Frameworks and photo-ops

May 26, 2014
About a year-and-a-half ago, BC teachers and their employers approved a landmark framework agreement for their upcoming round of contract negotiations. In the wake of a difficult and divisive round of bargaining, and after many, many years of frustration and disappointment, the parties agreed to do things differently.  It was the first change to bargaining… View Article

CCPA submission to BC consultation on forest tenures

May 26, 2014
Earlier today, I submitted the following on behalf of the CCPA to Mr Jim Snetsinger, who is leading a consultation on area-based forest tenures on behalf of the BC government (FYI, the deadline for input into this consultation is Friday May 30, and submissions can be made via email to: [email protected]): CCPA Submission to Consultation… View Article

Cheap Power for Jobs (Except it Ain’t Cheap)

May 23, 2014
It has a nice political ring to it — “power for jobs”. That is what Glen Clark wanted to do with the Columbia River Treaty power that was returned to the province in the late 1990’s. And that is what Vaughn Palmer argues B.C. should do today with the hydro power we have or could… View Article

Britain and British Columbia now moving in different directions on P3s. BC taxpayers may be the losers

May 20, 2014
A dozen years ago when Gordon Campbell’s newly elected British Columbia government decided it wanted to build its infrastructure with public private partnerships (P3s) it turned to England for advice.  The British model for infrastructure shaped much of what BC did in the ensuing years.  Lately, British Columbia and the UK have been going in different… View Article

New AG report on access to welfare disability benefits

May 16, 2014
Yesterday (May 15), BC’s Auditor General released an important new report on access to welfare disability benefits. The report didn’t get much media attention, but it should have. The report, news release and short video summary can be found here. Among the AG’s findings: The government has limited information on how effectively welfare’s PWD (Person… View Article

Clarifying the difference between the minimum and living wage

May 9, 2014
A couple days ago, I submitted the following letter to the editor at the Vancouver Sun. Hopefully they will publish it shortly: Mark Von Schellwitz (opinion piece, May 6) is right that a minimum wage and a living wage are not the same thing. But he seems to be confused about the difference. He claims… View Article

CCPA-BC launches new documentary: The Good Life – The Green Life

May 9, 2014
Happy to announce that the CCPA-BC has released its third documentary film, a video series entitled The Good Life – The Green Life. This project has been about two years in the making, led by our communications director Shannon Daub. I encourage you to visit the special website created for this project: http://goodlifegreenlife.ca/ As you’ll… View Article

Poverty Reduction Act tabled by Opposition in the BC Leg

May 6, 2014
The following news release was issued today by the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition: Opposition proposes BC Poverty Reduction and Economic Inclusion Act: Now is the time for bi-partisan collaboration in addressing the root causes of poverty (British Columbia) Today in the BC Legislature, the Official Opposition (MLA Michelle Mungall) introduced a private member’s Bill proposing… View Article

Don’t believe the (LNG) hype

Apr 30, 2014
Today we released a new report, Path to Prosperity? A Closer Look at British Columbia’s Natural Gas Royalties and Proposed LNG Income Tax, about liquefied natural gas (LNG ) development in BC, and the public revenues that might be expected. So far, LNG has lacked a real public debate. On one side, we have the… View Article

New Living Wage Reports Force Us to Look at Child Poverty in the City

Apr 29, 2014
There reports released today show that the costs of supporting a family are rising fast in the three largest urban areas of our province, home to 2/3 of BC’s population. Two parents working full-time must each earn $20.10/hour in Metro Vancouver, $18.93/hour in Greater Victoria and $17.02/hour in the Fraser Valley. The living wage reflects… View Article

Temporary Foreign Worker Program Takes Jobs Away from Canadians

Apr 24, 2014
Yet another report, this time by SFU Public Policy Professor Dominique M. Gross, finds evidence that Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program is bad for domestic workers. The report looks at BC and Alberta specifically and concludes that the expansion of the TFW program between 2007 and 2010 resulted in an increase in unemployment levels by… View Article

Temporary foreign workers policy lets low wage firms have their cake and eat it too

Apr 22, 2014
One point that has been highlighted by the recent controversy over Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) is that firms can be profitable with very different approaches to wages and worker turnover. On one side of the spectrum are companies such as Lee Valley Tools, which treats its employees well in terms of wages, benefit, and training,… View Article

Upcoming Municipal Elections: Business as Usual?

Mar 27, 2014
With municipal elections on the horizon in British Columbia, it is worth paying attention to the nature of political discourse in this province – and considering its implications and alternatives. Increasingly, business parlance is finding its way into what still holds the pretence of being a democratic institution.  As with our most recent provincial election,… View Article

How many will vote in the November 2014 local government elections?

Mar 16, 2014
In BC’s last local government elections in 2011 less than 30% of people bothered to vote.  CivicInfoBC has a handy list of turnout information for all of our local governments here. I was curious about how this compared to local election turnout in other provinces. I don’t have turnout information at a provincial level for… View Article

4 year municipal elections: are we trading long term planning for accountability?

Mar 2, 2014
The BC government has announced changes to the way local government elections will be run. One of the changes will be that when local government voters go to the polls in November they will be electing people to represent them to a four year term rather than the current three year term. I am in… View Article

LNG’s threat to water sustainability

Feb 27, 2014
By Ben Parfitt and David Hughes One glaring problem with the provincial government’s strategy to turn British Columbia into a liquefied natural gas exporting juggernaut is that it scuttles any chance B.C. has to be a climate change leader. But equally problematic is how our government’s economically dubious fixation with gas exports jeopardizes our irreplaceable… View Article

How Doctors are Paid in BC

Feb 22, 2014
  [A version of this piece was posted on the Tyee] Health care is the biggest, most expensive and most important thing that government does. Hospital care swallows up a large proportion of the health care budget, but primary care in the community takes care of most patient needs and keeps people out of hospital…. View Article

About that LNG Prosperity Fund

Feb 18, 2014
Budget 2014 contains some new information about how the province intends to pay for all of the ponies BC children have been promised from LNG riches. Alas, there is not much there – a three page text box that mostly restates the hype on LNG – and from what has been revealed it looks a… View Article

What you need to know about BC Budget 2014

Feb 18, 2014
Today’s 2014 BC budget contained very little news, as expected. Despite a significantly weaker economic picture for BC than what was projected in the June 2013 Budget Update, there are no new measures to help British Columbian families struggling with economic insecurity in the weak job market. Five years after the recession officially ended, BC… View Article

7 things that should be in this year’s BC Budget

Feb 17, 2014
In the fifth year of a slow and largely jobless economic recovery, the 2014 BC Budget should prioritize measures to set the foundation of a more just and sustainable economy, where prosperity is shared by all citizens. Here are 7 initiatives that will get us there. 1. A comprehensive poverty reduction plan Combating poverty is… View Article