Archive
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
The unintended consequences of massive hydro rate increases
Mar 22, 2016
The Province newspaper recently published an op-ed of mine that looked at one of the unintended consequences of our provincial government’s fixation on building the exceedingly expensive Site C hydroelectric dam. Even though actual construction of the dam has yet to begin, BC Hydro customers are already paying far more for electricity than they were just a… View Article
Create BC jobs by investing in desperately needed services
Mar 16, 2016
A few months ago, economist and CCPA research associate Jim Stanford gave a talk in Vancouver based on his newest book, Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism. Of the many important insights that he discussed, perhaps the most significant concerned a problem that has afflicted British Columbia and most other… View Article
BC government’s spin cycle on LNG
Mar 15, 2016
Last year, we made freedom of information requests to the BC government about two CCPA-BC studies: A Clear Look at LNG by David Hughes (released May 26) and LNG and Employment in BC by myself (released July 28). Both reports poke holes in extravagant claims being made by the BC government about natural gas supplies, environmental impacts, and economic benefits of… View Article
From Paris to Vancouver: What happened at the First Ministers meeting on climate
Mar 4, 2016
Almost three months after the Paris Agreement was signed, Canada’s first ministers (the PM and premiers) met to launch a Canadian climate and energy strategy. Sort of. That was what was promised at the time of the December Paris conference, but in the lead-up to this week’s meeting efforts to lower expectations were well underway…. View Article
The Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit misses the mark in food security
Mar 3, 2016
On February 25 BC joined Ontario and Quebec in offering farmers a tax incentive for donating to food assistance programs, such as food banks or school meal programs. Promised in last month’s budget, the Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit provides individuals or businesses registered as farms a 25% credit on any donated animal or plant product grown, raised or… View Article