Archive
BC’s Carbon Emissions on the Rise
May 8, 2015
It was a good story while it lasted. Over the past few years, the BC government and many in the policy community have spun a tale about the remarkable success of BC’s climate action policies, with a big spotlight on the carbon tax as a driver of lower emissions while BC’s economy outperformed the rest… View Article
Why the Metro Vancouver living wage is not enough for single parents and how to fix it
Apr 29, 2015
The living wage calculation is based on the needs of two-parent families with young children, but the idea behind it is that this wage would also support different types of families throughout the life cycle so that young adults are not discouraged from having children and older workers have some extra income as they age. In… View Article
Doubling contribution limit to Tax-Free Savings Accounts exposes true intent of a bad policy
Apr 15, 2015
Last week, federal finance minister Joe Oliver re-affirmed that his government seeks to double the annual limit to Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), from $5,500 to $11,000. This is a terrible idea. When the TFSA was first introduced, the claim at the time was that the policy was intended to support modest income people wanting to… View Article
Balanced Budget Legislation – another zombie policy returns from the dead
Apr 11, 2015
Ah, here we go again – when seeking to assert credibility as sound fiscal managers, governments reach for the tired gimmick of “balanced budget legislation” (BBL). It’s not about good economics. Nor about good public policy. Just crass politics. And now the federal government is once again dangling this useless policy ploy. The CCPA-BC was… View Article
A Conversation on Climate Justice
Apr 9, 2015
In February and March, the Climate Justice Project hosted This Changes BC: A Conversation on Climate Justice. Over four Saturdays, a group of 34 citizens from Metro Vancouver gathered to talk about what climate solutions could look like in their lives and our province. Having worked on these issues for many years now, we had a… View Article
Parents want to reduce their car use, so let’s invest in transit, walking and cycling infrastructure
Apr 2, 2015
There’s a popular belief that parents chauffeur their young children everywhere. And certainly parents have many reasons for preferring cars over other modes of transportation: Children get easily tired. Parents need to pack things like food, diapers, etc. Parents want to keep their children comfortable and safe. Parents have busy and complicated schedules and taking… View Article
Discussing “Just Transition” with Karen Cooling
Mar 30, 2015
In late January, we at the CCPA came out with a paper about “just transition”—an approach that aims to minimize the impact of environmental policies on workers and communities in affected industries—for resource workers. Drawing on extensive interviews with workers in several resource industries, our report informs a strategy to ensure climate action doesn’t worsen… View Article
Fire the Auditor General for Local Government? It’ll cost us
Mar 29, 2015
When BC Community Minister Coralee Oakes fired the Auditor General for Local Government (AGLG) last week the issue that had been in the news was the performance of her office. However, AGLG Basia Ruta has now taken the matter to the courts and the issue there is likely to be the independence of her office. … View Article
Transit referendum: if no vote wins, what is Plan B?
Mar 20, 2015
I got my plebiscite ballot today and of course voted yes. Whatever you think of TransLink management, its governance, the rough and largely undefined edges of the mayor’s plan, and the politically expedient but otherwise not particularly appropriate sales tax source of revenues, the simple fact remains that I and most residents of Greater Vancouver… View Article
Seniors have major stake in transit referendum: Access to transportation a key factor for health, wellbeing
Mar 17, 2015
By Shannon Daub, Co-Director of the CCPA-BC’s Seniors Project, and Sandra (Sandy) James LEED AP MCIP CCPI, Director, Walk Metro Vancouver Society Between now and May, residents of Metro Vancouver will receive a mail-in ballot asking if they are in favour of a .5 percentage point increase on sales tax to fund transportation improvements in… View Article
BC minimum wage increase leaves workers in poverty
Mar 12, 2015
After close to three years of no change, the BC minimum wage was overdue for an increase. But the measly raise announced today falls far short of what is necessary. The 20c per hour increase, scheduled to come into effect on Sept 15, 2015, amounts to a raise of just under 2% over more than 3 years…. View Article
Don’t pit generations against each other in transit referendum
Mar 10, 2015
The Georgia Straight published a column yesterday by Charlie Smith claiming that “selfish old people” will vote “no” in the upcoming transit referendum, depriving younger generations of a decent quality of life and an opportunity to act on climate change. We were shocked by the inflammatory tone of the article, and the very inaccurate picture… View Article
Apples and oranges: Comparing BC and Ontario debt ratios
Mar 4, 2015
The February 18, 2015 edition of the Globe and Mail featured an article by the paper’s B.C. correspondent Gary Mason, which in part drew favourable attention to BC’s debt-to-GDP ratio in comparison with that of Ontario. On face value, B.C.’s reported debt-to-GDP ratio calculated from its most recent audited statements of 18.2% looks pretty good… View Article
Why we’re voting YES to new transit and transportation funding
Mar 2, 2015
By Seth Klein, Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova In the upcoming transit and transportation referendum, we think the benefits of a YES outcome outweigh the negatives for the following reasons: Referenda are a terrible way to make tax policy. But a referendum is nevertheless before Metro Vancouver residents, and we can’t afford to ignore it…. View Article
BC Budget 2015: Missed opportunity for climate change action
Feb 27, 2015
Global warming and the other ecological impacts of climate change threaten our health—our very survival. As the impacts of climate change unfold, society will face increasing economic costs. Even the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, which some have criticized as being unduly influenced by the Conservative government, estimates these costs, which include… View Article
BC Budget 2015 confirms it: we can afford the $10aDay Child Care Plan
Feb 26, 2015
Budget 2015 clearly shows that BC can afford to start implementing the $10aDay Child Care Plan now – and it can choose to do so without raising taxes, without cutting vital programs and services, and without going into deficit. A short and simple analysis, summarized below, provides one example of how investment in child care… View Article
The early and fatal undermining of TransLink
Feb 25, 2015
Pete McMartin wrote an excellent column in the Vancouver Sun documenting the many ways that the provincial government has undermined TransLink. The upcoming referendum isn’t the first but rather the culmination of a two decade, tragically effective, bipartisan effort to prevent TransLink from doing what it was originally set up to do and what the region… View Article
BC Budget 2015 snapshot: More revenue from MSP, tuition, but less money for public services
Feb 25, 2015
One way to measure a government’s commitment to public services is to see what percentage of the province’s wealth (GDP) the government spends on these services. According to government plans outlined in the Budget Documents: Health care spending will fall from 7.9% of GDP in 2012/13 to 7.5% in 2017/18. Education spending falls from 5.6%… View Article
Low-carbon urban infrastructure: a view from Vancouver
Feb 18, 2015
I have a new case study (full pdf; summary article from the publishers) out as part of the Economists for Equity and Environment‘s Future Economy Initiative. I look at the City of Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU), a low-carbon district energy system that hits a sweet spot of clean energy, local control, and stable prices at competitive rates…. View Article
11 things you need to know about BC Budget 2015
Feb 17, 2015
1. Budget 2015 ends the claw-back on child support payments for single parents on welfare. This is estimated to put $13 million in the hands of some of the poorest British Columbians. It’s a good step forward, but it is very very small. $13 million is three hundredths of one percent of the provincial budget…. View Article