Canadians want higher taxes from the federal budget

Mar 29, 2012
The Globe and Mail released the results of a new poll they conducted on what Canadian priorities are for the upcoming budget. The findings seem to have stumped at least some of the journalists, judging by their account: What stood out most was the across-the-board call for higher taxes. Yes, you read that right. Respondents… View Article

Log exports: waving the white flag of economic defeat

Mar 28, 2012
Hi folks — I recently wrote this op ed for the Times Colonist on raw log exports and wanted to share it here too. We’re told there’s no alternative to sending our unprocessed wood out of the country; but some in the industry beg to differ… As more and more raw, unprocessed logs leave British… View Article

Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares

Mar 21, 2012
We released today a report by yours truly on the economic costs and benefits of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. In particular, I take aim at the outrageous claims about jobs made by the feds and Enbridge as part of their sales pitch. The report takes a closer look at the input-output modelling of job impacts, and considers alternative investments… View Article

Christy Clark, George Abbott – meet Jeffrey Moore

Mar 14, 2012
There’s a freight train heading for BC’s education system — and it’s not being driven by government or teachers. This train hit the tracks long before the current collective bargaining dispute. Its operator is an eight-year-old boy from North Vancouver, named Jeffrey Moore. With the support of his family, Jeffrey is driving a human rights… View Article

TransLink Funding and Governance (Yet Again)

Mar 8, 2012
I always smile when I think of the provincial negotiator Peter Cameron’s comments when we were wrapping up the final details in the transit funding and governance negotiations leading to the creation of Translink. We all thought we had a good agreement. MetroVancouver would be given broad responsibilities to plan and deliver transit services, develop… View Article

A toxic spill and communications chill

Mar 6, 2012
So here’s the little that we know about a pipeline break that occurred more than half a year ago and that British Columbia’s Oil and Gas Commission feels for whatever reasons the public is best kept in the dark about. The incident occurred on August 19 of last year when a 35-year-old pipeline broke and… View Article

Slim pickin’s for BC’s children and youth in budget

Mar 2, 2012
Just in case anyone missed just how bad BC’s new budget is for the province’s children and youth, I thought I’d post First Call’s reaction from our news release:  CHILDREN AND YOUTH GET SLIM PICKINGS IN BUDGET 2012 It notes that Finance Minister Falcon talks of fiscal prudence, but the budget’s failure to invest in the… View Article

BC isn’t broke: putting teacher bargaining in perspective

Mar 2, 2012
Last Monday, BC teachers held a Day of Action in communities across the province to protest the BC government’s decision to legislate a contract and put an end to their collective bargaining process. I was invited to speak to teachers at the Surrey rally, where I had the opportunity to share some of my analysis… View Article

Local living wage employer wins best employer award

Feb 29, 2012
Hats off to Eclipse Awards, a local small business that was one of the first to seek certification as an official Living Wage Employer. At an awards ceremony last night, Eclipse won the Best Employer award from Small Business BC. Their status as a living wage employer played an important role. Here’s a news release… View Article

The long term costs of legislating workers back to work

Feb 25, 2012
As the provincial government spends the weekend drafting back-to-work legislation that will impose a contract on BC teachers, I found this opinion piece I wrote back in the year 2000, when the previous BC government legislated CUPE school support workers back to work. Still feels remarkably timely. So, just thought I’d re-post that old piece… View Article

The Great Natural Gas Footrace: Where Have We Seen This Before?

Feb 24, 2012
Several weeks ago, some running buddies of mine – two fine chaps working in the provincial civil service – invited me to speak on a panel at the annual Association of BC Forest Professionals meetings in Victoria. I had the good fortune to be joined by Bruce Fraser, former chair of the BC Forest Practices… View Article

The false economy of BC Budget 2012: deficit exaggerated to avoid spending on real problems

Feb 21, 2012
Today’s BC budget was simply titled Budget 2012. It broke with the tradition of ambitious-sounding titles we’ve seen in the last decade (such as 2010’s Building a Prosperous British Columbia budget), but that’s about all the change you’ll notice from the previous administration’s budgets. Despite the fact that this was hailed as the first budget… View Article

How to Destroy a Good Poverty Line

Feb 17, 2012
[The following piece was authored by Michael Goldberg, Steve Kerstetter and Seth Klein] More than a decade ago, the federal and provincial governments started work on a new poverty line – the Market Basket Measure (MBM). After decades of distracting and divisive debates about poverty lines, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada crafted a methodology… View Article

“Mass staff replacements” in seniors’ care: impacts and solutions

Feb 16, 2012
Deep in the second volume of the BC Ombudsperson’s recently-released second report on seniors’ care, is an interesting and important discussion about large-scale staff replacements and other substantial changes at residential care facilities. Under the current legislative framework governing most care facilities for seniors, a facility operator must notify its regional medical health officer four months… View Article

Tax haven based company buys more BC P3s: British Auditor General questions profits in such transactions

Feb 14, 2012
Two of British Columbia’s public private partnership (P3) projects have changed hands again and once again the new owner resides in a European tax haven. In a separate but related development, last Friday Britain’s Auditor General released a report questioning very high level of profits for some British P3 projects partially generated by flipping the… View Article

Comparing two carbon bombs: LNG plants vs Enbridge pipeline

Feb 8, 2012
With the spotlight on the federal government’s aggressive push to export tar sands bitumen via the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitimat, and from there by tanker on to China, the BC government reclaimed some attention on the energy file when it released its Natural Gas Strategy last week. With lots of glossy pages, but little detailed… View Article

Whatever happened to gender identity and expression?

Feb 5, 2012
A year ago this week, Bill C-389, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression), passed third reading in the House of Commons, receiving support from MPs from all political parties. So whatever happened to it? The private member’s bill, sponsored by former Burnaby-Douglas MP… View Article

After Self-Sufficiency — Will the Public or Private Interests be Served?

Feb 4, 2012
It was, I suppose, too much to expect the government to acknowledge that the self-sufficiency and insurance requirements it had imposed on BC Hydro was a serious mistake. So it was no surprise that they simply stated in their announcement paving the way for the powering of the proposed new LNG plants that the Campbell-era policies… View Article

Congratulations to Jagrup Brar: Time to raise welfare rates

Feb 3, 2012
On Tuesday, BC MLA Jagrup Brar wrapped up his month living on a basic welfare income of $610.  He has returned to his family and a comfortable home. But we owe him great thanks. And kudos as well to the folks at Raise the Rates, who issued the challenge that MLAs try living on welfare… View Article

BC dead last on inequality: BC Stats

Jan 30, 2012
Last Friday BC Stats, the BC government’s statistical agency, weighed in on the topic of income inequality.  The CCPA has talked about this subject for years and it is nice to see that BC Stats has not only acknowledged the problem but says that: Compared to other provinces, BC ranked dead last in 2009, with… View Article