If the political will is there, the money is too to settle teachers’ dispute

Sep 13, 2014
I’ve submitted the following Letter to the Editor to the Vancouver Sun. Hoping they publish it in the next couple days: Enough with the pleas of a bare cupboard from the Premier, Finance Minister and Education Minister. If the political will is there, there is plenty of money to settle the teachers’ dispute, hire more… View Article

Why teachers are still striking

Sep 12, 2014
Speech to the Langley Teachers Association’s Public Forum on Education Delivered July 16, 2014. Check against delivery. I have a slightly different take because I don’t come from the labour movement or from the education sector – I come as an economist, so I’m going to talk a little bit about numbers. But before I… View Article

BC’s Awkward Surplus

Sep 11, 2014
On Tuesday, the Ministry of Finance reported results from the first quarter of 2014/15. While the news release stated “B.C.’s budget remains balanced in spite of extra costs,” there is a projected surplus of $266 million for the current fiscal year. In reality it will likely be much higher, due to the usual practice of using conservative planning… View Article

Underneath the legal drama: The ethics of for-profit health care in BC

Aug 26, 2014
One of the most important constitutional trials in Canadian history was set to begin on September 8, 2014 before the BC Supreme Court. Dr. Day, owner of the for-profit Cambie Surgical Centre says he is fighting for the freedom of patients who are victims of “medical enslavement”, while making generous and unlawful profits well above… View Article

The dangers of deregulation extend beyond mining disasters

Aug 22, 2014
The Mount Polley Mine disaster has raised important questions about the risks and costs of deregulation of the mining industry in BC. I spoke about this issue recently on CBC Vancouver’s Early Edition and CBC Kamloops’ Daybreak (if you missed it, there’s audio here, starts around 1:00:48). As a citizen and as a public interest… View Article

Mount Polley Mine dam collapse compels us to review resource development regulations

Aug 20, 2014
At this point, we don’t know exactly what caused the collapse in the large dam holding mining wastewater and contaminated sediment – also known as tailings – at the Mount Polley Mine. This is why we need the inquiry which the BC government announced earlier this week. It remains to be seen if it was… View Article

How have taxes changed over the last half century

Aug 12, 2014
The Fraser Institute’s annual Consumer Tax Index report generated some media buzz with its outlandish claims about just how much taxes have risen since 1961. Before you get worked up about this, consider that 1961 was over half a century ago, before the time of universal health care that we all benefit from, before the… View Article

BC government using affordability excuses to underfund education and health

Aug 11, 2014
Affordability is becoming the new buzzword of the BC government. In the dispute with teachers, for example, the Minister of Education has repeatedly argued demands for lower class sizes and improved class composition, as well as fair wages, are unaffordable and unrealistic (see here). When parents and businesses make the case for more public funding… View Article

Where’s the fanfare for tackling poverty effectively? Connecting the dots between three political moments over three months

Jul 30, 2014
The following op-ed was originally published in The Georgia Straight. On June 16, I attended the B.C. government’s Disability Summit, the culmination of a three-month public consultation process on disability in B.C. I watched Minister of Social Development and Social Innovation Don McRae lead the audience through the event. I felt the flurry of excitement… View Article

Will offsets be the “indulgences” for our LNG sins?

Jul 18, 2014
In June 2014, the BC government reported on its progress towards the 2007 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, which calls for a one-third reduction by 2020 in GHG emissions (relative to 2007 levels) and an 80% reduction by 2050. The BC government claimed to have met a key milestone: an interim target of a 6%… View Article

BC’s controversial contract obligations dwarf its debt

Jul 18, 2014
Most of the discussion around the delivery of British Columbia’s public accounts this week has centred on debt (Marvin Shaffer makes excellent points in the previous post on why debt is not always bad) and on how BC got the money to balance its books. Something else worth looking at, however, is British Columbia’s non-debt… View Article

Debt Free BC

Jul 17, 2014
One can only presume that the promise of a debt-free B.C. was never meant to be taken seriously. Christy Clark’s very cynical, albeit effective election slogan was based on two highly qualified guesstimates of the potential taxes that could be generated in the most optimistic possible circumstances from an industry that does not yet exist. Thus… View Article

Temporary Foreign Worker Program changes – who do they help?

Jul 10, 2014
The Conservative Government’s Minister of Employment and Social Development, Jason Kenney, announced on June 20th 2014 a draft of changes to the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). The program has attracted controversy since at least 2006, most recently when the CBC reported that MacDonald’s outlets in Victoria were favouring temporary foreign workers over Canadians… View Article

BC’s new 10 year plan for people with disabilities disappoints. We can do better.

Jun 19, 2014
On June 16 the Premier announced BC’s new 10 year plan, “Accessibility 2014: Making BC the Most Progressive Province in Canada for People with Disabilities by 2024.” The plan is the result of the provincial government’s Disability White Paper Consultation earlier this year. While many participants had a healthy amount of skepticism before, during and… View Article

The disconnect between economic growth and teachers’ wages

Jun 19, 2014
A number of recent articles on the BC teachers’ strike have suggested that teachers could get the wage increases they want to see, as well as the needed investments in reducing class size and improving class composition, if only they supported resource development. Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation summed up the line of… View Article

What are the Net Benefits of Northern Gateway?

Jun 18, 2014
  One of the more disheartening features of the political and media commentary on the economic benefits offered by major resource projects is the general failure to properly assess what those benefits in fact are. We are inundated with reports on economic impacts — the amount of investment and jobs a project might generate —… View Article

Will Enbridge’s pipeline ever get built?

Jun 18, 2014
You have to wonder why the Harper government bothered with process at all. It’s like there was never any doubt that Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline would get approved. But historians may look back on this moment as the beginning of the end of pipeline politics. Opposition to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline is BC’s largest social… View Article

A lesbian walks into a Torts class…

Jun 12, 2014
A lesbian walks into a Torts class at Trinity Western University in Langley.  Her name is Mary. Even before the discussion of Donoghue v. Stevenson begins, Mary is told to leave because she admits to having engaged in a “sexual expression of intimacy” with her same-sex partner at their home in Surrey. “But we’re married,” she… View Article

Quebec’s Auditor General slams highway public private partnership

Jun 12, 2014
Yesterday Quebec’s Auditor General came out with a report slamming public private partnerships in that province.  The special audit was conducted at the request of the Conseil du trésor.  It looked at the agreement for the seven service areas on Québec’s highways. The following is a summary of the findings. The analysis conducted to demonstrate… View Article

How to fund improvements in class-size and composition: a matter of political will

Jun 3, 2014
If a compromise is to be reached in the current bargaining between teachers and the government, the long-standing issue of improving class-size and composition must be resolved. The government insists that there is no money to make substantial improvements in this area (notwithstanding multiple court losses telling the province that it must make good on… View Article