Archive
Construction industry accuses Partnerships BC of conflict of interest
Sep 15, 2012
I think that Philip Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Business Association, is probably more hostile to the interests of working people than just about anybody else in British Columbia. So when I find myself agreeing with him on something, my fingers twitch at the keyboard. But that is just what happened with the… View Article
Services for at-risk youth in BC: moving from dysfunction to effective support
Sep 12, 2012
Guest blogger Diana Guenther drew on extensive work experience in social services to develop her Masters of Urban Studies thesis on improving services for at-risk youth in BC. She shares some of her key recommendations here: Having worked with at risk youth for 15 years and in three different countries, I have always been quite… View Article
Cost of Learning Growing Faster than Incomes
Sep 11, 2012
A new report by the CCPA, Eduflation and the High Cost of Learning, shows that average university tuition bill in Canada has grown three times faster than inflation over the last 20 years. It’s also outpaced the growth of family incomes, making university considerably less affordable for the average Canadian family than it used to… View Article
What’s Next for BC’s Carbon Tax?
Sep 10, 2012
The Minister leading up BC’s Carbon Tax Review, Kevin Falcon, may be gone – his departure came just as the deadline for submissions was closing – but the carbon tax lives on. For now. Back in 2008 when the carbon tax was announced, it was scheduled to rise from an initial level of $10 per… View Article
Bank of Canada President says to end privatization of gains and socialization of losses
Aug 24, 2012
Here in BC Bank of Canada President Mark Carney’s speech to the Canadian Auto Workers convention got less attention than it seemed to get back east. It deserves more attention. The biggest news coming out of the event was not in the speech itself but in the question period afterwards. Here Carney told the CAW… View Article
To address health inequalities, look beyond the role of individual responsibility
Aug 13, 2012
A new report by the Canadian Medical Association provides a timely reminder that money buys better health, even in a country with a universal public healthcare system. A poll commissioned by the CMA found a large and increasing gap between the health status of Canadians in lower income groups (household income less than $30,000) and… View Article
Silencing the outriders, silencing democracy
Aug 13, 2012
Since taking power federally in 2006, the Conservative government has undertaken a continuous attack on civil society organizations. One of the government’s first actions was to cut support for women’s organizations that lobbied or did research on the status of women. Environmental organizations have been accused of acting in the interest of foreign powers. Revenue… View Article
Canada’s Emissions Deception
Aug 8, 2012
The federal government released an updated Canada’s Emission Trends 2012 report today. In a remarkable shift in federal rhetoric just this past week, the Harperites now appear to be more sensitive to concerns about the Enbridge pipeline and climate change more generally. But appearances can be deceiving and there is good reason to believe the current charm… View Article
The staggering future costs of the BC government’s contracts
Jul 27, 2012
As usual, there has been quite a hubbub surrounding this week’s release of British Columbia’s Public Accounts. The provincial auditor says the provincial deficit is $520 million more than the government admits. And then there is the Auditor General’s review of finances at the legislature that found “substantial irregularities.” But all of the above is… View Article
The case for exempting child support from welfare
Jul 20, 2012
Based on recent announcements, it seems that the Ministry of Social Development is in the mood to address some of the long-standing problems within BC’s welfare system (although welfare rates remain distressingly low). Seth Klein recently recapped the Ministry’s June 11th announcement, which set out almost 30 proposed changes to the system. More recently, the… View Article
“Burning a little gas” to fire up our natural gas indusry? Let’s give our heads a shake.
Jul 17, 2012
With each passing month and no firm commitments by company shareholders to commit the billions of dollars required to build a natural gas pipeline to B.C.’s west coast or the billions more to build Liquefied Natural Gas processing plants, questions arise about the economic wisdom of gas exports from the province. But that isn’t stopping… View Article
How the rules got fiddled to make sure a public private partnership got pushed through
Jul 12, 2012
In 2008 British Columbia’s controversial public private partnership (P3) program was in trouble. With P3s private companies put up financing for public services and infrastructure and in exchange get to manage the projects with guaranteed profits for decades. The cost of private finance was always higher than if government borrowed the money itself, but in… View Article
Sliammon votes: what opportunities might come by sharing more than two sides of the story?
Jul 4, 2012
Sliammon (Tla’Amin) Nation, located on the northern segment of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, is making history. But not in the way that may have been expected. After over ten years of negotiations, the vote for a final treaty agreement was to take place on June 16th, 2012. The intention, according to both the Sliammon Treaty… View Article
Time for a Serious Conversation about Natural Gas
Jun 22, 2012
It is pretty clear that the government’s ill-conceived Energy Plan is falling apart. The near religious call for self-sufficiency has been moderated (though not sensibly changed) and the legislated requirement for insurance eliminated. The plan to develop run-of-river and wind IPPs for export has been abandoned. The problem of charging major new industrial customers less… View Article
Why do the citizens of Maine have a voice on free trade deals but Canadians don’t?
Jun 22, 2012
Canada is now facing east and west as it attempts to negotiate trade deals with both Europe and in the Pacific region. Both of these new deals are being negotiated in secret. There is no room for the public to know what is being traded away or to express an opinion. Does negotiating a trade… View Article
Marc responds to the Minister
Jun 22, 2012
Well, my paper with John Calvert on BC Hydro certainly touched a nerve with the BC government. In a long piece for the Vancouver Sun, Energy and Mines Minister Rich Coleman lashes back. It is great to see the BC government engaging on the issues we raise, but Minister Coleman’s lengthy denial suggests to me… View Article
Blowing in the Wind
Jun 20, 2012
I suppose I should feel guilty, just as I imagine the good citizens of Rio might feel when they complain about the giant Jesus towering over the city, but I just don’t like the windmill at the top of Grouse Mountain. For me, it not only is a manufactured blight on an otherwise stunning landscape,… View Article
Clean electricity, conservation and a zero-carbon future
Jun 20, 2012
Today we released a new Climate Justice Project report, Clean Electricity, Conservation and Climate Justice in BC: Meeting our energy needs in a zero-carbon future, co-authored by John Calvert and myself. The report is central to the vision we have been developing of a zero-carbon BC, with a focus on the need to transition off of fossil… View Article
New BC welfare rules: some positive steps forward (and a couple steps back)
Jun 12, 2012
Yesterday (June 11) the BC government surprised many when it announced a host of welfare policy changes. In all, almost 30 welfare rule adjustments are to be enacted (the full list can be found here). After more than a year as premier, the announcement was billed as “the first pillar of [Premier Clark’s] Families First… View Article
A Green Industrial Revolution
Jun 12, 2012
Today the CCPA (national) released a new big picture report by myself and student researcher Amanda Card calling for a Green Industrial Revolution. The report builds on work done for the BC-focused Climate Justice Project, bringing to bear a national analysis of green and not-so-green jobs. We take a close look at GHG emissions and employment by… View Article