Odious profits and the Enbridge pipeline

Jan 27, 2012
Two obvious but generally unstated details about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline are climate change and that oil and gas companies stand to make mega-profits. An honest appraisal of the project would be something like, “yes, putting in the pipeline will facilitate even more greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta oil sands, but our buddies… View Article

Breaking down financial barriers to higher education is more affordable than you think

Jan 25, 2012
In a new report released today by the CCPA, I revisit the important question of who really pays for university education. Convention wisdom has it that the public heavily subsidizes post-secondary education. The illusion of a subsidy comes from the fact that tuition fees, high as they are, don’t cover the entire cost of education…. View Article

Fossil fuel lobbyists: the real radicals

Jan 25, 2012
Most of the fossil fuel lobby’s arguments against its opponents should be reversed. Consider: Who are the real ‘radicals’ – those working for a sustainable climate and environment – or those who promote carbon-bombing the atmosphere, making us all guinea pigs in one of history’s most reckless experiments? Who are the real hypocrites – those… View Article

Top 10 Reasons for Upper-Income Tax Increases

Jan 17, 2012
Some feel we shouldn’t increase taxes on upper-income folks. After all, people know best how to spend their money, whereas the government will only waste it on needless activities. Well then, I humbly submit the following Top 10 list of reasons for upper-income tax increases (in descending order). #10: Ridiculous real estate. Check out Vancouver’s… View Article

A prescription for health care reform: think integration & collaboration

Jan 16, 2012
This morning the CCPA released a new report (co-authored by yours truly) that looks at the thorny issue of health care reform in BC and identifies some practical, evidence-based strategies that have been successful in improving quality of care and controlling costs in other jurisdictions. The paper comes out at a time when all Canadian… View Article

New Brunswick Auditor General latest to blast public private partnerships

Jan 15, 2012
One more provincial Auditor General has come out swinging at public private partnerships (P3s).  Last week New Brunswick’s AG released a report on two P3 schools that had been announced by the NB government in 2008.  New Brunswick Auditor General Kim MacPherson joins public auditors in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia who have… View Article

Making health care funding sustainable

Jan 13, 2012
The BC Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Health is currently investigating the sustainability of BC’s health care system (with a focus on demographic / aging trends), and asked for written submissions of peer-reviewed studies on the subject. Here’s what I just submitted: Submission to the BC Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Health From: Seth Klein,… View Article

Who’s really “skewing” the pipeline debate?

Jan 11, 2012
Apparently the Harper government and its echo chamber in the blogosphere (e.g. Vivian Krause) think that philanthropic funding of environmental groups is “skewing” the debate on the northern pipeline project. Presumably they would like to return to a more “normal” debate.  You know, one disproportionately influenced by well-heeled corporate-funded market fundamentalist think tanks and pseudo-grassroots… View Article

The BC government could start with local purchasing to build jobs in our communities

Jan 3, 2012
The BC government has been heavily promoting its “jobs plan” over the last week on television, radio and on the internet. On twitter they invited people to come on line to give their ideas about what could be done to promote more jobs in communities. But there is one idea to promote jobs in communities… View Article

Tackling inequality means rethinking upper-income tax rates

Dec 23, 2011
2011 was the year rising inequality finally exploded into the mainstream discourse. A few year-end reading recommendations: Victoria Times-Colonist editorial writer Paul Willcocks wrote a terrific piece on the subject (you can find it here); and similarly, a group of UBC economists (including CCPA research associate David Green) authored a series on inequality for the… View Article

Reflections on the year past and the year to come: Inequality explodes into the public discourse

Dec 22, 2011
If this past year  — marked by the Arab Spring and the fall arrival of the Occupy movement — has taught us anything, it is that we never know when historic moments come. And when they do, that which seemed political impossible is suddenly in play. Many of us found the explosion of the Occupy… View Article

Business dominated think tank winds up with report showing little progress in BC

Dec 19, 2011
The British Columbia Progress Board came out with its last report today. Gordon Campbell started the think tank in 2001 and now Christy Clark has ended it. The report shows progress, but often in the wrong direction. You can find the whole report here but it will take patience. It weighs in at a hefty… View Article

Just who should be putting who under trusteeship?

Dec 15, 2011
I am the first to admit that, lamentably, I know very little about the problems that face First Nations people. That did not stop me from having an opinion about the federal takeover at Attawapiskat.  My first reaction was that the Chief and Council should have thrown the keys to the federal government and said,… View Article

Inequality and Climate Injustice: A Durban Post-Mortem

Dec 13, 2011
The United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, ended 2011 with a whimper. After a year in which climate disasters rolled across the globe, major polluting nations like Canada chose to ignore them, seeking instead to disrupt the Durban negotiations, then blew the world a raspberry, by officially pulling out of the Kyoto… View Article

Is it P3s or the 3 Stooges? A tale of two cities

Nov 30, 2011
For those of us not fond of the expensive and secretive public private partnerships (P3s) promoted by the BC and Canadian governments, the last few weeks have been entertaining. In one community voters rejected the use of a P3 water system. In another community the federal government refused a P3 after the city had spent… View Article

Growing support for cities to adopt living wage

Nov 16, 2011
New developments since my recent post calling on municipalities to lead the way on adopting living wage policies: First, over just over 100 candidates have responded to the Open Letter issued by the Living Wage for Families campaign, covering almost every Lower Mainland municipality. Almost all have expressed support for this proposal or at least… View Article

Time to give shale gas industry a closer look before we’re totally fracked

Nov 9, 2011
Despite the recent release by Canada’s natural gas industry of a set of guiding principles governing the controversial gas well “stimulation” method known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, and despite the almost immediate endorsement of those principles by BC Premier and industry cheerleader Christy Clark, more and more British Columbians are justifiably worried about what… View Article

BC government claims new power over personal information. Public comment sidelined.

Nov 9, 2011
The BC government has a lot of personal information about you. Legislation passed last month means the government can do a lot more with it. The legislation passed without the public consultation demanded last year by the Information and Privacy Commissioner. In 2010 a legislative committee undertook a review of Freedom of Information and Protection… View Article

Living Wage Policy: Why Municipal Governments should lead the way

Oct 25, 2011
By Michael McCarthy Flynn and Seth Klein The Living Wage for Families Campaign, along with 54 organizations representing over 300,000 British Columbians, recently issued an Open Letter calling on all municipal election candidates to help low-income families in their cities by passing a Living Wage policy if they are elected (available here). Many families are… View Article

Occupy Canada: media pundits vs. reality

Oct 24, 2011
The Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Canada protests seem to be occupying – and perhaps unhinging – the minds of media pundits – at least, those who are mired in the dogma of “free market” fundamentalism. One recent example from CBC Television came in the form of a personal attack on author Chris Hedges. A well-known American… View Article