC Hydro to recover its costs—will result in a subsidy of $34 million… View Article
The election story is an addiction story
Nov 9, 2016
I know I am not alone shedding tears for the story of the 2016 American election. These aren’t the tears of a campaign or game lost, or an ego wounded, nor are they tears of aloneness, because I know I am not the only one who is afraid. These tears connect me to all of… View Article
A critical juncture for BC’s forest industry
Nov 7, 2016
When it comes to understanding the risks that BC’s forests and forest-dependent communities face, you’d be hard-pressed to find two more qualified individuals than Anthony Britneff and Martin Watts. Between them, the two have worked a combined 70 years in forestry, Britneff serving four decades in senior positions with the provincial forests ministry and Watts… View Article
The case for a progressive property tax
Nov 2, 2016
In 1993, then-Finance Minister Glen Clark tabled a controversial BC Budget, featuring a wide range of tax changes. A one-point increase in the provincial sales tax was the largest measure, tempered by the introduction of a refundable sales tax credit. Most of the budget measures increased taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Up went the… View Article
BC government plots new course for job creation: Optimism or wishful thinking?
Oct 27, 2016
On August 30th, the provincial government issued a review of job creation since the last election, and a preview of an update to their jobs plan, which was intended to be released in full this fall, however, an announcement has yet to be made. In short, this is the precursor to a pre-election platform statement. … View Article