Archive
Why my dad and I will vote for health
Oct 15, 2015
As a family physician, the most important way I can help (and not harm) my patients, is to vote for healthcare in this election…. View Article
A petro state, a fracking frenzy and one woman’s battle for justice: Andrew Nikiforuk’s latest should be required reading for MLAs
Oct 14, 2015
Andrew Nikiforuk’s new book, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry, captures like never before how fossil fuel companies must do more and more to coax oil and gas from the ground. And how that each time more effort is made, the social and environmental costs mount…. View Article
Can the federal parties’ child care proposals pay for the $10 a Day Plan?
Oct 14, 2015
We’ve been glad to see child care emerge as a key issue in this federal election, with three major parties (Greens, Liberals and NDP) vying to tackle the problems with the status quo: inadequate spaces, unaffordability and inconsistent quality. We analyzed the party platforms on child care in more detail in a previous post. Now… View Article
Child care and the federal election: where have the parties landed?
Oct 9, 2015
By Lynell Anderson and Iglika Ivanova Canada is one of the few advanced countries that doesn’t yet have a national child care system. We invest less in early childhood programs than any of our peer countries and fall far short of meeting the minimum public investment benchmarks recommended by UNICEF and the OECD. There’s no… View Article
The “new vision” is not so new: Let’s act on it
Oct 8, 2015
David Suzuki recently asserted that we have failed “to imagine a better way” than our current economic paradigm. I agree: We have to start identifying ourselves as citizens, not consumers. Suzuki presents a compelling case that illustrates how letting go of our addiction to an economic model that relies on growth will actually enrich our… View Article
The Leap Manifesto is ambitious, but it’s not the end of capitalism
Oct 7, 2015
Only “Radical” Next to Parties’ Modest Climate Plans The Leap Manifesto: A Call for Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another was launched by a group of prominent Canadians on September 15. So far, over 25,000 Canadians have added their names to the declaration. In the face of the ho-hum party platforms… View Article
Albertans support climate action and a carbon tax: lessons for the next federal government
Oct 6, 2015
Congratulations to the Pembina Institute on a poll they conducted with EKOS Research, assessing support for climate action among Albertans. The results are fascinating and hopeful. You can find the full results here, and a good postmedia summary here. But a few highlights: A large majority of respondents (70%) support investing in renewable energy sources… View Article
Closing small business tax loopholes
Oct 2, 2015
The NDP, Liberals, Conservatives and Greens are now all proposing to cut the small business tax rate from 11% to 9% (albeit on slightly differing timelines), an unnecessary and unwise policy, as outlined in previous CCPA posts. It may make for good politics, but it’s a policy with no economic merit. It’s not all bad… View Article
What’s Wrong with Site C
Oct 1, 2015
In a #SiteC tweet no doubt designed to complement an unabashedly political debate taking place in the legislature this week, the Liberal caucus stated that Site C is the most reviewed project in BC’s history, it will create 10,000 jobs and will provide affordable, reliable clean power. The tweet is partially true. The problem though… View Article
Fraser Institute vastly overstates impact of regulatory delays in developing a BC LNG industry
Sep 22, 2015
Today’s report from the Fraser Institute, LNG Exports from British Columbia: The Cost of Regulatory Delay, states that “revenue losses from regulatory delays imposed upon the BC LNG export market would be on the order of $17–23 billion (US) per year.” This, they say, is equivalent to 9.5% of 2014 BC GDP. A closer examination… View Article
Some strengths and weaknesses in the Green Party platform
Sep 18, 2015
My recent post comparing the NDP and Liberal election positions to date drew some criticism for leaving out the Green Party. So hoping to rectify that with this post on what I see as some strengths and weaknesses of the Green plan. On Sept. 9, The Green Party became the first of the major parties… View Article
Leaping into a new carbon-free economy
Sep 17, 2015
Tuesday Sept. 15 saw the release of an exciting new document – The Leap Manifesto: A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another. In essence, the manifesto is a positive vision for Canada. It calls upon the next government to move Canada off fossil fuels quickly, insisting that baby… View Article
Who’s not coming to school this September?
Sep 8, 2015
Today is the first day of school and newspapers, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages are filled with photos of backpack-carrying children and well wishes from their community for a new school year. This celebration speaks to the importance we all place on learning, and on our collective effort to educate our children. It’s one of the most important… View Article
One year after the BC teachers’ strike, what’s happening for kids with special needs?
Sep 7, 2015
by Seth Klein and Tyson Schoeber It’s been a year since the longest strike in the history of BC’s public school system. A key outcome of that dispute was increased understanding of the phrase “class size and composition.” During the strike, the public came to appreciate that teachers were fighting not just for better wages,… View Article
BC employment holds steady in August but anemic private sector hiring is a sign of economic weakness
Sep 4, 2015
Canada is officially in a recession and while BC is expected to sail through it relatively unscathed, the projected modest GDP growth performance does not seem to be translating into job gains for British Columbians. Statistics Canada’s latest job numbers show BC created 3,100 jobs in August, which represents a gain of one tenth of one percent in… View Article
The best of all policies: my wish for the ideal platform
Sep 2, 2015
I’m often asked which opposition party, with a potential to win the election, has the better platform when it comes to tackling climate change and inequality – the two great inconvenient truths of our time, and the focus of much of our work at CCPA. (I’m leaving out from this comparison the Conservatives, who have thus… View Article
3 worrisome facts about Canada’s economy beyond the drop in GDP
Sep 1, 2015
The much anticipated quarterly GDP numbers are out, and StatsCan confirmed what 79% of Canadians already felt to be the case — Canada’s economy is in decline. A drop in economic activity of 0.1% in the second quarter of 2015 officially tipped Canada in recession territory (after a drop of 0.2% in the first quarter). The… View Article
The diminishing of access to government information – and some things to do about it
Sep 1, 2015
Freedom of Information legislation (FOI), or Access to Information (ATI) as it is known at the federal level in Canada, was a pretty important addition to government accountability when it became law in jurisdictions across Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada described freedom of information legislation as a pillar of our democracy that provides citizens… View Article
Beyond speed: Who is talking about access to e-government this election?
Aug 28, 2015
The problem of equitable access to high speed Internet in Canada entered the election campaign on Wednesday, August 26, when Stephen Harper promised that a re-elected Conservative government would spend an additional $200 million to promote high speed access in rural and remote communities. Although the promise is short on detail (what counts as high… View Article
The problem with the Fraser Institute’s consumer tax index
Aug 27, 2015
Every summer, the Fraser Institute releases a report pointing out the average family now spends more on taxes than food, clothing and shelter. But is it really a bad thing that as our economy grows we spend less of our income on basic survival and more on better education, better health, parks, environmental protection and… View Article